Rooted Leaders: AJ and Ray
Getting Twinvolved to end Ageism
How do we help raise awareness about ageism at our high school?
AJ and Ray wanted to understand how they could help end violence by challenging harmful stereotypes that are often placed on youth by adults in their community. Continue scrolling to see how they did it and what they learned!
“I feel like adults could try and listen to what teenagers have to say more often than just brushing it aside [...] They could also encourage free thinking and speaking up about social issues or more free speech
about current events.”
KEY STAKEHOLDERS
Constituents: Students at their high school in North Carolina.
AJ and Ray identified high school teens as a group that might be most impacted by ageism in their city. They were able to survey 88 teens to learn more about their experiences with ageism and how this form of violence can be addressed by working with both teens and adults.
Ally: Academic Counselor
AJ and Ray were able to build a working relationship with their academic counselor to help share their survey across an email list of students at their school. This provided a channel of communication for the twins that may not have otherwise been available due to the restriction of student communication caused by the pandemic.
Key Decision Maker: School Principal
In order to have their survey shared with the student body, AJ and Ray had to share their survey with the principal of the school for approval. It is important to communicate the findings of the survey to this key decision maker so that they might help drive the recommendations put forward by Ray and AJ to help end ageism at the high school.
Figure 1. There were a total of 88 survey respondents that represented each grade level at our high school. There was about an equal amount of seniors (31.8%) and juniors (30.7%) who responded, with a few less responses from Freshmen (23.9%), and even less from Sophomores (13.6%).
Figure 2. A majority of survey respondent believe that ageism towards teens is a problem at our high school. The respondents shared their answers on a likert scale of 1-5, with a scale of 1 = ‘not at all’ and 5 = ‘Definitely a problem.’ This demonstrates that ageism is prevalent enough for students to identify as a problem as such a large majority.
Figure 3. This is a ‘symptoms chart’ that we developed to start conversations with fellow youth to identify whether they have experienced ageism in their interaction with adults.
Figure 4. These are 9 out of the 88 examples of stereotypes that respondents believed adults held about teens. We used these 88 responses to help develop the symptoms chart displayed in Figure 3. It is important to start conversations to identify and challenge these stereotypes because many of them can be very harmful for youth.
Read more direct quotes from the teens we surveyed at our high school through the images below:
RECOMMENDATIONS
AJ and Ray have outlined specific ways that adults and youth can both help to reduce ageism at their high school.
Adults can help reduce ageism by:
Actively trying to understand what is comforting or familiar to students. They should try to integrate or offer these things in the school or classroom setting where appropriate to demonstrate their responsiveness and respect for the needs and interests of teens.
Explain to teens why you say no, so we can understand your reasoning and potentially use this logic to make better decisions across other areas of our lives.
Set boundaries and expectations for clearer communication with teens. This can look like teachers setting expectations at the beginning of the year through a classroom discussion or syllabus. If adults set clear expectations, it’s easier for teens to understand what accountability looks like. If we know what your expectations are, then we can follow them!
Have trust and faith towards teens if they are respectful and responsible. Also, have an open mind when talking to any teenager because most teens are not the stereotypical people they are made out to be.
Teens can help reduce ageism by:
Communicating their thoughts and feelings to paint a picture for adults about what they are going through. This can be done through a separate space that our school creates for teachers to interact with students as equals rather than superiors. It is important to have a space where adults and teens can practice communicating their feelings and needs to make this type of healthy communication a norm at our school.
Taking accountability for our actions, especially if we make a mistake. This shows that we are not careless and understand the impact of our actions on other teens and adults. To achieve this, we need to have stronger communication skills by building our confidence to talk about our feelings.
Teens could try to be as responsible and respectful as possible. Definitely towards adults if we are trying to break their interpretation of an average teen.