(this photo taken from austinevan ) Here's where it started to make my blood boil:
"You can't fix the problem if you don't know what it is," said Alison McDonald, a top administrator who oversees 13 high schools in Oakland, where the state just estimated the dropout rate is 37 percent, not 27 percent as had been believed. "It's a bit heartbreaking. The data is harsh - but it really increases our sense of urgency."
What the fuck! Alison McDonald was poorly quoted... initially I was pissed that she would say that "You can't fix a problem if you don't know what it is." She's been an administrator for over 13 years! But after watching this video of McDonald speaking to Oakland Unified School District... I see that she does have an idea of what's wrong and it was the Chonicles doing.
As for Nina Parks... I was raised in the Bay Area public school system until I was 16 and I was a severe truant and might as well have been a drop out at 15. Until I was sent to boarding school. But in 1999 and 2000 during the campaigns against Prop 21 (remember these days when we tried to organize with in our communities) I moved into awareness with youth organizations such as Third Eye Movement, and H.O.M.I.E which have long since receded into almost non existance. Third Eye Movement was a great organization it was of mixxed culture and ethnicity organizing for the rights of all urban youth despite color or creed.
The problem my friends at least from what I've seen and experinced in the 24 years of living...is this to start:
1. The California administration does not understand the ethnic, immigrant, "NEW AMERICAN" exprience they do not understand struggle they do not understand hunger pains, they do not understand the lack of child care, because, they can afford to pay a nanny or a tutor while they are working or too busy with their own life to deal with their own kids. The people running the State are far removed from the struggle of those who start in the "have not."
At the Omega Boys Club in San Francisco, which has worked with school districts for years and earned a reputation for keeping boys and girls from dropping out and getting them into college, operations manager Andre Aikins says schools need to go beyond academics. "A lot of kids are dealing with issues far beyond their control - Mom's on drugs, Pop's in the penitentiary, and now the grandparents are on drugs," he said. "A lot of kids have very little parenting going on." --Chronicle
2. Thank you Andre Aikins for addressing the fact that the kids that make up the state school systems have many factors in their home life that make it even more difficult to learn in a "traditional" educational system. The state needs to recognize and address the social experience of it's inhabitants in order to educate them and make their education relevant.
And the fact that parents aren't involved enough in their childs education and assume the resposiblity to the schools and neglect their responsiblity of teaching their kids something about survival, even if it means teaching their kids not to be like themselves. PARENTS, YOU HAD THE KIDS THEY'RE ASSIMILATION INTO SOCIETY IS YOUR RESPONSIBLITY. SCHOOLS ARE THERE TO EDUCATE ABOUT THE SOCIETY, UNFORTUNATELY THEY DO NOT HAVE A CLASS ON WHAT IT MEANS TO BE HUMAN. SO TEACH YOUR CHILD CULTURE IF YOU HAVE NO CULTURE THEN LOOK FOR ONE.
3.It's hard to feel like you can get out of the life that your living when your home environment is crazy. But.... Kids, as much as I would love to tell you that you have the luxury of being kids and unaware of the cruelty and harshness of the world that we live in, the reality of the situation for many youth urban or suburban, we have seen or experinced death and violence, drug abuse, or alcohol abuse in some way. And it is not to be glorified!!!! IT IS NOT COOL, FRESH OR DOPE. IT IS NOT OK TO TAKE THE LIFE OF ANOTHER YOUTH. WE DO NOT LIVE IN RIO DE JENERO, WE DO NOT LIVE IN UGANDA, WE DO NOT LIVE IN VIETNAM. WE HAVE OTHER OPTIONS AND CHOICES THAT KIDS IN THE MAJORITY OF THE WORLD WILL NEVER HAVE AND EVEN IF OUR OPTIONS NEED IMPROVEMENT THEY ARE STILL OPTIONS.
4. American society golrifies the gangster the mobster the ones who take what they want and give nothing back, pirates. So what asperations do you think the youth will have? It's not to be a super hero. YOU WANNA BE A GANGSTER? BE A REBEL WITH A CAUSE. YOU ARE POWERFUL YOU ARE ABLE YOU CAN MAKE ALL THE WORLD OF DIFFERENCE. YOU ARE NOT STUPID YOU ARE YOUNG AND ONLY WITH TIME AND GROWING PAINS WILL YOU EARN AND GAIN THE KNOWLEDGE OF HOW TO LIVE AND NOT JUST SURVIVE.
"They have to change the mind-set of students to value education," Aikins said. "Right now, the way the system is designed - how can I say it - the kids don't see the value and relevancy of what schools are in place to do for them."5. There is a lack of doingness in our education system. Kids take in so much all the time and school doesn't encourage an out put. you just sit and listen. How is that increasing the responsib;ity or the owership of what the kids are learning. There are no more auto shop classes, sewing classes, music classes, art classes, theater classes, cooking classes, social and anthropological classes, no funding for hands on learning.
WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU EXPECT KIDS TO DO WHEN THEY ARE OUT OF SCHOOL WHEN THEY DO NOTHING IN SCHOOL?6. There is a lack of resources with in school and community to deal with the trauma that are youth are faced with on the daily. No Ethics and Morals studies and dialouge.
.7. There are not enough organized after school activities. You want kids to learn organization show them organized things.
So FUCK THE BULLSHIT! SOME PROBLEMS ARE OBVIOUS. I'm not done yet! This is the begining of much more to come. I've got some research to do.
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