ARTS INTEGRATION INTO EDUCATION: BRIDGING THE GAP
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-- YouTube: Children of the Night, Richard Marx.
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Columbine and the Virginia Tech tragedy represent the extreme challenges
facing youth today, youth who cry out for help many times in extremes. It
is time, to identify with their challenges.
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According to the Global Roundtable: Working Group on
Youth (Youth and the Millennium Development Goals: Challenges and Opportunities for
Implementation, Youth at the
United Nations, April 2005):
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The number of youth between the ages of 15 and 24 is 1.1 billion; youth
constitute 18 percent of the global population. Youth and children together,
including all those aged 24 years and younger, account for nearly 40 percent
of the world’s population.
- Geographically speaking, the largest population of youth is concentrated
in Asia and the Pacific. Approximately 60 percent of youth live in Asia;
15 percent, in Africa; 10 percent, in Latin America and the Caribbean; and
the remaining 15 percent, in developed countries and regions.
- About 85 percent of the world’s population of youth live in developing
countries. Nearly half (45.9 percent) live in low-income countries, while
another third (34.1 percent) live in lower middle-income countries. The remaining
fifth (20 percent) of youth live in upper middle- and high-income countries.
- Approximately 238 million youth live in extreme poverty—that is, they live
on less than $1 a day; 462 million youth survive on less than $2 a day.
- About 255 million young people live in the 19 countries with the largest
poverty gaps; 15 of these 19 countries are in sub-Saharan Africa.
- Experts estimate that, in the 49 countries classified as having a high
proportion of undernourished people, 110 million youth live in hunger.
- About 133 million youth in the world are illiterate.
- Youth comprise 41 percent of the world’s unemployed people.
Music Track: Please Listen Now (MP3): Words and Music by Stephen
Michael Apatow.
You bring me into this world, the challenges are great
The kids they seem so filled, with jealousy and rage.
And you wonder why I am overwhelmed, And just need to escape.
If I connect with what's around me, I'd snap and go insane.
Chorus
So please just listen now, I need to understand.
How we can begin to make progress, we need to change this world.
So please take my hand, and show me how.
I'm growing fast, and almost through with school, It's a struggle
each day to cope
I force myself to stick it out, and pray for the pressure to end.
And now I'm finally there, Given a chance to stretch my wings
And another chapter just begins, and I ask, does anyone care.
Chorus
So in my quest for balance, as I strive for meaning in life.
I question just why I'm here, to just die or be a source of life
I have made a choice to change my path, to move away from that which
To become a positive force, uplifting those around me.
Please understand every moment is a blessing, and it's our choice
to rise or fall.
Chorus
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