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Sindiwe Mvubu (16)
 

The problems facing young people today can be traced back to the failure of parents to give their children what they need most: time, attention and love. Discuss.

The problems faced by young people today are schools and the access to education. Schools alone hold many problems for children such as; the competition to do well in lessons, the pressure of receiving homework everyday, balancing life and social life, wanting to be accepted by other students, the pressure of peer groups and avoiding being bullied. Also being pulled into dangerous activities in the street such as gang culture, vandalising and stealing.

School is such a challenging environment, as children know that for them to be able to follow their choice of career they must get good grades. However, most children still want to enjoy time with their classmates and close friends something that is vital for socialisation. “School should be enjoyable” teachers and parents say, but once you approach year 9 you have SATs, Mocks and then your GCSE’s. The pressure is high and a lot of work is required. The stress of it could make children unhappy or even decide not to do some of the work. Children entering year 9 desperately need parental support. Children need their parents to be very supportive and regularly encourage them to try their hardest, and this encouragement should not just be received from the parents but extended family members too. Parents should issue their children discipline when it comes to coming home and doing homework they received in school and completing it on the same day. Time doesn’t wait for anyone and avoiding doing work just ends up becoming stressful as you try to cram it up at the last minute.

So how does this link to the parents? “New Right Thinkers“, a group of people who have views similar to sociologists but have tended to be journalists and politicians,  see the problems with youth today as a result of the increase of the following: lone parent families, fatherless families, divorce rates, cohabitation and gay and lesbian couples. New Right thinkers believe the consequences of having these changes in families can result in young people underachieving at school and behaving in anti social ways ranging from rudeness to crime.

The problems young people face is because there is not enough time, attention and love in the families. When the things listed above are not ensured in the family home you see children going below their targets and losing their sense of mind that school is important.

Once children find that they don’t need school, children begin to truant and spend their time on streets and not in school. What children find on the streets isn’t child friendly, you hear about gangs starting up, children smoking. They ask adults to buy the cigarettes for them and some adults do, this may even go as far to finding drugs and starting an addiction and possibly even stealing to feed the addiction. Parents focus so much time and energy on working hard and earning money for the welfare of their children and also material things like buying a house, buying a car, going on holiday, that they don’t spend time with their children to find out how everything at school is going. Parents don’t have time in the evenings since they’ve come home late and are stressed out at their day at work. Children just need this quality time so that they can open up and let their worries be known to their parents. Instead the time is lost. Pugh 2002 (sociologist) suggests that parental spending on children is ‘consumption as compensation’. This means parents that are ‘cash rich but time poor’ release their guilt about what is lacking in their child’s life by giving them material things. Parents believe as long as their children have the latest technology and clothes they will be satisfied. Parents give their children what they demand but don’t look at what they need which is time, love and attention. Charles Murray (Functionalist Sociologist) says young children growing up without fathers lack a male role model in the home, they lose out on learning the discipline of respect and respect for work. This is the sort of care they need from fathers.

Divorce affects children in many ways. Some may find it traumatic, some may be able to deal with it. It’s when a situation like this happens that children then lose their consistency in daily habits in the home and for a period of time, love attention and time lacks. The attention from both parents will then be decreased and if they are in a situation where they have other siblings the one parent can only issue out enough attention to all children which could make children feel like they aren’t wanted. Children then go through depression which could alter their mood swings and lead them to do unsociable things.

However, the problems children face today aren’t just because of the lack of attention, time and love but because parents simply can't discipline their children. In contemporary we see that children have more rights than they used to. The Children Act 1989 gave children greater legal status and rights. Children cannot be harmed or hurt and have the drastic option to divorce their parents.  Although the act is good in protecting children from harm it has in some ways taken away the right for parents to discipline their children as they see fit.  

However although we can say parents are to blame for the lack of time, attention and love we cannot ignore the impact of the commercial world that we live in. Most parents feel that they have to work in order to provide for their families. In most cases companies want to make as much profit as possible, even charities want to get the most out of their employees with the least input. This forces most people to work harder and harder and fall into the rat race.

