Then, of course, there's the lovely occurrence at the recent Vibe awards, in which "Dr. Dre" was attacked and stabbed on the way to the stage by another group of entertainers and show-biz folks.
My students (of pretty evenly distributed ethnic origins) are steeped in this sort of lifestyle as it is. I'm disappointed and disheartened when overpaid gangsters are coddled and allowed to be superstars... it just encourages my kids to continue living the life they're already living, because it doesn't matter how you behave -- you can still have everything you really want in life, like expensive cars and clothes and jewelry and people working for you who you can whup up on whenever they don't satisfy you (i.e. Naomi Campbell).
One of my students regularly checks the internet sites of local prisons to see which of her relatives are locked up at any one time. She is a beautiful girl; very classy-looking and with reasonable potential to be a decent adult. She meets your gaze (something I notice about people) and although her clothes are modest, she's well-kept and tidy. All this belies the fact that her entire family are so steeped in illegal drugs and crime that she barely knows anything else. When I asked the class several weeks ago to write down everything they knew about both candidates for President, this is what she wrote:
Bush is a republican. Bush also start the war by trying to finish what his dad started. I also think he blew up the world trade.
Kerry is a democrat. Kerry was also in the army and he got the purple heart for getting shot. He also is going to try to bring the troops back.
Now please realize that I am teaching students who are in special ed. for learning disabilities and behavior disorders. So their work is not going to be particularly representative of the best that high school has to offer. But mechanics aside, this is what she KNEW.
I feel like I'm swimming upstream in a hard rapids.
1 comment:
shoosh, no kidding.
Post a Comment