Entry # 29:
The myth of the super-predators

"Education not Incarceration", was the title of a conference here in Philadelphia, and it was a wake up call for me. While I had heard leaders like Jesse Jackson talk about the need to fund our schools now, rather than our prisons later, I wasn't really tuned into this issue and its particular implications for educators around adolescent males of color.

In the opening plenary I learned some troubling facts. I heard that there are more NY residents of color in lock-up than in their state's universities. The same information was reported for the District of Columbia. In California, the figure jumps to five times more African American males in jail than enrolled in institutions of higher education.

The speaker also shared statistics from the Associated Press that while there are 2 million people incarcerated, there are 4.8 million who are under some form of correctional supervision. In too many cases, our middle school students are already being monitored by probation officers.

I was not surprised when the presenter reported that many of the prisoners had not received a quality elementary school education and were functionally illiterate. I was also not surprised when the speaker made reference to an "overall attitude of helplessness and resignation on the part of staff members" in the schools where many of these inmates had been enrolled as children.

Race matters

The helpless attitude of the staff members was closely related to the hopelessness or nihilism described by Cornel West in his book Race Matters. Mr. West describes the nihilistic experience of many of our students as "coping with a life of horrifying meaninglessness, hopelessness and (most important) lovelessness." West goes on to say that the "frightening result is a numbing detachment from others and a self-destructive disposition toward the world."

After hearing the plenary speaker and attending a school reform session, I came home with a headache. I took a break and went to see a mindless Hollywood comedy, but couldn't shake the questions that were multiplying exponentially in my mind.

I took to the web this morning to see what I could find about the "criminalization of youth" and found an article called, "Teen Violence: Myths and the Realities" by Randolph T. Holhut. Mr. Holhut describes the fear that most Americans have of today's youth, stating that while most adults believe that youth commit 43% of violent crimes, in reality they are involved in 13%.

This myth of the "super-predators" gets lots of press and can be viewed in any number of big budget films or TV shows. Reading this research made me remember a time about 12 years ago when I was walking my class of seventh graders down the street and people jumped up off their front steps to stand and glower at us from behind their screen doors.

As we walked by, Sidiq, one of my boys, said, "They think we're a wolf pack, Miss." There was a heavy sadness in his recognition at age 12 that he was already seen as a menace. ( "Wolf pack" was the term used for the attackers in the highly publicized rape and attack of a Central Park jogger.)

What's the impact when you're "guilty until proven innocent"? How does it feel to be feared and maligned when you're just trying to grow up? Add the answers to those questions to the well known realities of unequal resources in our schools and communities and it's no wonder that our kids are reluctant to buy-in to the great American dream.

The real violence

Instead of adopting attitudes that equate our kids with a tendency toward violence perhaps we should help them face the real violence of "acceptable" rates of poverty and homelessness in the richest nation in the world. Maybe we should promote education not as the way out of their communities, but as the only way to demand the access needed to rebuild their/our communities.

In today's Philadelphia Inquirer "Community Voices" section there is a piece about middle school students being subjected to a police search. The writer describes her dismay as she watched 1,000 students being detained and frisked, when they should have been in class.

While I'm sure there was a reason for the search, was there any recognition of the time wasted or the inherent abuse of innocent children? I doubt it. In my experience, most teachers avoid any discussion of race or violence with their students. Such conversations are seen as outside the curriculum and potentially problematic, especially if the teacher is white and the students are not.

A few months ago some local high schoolers made the news when they proposed a safety program and declared their desire to stop those practices which held them up as constant suspects. I think I'll try and find out more about their efforts. Maybe we can follow their lead and introduce their model at our Cluster's schools too.

I read somewhere else that our kids are our best metal detectors. I wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment. Yesterday, in our school reform session we spoke of the need for "villaging," the building of a community made up of students, their families, and our staff members to support our kids and our efforts. In a village where all are respected and honored members, hope and nurturing would be the rule, and violence and weapons would clearly be the exception.

Here are some websites you might want to visit if you're concerned about these issues:

Teachers for Change : www.teachers4change.org

Resources on youth incarceration and the criminalization of youth: www.prisonactivist.org/youth

Resources from Rethinking Schools: www.rethinkingschools.org/Links/Links.htm

[Editor's note: Deb is co-moderator of the MiddleWeb listserve.]


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