I myself have experienced times in my life where I felt I had lacked attention time and love. The times I’ve felt this way is because of my parents not just having me but two of my brothers who are younger than me. I have found I should just accept that I have younger siblings who need time attention and love slightly more than I do and try to understand how the difficulty my parents go through day to day to offer us time, attention and love.

 Second Place

Tunde Sowole (Age 14. Hobbies: playing basketball, running and going out with friends)

Community safety is important for all communities irrespective of where we live in the world. What are the key concerns around vulnerable young people and violent crime (e.g. gun, knife and gang related crime)? What do you think influences and contributes to young people being both perpetrators and victims of violent crime? What are the barriers to solutions? What do you see as the solutions to protect vulnerable young people and to stop young people being sucked into gun, knife and gang related crime?

has reached critical point as the amount of youths involved in crime is increasing at a substantial rate with 70,000 breaking the law every year. The question is, ‘who is to blame?’

More and more teens are falling victim to gang-culture and gun crime. The murder of young Rhys Jones in Liverpool should be enough to highlight the “downfall” of ’s youths. Mr Duncan Smith said in 2007, “The murder of 20 teenagers in London this year by the gun or the knife is a wake-up call for politicians of all parties.”  This figure is rising every year and needs to be stopped before Britain falls into destruction.

In my opinion people should feel safe living in their communities. But instead, they are afraid of what might turn up on their door step or who might try to harm them while they are out and about on the streets. Currently is facing a war over “post codes” and  people murder for phones. Living in London is becoming more dangerous where young people are trying to become infamous by representing where they live. They do not represent it in a good way, they instead attack people on other roads.

is becoming more of a broken society because youngsters feel that they are above the law. The “slap on the wrist” punishments only encourage them to continue. Influential figures show that 70,000 school-aged offenders enter the justice system and ¾ of these break other law after they are set free. With the majority, not much is done to ensure that it does not happen again, many are let loose to cause another crime and clearly ASBO's do not help with some teens, who refuse to be retrained.

Crime is all around teens these days and many variables influence them to get involved. A major one is a television set, where they have access to everything they need. Almost anything can be broadcast on television, including violence and youths showing disrespect towards their parents. Fuelled by alcohol and driven by the influence of others, youths cause the majority of ’s anti-social behaviour. Copying adults is what most teens like to do and after 9 pm almost anything can be shown such as programmes that highlight bad behaviour, bad language and general disrespect to others.

Plenty of today’s young anti-social behaviour can be traced back to the failure of parents, but is this true? Recently, past misbehaving young people have grown up to become troublesome adults who pass on the tradition to their children. Teens look up to parents as elders and as leaders, but if the parents are teaching their children how to swear and antisocial behaviour, with all this happening how could there ever be peace on the streets? Some parents are too busy or do not want anything to do with their children, and so these young people turn to crime and gangs as a cry out for attention. Often joining gangs are where they feel they are part of a family.

Divorce also result in anti-social behaviour, because once the parents have separated, one parent might be softer than the other, leaving teens to take advantage and disobey the parents. 2/3 of teens that get involved in the law have divorced parents.

Our young people are amazing, and the world we live in is amazing. There have been high hopes and expectations for this generation but forcing them to go to school and having strict rules will surely let loose those desperate for responsibility, opportunity, achievement and recognition, go to drugs, violence, self-harm. Some believe that even though they are out on the streets and don’t have an education; they can still earn a lot of money, for example like the rapper 50 cent and Virgin owner, Richard Branson. If they cannot get to this stage then they turn to stealing. For example, four out of ten muggings are committed by under-16.

I believe that a solution lowering the number of youths who misbehave in society is that they should be sent to concentration camps where they will be trained to have discipline and respect. If they refuse to do so then they will have more days added to their stay. These camps could also be opened to young offenders who have first-time or second time offences. If they continue then they shall be sent to a young-offenders institution for 5 months where they will have disciplined treatment by military officers. Using this method should cut down the 18-20-year old first-time offenders from 42% to about 10%.

