Forwarded by edequity-admin@mail.edc.org
Many of you may be interested in the following announcement from PBS about a
series PBS stations will air in April.
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The Merrow report is PBS's premier documentary series on
youth and learning. This nationally broadcast series
explores the issues that shape the way all of us live and
work and learn.
OVERVIEW
The Merrow Report spent the 1997-98 school year
with a group of New York City
adolescents to intimately observe and record
the specific challenges and obstacles that
confront today's urban youth. Growing Up in
the City is a 3-part series airing in April on
PBS. Check your local listings.
WGBX in Boston (Channel 44) will be airing the first report on Friday, April 9
at 10pm. The second report on Friday, April 16th, 10:00 pm, and the final report
on Friday April 23 at 10:00pm. Below is a brief description of each of the
programs as they are described on the Merrow REport Web site
(www.pbs.org/merrow).
1. Growing Up in the City (April 9 10:00 pm, channel 44)
The first program in the Growing Up in the City series tackles the
pressures and fears that adolescents face. In an age of incredible change,
everything seems to affect, for better or for worse, the development of these
young adolescents: the family, the school, the city, the media as well as
popular culture. As Halloween approaches, rumors of gang violence-on the street
and in the media-traumatize sixth graders. Fashion matters to adolescents, and
those who don't wear hip clothes with designer labels may be isolated and
ridiculed. The clothes are expensive and produce tough choices for the family.
In another vignette, young girls decry the pressures they face from the
onslaught of unattainable images of feminine beauty, even as they confess to
being absorbed and fascinated by those same ideas. Their stories are both timely
and timeless.
2. Growing Up in the City: "Discovering Race" April 16, 10:00 pm channel 44
The second program deals with the ways in which race becomes an issue
in the lives of four adolescents:
SASHA, a Russian immigrant whose mother wants him to marry one of his own
kind."
PAUL, a Hispanic whose "look" labels him as a gang member. This seems to cause
adults to cross the street.
JESSICA, a white girl who was taken out of her privileged, private school to
attend a NYC public school where she is a distinct minority.
JAMES, who is learning how difficult it is to be a young African-American
male in a white-dominated society.
Race is an unavoidable issue in the cities of America. As a teacher Ramon
Gonzales notes, it's not all black and white. Adolescents struggle with the
meaning of color, and the discovery of race is one of the defining issues of
their young lives.
3. Growing Up in the City: "Family Portraits" April 23, 10:00 pm channel 44
In this hour we accompany five adolescents home to meet the adults who
are raising them. We meet parents who are struggling with age-old dilemmas: how
to combat negative peer pressure, how to teach children to be careful of the
city's dangers without making them too scared; when to let go and when to hold
on, as their young adolescents press for more freedom. In two of the families,
the fathers are absent, and the adults struggle to help their daughters come to
terms with their absence.
Our five families are typical urban Americans. Every family has at least one
working adult: a chauffeur, a store clerk, and a sanitation worker. All
graduated from high school, and one has a college degree. Their family income
ranges from $17,000 to $45,000 a year. This final program is perhaps the most
personal.
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