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Dear CC reader,
We have lots of
important news for you this month: a week just became a month; we're on
the road with a tool to help prevent school dropout; we're announcing
our REAL DEAL finalists very soon; and we scored an interview with one
of our favorite partner organizations. Read on and let us know what you
think!
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Teen Dating
Violence Awareness and Prevention Month
February
2010
This just in from the National Teen Dating
Abuse Helpline: Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention is being
honored for a
whole month instead of the first week of February, as it has been in the
past. This is largely thanks to the support and influence of several
U.S. Senators as well as Vice President Joe Biden. Senators Mike Crapo
(R-ID), Joseph Lieberman(I-CT) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) have been
huge supporters of moving the awareness up to a month and we are very
grateful for their hard work.
Teen dating violence was very much
the focus of our conversations with educators in Los Angeles and
Pasadena earlier this month. We talked about how conventional attitudes
about gender norms can lead to negative health outcomes among young
people, such as an earlier age of sexual debut and a higher risk of
contracting STIs and/or HIV. These negative health outcomes are directly
linked to situations of gender-based violence. Our What's the REAL DEAL about Masculinity?
curriculum and especially our film Bitter Memories both ask
students to reflect on their own ideas about gender, identity, power and
violence.
Click here for the video of the Senators'
announcement: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7zqbIQ8ZKM&feature=player_embedded
Click
here for the National Teen Dating Abuse Helpline: http://www.loveisrespect.org/
Click
here for the Domestic Violence Awareness Project: http://dvam.vawnet.org/index.php
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Dropout Prevention
Scenarios
USA and Promoting School Connectedness
One of the key variables to prevent school
dropout is school connectedness. We will showcase our What's the REAL DEAL
about Masculinity? curriculum at the At-Risk Youth National Forum
on February 15th in Myrtle
Beach, SC as an effective tool to connect with at-risk youth.
We
will share the results of our evaluation, which showed that during
lessons based on our curriculum, students were more engaged in
discussions, building on each others' comments, and questioning their
initial impulses. According to both teachers and students, several
students who had reportedly engaged only marginally in schoolwork during
the semester became enthusiastic about researching, sharing, writing
and editing their work while participating in the curriculum. Both
teachers and students also reported in interviews that participating in
the
lessons helped to trust and understand each other more fully.
Find
out more about the curriculum here: http://www.scenariosusa.org/getinvolved/MasculinityCurriculum2009.html
Find
out more about the conference here: http://www.dropoutprevention.org/conferen/conferen.htm#2010_AtRisk_Forum
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2009-10 REAL DEAL Contest Update
Getting
Ready to Announce the Winners!
The semi-finalists of our 2009-10 REAL
DEAL contest were announced last week. Check out these fabulous writers
here: http://www.scenariosusa.org/semifinalists2010/.
The finalists will be announced next Friday, February 12, on
our website: http://scenariosusa.org/index.html.
On Monday, February 22,
our Final Selection Committee will meet in New York City to choose one
submission from each of our contest regions: NYC, South Texas and
Cleveland, OH. The winning writers will go on to make their stories into
short films with some amazing Hollywood directors! The winners will be
announced on our website on Friday, March 5, so stay tuned...
In
the meantime, explore these resources for other ways your students can
publish their work:http://scenariosusa.org/getinvolved/contest.html
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Spotlight on... Safe Schools Coalition
"That's
So Gay!"
Interview with Beth Reis, Co-Chair
When we as educators think
about the pressures on young males to conform to a very rigid definition
of
masculinity, we quickly think of the language used by their peers, their
family,
the media -even our colleagues - as a tool of social control to keep
them
inside that "male box." Most of the slurs used to tease boys are
homophobic. One
organization that works extremely hard at helping to make schools safe
for all
students is the Safe Schools Coalition
(SSC), which provides resources and training to schools and communities
nationally. I was therefore honored to interview Beth Reis, Co-Chair of
the SSC.
"When
the SSC provides
technical assistance to educators we always get the question about what
to do
about the ubiquitous slur "that's so gay." Unfortunately many teachers
are not
trained in how to deal with anti-LGBTQ harassment, or anything to do
with
gender. One resource that we provide educators to help them deal with
anti-LGBTQ speech and bullying is An
Educator's Guide to Intervening In
Anti-Gay (LGBTQ) Harassment,
which you can download for
free from our website: http://www.safeschoolscoalition.org/guide_educator_interveneharass2005NAT.pdf.
My
top tips to educators in dealing with homophobic speech are:
- Don't ignore it.
- Don't come down like a
ton of bricks.
- Start the conversation
with "that behavior (or speech) is not OK. We're going to talk
about why
that's not OK."
- Or start with a
question, but not in anger. Something like, "Wow. What makes you
think
that?"
- Educate your students
about what a stereotype is, what "derogatory" means.
- Don't get mired in the
quicksand of inaccurate analogies: LGBTQ harassment is not the same
as
racism, for example, and using a slur to hurt a child so they'll
understand how hurtful slurs are is, frankly, unethical."
Read the whole interview here.
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Fan Fun on
Facebook
If you're a Facebook user, do become a fan
of Scenarios USA, so we can keep you updated on events and
opportunities for you and the youth with whom you work. Click here
to become a fan: www.facebook.com/scenariosusa
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As always, we appreciate all your
emails, your comments and your suggestions, so please keep sending them.
See you next month!
Warmly,
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 Ernestine Heldring
Education and Outreach Manager
Scenarios USA |
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