Other methods would be to persuade teens to do something other than living life on the streets. Young people need something to motivate them and keep them active; the reason why some are on streets is because they are bored. They need to be doing something that will benefit the community instead of doing the negative things that they usually do. A suggestion would be after school clubs and youth clubs where they could go and do something beneficial. In these there could be pool tables, small football pitches, a computer area etc. Having these around will take their minds off stealing and causing anti-social behaviour. It should also be welcoming by placing posters around that area to promote the centre and encourage people to come.

Problems facing this might be that youths may not like their stay at these camps and try to sue. Others might take revenge later on by committing a worse crime. Although the youths may resist we have to stamp out anti-social behaviour before everything turns to chaos. For example, many turn to guns and knifes as a form of protection and rank in the society. However, turning to knifes and guns are never the right choice. It may be easy for some youths to stab someone, but if it happened to them, they would not like it. It has been said that caring a knife doubles the chances of you getting stabbed by it. Youths are vulnerable and need to be kept away from crime like this because gangs today look for young people to join so they can become active members and continue their ‘legend’ of violence.

Most of you that would have read this are adults and fear that one day you or someone that you know will fall victim to the gun or knife. Keeping youths away from this may be the only way to lower the level even if crime is all around, on streets, TV and computers. Parents have to simply teach their children to resist.

Author Kyron Stewart, Age 14, Favourite hobbies: Reading, Writing and Maths

What are the key concerns around vulnerable young people and violent crime? What do you think influences young people to be both perpetrators and victims of crime?

Gang crime is a big issue within the community. It has caused a lot of problems for families such as: deaths, injuries, embarrassment, fear and even kidnappings. Gang culture has gone up our community and now it has become easier to get hold of guns and knives. In this essay, I will be explaining the consequences and rising issues, to do with gang culture and gun/knife crime.

In this current day and age gun crime has risen dramatically in a small period of time. It has become an issue for young people as well as adults. It is not just the older generation who suffer the fear of being robbed or beaten up. It is teenaged youths who feel the full effect; teenaged youths feel the peer pressure of joining a gang; teenaged youths feel they have to steel, fight, or even have sex to be like their peers.

Influences are a major part of gang crime; rappers, singers, actors and wrestlers all influence youths in some way, shape or form to commit the sins they do. “Young adults” are what teachers and older people like to call us teenagers. So bearing this in mind, imagine what youths must think of themselves when they see for example, 50cent the rapper on TV with guns and a load of money. They would think about trying to be just like him and will believe that being a young adult should lead to having a gun like 50cent which should also lead to money.

This is what I think the media is trying to portray: especially amongst black people. The main phrase everyone knows is from 50cent’s first album, “Get Rich or Die Tryin”. Keeping the minds of young children in consideration, imagine what this title sticks in their heads. You either get rich, or you die trying to get rich; meaning that you must go to any extent and do what ever you possibly can to reach the goal. Become rich.

Youths these days do not understand the real lifestyles of rappers or actors. Most rappers give a negative view on their life, as if they are the hardest people alive; yet they have a family at home. Their family even includes a WIFE, which blatantly shows that they can never be “pimps” or “thugs”. They will probably struggle to sneak out of their house without having to tell their wife every detail of where they are going, and what they are going to do. They are most definitely not on the streets twenty four seven, committing crimes and doing drive bys. Their wives will probably beat them! All famous celebrities have two sides to them; this is their alter-ego. Take the rapper Snoop Dogg for example; he used to make me think he was a gangster and a pimp from all of his songs. Especially the song he collaborated with 50cent called “P.I.M.P”. The title alone gives away what the song is about, but this was just Snoop’s alter-ego.

Snoop Dogg just makes songs that sell and make him money, the content of the song can be a load of rubbish which has absolutely nothing to do with his life what so ever. Yet he still gets all the credit and all the ratings for it, but I am sure if you could make money that easily you would too. However, the truth is that Snoop Dogg has a happy family of three children, a wife, two sons and a daughter. He has recently made a TV reality show “Snoop Dog’s Father Hood” based on his life within his house hold and their day to day life. Although you can tell that Snoop and his family are still slightly acting and playing up towards the camera, you can see that Snoop is actually a nice person who just likes to have a laugh and enjoy life like every other human being.

