by Miriam Hernandez | 23 Apr 2021 | Art, Contest winners, Contests, Culture, Educators' Catalog, Personal Reflections, Student Posts, Westover School, Youth Voices
My family came to the U.S. from Mexico. I used to be ashamed of our humble lifestyle. I offer these photos to show I’m now proud. This story won a third prize in News Decoder’s Ninth Storytelling Contest. Originally from Zapotitlan Palmas, a small town in...
Many students have much to say, but freeze when asked to put pen to paper. Asking them to first engage in other forms of self-reflection may make it easier to produce powerful written texts. Miriam Hernandez of Westover School demonstrates this point with her piece on growing up in the United States as a daughter of Mexican immigrants. Hernandez began with uncaptioned photographs of her family’s surroundings — a dinner table, a kitchen sink, a breeze through the front door — and later produced accompanying text — simple, direct, unvarnished — that complements the photos. Together, the pictures and text offer a candid glimpse of the author’s upbringing and how she came to terms with her heritage.
Exercise: Ask your students to take a series of photographs of life at home and to then write about what the images represent to them.
by Lucy Bird | 12 Apr 2021 | Americas, Art, Contest winners, Contests, Educators' Catalog, Human Rights, Student Posts, Westover School, Youth Voices
Inspired by Black Lives Matter protests, I offer a photo essay as a haunting reminder that the fight continues decades after the Civil Rights Movement. This story won a third prize in News Decoder’s Ninth Storytelling Contest. With my photography project, I...
The Black Lives Matter movement has stirred young people around the globe and raised hopes that racism and police brutality against Blacks can be curbed. For many elders, the hopes are tinged by nagging fears that a generation from now race relations will remain strained and injustices will persist. Lucy Bird, a 17-year-old student at Westover School, captures those worries in her haunting series of photos that juxtapose iconic images from the U.S. Civil Rights Movement with glimpses from BLM protests.
Exercise: Ask your students to apply their photo skills to create a visual essay that manipulates existing photographs to capture their concerns about the future.
by Li Keira Yin | 7 Apr 2021 | Americas, China, Contest winners, Contests, Culture, Educators' Catalog, Personal Reflections, Student Posts, Thacher School, Youth Voices
Born in China, I decided to study in the U.S. I love my home country but harbor guilt as I become less and less Chinese over time. Photo by Markus Winkler This story was a runner-up in News Decoder’s Ninth Storytelling Contest. Artist’s Statement: I grew up in...
Growing up means eventually coming to terms with one’s upbringing. Doing so can be especially challenging for young people straddling different cultures. In a five-stanza poem, Li Keira Yin of The Thacher School explores the contradictions between the world of her Chinese grandparents and her life at a boarding school in the United States. News Decoder helps young people around the world extend their horizons and learn to appreciate different viewpoints. Some have the advantage of confronting opposing outlooks at an early age, and Yin demonstrates her maturity in reconciling the inherent antagonism between her two very distinct cultures.
Exercise: Ask each student to identify a fault line within their family and to write an essay or poem that is sympathetic to each side.
by Akvile Seleviciute and Auguste Sturlyte | 31 Mar 2021 | Art, Contest winners, Contests, Environment, European School Brussels, Student Posts, Youth Voices
Students in Brussels are engaging in an art protest to show the world that it’s time to make far-reaching changes to avert a climate catastrophe. A sketch of “The Writing’s on the Wall,” by Amélie Zimmermann This story was a runner-up in News...
by Vicki Flier Hudson | 4 Feb 2021 | Culture, Educators' Catalog, Health and Wellness, Personal Reflections
Playing in a rock band helped me see that in these polarized times, we need to listen to hateful views to heal divisions and save democracy. Black Lives Matter protesters brawl with supporters of then U.S. President Donald Trump, Huntington Beach, California, 6 June...
It’s a common lament that we live in polarized times. Echo chambers, confirmation bias, troll factories — these are terms we’re all too familiar with now because they identify a problem that is besetting politics and democracy. Vicki Flier Hudson tackles the issue head-on, but unlike so many writers, she takes off the ideological blinders to offer a lesson in empathy — replete with mention of her rock band. She offers techniques at the end of her article that all of us can use. Teachers can ask students to identify an abhorrent point of view and explain why someone could possibly hold that perspective.
by Jasmine Li | 1 Dec 2020 | China, Culture, Educators' Catalog, Health and Wellness, Student Posts, Westover School, Youth Voices
COVID-19 left me in limbo in the United States, full of fear and anger. Then I returned home to China to face criticism before reuniting with my family. An empty John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York (All photos by Jasmine Li) So this is where I am going...
The coronavirus pandemic has put strains on students, their families, schools, entire communities. But Jasmine Li, a Chinese student at Westover School in the United States, provides a first-person account of the special difficulties facing foreign nationals caught in limbo as COVID-19 triggered global travel restrictions. Li cannot return to her temporary home at school, and when she finally makes it home to China, she discovers some compatriots consider her a traitor and urge her to leave. Adolescence can be a difficult period of self-discovery, but Li’s painful experiences are the product of a globalized world that, in normal circumstances, offers extraordinary opportunities but which, during a pandemic, sees forgotten borders re-emerge. Ask each student to describe their most difficult moment during the pandemic. How do their experiences compare?
by Angela Gu | 4 Jun 2020 | Art, Health and Wellness
We were students seeking solace from COVID-19. Then, with a burst of artistic creativity, an online ‘zine’ was born. “Breathing Space,” by Marianne Labrie “Breathing Space,” by Marianne Labrie “Breathing Space,” by Marianne Labrie During the...
by Isabella DeMarco | 2 Mar 2020 | Art, Indiana University, King's Academy, Podcasts, Youth Voices
In this episode of “The Kids Are Alright” podcast, American and Jordanian reporters examine how the art world is protecting culture and heritage. In this episode of the The Kids Are Alright podcast, American and Jordanian students learn more about what the...
by Amari Leigh | 26 Sep 2019 | Culture, Youth Voices
Are the frustrations and joys of New York’s subway unique to my home city? A summer criss-crossing Paris in its metro answered my question. As a New Yorker, I am familiar with the dirt and delays that can define a commuter’s experience in a city where 5.4...
by Jonathan Sharp | 5 Sep 2019 | Asia, China, Culture
Away from the hustle, an ancient rite unfolds in a Shanghai park. Parents looking to hitch offspring post want ads in a marriage mart. (Photo by Betty Fu) It’s a poignant ritual, played out every weekend in a shady corner of a Shanghai park. In People’s Park, scores...
