Important Discussion
The important discussion with no volunteer hours
I think you are the most important people in Markham. You are the future.
Mayor Scarpitti was elected last night as Markham's new mayor.
I want to know what you think is the most important issue for Markham's new government?
The other thing I want to know is what do you think is the most important issue to teens who live in Markham?
We are asking for the same information, in the branch.
In one month's time, all the results will be tabulated and forwarded to your new Mayor.
Get your friend's opinions and ideas.
Catherine
posted by teens@mpl @ 11:16 AM
4 Comments:
"the most important issue for Markham's new government?"
> There are a lot of issues that we are faced with in Markham, but I think that one of the most important would be poverty. Relatively we are a pretty well off community, however, as surprising as it is, we do indeed have people living underneath the poverty line. I know that Markham is also planning on making the town more "compact" (for example, having a "downtown Markham" so more work can be found here and less people have to commute). We have to realise that as we develop as a town, and as our population increases, so will the other issues that cities are faced with, such as poverty and perhaps even violence of different sorts. Many people live in Markham because it is a safe community and because these issues aren't as prevalent in our town as they are in other areas. We should be able to look into the future and make preventative measures now so that we aren't overwhelmed when the issues associated with a big town/city start to arise in our own community.
"most important issue to teens who live in Markham?"
> This is a hard question to answer, because I have my own biases and I guess you could say do not fit the stereotype of a "normal teenager". But what I think is one of the big issues is transportation in Markham. The VIVA and YRT are good, but they are only good in certain regions of Markham... other bus routes leave you waiting for hours on end in the bitter cold. Also, things in our town are really spread out (the mall , the bowling alley, and the movie theatre are REALLY far from each other... new community centres, such as Angus Glen, are really far, and buses that go there aren't as frequent as they should be). When compared to Toronto and its suburbs (Scarborough), one can say that our town is really spread out with not much transportation to take you from one place to the other.
Soni,
I agree that there are still many people living in poverty, in parts of Markham. I was involved in conferences through the school board and was shocked how many people are just making it.
some of the teachers told us about discreetly slipping teens money for food, supplies, etc.
They also told us about teens working and supporting their families.
Future planning is very important. The town has a plan up until 2025.
I think all of York Region and the GTA have to look at traffic congestion.
I have to agree with you about markham being to spread out.
Working at Angus Glen,
the bus only goes in during the rush hours, like you said.
The service is better then when we first opened.
Seniors were also impacted. they could not get to AG unless they had a ride. they were not happy because they wanted to come during the day.
You make great points.
I will be passing on your comments.
Catherine
Sonika,
I remember speaking to someone who was organizing a youth summit to discussion issues like poverty about two years ago here in Markham. They were really concerned with Markham's hidden poverty (and this would be true of any suburb, no doubt). What tends to happen in otherwise affluent communities like Markham is that because the poverty here is often difficult to detect, there are no support services for the disenfranchised. This has a particularly negative impact on young people because it drives them out of their community and away from their best possible sources of support. So for example, if a teen is facing an abusive home life or something like that where they have to get out of their present living situation, there are no services like shelters available to them here in Markham. This lack of "urban" resources will force them to leave the community to seek those services elsewhere. To do that, they'll drop out of school, leave behind any friends or other supportive elements in their lives, which will further marginalize them. But because they've left the community, it's no longer Markham's problem and just like that, the issue of poverty continues to be ignored. As for the infrastructure issues you've mentioned, it is so important to ensure that there is good transportation available throughout the town, especially in high risk areas for youth. We've seen what happens to poor neighbourhoods when they are isolated from the rest of the city in North York; a lot of the poverty and youth violence in the west end can be attributed to the fact that there is no infrastructure connecting that community to the rest of the city. There is no work in that area, and because its community cannot get to work anywhere else, unemployment is high, poverty is high, violence is high, and kids are born into an impossible cycle of violence. You're absolutely right that these issues need to be considered in the town planning process, because once they take root, these social problems become so complex they're near unmanageable.
The Saddest thing is that there's a growing trend of intolerance as well. In the IB program alone, I'm sad to admit that 99% of mockery is directed towards students who are stupid/have lower grades. Most of the kids in my class believe in a neo-eugenic theory, agreeing that the stupid should die out or be killed off in order for the human race to remain strong. I've heard similar opininions in other programs (gifted/Pace) and although these voices are probably slightly exaggerated when we socialize, no one else is aware that people can feel this way about others in the same school, let alone the same community.
(I cut this out from the below comment, it's just something i wanted to bring to light)
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Somehow, I believe the most important issue for the government is to broad, but i'll happily give my two cents about teens who live in Markham.
This issue is that they're seriously curiousity challenged...or challenge challeneged.
I've met kids who've based their entire religions on Dan Brown's books, kids who believe the chocolate milk comes from Brown cows (thanks to come lackluster but amusing commercials), believed in house hippos (another commercial favourite), and kids who jut aren't aware of what they've got access to.
The sad thing is that these kids are going to represent a major number of votes later and they haven't even begun the natural process of WANTING TO KNOW. I'm guilty of this i guess too, until last year, i paid very little attention to politics and/or world news, knowing they have very little immediate affect on me. A few episodes of the Ricker Mercer report, ROyal Canadian Air Farce, Thjis hour has twenty-two minutes later, I read as much of the paper as I can, I attend the world aids conferences for students, and find that i NEED to know.
However preachy this sounds, it's made a difference. I don't expect anyone to really do as I have because I don't really advertise my watching the 6 o'clock news socially, but I think this represents a greater problem.
Finland has one of the best education systems in the world although kisd there only start learning their alphabet/basic reading at the age of Seven.
They attribute the success to letting the children cultivate a love of learning, a natural curiousity, before forcing lessons down their throats.
The number of failing First year university students has only been rising over the last few years and the gap between those who succeed and those don't has only grown wider. It's a problem, and it's going to continue to be one.
The Saddest thing is that there's a growing trend of intolerance as well. In the IB program alone, I'm sad to admit that 99% of mockery is directed towards students who are stupid/have lower grades. Most of the kids in my class believe in a neo-eugenic theory, agreeing that the stupid should die out or be killed off in order for the human race to remain strong.I've heard similar opininions in other programs (gifted/Pace) and although these voices are probably slightly exaggerated when we socialize, no one else is aware that people can feel this way about others in the same school, let alone the same community.
Oh wow, I've really branched off here.
I guess I'll just leave it at this:
No matter how many services we provide, the youth won't get educated or informed unless they want to- which most of them don't. Because they don't need any more clutter to think about because they're doing so much work- which they have to do in order to compete.
Miss Anne
Isabelle
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