So as you know, most rappers just use their songs as a cover up on their real lives. However, there is a large population of youths who take rappers as role models and look up to them. I feel that this is the wrong thing to do. There are too many lies within a celebrity’s life, which makes it basically impossible to understand. So how can you possibly be able to follow their lifestyle? There is only one answer. You can not. The only part of their life you can follow is the lifestyle that the media wants us to believe.

This is where one of my other concerns comes to mind. Today’s generation of youths are living amongst only a single parent (mainly the mother). So I think this is why youths feel they have to look up to the closest male image they have. So referring to my previous point; it is impossible to follow a celebrity’s lifestyle, only the life the media portrays.

I think having a male role model within your house hold is very important. Not just for boys, but for girls as well. A girl also needs to know what kind of man she should be looking for when she is older. She would not be able to find out by looking at rappers and actors.

Living with both parents makes a big difference towards your views on men and women. Imagine what a teenaged boy, who grew up with no dad, must think of a man. He must think a man is rough and violent. But when a child gets the best of both worlds through living with both parents; he would be able to establish the difference between a man and a thug. This knowledge should lead him to having a better understanding of reality and commercial lives. In my experiences I have established that my friends who have been raised with out a father; have a stereotypical image of what a man should be and how a man should act. This negative image was collected from the media.

To conclude this essay I feel the media has a powerful and influential role in the way that perpetrators of crime and victims view life and their peers. This has an even more serious effect on those young people who have no positive male and female role models in their lives, especially in terms of parents. Whilst we cannot get away from newspapers, magazines, radio and the television; it is important that young people can talk and debate about issues that are shown to be controversial in the media with their positive role models. (Hopefully their parents)

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Jordan Carruthers aged 13;   Europeans/Americans adopting African children

Adopting African Children

Stars such as Madonna and Angelina Jolie are finding that adopting children is an easy way to get the child that you want. The issue is that stars are increasingly choosing African children to adopt and to westernize them. Personally I think that it is very good for the children and the families (if they are still in touch. In this essay I will say why.

            The younger that the child is adopted the better in terms of getting them used to the environment. The new environment is really a gamble. If the child thrives in the new environment then it would be a big success as they would have more chance of living a better life. Out in the west the child will get lots of privileges such as clean water, three meals a day, a decent education and money. All these things the child might not necessarily have in Africa .

If the child doesn’t fit in then problems could arise. This is why many celebrities pluck them young. If they are young then not many babies have the awareness to notice such a dramatic change in environment. The biggest obstacle to get over is the publicity they will have to cope with for the rest of their lives. Paparazzi will scrutinise their every move and will be in their faces. If you’re a baby that’s still getting used to a new place then a bunch of people all bustling and flashes everywhere would not be the best experience.

If the child’s natural family really loves them and are in no fit state to look after the child (which they obviously are not as they are up for adoption) then they would let the child go. All the benefits that their child would get would persuade anyone to give them up. A lot of the time the family also gets support financially from the celebrity including regular visits.

Apart from obviously not seeing the child there are no real disadvantages for the family apart from maybe it not learning as much about their own culture as they would like to.

For the country it may bring some publicity and definitely tourism as all the paparazzi and television cameras will need to come to the country and use their, in some cases, much needed money. Some good natured celebrities may feel as though they will need to give something back to the community as they have taken something away from them. Often this may be some school resources which will help other children to become more educated. In the long term these children with a good education may be able to pull the country out of the Lesser Economically Developed Country tag and in to the More Economically Developed Country. Another thing also often donated is a water pump. This can give the people clean water and protect them from bacteria induced illnesses such as typhoid.

The only disadvantage that I could think of for the country is if the child has such a big appeal to a celebrity that they can pick them from the thousands of children that they could have picked then maybe they would have an appeal to a wider audience that being the world. Maybe the child could make it as a model which would definitely give the country more publicity therefore more income.

