Jessica Fay

Dr. Bowles

CIED 5052

January 27, 2008

A Teen’s Video of Growing Up in the City

1. There are many challenges that Leon and his friends face due to the face that they live in a crime and drug infested area of Chicago. For one thing, the video depicted the intense poverty surrounding these children on a daily basis. Leon talked about the large drop-out rate of the schools there. Students deal with gangs, illegal activity, jail time, illegitimate children, and getting killed. The simple act of walking to school presents a dilemma due to the fact that many kids must walk through treacherous gang territories.

In addition, many of the children grow up without knowing their fathers. Since many mothers become incapacitated to take care of them as well, older relatives such as aunts and grandmothers raise the children. Also, sometimes the responsibility of parenting falls upon the oldest child. Leon talked about the plight of the people living in his area due to these circumstances by saying, “Kids raising kids, kids raising parents, kids raising themselves.”

Besides the home troubles, the school that Leon and his friends attend looks like a prison. Though it is supposed to keep out the gangs and such, it probably affects their learning process. These students most likely do not receive the equivalent education as that of middle class students growing up in the suburbs. They have to not only have academic smarts, but street smarts as well. They worry about surviving, not getting an ‘A’.

2. Sticks may have a difficult time as a new father because he never knew his own dad. He never had a male role model. Therefore, he does not even have any actions to mimic. He will start as a new father from scratch. However, he does want to be there for his new baby. He plans to get a job so that he can give his earnings to help support his child.

A problem he will face is that he will have a hard time working and going to school at the same time. He needs to finish school so that someday he can have a respectable[FB1] job and so that his child will have a mentor. He will probably have a difficult time accomplishing these tasks though.

He also will have temptations to leave his child because he does not necessarily get along with the baby’s mother, Pat. For one thing, she did not even let him know that he was going to have a kid until the day the kid was born. This shows that she already assumed that he would not want to participate in the child’s life. Pat fights a lot with Sticks causing tension between the two. If she pushes him too hard, he might just leave. Since they are both so young, they do not yet know how to handle this situation in a mature manner. They are poverty-stricken, lost, and very unprepared.

3. In my opinion, I do believe that young African-American males have many hardships and challenges to face compared to the average [FB2] white male. For this reason, I do see how Gibbs called them an endangered species. Many black males grow up without any kind of male role model. They are taught mainly by women and raised by female relatives. Moreover, they see negative images of African-Americans portrayed in the media.

African-American males who live in poverty have a high exposure rate to trouble at school, gang activity, and illegal drugs. They feel like they must live up to some image that the rest of the population displays for them. The percentage of young African-American men who go to college is still quite small. Many of them just seem to have lost hope.

4. I think that there are similar problems faced by other ethnic groups. For one thing, many Hispanics living in the United States live in poverty as well. From my experiences during my internship, I see that many Hispanic males do not strive to succeed. They gain popularity and pride by acting like cholos. [FB3] Hispanic females seem to find it easier to do well in school as long as their parents do require them to live like a traditional Hispanic woman. It always seems like the boys have a harder time. It is almost as if they would be seen as weak if they tried to find real success in life.

I think that Native American males have similar problems as well. They face a lot of poverty, substance abuse, and father-less families. From my experience at my high school, I remember that some Asian-American groups all face similar dilemmas in the male population. A third of my high school consisted of Vietnamese males who had to go to it [FB4] because they got in trouble with the law. Many of these boys came from poor families as well. Therefore, my conclusion is that it is not necessarily the racial group one belongs to but the socioeconomic group. [FB5] Though race plays a role in how people are treated, I feel that the resources available (or not available) mold one’s life.

5. I do not think that schools should be blamed for all the problems faced by inner-city children. Most of these schools do the best they can with the resources available to them. I think that the problems faced by the poor in our nation is a reflection on our nation’s society in general. Schools represent only a part of the whole problem.

6. I think the best thing the schools can do is provide a safe-haven for kids to be kids. Schools need to provide their students hope for the future. By showing students how to think for themselves, they can possibly show that they can reach beyond the ghettos to a better world. The only problem is that so many of these kids have been lied to all their lives that they might just try to stick with what they know. If a school can provide students the sense of family that they get from gangs, alcohol, and drugs, maybe students would want to stay longer. Getting kids interested while they are young is key to retention I think. Secondary schools have the big challenge of keeping kids interested.