American Voice

What is it that contributes to the plight of the inner city youth? Why are these children using and selling drugs, committing petty thefts, and committing violent crimes?


Many of these youth have so much anger inside and have no care for anyone at all, not even themselves. Many of these kids have witnessed violent crimes ranging from domestic abuse to persons being beaten down in the streets to the horrific act of murder.


Some have lost family members to violent genocidal crime or have lost their loved ones to police crime. These children are sometimes void of emotion. They feel as if their situation is hopeless.


The reasons listed above may be considered as excuses to some. So, let's get to the root of the problem.


What contributes to this plight that these young kids find themselves in? There are a couple of reasons that have been tossed around and the reasons all appear to be valid.


One reason usually given is parenting. Where on earth are these kid's parents? Why don't the parents discipline their children or show their children how to love? Why are these girls becoming parents at such a young age? Why do these girls continue to have so many children, even when it is obvious that they cannot afford even one more child?


These are all honest questions that should be asked. And when all of the question asking has been done, what is left? Obviously asking questions change nothing. The parent is still no where in the child's life. The young kids are still having children of their own.


The glaring fact remains that the inner city youth are still in danger. There is no way to force these parents to to take care of their children. Sure, there are laws on the books that protect the child. But no law in the world will give a child the attention and love that he or she needs and craves.


Indeed, parenting would definitely help these children through the absurd lifestyle that they face on a daily, almost minute to minute basis. But if the parent doesn't step up, (as in 90% of the situations of kids in the inner city), what happens to the child?


Do we just write the parentless child off as a statistic? An extremely high amount of these kids who have no real guidance in their lives end up as either perpetrators of violent crimes, incarcerated, on government assistance, or a combination of all three. This means that every single taxpayer is affected by this inner city plight.


Another reason given regarding the damage of our inner city youth is the failure of the inner city education system. There is an incremental percentage of predominantly minority filled schools that are actually succeeding. For that matter, there is a small percentage of these schools that successfully graduate most of their students. A minimal amount of these schools are able to keep their students from dropping out or even deter young ladies from becoming pregnant.


Children in these schools are fighting amongst each other and fighting with the school staff. School staff have been known to abuse some of these kids, both mentally, physically, and sexually.


Many of the teachers have given up on trying to reach these kids and teach the kids properly. The morale amongst teachers is as low as the money that they are being paid. There are many teachers that actually took the job of teaching because they wanted to make a difference in a child's life.


Amongst all of this negativity, the children are learning absolutely nothing. Education is huge for a child that has nothing positive to face. Even when a child's situation is dire at home, education gives them something to look forward to. The proper education is tremendously beneficial to a child.


So, the situation and plight of the inner city can be detrimental to a kid. However, the revamping of our education system in these inner cities will save taxpayers money and save a child's life in the process.

It is obvious that our inner city children need education in order to improve their current living conditions and escape the unfortunate likelihood of failure. This is a glaring fact. So why is there not much being done to reform the inner city education system?

Firing a few teachers because of poor student test scores may suffice temporarily, but this is definitely not the permanent solution. Many times, when these kids go home there is no parent waiting. Often times, these children have to be parents to their younger siblings. These kids are raising themselves.

Sure, we can easily point to the fact that it is the parent's responsibility to raise their own child. Indeed, this is very true. However, if a parent is not there for a child, what happens then?

Do we simply write that child off as another statistic?

This is where education reform comes in. These kids in our inner cities need to a mentor as well as an educator. The children need to be treated on an individual basis. They need someone to listen to them when they speak. Even if the kid does not speak, someone still needs to be there.

Teachers will have to be put in place that will take the time and effort to deal with "troubled" kids. Remember that each child that does not get the proper education, that is another child that is likely to remain living in poverty. That is another child who is probably going to be in and out of the prison system. An uneducated child does not benefit society, instead that child could be considered an endangerment to others around them as well as an endangerment to themselves. 

Facts don't lie. Our inner city education system needs drastic reformation. 

I'm sure that most of us would agree by now that lack of education is the primary source of lack of success for individuals in the inner cities. The statistics below simply provide visual evidence to support the argument that education is needed to bridge the gap between inner city areas and the rest of the nation.

• 16% of Americans have not completed high school.
• 75% of state prisoners have not completed high school.
• 67% of jailed inmates have not completed high school.

In my opinion, the three bullets listed above are painfully revealing.


