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counter culture

To become a healthy kid you need to learn to question and go against the predominant culture in U.S. society today.

To stay at a healthy weight you need to avoid most of the food offerings surrounding you, and seek out alternative healthy choices.

To become a motivated learner you need to be supported in pursuing your ideas and interests–and find a school or other learning environment that isn’t simply focused on teaching to standardized tests. (I am thinking of this after reading the recent Newsweek article “The New First Grade.”)

I picture Pinocchio heading out to school and being approached by the Fox and the Cat, and he doesn’t know to question what they’re telling him.

There’s a lot of talk about the influence of culture on learning and education, but I haven’t read or heard so much about the importance of counter culture to support positive youth development.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 21st, 2006 at 2:30 pm and is filed under Inner Compass. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

2 Responses to “counter culture”

  1. Natalie Says:
    September 21st, 2006 at 2:57 pm

    Note to self: Oh, and you also need to learn to question the idea that killing people is a really effective way to solve problems.

  2. Evelyn Says:
    September 26th, 2006 at 9:01 pm

    Hi Natalie,

    I love your blog entries and mostly I love the imagery you always come up with :) I’m glad you are writing again and now I have some enlightening reading to look forward to! Hope your classes are going well.

    Thanks for updating me on the status of your blog! :-D
    Ev