Working with the Children, Youth and Family Collaborative was a great experience. I spent about five weeks tutoring and mentoring students, mainly at Dorsey High School in Inglewood and Carver Elementary School in Compton.
I'm not really sure how to sum up the whole project. I guess there were two aspects: The first aspect of the project was the experience I had learning about the culture of young people in South L.A. The second aspect was my experience actually teaching the students.
There is a lot to South L.A. that I didn't know. Actually there is a lot to South L.A. that shocked me. I'll continue my commentary on the "bad neighborhoods" that we lived and worked in from my last post. These neighborhoods did not look nearly as bad as they were and Silver One had no serious conflicts with the residents of the area whatsoever! I would have thought South L.A. was just fine if it weren't for its educational systems and the stories told by the students there.
One student of mine at the high school was very quiet and very well-behaved. We worked on his math day after day. Then, one day, he decided to tell me a bit about his past life. For his sake, I won't include the details, but the stories included his "tagging crew", which is basically a gang that doesn't call itself a gang and is based on graffiti. I learned about how they'd go tag in a different crew's neighborhood and then they'd camp out and see who crosses out their tag. By crossing out their tag, that person is assumed to be in the rival gang and is suspect to being "jumped", or ambushed and beaten up. This student told me stories about drugs, friends in prison, and violence involving wielded metal pipes and thrown bricks, among other things.
Another student got into tons of fights at school. It nearly happened on a daily basis. The fights were based off of a rivalry she had with one of her ex-friends, and they often brought male friends to come fight with them. Essentially, they would take turns catching each other "slippin'" and jumping each other.
A third student of mine was pretty open about being in the Bloods (Dorsey is more of a Bloods school, while nearby Crenshaw is more of a Crips school, apparently). She didn't tell me many stories, but she called me "Bool" (which is Blood for "cool"). I don't think I'll ever be called "Bool" again for the rest of my life...
These were all high school students, but even the middle school students aren't safe. We spent a day or two at Bunche Middle School in Compton, where I found an interesting school assignment tacked up to the wall. It was a small booklet made out of construction paper, which was meant to be an information document about the school. Sure, there were sections about the teaching staff and sports and things of that nature... There were also sections about twelve-year-olds at the school getting pregnant and students getting in knife fights (yes, actually stabbing each other...) in the bathroom. Shocking? It was for me, too.
So now that I've gotten the depressing material out of the way, I can talk about the other things. The truth is, many of the students at these schools are completely decent people who don't get into any trouble. Even the "bad" ones had the capability to be very kind and interesting people. Many of the "bad" ones were also really intelligent. The vast majority of the students that I encountered wanted to succeed, but they simply didn't believe that they could anymore.
Specifically, I remember one student in an English class that I had. He was the class clown and he never did his work. I'm certain he was failing the class. I had decided that he was pretty much hopeless, until I started working with him a bit. He was very nice and pretty bright. Once he concentrated on his work (as opposed to his friends) he did very well. I also found out that he lived on his own, away from his parents. He affords it by working at a mainstream toy store every night from when he gets out of school until about 11:30 PM. At the toy store, his boss treats him very poorly and screams at him constantly.
So I've concluded that there is no single answer for why the students in South Central L.A. fail to graduate high school and end up on the streets. It's different for every one of them. Maybe the students were told that their schools were substandard too many times. Maybe their parents tell them that they don't need a high school diploma and that there's easy money in gangs and drugs instead. However, I do think that we taught the students a lot. We sifted through piles of overdue math homework sheets, teaching each and everyone one of them. We brought tons of students from failing to passing. Most importantly, we served as windows to the world outside of South L.A. Most of our students had never been outside of L.A. (unless they were Mexican, in which case they had probably been to Mexico to visit family). They really don't know how much there is out there, just waiting for them to see.
Lastly, I'm just going to explain my work at the elementary school. My elementary students were still, for the most part, unaffected by their neighborhood. Sure, they had sub-par test scores, but they were very playful, funny kids, just as they are supposed to be. I had a blast teaching them. They're really cute too! He are some pictures. Most of them are of Katie L. and Sarah because those are the two that were working at the elementary school on the day that I decided to take the most pictures.
Above: Sarah and Katie in a huddle.
Above: Sarah sitting in line.
Above: Armando and Gloria admiring Katie.
Above: Sarah with some kindergartners and a 1st grader.
Above: Dayna with an attached high schooler.
Above: Katie in a pileup of first graders!
Above: Katie playing with first graders. They're almost seated - amazing.And now here's a dance video with the first graders! They were done with their homework, so instead of coloring or playing musical chairs, I figured I'd do this:
And for my next project, I'll be in... WYOMING! I'll be living near Sheridan, WY and working with Habitat for Humanity (again). I'm really looking forward to being out in nature (apparently the area we'll be in is beautiful) and I'm looking forward to being able to leave and walk or go for a run whenever I want. We'll be living in guest cabins on a ranch owned by someone affiliated with Habitat! Yes, there are horses and everything. From the pictures, it looks really nice! It sounds like an ideal final round project, doesn't it?
Well, I think that's all I have to write. I tried to cram a whole lot of experiences into a tiny little blog post, which feels really inadequate, but it'll have to do. Please let me know if you have any questions and I'll be glad to talk to you!
-Scott
Well, I think that's all I have to write. I tried to cram a whole lot of experiences into a tiny little blog post, which feels really inadequate, but it'll have to do. Please let me know if you have any questions and I'll be glad to talk to you!
-Scott
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