Now think about this:

• 84% of all Americans have at least completed high school; the violent crime rate for the U.S. is 469 per 100,000 individuals.
• The ten states with the largest percentage of population with a at least a high school diploma is a high 91.5%; the violent crime rate for these ten states is  305 per 100,000 individuals (below the national average.)
• The ten states with the smallest percentage of population with at least a high school diploma is 80.5%; the violent crime rate for these states is 488 per 100,000 individuals (above the national average.)

The nation spends an average of $9,644 a year to educate a student. The average annual cost per inmate is $22,600. The U.S. spent almost $50 billion dollars in incarceration costs in 2004. The Coalition for Juvenile Justice reports that high school dropouts are three and a half times more likely to be arrested than high school graduates. Can you say wasteful spending?


Here is the financial status of those that lack in education:

• Women who did not finish high school make an average of $10,786  a year.
• Men who did not finish high school make an average of $18,990 a year.

Any questions?

Per the responses on the posted poll, it shows that 75% of you believe that education is most likely to help inner city youth succeed in life. 25% believe that it is parenting. A huge thanks to all that took the time to vote!

Of these four answers, which single reason is most likely to help inner city youth succeed in life?
	Law Enforcement
	Religion
	Education
	Parents
Free polls from Pollhost.com

No one voted for law enforcement, which is understandable. It is not very often that a law enforcement officer becomes involved in the life of an inner city kid, unless they are taking the kid to juvenile detention or jail. Yes there are officers who do reach out to the inner city youth in a positive manner by attending social functions, enrolling in mentor programs, etc. And these officers need to be commended. But let's be honest. The majority of the time that an officers interacts with one of the youth, the kid's usually feel dread, fear, or both, because the outcome is rarely anything good.


Also, no votes for religion. Not being a religious buff myself, I agree wholeheartedly. I don't believe that religion alone will help a child to succeed. After all, look at the struggle that many of the inner city churches are having with the youth of their community. For example, many of the churches of the inner city teach that being gay or lesbian is a sin. So, for any young kid that may be gay or lesbian, they are only being shunned once again, this time by their community church.


Another example is that many inner city churches do not advocate sex before marriage, and in fact teach abstinence. With the AIDS virus being so high in our poverty stricken and inner city areas, it is unconscionable that we would still be teaching abstinence to our youth. Obviously, it is not working or else the amount of AIDS cases in our inner cities would have dropped.


There is also the dilemma of teenage pregnancy.The fact is that these kids are having unprotected sex, and instead of the churches reaching out to them, these kids are cast out and looked down upon. These churches need to be advocating safe sex to members of its community. They need to be handing out contraceptives. In short, these churches need to get with the times, instead of standing and watching our children be killed off.


This is only the Part I discussion of the poll results. Part II will be posted shortly. This will discuss the second part of the poll which includes education and parenting. Stay tuned!

Have you ever committed murder? Maybe not knowingly..
Today, a sixteen year old girl was sentenced to 25 years in state custody for the shooting and murder of her fifteen year old classmate.
My heart goes out to the deceased child’s family. No child should have to die in this fashion. My heart also goes out to the sixteen year old child sentenced to prison.
This entire situation and so many other similar situations that happen in our inner cities could have been easily avoided. How? It could have been avoided by parenting, communication, and giving the youth the attention that they desperately need and crave. Instead, we as an apathetic society would rather concern ourselves with trivial issues rather than reaching out to our youth.
Without a doubt, one child saved from despair and a seemingly hopeless situation is one less child who may commit atrocities in our society. Whenever we give the excuse “that’s not my child” or decide to let someone else handle a situation that has definitely gone out of hand, then you may as well be pulling the trigger and killing the child yourself.
Our inner city youth cannot grow without the proper nurturing and care that is needed for ANY child. Each child that does not get this proper attention or mentorship stands a great chance of committing any number of crimes, from drug selling, to sexual assaults, rape, and of course murder.
This is why education is a necessity in the inner city areas. Indeed, a special attention has to be given to education and schooling in our urban areas. Most of the children on school campus are never more subject to adult supervision than during school hours, as unfortunate as this is. The reason is many kids do not have the parenting that they need at home. I am not at all attempting to advocate that parents take care of their children, because I cannot force parent to take care of their child. We as a community have been stating for decades that there has to be more parenting, but to no avail. The real change that these children need has to be in the schools. There has to be strong leadership and mentorship in these schools. These teachers that are halfheartedly teaching lessons, if at all, should be fired immediately. These slothful teachers are assisting in the murder of our kids. So, have you ever committed murder?

Let's Save Our Youth!