Much of our recent reporting, especially from New Orleans, has focused on young people who are neither in school, nor working. There are an estimated five and a half million of them, ages 16 to 24, in the United States.
But what do we call them? The nomenclature has fluctuated widely over the decades. And each generation's preferred term is packed with assumptions— economic, social, cultural, and educational — about the best way to frame the issue. Essentially, each name contains an argument about who's at fault, and where to find solutions.
"I think the name matters," says Andrew Mason, the executive director of Open Meadow, an alternative school in Portland, Oregon. "If we're using disparaging names, people are going to have a hard time thinking that you're there to help kids."
Mason has worked in alternative education for more than 23 years and he's seen these terms evolve over time.
[For more of this story, written by Anya Kamenetz, go to http://www.npr.org/blogs/ed/20...risk-whats-in-a-name]
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