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| Youth Today: Wanted: Youth Work Principles in Schools | By Karen Pittman, July 2008 Seven students recently joined me for breakfast in a windowless conference room in Des Moines to talk about “the high school dropout crisis.” They were experts: Five had dropped out. Another had come very close. | July 1, 2008 | |
| Youth Today: Precision Engineering | By Karen Pittman, May 2008 Creating sound bites that are not only memorable but communicate a message is a passion of mine. Every now and then I hit one out of the park. “Problem-free isn’t fully prepared” is still in use after more than 15 years. I think “bringing precision to our passion” may be the next one to stick. | May 8, 2008 | |
| Youth Today: Superintendents of Learning | By Karen Pittman, March 2008 Superintendents rock! I’ve never started a column like this before, certainly not one about school administrators – the people whom youth workers frequently butt heads with over money, building space, bus schedules and even permission slips. But at a forum hosted by the American Association of School Administrators, I recently spent two days with 25 of the most enthusiastic public leaders I’ve ever met. | March 4, 2008 | |
| Youth Today: Creativity, Sprituality and Youth Work: Claiming the Territory | By Karen Pittman, December 2007 Embedded in the pages of the October Youth Today were two pieces that are worth revisiting so that they can be connected. Consider this a low-budget instant replay with comments. The first piece was Peter Benson’s column, “Youth Development and the Creative Life,” in which he laments the continued decline of investment in the arts and offers data that suggest that the most common source of “spark” for U.S. teens—“the interest or talent from which we derive energy”—is the creative arts. According to Benson’s research, “music, art, dance and writing are mentioned twice as often as sports” by both boys and girls. | December 12, 2007 | |
| Youth Today: Extending Learning—Will We Ever Get it Right? | By Karen Pittman, October 2007 I had a few hours to read, so I pulled out the folder into which I cram all of the things that catch my eye and might make good material for a column. Here’s what I read recently: | October 1, 2007 | |
| Youth Today: Children's Rights, Children's Advocates, Children's Cabinets | By Karen Pittman, May 2007 In late March, the Rhode Island Foster Parents Association (RIFPA) staged call-ins to the legislature to oppose the budget cuts to youth in the child welfare system. Par for the course? Not quite. | May 1, 2007 | |
| Youth Today: Evidence of a Darker Reality -- The Black Youth Project | By Karen Pittman, March 2007 Six in 10 African-American youth believe "it is hard for young black people to get ahead because they face so much discrimination,” according to a University of Chicago (UC) report released in February. | March 1, 2007 | |
| Youth Today: Youth Development Work | By Karen Pittman, December 2006 Sometimes, I’m just slow. I carried around the results of two work force surveys in my head for weeks before I realized the significance of putting the two of them together. | December 1, 2006 | |
| Youth Today: Don't Deify Graduation Rates | October 1, 2006 | ||
| Youth Today: Ready = Ready = Ready | By Karen Pittman, July 2006 The month of May produced yet another study showing that the skills young people need to be ready for life beyond high school may be the same whether they are headed to college or the work force. | July 15, 2006 |