Alternatives for poor, African children don’t really exist unless they have a real talent such as football, politics or acting. Otherwise unless someone takes the whole of Africa bar and by the scruff of the neck and lifts it up they may end up like their parents – poor.

Of course in some parts of Africa there are wealthier people; if these people chose to adopt then there would be absolutely no problems whatsoever. As the child would still be living in the country it would learn about its own culture. As the child would still be living in the country it would take nothing away from the country. It’s a problem free solution. But this is if they choose to adopt.

So in conclusion I think that the advantages of taking a child out of an LEDC and bringing it up in an MEDC substantially outweigh the disadvantages. To give a child in a LEDC a chance of succeeding in life is something which I personally admire. Although it’s only one person’s life, that one person’s life will change dramatically for the better and at least the celebrity with all that money will know they’ve given one person a better quality of life. That should stay with them right up until the day they die.

courtesy of :

Centerprise, 136 Kingsland High Street, London, E8 2NS, Tel: 020 7254 9632

Third Place                                                                                                         Gaynel Barry

First Place                                                                                                 Mluleki Mvubu 12 years old

What contributions have people of African descent made to Western civilisation?
Introduction.

Civilisation is the refinement, education and enlightment of a society, be it scientific, political, cultural, legal or religious. So have people of African descent made contributions to western civilisation in the areas I mention here? Yes absolutely! For the purpose of this essay I am going to refer to people of African descent as black people. This refers to African, African Americans and Caribbean people.

In this essay I am going to tell you about the historical contributions black people have made towards western civilisation. I am going to tell you about black inventors and scientists, I am going to tell you about slavery and then about other contributions black people have made e.g. in the music industry.

Although most black people were denied a proper education, from as early as the 16th century there were a number of pioneering black scientists like Benjamin Banneker and George Washington Carver. Banneker taught himself mathematics and astronomy and later on published an almanac. Carver was a researcher and educator, he developed innovative agricultural methods. He also developed a lot of different uses for certain agricultural products such as the peanut.

Another great black scientist was Alexander Mills who invented the elevator. Without him there would be no cities or tall skyscrapers and great difficulty in reaching high floors.

Without the brilliant inventions of Richard Spikes and Joseph Gammel there probably would have been no cars because Richard Spikes invented the automatic gear shift, and Joseph Gammel the super charge system for internal combustion engines. To support his fellow black inventors Garret A. Morgan invented traffic signals. Without these inventors there would be very poor transport systems.

Writing is a very important aspect of modern day society, it is one of the best means of communication. John Love invented the pencil sharpener, William Purvis invented the fountain pen, Lee Burridge created the typewriting machine and W.A Lovette invented the modern printer. William Berry invented the post marking and cancelling machine. William Purvis also invented the hand stamp and Phillip Downing invented the letter drop. All these clever inventors were black people. Without most of these inventors we wouldn’t have stuff like magazines, newspapers and books.

John Smith invented the lawn sprinkler and John Burr added on to this invention by inventing the lawn mower. W. Steward invented the mop and Lloyd P. Ray the dustpan, these were invented so that we are able to clean up wet mess and brush up.Walter Summons invented the comb. George T. Samon invented the clothes dryer. Sarah Boone invented the ironing board, so that after clothes are dried they can be ironed, Jan E. Matzelinger invented the shoe lasting machine. All of these inventions link up because without them it all leads up to the same thing, poor hygiene. Without these inventions we would be very dirty as would our clothes, lawns, hair and our floors. And imagine living in a pig sty. I certainly couldn’t live without a comb because my hair is my pride and joy.

We all love our creature comforts and we do have a number of black greats who contributed to the comforts we enjoy today. Frederick Jones invented the air conditioner and Alice Parker the heating furnace. Lewis Latimer invented the electric lamp.
Michael Harvey invented the lantern and Granville T.Woods the auto cut off switch. These are similar because without heating or lights in your house just think of what life would be like at night! Especially in Britain where it can get icy cold, some people could even suffer from hypothermia if they didn’t have a fire place.

