Girls and young women learn to live as virtual chameleons to blend into a society that denies their right to feel and express anger, a groundbreaking study by a York University professor has found, wrote the Toronto Star March 2. Spanning more than two years, York Professor Cheryl van Daalen-Smith's study involved conducting eight focus groups and intense interviews with 65 teens and young women about their relationship with anger, and how it affected their lives.
One of her findings is that repressed and disconnected anger is linked to the widespread and problematic overmedicating with antidepressants. As a result, van Daalen-Smith recently produced a handbook to help professionals – such as counsellors, teachers, nurses and social workers who serve these girls – affirm the anger they encounter in them. It's called Living as a Chameleon: A Guide to Understanding Girls' Anger for Girl-Serving Professionals. A professor in the School of Nursing in York's Faculty of Health, van Daalen-Smith was recently appointed special advisor to the Canadian Coalition for the Rights of Children. Her message in the handbook is simple: Don't silence angry girls, don't turn them away, don't dismiss them, don't medicate them. Instead, listen to them, said the Star.
"The girls and young women I interviewed had always been told they needed to learn how to manage their anger. They had never been asked to talk about their experiences when they had expressed anger, or the emotional impact of having their anger suppressed," says van Daalen-Smith. "They need counsellors, teachers, nurses and social workers to show them that they care about their lives. And they want to be assured that they will not be dismissed or seen as weak or mentally unstable."
York program helps schools teach green
The province announced yesterday it would be looking at introducing environmental studies into the curriculum for Ontario students, wrote the Kingston Whig-Standard March 2, but Kingston-area schools are among those that have already gone green, thanks to York’s Ontario EcoSchools Program. Available to school boards through York University’s Faculty of Environmental Studies, EcoSchools aims to get students involved with setting goals to help their school reduce its energy consumption, minimize its waste and green their school grounds. The program is also intended to teach students and staff to be more environmentally minded at home. The program sees students, staff and parent councils working together to develop an EcoPlan for the school.
York part of International Polar Year projects
Canada 's 44 research projects for International Polar Year include a project involving researchers in Canada, Norway, Russia and Alaska, which will look at the impact of oil and gas developments on the lives of northern residents, wrote the Toronto Star March 2. Dawn Bazely, director of York's Institute for Research and Innovation in Sustainability (IRIS), leads the Canadian component.
All about power-broking
What motivates corporations to contribute to events, such as a dinner for Premier Dalton McGuinty on March 1, is neither fascination with what the premier might say – indeed, given the weather, hundreds of seats went empty last night – nor fealty to the Liberal party, wrote columnist Ian Irquhart in the Toronto Star March 2. Rather, it is power. And one cannot escape the conclusion that they are paying good money in the expectation of friendly treatment by those in power.
Robert MacDermid, professor of political science in York’s Faculty of Arts, calculated that, over a five-year period, industrialist Peter Munk funnelled some $750,000 to the provincial Conservatives of Mike Harris through his various and sundry companies. At the very least, donations of this magnitude create the appearance of favours being for sale, wrote Irquhart.
How practice perfected this alum’s ear-mouth co-ordination
It was like spring training for the job hunt and I was at bat for the first time – but I did not expect this curveball, wrote Richard Bloom in The Globe and Mail March 2, in his series of columns on life as an MBA student at York’s Schulich School of Business.
After the first question of a recent job interview, I felt like hours of preparation went down the drain as I broke eye contact, looked down at my notes, then up at the ceiling – and stammered as I finally responded.... It was traumatic, but I learned from it. And, with more meetings under my belt, I'm now ready for whatever the interviewer wants to throw at me. With graduation only a few months away, I recently set a goal to conduct at least two informational interviews a month. These will be crucial if I'm serious about pursuing my ideal position in programming or marketing in the media sector.
The Globe idenitifies Bloom as a former Report on Business writer who enrolled in York University 's Schulich School of Business to obtain an MBA.