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Calling all youth to serve and be heard
In April, millions of young people across the country will mobilize to address the needs of their communities and educate the public about the year-round contributions youngsters make as community leaders.
Set for April 21-23, 2006, the annual National Youth Service Day is designed to get young people started on a path of service and civic engagement, and to give youth a role in identifying and addressing the needs of their communities. Young people will design and lead projects in a range of areas, including literacy, the environment, healthcare and the elderly. The event is organized by Youth Service America.
Youth in over 100 countries will celebrate the seventh annual Global Youth Service Day in tandem with the U.S. event.
The AFT is among the nearly 100 partner organizations that participate in National Youth Service Day.
Planning toolkits, service-learning curriculum guides, posters, grant information and more are available for teachers and participating organizations. To learn more, visit www.ysa.org/nysd/.
A good night’s sleep: More important than you realize
There are certain activities most of us take for granted—and one of them is sleeping. Few of us pay attention to how much—or how little—sleep we get. The National Sleep Foundation (NSF) believes that’s a mistake.
Dedicated to making all of us more aware of the importance of adequate sleep, NSF conducts a wide variety of programs that target the public, healthcare providers and policymakers. It is also the sponsor of National Sleep Awareness Week. The annual public education campaign is designed to change how America’s children and adults understand sleep and the importance of sleep for good health, safety, productivity and overall well-being.
This year’s event takes place March 27-April 2, 2006, the week before daylight-saving time returns, when clocks “spring forward” one hour and people often lose another hour of needed sleep. The theme for this year’s campaign is “Sleep! As Important as Diet and Exercise (Only Easier!).”
Each year, NSF releases its Sleep in America poll during National Sleep Awareness Week. This year’s survey will focus on the sleeping habits of teens.
The AFT is once again a partner for the annual sleep awareness week. “The research literature is clear—lack of sleep not only makes it difficult for students to concentrate and learn, but also contributes to a broad spectrum of illnesses in children and adults,” says Darryl Alexander, director of the AFT health and safety program.
For additional information on National Sleep Awareness Week, as well as resources for learning more about sleep disorders and the importance of sleep, visit www.sleepfoun
dation.org.
There’s a lesson in the music
It’s difficult to appreciate the artistry and beauty of real instrumental music—or the talent of those who create it—when you’re constantly inundated with music from electronic devices. An entire generation of young people have been brought up on an unhealthy diet of electronic sounds, says trombonist Gregory Royal. “They don’t even know the sound of a cello, clarinet, French horn or flute.”
Royal, an alumnus of the modern-day Duke Ellington Orchestra, says his primary concern is what will happen to instrumental music if current and future generations fail to support it. Instead of blaming hip-hop music and its purveyors for failing to appreciation what he calls “traditional” music, Royal, the executive director of the American Youth Symphony (AYS), and his colleagues at AYS are seeking to work with hip-hop artists, producers and record labels on a project called “The Plight of American Music Initiative.”
“We in the artistic community must make up lost ground for our abandonment and lack of guidance of this generation,” AYS executive director Susan Veres says. The initiative is intended “to persuade organizations interested in the preservation of traditional music to offer grants to hip-hop producers who choose to use real instruments in their music.”
The initiative has materials educators can use to conduct class discussions and demonstrations related to the preservation of instrumental music. Also available on CD or DVD is the stage play “It’s a Hardbop Life,” which features a cast of top jazz musicians.
For information on how to register for “The Plight of American Music Initiative,” visit www.hardboplife.com.
Hattie McDaniel: Groundbreaking actress honored with stamp Actress, singer and radio and television performer Hattie McDaniel is the latest African-American to be honored by the United States Postal Service. In late January, the postal service issued a stamp recognizing McDaniel, who was the first African-American to win an Academy Award and the first to star in her own radio show.
McDaniel received an Academy Award in 1940 for her role in the film “Gone with the Wind.” Often heavily criticized for playing maids and other stereotypical roles, she worked behind the scenes to battle racism and discrimination. From 1947 until 1952, McDaniel played the title role in “The Beulah Show,” which was broadcast on national radio. Although McDaniel again played a maid, she insisted that her character not speak in dialect, and she successfully negotiated the right to alter scripts that did not meet her approval. The show was praised by the NAACP and the National Urban League.
Issued in conjunction with Black History Month, the McDaniel stamp is the 29th in the popular Black Heritage series.