Imagine a hot summer day, as hot as Jamaica, you are hot and all you need is a ice cold drink. Well when you slowly sip that ice cold drink you have John Standard to thank, a black man who invented the refrigerator.

Charles Drew [1904-1950] was a world renowned surgeon and medical scientist from the USA. He invented a new method for storing blood, and set up the world’s first mass blood bank. The irony of all this is that Charles Drew died after being refused blood transfusion at his nearest hospital because he was black.

On top of all the scientific inventions that I have already mentioned black people have made very significant contributions to the Western way of life for example in the music industry. Without these contributions there would be no hip-hop, and I am glad that they have made that contribution because I like hip-hop so much that without it I would be bored stiff. From blues to jazz, gospel to do-wop, black people such as Ray Charles and Chuck Berry mainly found all rhythm rock and roll and funk and my favourite hip-hop

Other contributions that are important are from people like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, Rosa Parks and Malcolm . I don’t think I would probably have all these luxuries I have because they fought for black civil rights.
On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a racially segregated bus in Montgomery Alabama. Even though she was arrested and fined, her actions led to the mass boycott of buses by African Americans. In 1956 December 20 the Supreme Court ruled that the segregation of Montgomery buses was illegal and therefore they were officially desegregated. Rosa Parks is known as the woman who single handedly spear-headed the civil rights movement in America. Although racism and segregation was and still is a very painful experience for black people, their fight for justice has enlightened the world about black people, that they are equal and deserve a proper education and have their rights. Many famous black people like Nelson Mandela have shown the world humility, tenacity and great statesmanship as shown in one of his famous quotes “During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of African people……….. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and achieve but if it needs be it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die”

Slavery has played a enormous and extraordinary part in contributing to the wealth of the western world. Slaves were taken by force from Africa, and brutally forced to work in plantations of the United states of America, U.K and Europe. This event is painfully illustrated in the movie ROOTS. The Roman Empire wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for the backbone of slaves. For me this is not only a contribution to the western world but a gigantic sacrifice.

Conclusion
As stated above you can see that black people have made an enormous contribution to the western world. People like Rosa Parks and Nelson Mandela endangered their own lives in their fight for justice. People like Alexander Mills elevated the black race with their scientific inventions. Without black musicians like Chuck Berry music wouldn’t be what it is today.
I am proud to be black and to know my history, my background and my culture.

Second Place                                                          Ruby Faith Nothando Aworinde-Smith, Age 13

Peer Pressure

Many Teenagers are going through Peer pressure at school and amongst their friends away from school. Although Peer pressure can start as early as in primary school I feel that the bulk of it is mainly felt in high school. This I state from personal experience.
My definition of peer pressure would be when you feel obligated to follow a trend or fashion of other people that surround you in your day to day life. These people are usually those of the same or similar age to yourself. The definition and meaning of “Peer”, in the “Collins English Dictionary”, is “member of the nobility; person of the same status, age, etc”. There is also a definition in “peer group”, which is “group of people of similar age, status, etc”. This would explain why peer pressure is rife in social such as schools and out of school activity learning centres such as dance schools/brownies/guides etc.

