Never underestimate how important your opinion is. This is one of the fundamentals of why we started our ‘Beep’ project. We wanted to give young people the opportunity to voice their opinions. The fact that the ones who were involved in developing the project felt theirs were ‘beeped out’ brought about the project’s name.
There are so many ways to voice your opinion, whether it be positive or negative. The key point is being able to justify why you think what you do. When we work in schools, one of the first pieces of work our groups are given is writing a review. The reason for this is that it encourages our young writers to give their opinions on something upon which they are knowledgeable.
Writing a review for something you buy online or something you watch on Netflix is part of everyday life these days. Why? Because your opinions matter. People want to know whether something is worth their time and equally as important their time. And who better to learn this from than people who have experienced it.
So, offer your opinion, whether it be by giving something a star rating, whether it be by telling your friends that the movie you saw last night wasn’t the best or by writing a review on Trip Advisor for the place you ate dinner at the weekend. People are always interested in what others have to say.
Questions are asked all the time. From ‘what’s for dinner’ to ‘are we there yet.’ we are just never short of them. However, sometimes asking the right questions can be really difficult and our programme allows our young writers to plan and consider in order to ask the right questions to secure the answers they need. From interviewing a Headteacher to a local celebrity, we really encourage young people to think hard about that information they hope to receive or what they want to learn in response to their questions.
Planning what we ask and knowing why we are asking that specific question is something we should all do in life. When the opportunity arises, ask a question, get that additional information, but ensure you really put thought into what you ask to get the response you are looking for.