April Fool's Day, Part I

4/1/2015, 1st Period

Overhearing some casual conversations between students today, I felt helpless.  They talk about crime as if it’s a life goal.  They are literally inspired by the criminal activities of their peers.  They don’t brag about the graduates they know, or about the friends they have who’ve gone off to college.  They brag about who can “throw them hands” the best.  Who got “bammed up” by the police the other day.  How they didn’t panic when they saw an elderly person being robbed, but didn’t get involved either.  The only positive thing they brood over is if a friend of theirs manages to get a job.  “Yeah man, he/she gettin’ that paper now…”


They did a lot of bragging about their experiences with gangs--- what’s going on in the cities 200 miles from Augusta and how they interact or don’t interact with certain “colors” in public.  I asked a few of them if they had heard Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly; many told me, “Yeah, that album sucked.  I only liked three songs from it.”  …If we had had the time, I would have asked them to explain the meanings behind the songs; then waited for them to try to change the subject or say, “I don’t be understanding what he be sayin.”  And, finally, allotted some class time to discussing Kendrick’s views on gang activity.  To give these kids some perspective, ya know?

…Somebody reading this right now is probably saying, “That discussion isn’t appropriate for the classroom.”  Fine.  Education detached from the real world, I can live with that.  But I can’t help but pose the question, if these are the daily, casual discussions being held between high school students… what kind of education have these students really received?  Shouldn’t education be affecting our students’ value systems, even just a little bit?  By sophomore and junior year, shouldn’t they desire more for themselves than self-destruction?  Shouldn’t they recognize self-destructive activities and tendencies by now?  I actually heard a student judge murder as a despicable act, but then turn around and condone randomly discharging firearms in neighborhoods as “just having fun”.  As if this “fun” couldn’t just as easily result in the “murder” she had just condemned.  Shouldn’t education be causing our students to make better connections?

…But when I think about it, there’s no standard or element I can think of that concentrates on the worth of human life.  No, biology doesn’t count.  But before I condemn standardized education for that, perhaps it’s not included because the assumption has always been the worth of human life would be taught at home.  Yeah… something as fundamental as that surely would be taught at home, right?  And yet, here we are… 2-3 years from graduation, and violence is cool wit these chaps.  And if these students have managed to make it this far--- 2-3 years from a high school diploma--- and keep such a mentality, what’s to stop them from walking across the stage with that same mentality?  …What are we doing?

#HERELIESEDUCATION