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Insight News • April 28 - May 4, 2014 • Page 7
EDUCATION
Cooper in Action Team left to right: Pa Kou, Angel Washington, Renea Thompson, Shia Yang, and Pashia Xiong
Armstrong and Cooper teams receive Jefferson Awards for Community Service Students from Armstrong and Cooper High Schools were honored for outstanding community service at the 2014 Jefferson Awards program held on April 12. Cooper received a Silver Banner and Armstrong received a Bronze as part of the program’s Students in Action program. The program trains student leaders to effectively engage their school communities in meaningful volunteer service that positively impacts the greater community. High school students, with the assistance of adult sponsors, participated in service-based learning utilizing three key program pillars guided by seven achievable goals. Those three program pillars include developing student leaders in service, engaging others to make an impact on the world for better and becoming role models in community service. In addition to executing service learning activities in their school and community, students attended leadership conferences and in-school meetings to explore topics such as understanding self and values, ethics, working as a team, fundraising,
Falcons in Action Team left to right: Corrin Robinson, Tashira Harris, Yelsi Pereira-Sorto, Zobia Ghayas, Nou Lor and Elijah Henderson. communications, critical thinking and marketing. “We congratulate our
Cooper in Action and Falcons in Action teams for their awards. They are leaders
Aging From 4 few hours or less telling us to dye our hair, change our bodies, and do whatever it takes to look younger. Whatever happened to honoring elders? Why aren’t there more Kimuras’ or Delany sisters’ in the world? Somewhere along the path to technological progress, American culture seems to have lost sight of the wisdom that comes with aging. The advent of social media has made everyone an instant advice columnist, and because of the “Google” phenomenon, today’s youth think they already know everything before they’ve ever experienced it. And while it may be true that a mind is a terrible thing to waste, it is also true that time is wasted on the young. Reading is not experience. And, surfing Wikipedia and being able to Google a topic does not an expert make. Technology, with its easy and instantaneous access to information, has created a false sense of intellectual security among today’s youth (and some adults as well). Having drank the Kool-Aid of web surfing, blogging, Twitter, Facebook and accepted the advice of television reality stars whose only claim to fame are looks, butts and
If we have led full, responsible, and contributing lives, then we will have crafted a legacy along our journey through life
bad behavior, many people today actually believe they are knowledge experts. You can’t tell them “nuttin’.” Seduced by the immediacy of the web, reality television shows (that all should carry the warning of “don’t try this at home”), YouTube fame and Facebook exposés (no you didn’t just post your dirty laundry on Facebook?), people caught up in the tech blitz fail to realize that the baptism of fire called experience or the proverbial school of hard knocks are the best sources of information, and the most meaningful way to learn. Those enamored with being plugged in all the time may need a bit of “tech detox.” They might wish to borrow a page
from Jack Honore’s book “In Praise of Slowness,” and take off the Spock-like Bluetooth ear pieces long enough to smell the air, flowers, and hold a face-to-face conversation. I am not anti-technology, but I recognize that the technology is creating social distance. Many people today prefer a computer screen to human contact. Today’s youth have atrophied communications muscles. They can’t sustain a conversation, are uncomfortable looking people in the face and speaking directly, and definitely conflict adverse. Instead, they have important conversations by texting, even if they are sitting right across from the person to whom they are sending the messages. Now what’s wrong with that picture?
in service-learning in our district,” said Dr. Aldo Sicoli, superintendent of Robbinsdale
Area Schools. “Their volunteer service and leadership development is certain to make
a positive impact on the greater community.”
Technology doesn’t teach us to be compassionate or to have empathy. If we lose those qualities, ultimately we fail to be human. Aging, gracefully, or not, brings us one step closer to the realities of our own eventual mortality. And, no amount of knee replacements, artery reconstructions, plastic surgery, heart and/or liver transplants, or even mega-doses of pharmaceuticals can stop the onset of death. It comes at the end of living. Not even a return to natural foods can postpone the inevitable. Humans are not immortals. We are born so that we may ultimately die and make space for the next generation. If we have led full, responsible, and contributing lives, then we will have crafted a legacy along our journey through life. And, while we may not pass this way again, the world will know that we were once here. The books we write, the people we teach, the work we do are all testimonials to the fact that we once existed. I am not morbid, but simply a realist. Death is a fact of being human. I don’t want to live forever. Nor do I wish to exit as an assemblage of artificial parts and transplants designed to fool me into thinking that I’m still young. My heart is young and I can still salsa dance with the best of them – though not as fast
or as long. Be that as it may, I relish my gray hair, give thanks for a body that still works (for the most part) on its own, take time to reflect on past loves, cherish the memories of family
and friends who’ve passed on to join the ancestors, and face each new day as if it were a gift. And, through it all, I age gracefully and am learning to live life with grace.