Silva: Why I push for social gatherings and conferences for kids

MCALLEN, Texas – In an in-depth conversation with the Rio Grande Guardian anchor Mark Hanna, RGV LEAD Executive Director Marcos Silva spoke about the importance of schoolchildren learning social skills and interacting with their classmates.

As the project manager for regional joint ventures, RGV LEAD manages collaborative projects, including educator externships and student internships. Its partners include school districts, colleges and universities, the regional education service center, economic development organizations, workforce development boards, and others. 

The group says educational institutions support RGV LEAD because its projects have helped improve graduation and college enrollment rates. The group says economic development organizations support RGV LEAD because its initiatives address South Texas’ long-standing need for an educated, skilled workforce. 

“For the past ten years I have gravitated towards social convenings, conferences for kids, conferences for the community, TEDxMcAllen, TEDxMcAllenYouth, South Texas Ideas Festival,” said former educator Silva, on the Guardian podcast.

“In my mind, as I look at the rise of technology, I also believe that with that rise something has got to give. And what I saw in the classrooms and what I saw in schools is that what we were losing was social interactions with kids.”

Silva elaborated on this theme.

“The more they (the students) were on the phone, the less they were growing with their peers. The less they wanted to go out and play soccer. The less they wanted to engage in physical settings. And so I pushed for social gatherings and youth convening and conferences, because of technology.”

Silva hastened to add that he was not against new technology.

“They (the students) can be on their phones and learn from their phones. But we also need to teach them and give them the space to be with other kids their age. And learn how to talk and introduce themselves and have an elevator pitch and be able to practice that with an actual human because that is what they are going to do in the world when they are out of high school.”

In his conversation with Hanna, Silva said that when he was a school teacher he polled the students he taught. He said 97 percent of them wanted to leave the Rio Grande Valley. Here is the podcast:

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