As We Think : Redefining the Struggle for young people

No matter what one’s class, race, gender, or social standing… without the capacity to think critically about ourselves and our lives, none of us would be able to move forward, to change, to grow.”(Bell Hooks, Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom)


Politics, at its most inspirational, offers people a new vision of the future. Some of the most pioneering political leaders go as far as to ally themselves with youth to preach or sell this new vision of the future. 

The main question in my mind is: does these aspirations and new vision of the future offer realistic and practical answers to young people challenges and problems they are faced with? And how close are the two parties? I would ask: is there synergy between what young people aspire and this broad aspiration that the politicians offer?

When it comes to the pressing questions that young people face, politics is failing to offer a coherent vision of their future. This gap between political rhetoric and political reality is far from new, but it has become less acceptable than ever before. Young people today are in a particularly unstable position.

There are real inequalities within their generation as well as between them and older cohorts. They are also poised to inherit a set of chronic social, economic and political challenges that their national governments will be unable to solve without their energetic engagement. Celia Hannon and Charlie Times: An Anatomy Of Youth, Magdalen House, 136 Tooley Street,London, SE1 2TU, UK, 2010, page 14-15

BY Paballo Diboke

As We Think: Redefining the Struggle for young people 

Comments

Popular Posts