On my sleepy walking of the dog early this morning, I thought about the adolescence article in my previous post and also about Reggie Gemeille. It made me wonder if I had found the answer to my question as to what makes good kids turn bad.
The theory I’m working with goes beyond the fact that kids drop out of high school. The adolescent article talks about how schools are like big boxes where people with little in common are thrown together. People naturally sort themselves into groups and cliques, teenagers especially. What happens if you don’t find your group or clique? What if you aren’t a jock, or a rich kid, or a brainy kid, or a druggie, or whatever? What if the only tribe you’re left to identify with is that of a gang? What if that’s your only source of self-respect?
I’m convinced now more than ever that Raleigh’s former police chief, Harry Dolan, had it figured out when he credited the St. Monica’s Teen Center for turning lives around. These kids need mentors, role models, or whatever it takes to build self-esteem. If we don’t come up with means for them to obtain self-esteem these kids will find it on their own, often to their detriment and society’s as well.
Following this thought further (and I know I will probably get my Liberal Card taken away for even considering this), what if the school system’s diversity policy winds up hurting disadvantaged kids more than helping them? Not just the harm caused by busing them from one end of the county to another, but what happens to their self-esteem when they get “thrown into the big box” where they have little in common with their fellow students?
I admit I was skeptical of the Wake School Board’s single-sex academies when they were first proposed, but perhaps there is something to this after all. Perhaps if the jockeying for social group status is removed from the school environment the kids can focus instead on achievement.
I’m no educator, sociologist, nor scientist, other than the armchair variety. I do know that high school can be brutally hard on kids no matter what their backgrounds. How can we find a way to ease this important transition to adulthood? How can we make sure kids find a way to fit in that doesn’t involve violence?
None of this is to say that the crooks and thugs shouldn’t be held accountable for their crimes. Gemeille could not make a worse poster child, too, having already assaulted a jail officer. If our adolescent habits stay with us for life, men like Gemeille are already set in their ways.
How can we reach kids while they still have a chance?