3 teen articles

So when I first thought about my articles I figured I'd just pick three random articles. After finding my first article I decided to go with a theme. The theme for my articles is gay teens and educational flaws.
From the three articles I chose they dealt with schools not necessarily explaining sex education nor giving any information on homosexual relationship. Many of the districts have a huge problem with teaching students about sex. They feel that abstinence and sex after marriage is the only way to live life. The one thing that was said by an executive director of programs for the gay rights group in an article was, "The only plan gay youth are being given by the school system to prevent the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases is something that is not really available to them: marriage". This seems to be a great approach for some teachers in schools but the youth needs to know how to handle the changes they are going through being homosexual and they aren't learning this.
This would have to be the WHAT in my articles. Teens being ignored by high school sex education classes. In fact, an article I found had this title. An Elina Kuusisto knew at age 11 she had no interest in boys. She couldn't cope with the fact that during her sex ed classes in high school she found only information for her boy crazy friends. She was given no information on how she should feel or deal with being gay in high school.
The SO WHAT of these articles would have to be the non acceptance of gay teens in high school because the lack of education being given. It is hard enough for one to come out to ones family about being gay, let alone having strangers know something is different about you.
The NOW WHAT would have to be getting the education out as much as possible. This is a possible problem because of the topic being discussed. Religion and morals are a big thing that may cause problems with this. Many parents and school systems refuse this topic which isn't fair to the people who are okay with homosexuality and who have questions. Besides, sex education has no hetero prefix nor a homo, it is just SEX EDUCATION!

Lauren Greenfield

So my understanding of this preface is that Greenfield was looking to find out about Los Angeles and was also looking to tell a story. Just as we are in class with our photography project, Greenfield took what she knew in order to find out about her hometown of Los Angeles.

Greenfield went from high school to high school starting with her own in hopes to finding out about L.A. youth. That's basically the what of our article. Greenfield is trying to understand youth as it is aging form generation to generation.

The so what of this article is because of the youth in different parts of the country different things are happening in their growing up. Like Greenfield says in the third paragraph, As one teenager said, "You grow up really fast when you grow up in L.A. It seems like everyone is in a rush to be an adult. It's not cool to be a kid." Not every kid is like this. From where I grew up it was always a must to stay a kid and have fun. Many different cities in different areas cause children to grow up faster. As Greenfield also stated that this article was dedicated to a boy whom she learned so much from and about who was killed in a gang murder, maybe because of this city (Los Angeles) he was forced to grow up and was in some ways destined to be in a gang murder. There are no real answers for this but, with Greenfield's work she is trying to hone in on this question. The photographs and interviews she had done helped to understand her hometown.

Now what? We can't really go around taking pictures of every teenager in America and interviewing them left and right but we can be a little more aware of our surroundings. Much of where I come from is about food, the beach, and I-95. Rhode Island is not necessarily known for fame, or the entertainment industry like Los Angeles. I can still try to be aware of what goes on in my city and understand the changes that it is going through.

Bad Boys or Misunderstood Boys?

I have to admit when I first began reading this the first quote I saw had me thinking I would hate this article. " That one has a jail cell with his name on it". After reading that first quote I thought wow we still have really ignorant teachers in our school systems today.

Okay so back on the topic of the what for this article. I understand that there are many males, of African decent that are known as "trouble makers" etc. but schools systems need to search a little deeper than that. This article surprised me so much with Ann Ferguson was able to open these young boys up and dig deep.

The so what with this article is the underlying meaning as to why males of different races, such as African American act the way they do in school. My own personally opinion is because of the responsibilities outside of school. Many of the lower income boys live with certain family member they might have to take care of and have to look after and this is stated on page 15 with Horace. He is known as a troublemaker and yet everyone he knows outside of school finds him to be respectful and diligent. Could this be because maybe in school he just wants to be an average kid and have some fun because at home he is unable to? In my honest opinion this seems to me like one of the better answers and I believe Ferguson states that on page 15 as well.

The now what, would be getting teachers to try and know their students on a different individual level. Sure some may be unwilling to open themselves up but it is worth a try. Ferguson was able to reach these boys because she put herself out there for them and they saw that as wow she really wants to understand me.