Blog 2- Stereotypes and Youth

One stereotype about young people was discussed in the video, Child Development Core Story Part 2: Save and Return. The video discusses the common judgement that families in low income neighborhoods aren't able to have the proper resources to care and support their children. Without this care and support, children lack brain architecture that gives them an advantage not only in academics but better social skills, emotional regulation and a higher ability to learn than a child lacking positive adult attention. That without this healthy brain architecture, students are more prone to falling behind in school and never catching up. This brings me back to my own childhood as when I was three years old my mother enrolled me into the Head Start program. Head Start was pretty much a free preschool that not only taught me social, emotional and academic skills, but they also helped me with my behavior (I was a bit of a handful). Head Start was honestly the best thing that happened for me and my family can back that up. It really prepared me for school, actually enjoy school, and helped me get to where I am today. What often confused me as a child was that I was able to enroll into Head Start but my cousin who was the exact same age as me couldn't. It wasn't until I got older that I realized that Head Start was only free for me because the only people who were eligible to enroll were low income families. My aunt made more than my mother did which made her wallet and my cousin suffer for it. My cousin had to go to a preschool that my aunt had to pay for each week which was inconvenient for her because although she had made more than my mother, she also had more children to support and couldn't really afford the school that my cousin was enrolled into, however she still wanted my cousin to have the same academic/social advantage that I was getting. I do agree that a child who has more support from their families will develop more social and emotional skills however, depending on circumstances and situations it's hard for some families to able to provide academic support for their child if they can't really afford it and if there aren't many programs provided for them to take advantage of.

In the video, Adultification Bias another stereotype discussed was that African American/Black girls are viewed as less innocent and more adult-like than their peers starting at 5 years old. That black girls need less nurturing, less protection, less support, and less comfort than their peers and are punished at a way higher level. Which really comes down to these girls not feeling like the kids that they are and forcing them to grow up earlier than any of their peers. This brought me back to a few experiences that I had while in elementary school. I won't lie I was always a little bigger than the other students, and by "bigger" I mean taller and chubbier which could've made me look a little older than everyone else however I was still the same age as them if not younger! One time when I was either in the fourth or fifth grade,since my teacher always viewed me as more responsible than my peers, she would sometimes assign me to watch the class for "a minute" while she went down the hall to grab something from the teachers lounge or go to the bathroom. Now I bet you can imagine what a classroom environment became once one student out of the other twenty was in charge, you guessed it, UTTER CHAOS!! Students aren't going to listen to a child who's the same age as them! My classmates started running around and drawing all over the whiteboard. Could you guess who still go the blame for the entire class going wild? Of course me. Even though I never actually got punished by my teacher she still scorned me with the "why didn't you come get me" question as she attempted to quiet the rest of the class down.

A stereotype that also reflects on the one mentioned above is the Family Relations and "Big Twelve Years Olds" discussed in the article, Act your Age by Nancy Lesko. That a twelve years old a boy has less expectations and responsibilities than a twelve year old girl. Due to their maturity, girls were viewed as more responsible and capable than boys so they can handle more responsibilities and receive more punishments than boys. I hate to admit it but sometimes I see myself acting on this stereotype with the middle school youth that I currently work with. Sometimes I will purposely choose the girls in my programs to help me with small tasks because I always feel as though they will get the job done quicker and more efficiently than the boys. It got to a point that one of the boys asked me, "Miss why are you always choosing the girls to help you? It's not fair, I want to be helpful too" After that I have come to the realization that all twelve year old boys that are just as capable to complete a task as all twelve year old girls and since then I've been assigning tasks to anyone who is just willing to help!