Knights of the Round Table

Me and my homies were at happy hour two weeks ago. As we sat, we somehow got on the topic of Black historical figures. Who was the most gangsta figure back in the day--stuff like that. We even got our server involved in the conversation. Anyway, the longest topic we debated on was education. First, lemme say that I'm not mean (well I am but...); I'm just pretty militant about my views on the current generation of hard-head bad ass misfits. My folks would probably say my views are a little too harsh, but they only have to hear about certain aspects of this generation on the news and in the paper. I had to live it all through high school, so it makes it easy for me to appreciate the things I didn't take for granted that these lil' mutha_____ (oops)... Me and my homies were talking about what could we do to help the situation in which it seems like young people don't care anymore. All these kids today want to do is dance and act a damn fool. Our ideas included creating a scholarship fund for our old high school, organizing a mentoring program, and giving motivational speeches. All along said the second two ideas wouldn't work, because nobody would listen and nobody would care--okay, most. Some others felt the same way but felt it would look good and make them feel good about themselves if they attempted. Me, I thought "the hell with all that!" I'd rather save my breath. These kids in these high schools are getting worse and worse. When I'm driving past these kids walking or getting on the bus to go to school, more than half of them don't even have bookbags. Nowadays you never hear about kids bringing guns to school because it happens so frequently. The idea of "ambition" is so far from these kids; it's ridiculous. We've past the point of rationalizing the situation by saying "We've just got to reach out more. The bigger community of helpers we build to help nurture our young people, the better." Go to Normandy, Vashon, or Soldan and visit one day and say that same BS. These teachers take a lot of mess from parents and such, but these people don't get paid to babysit these wild ass kids. My homie's father is a teacher and his first two days at his new junior high, four 13 year olds surrounded him and threatened to quote "beat the f&cking sh*t out of him". The second day, another kid poked his chest into ole boy's dad and said quote "I'ma beat yo ass!" The school he just transferred from, he stayed into confrontations with teenagers, so did the rest of the faculty. A female principal even got punched in the chest. He wants to bring a crowbar to school now. I feel him. These parents wanna get mad at the teachers, but they know how ignorant their kids are. The school is not the 45 minute cleaners. You don't drop them off (a product of your own filth), and come back later and expect the workers to make them squeaky clean. These parents are the main reason these kids are the way they are. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. So these teachers, movies, rap, and media need to stop taking so much crap; and these parents need to take responsibility or start getting spayed and neutered to control the population. Ooh, I know I sound real ignorant right now but it's not going to get any better. It's really not. I kind of feel bad that I'm on more of the tip like, you get rid of the ignorant ones in the classroom, and never let their bad asses come back. There is no reason Craig can get suspended 10 times in a school year and be allowed to come back, take up all the teacher's time and energy that couldv'e been spent actually teaching those who want to learn. No! Send his ass to the Bad Azz School District, where the teachers get paid more because they are trained to whooop dat azzzzz. If they drop out, US government should put them to work or lock em up. I'm more on the tip to want to help those who want to learn and say "oh well" to those just sitting and taking up space. That's what I'm about. I guess I'm so militant about this is because most instances we hear about involve young, Black males. So a lot of the BS I get in my daily life--stereotypes and what not, have stemmed from issues like this. It's sad that we are beginning to see the products of 2 generations of sucky parenting. What went terribly wrong between the 1970s and now?? I seriously want to know. Back in the day, when parents were slacking on the positive reinforcement and guidance on morals/values, grandma/granny/big-momma would pick up the slack. Nowadays that doesn't work. Why? Nowadays big-momma is 35. It's like every city school/borderline city school is 10 times worse than the school on "Lean on Me". Joe Clark would be ready to push half the student population off of the roof. "Ya smoke crack don't ya Sam's?! Go on, jump!" (shrug) Just something to think about. Comments?