I would consider peer pressure to be a natural part of the growing up process. I believe it is only natural that children, teens and some adults (if they haven’t grown up yet!) may be competitive amongst social groups. An example of peer pressure can be if friends/peers were asking you do to something that you were not comfortable with but felt obliged to do so in order to be able to fit in
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I believe that there can be good and bad peer pressure, it must be advantageous at times and quite worrying at other times. A typical and worrying example of peer pressure among the young generation is when teens may be having a try at smoking or worse still drugs. If your circles of friends have agreed to try it altogether as a group, you may feel like you’re letting them down or not fitting in if you don’t try it yourself. I believe you have to be strong enough and wise enough to know that going along with such things is in fact silly and naive. Thankfully I am pleased to say that I haven’t been put in such a situation as yet, but do know if I am put in a situation like this, I will be strong and remember that I do not need to put my health at risk by trying to impress others. There is always the concern that if you don’t do what others are doing, then they may not want to hang around with you any more. For me I believe that such people cannot be true friends in the first place, so there’s no loss. There is also peer pressure when it comes to fashion and trend following.
I will now talk about my personal experiences with peer pressure, mainly in a school environment.
In year seven my mother sent me to a school called “Harvington School for Girls”, a private school in Ealing. Prior to that I was at a mixed state primary school In Greenford. My primary school was quite largely sized and there were approximately thirty two or more children per class with three classes for each year.
At Harvington School there were approximately fifteen children per class with only one class per year. So this school was very small. On my first day I didn’t really talk to others that much as everybody seemed so different from me! The first thing that seemed to stand out as different was the way the other children spoke. They all seemed to be so posh! My mother has always encouraged me to be well spoken but this was beyond that! I felt obligated to speak the same way in order to fit In. At the beginning I found myself trying to be like them, dress like them and behave like. Later on I discovered that I didn’t really need to do that as I started being myself as I became more confident. People did accept me for who I was and they probably liked the fact that I was different in a way. I noticed when it was my friends birthdays I felt very much under pressure to buy expensive gifts as they did for me at Christmas time. It was difficult as it was too expensive for my mother. Even though I began to fit in gradually I still wasn’t totally comfortable. I was struggling to keep up academically as well and I felt my grades suffered here too as I wasn’t happy.
Eventually my mum said she was going to apply to send me to another school. Mum got me a place at “Douay Martyrs”, a mixed catholic school in Ickenham. I started this school in September 2006 in year eight and I can say that I am a lot happier now, more relaxed and my grades have improved so much! Don’t get me wrong, peer pressure is a rife in this school too. I started to follow a trend and of wearing baggy tracksuits again feeling pressured to save pocket money in order to buy them! Luckily mum helped me out in Christmas time. It was so also important to have the latest trendiest trainers and ended up asking for new trainers for Christmas from various family members and ended up with so many pairs! The girls that hang around with also use gel to style their, which I had rarely used before, but have learnt to style my hair like them with my baby hairs gelled to my face using creative designs, I know you know what I’m talking about!
At the moment I am finding it difficult as most of my school friends meet up on a Saturday to go shopping, well at least window shopping! The are always asking me to go with them, but I need to say no as I have other commitments at “Vuka Arika”, where I learn Southern African dance and music. I used to feel pressured to follow them as I didn’t want to let them down, but these are good friends who are very understanding. At school I am more relaxed as I feel I don’t have to hide things.


At Harvington School I would tell people that I lived at my grandparent’s house in Greenford rather then telling them I lived in a split level maisonette with my mum. Its not that I was ashamed of where I live but everyone in my class lived in big massive in Ealing and their parents drove big Mercedes Benz and BMW cars! When I invited friends over, they would visit me at my grandparent’s house! A large three bedroom house with a big garden, animals and a music room with a drum kit and keyboards! At my new school my friends will meet me at home, know where I live and nothing bad to say about me. I’m so happy to be at ease at school, I do like going and I feel for those peers of mine who are under so much pressure to impress that they forget who they are.
There is also such a thing as “good peer pressure”, well at least I think so. I believe it can also be in the form of encouragement. An example would be that I may ask a friend to come to my church and they have never been to good per pressure. I’m only trying to encourage my friend to have faith and trust in God as I do, you can only benefit from having a faith. I would however respect their wishes if they didn’t want to attend or if they were from another religious background.
Also, sometimes I feel embarrassed to eat in front of friends, especially when you’ve just met them. A good friend will encourage you to eat regardless of whose around, I find this person will encourage self esteem and not lower it in any way. I believe this is a good form of peer pressure and the right sort of person to hang around.
I hope you have enjoyed reading my views on peer pressure. To those who are suffering with bad peer pressure I would say to them, be strong, keep your head held high, know who you are and where you’re from, be proud of who are, don’t be ashamed or embarrassed to say no, be strong enough to tell your parents if things are getting out of hand, its nothing to be ashamed of.

Third Place                                                                                              Sonia. T. Nyathi 12 years old

Peer pressure

What is peer pressure?
Firstly what is peer pressure? According to the English dictionary Peer pressure is a social pressure on somebody to adopt a particular type of behavior, dress or attitude. In order to be accepted to be part of a group.

