Wise Monkey News is here to provide young people an opportunity to discuss the issues that affect their lives. We hope that, through your participation, this website serves as a forum for the development, exchange, and expression of ideas that will prepare us to assume our positions as the leaders of tomorrow's world. Have something to say?
Snap-shot goes unnoticed
by: Megan Molenda - printed on 11-28-2001
While talking with an aspiring middle-aged photographer, I learned the secret to becoming successful within that field -- if one is indeed aspiring towards the kind of success in which he or she would receive genuine recognition from others.
If you are among the many who simply see something beautiful and capture it on film, then you may be complimented with a brief expresion of admiration from others, but chances are that the feeling will quickly pass and the work will soon be forgotten.
What Will You Do When You Graduate?
by: Ryan Bemis - printed on 11-15-2000
Right now, down in sunny Florida, two retired men are probably kickin it back and lovin the sun. They have more to celebrate than just the warm weather, however. Retired El Salvadoran generals Jose Guillermo Garcia and Carlos Eugenio Vedes Cassanova both were acquitted by a US federal jury on November 3 for being responsible for the brutal rapes and murders of four US Churchwomen in El Salvador in 1980.
A lesson in education gaps
by: Charity Adolf - printed on 10-18-2000
When you think of the American school system, what comes to mind? Is it negative? Does it make your body become tense and your stomach turn to knots? I know this is what happens to me at times, and I am going into the field of education! Thinking about the school system in the United States provokes thoughts concerning the lack of funding for our schools, the increasing needs of students, the growing class size, the decreasing diversity of classes and opportunities and, especially, the ever-widening gap between high socioeconomic schools and poor, underprivileged schools.
Los jornaleros: Day labor on the San Francisco peninsula
by: Jessica Jenkins - printed on 03-27-2002
They cluster together on street corners in the early morning hours, intently watching the passing cars, looking for any sign of a potential employer. They are as young as 17 and as old as 52. Nearly all are from Mexico or Central America, and the vast majority of them have no legal immigration documents. They wait each morning, sometimes for hours, for the lucky job in gardening, construction, carpentry - basically anything they can get.
Chile: Challenging immigration
by: Mono Vergara - printed on 09-12-2001
Between llamas and chinchillas, colorful hats and the dry altiplano, I was slowly going up the Peruvian Andes in an old bus. The sky was turning into that bloody color and the smell of hard working men was dancing on the tip of my nose. The police stopped the bus and we were forced to get out. I was about to have my first encounter with one of the most corrupted and bureaucratic police forces in South America.
What sex has to do with character
by: Anthony Pepitone - printed on 09-25-2002
What do James Joyce, Franz Kafka, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and Sigmund Freud all have in common? They all have a peculiar perspective of female sexuality that can be traced to a German philosopher at the turn of the century.