Teenagers get into a lot of peer pressure although it’s a hard position to be in, you always have the opportunity to make your own choice and make the right choice. Some teenagers think it’s cool to do particular things such as taking drugs, cheating, stealing or even just skipping a class. They try to force someone or persuade someone into doing these things to be part of a group. The victim always feels under a lot of pressure and has a lot of things running in their mind. They
Usually say yes, when asked if they want to join in but later on they feel guilty about the choice they have made.

How does it affect the community?
According to the news England is the worst country for a child to grow up; one reason is because peer pressure is a very common thing. It leads to black on black crime. Police are now keeping a close eye on this kind of crime, and young people. Why should you be pressurized to kill other people? Peer pressure is now becoming very brutal now black people are joining gangs and forgetting what they’ve been taught. Families feel ashamed to see their children doing what they do. In Africa the whole village brings up a child, whereas a child in London has less advantage. When I visited my country people made me feel as though I was the lucky one although I felt that it was them who were lucky to have such a big community who cared about them.

Children usually go to their friends for advice. It is normal to listen and ask for things from people in your age group, when on the other hand you could go and ask from people with more experience like your parents, teachers or grown ups that you trust because after all grown ups also do get into peer pressure. Making decisions in life is not easy, when friends try to force you into doing things you know you are not allowed to be doing in your free time, it is quite hard to find a clear answer. They often try to make you feel small, and tell you what a good time you would have if you do what they ask; after all you wouldn’t want to spend your free time at home. Peer pressure affects people in many ways and there are many consequences of what can happen. People often want to be cool usually the things your friends do seem cool, still on the other hand seems wrong.

Why do people give in to peer pressure?
People give in to peer pressure because they just want to be liked, fit in or not have people laughing at them. They never seem to realize what they are getting themselves into, and don’t often know that peer pressure is happening to them.

Conclusion (how can peer pressure be stopped?)
There is not really that much that grown ups can do to help you besides giving you advice. There is a very simple way of getting yourself out of peer pressure simply just by saying “no”. It may seem hard but you have to have confidence in yourself. You should never do what your friends tell you to do, you should do what you think is best for you. At the end of the day you would be proud of the fact that you stood up for yourself. Then you’d be seen as an independent person. You are less stressed out and don’t have to worry about bad things happening in the future. There are other things that you could do in your free time that won’t result in bad endings. Believe in yourself and you would not rely on bad peer pressure.

The Essay Contest for Children of African Descent 2007 awarded prizes to the top three winners of the three age groups.

Judges awarded additional prizes to entrants from the UK, Africa, the Caribbean and the USA.

For the second year I wish to thank generous friends in the African Diaspora who have generously given their time to be a Judge and / or their finances to show their support for children of African descent.

Philly                Thank you again for such an early contribution.

USA                 A HUGE THANK YOU for such generosity.

Marius             Thank you for everything.

Sandra             You are a pillar.  I'm heartened I can count on you.

Joseph             Another HUGE THANK YOU.

Natasha          Thank you yet again

Natasha          Thank you also yet again

Pam                  Thank you from across the seas.

Karen               I appreciate your contribution.

First time contributors:

Michael V       Truly magical!

Regina             Thank you for your contribution and entrants from Africa.

Jax                    T'es adorable.

Laurie              Thank you for so very much - far beyond finances.

Millicent          Thank you from across the ocean.

Judges

Thank you for demonstrating you caring enough to take time out to be a judge on this Contest for Children of African Descent 2007. 

Sandra                             Philly                            Tracey                       Natasha                    Emma

Natasha N                       Karen                           Rosemary                  Dunstan                   Toyin

Kamau                             Denise                           Lorna                        Grace                        Alden

Pam (Vincy)                    Bertram                         Albert                        Chineme

This is a privately-funded initiative by Lorna Jones. (Not a charity.)

First Place

By Jamilla

Second Place

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by Ryan

Third Place

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By Omar