8 miles and Worlds Apart
Over the last 3 months, I've been helping 6-8th graders at a small Manhattan school learn about leadership, Africa, poverty and injustice. It was ridiculously awesome fun to challenge young people about things I really care about--and encourage them to do something about poverty in New York and in Africa.
Right after I said goodbye to these students on Tuesday, I went up to visit the school in the Bronx I'll be working with come January. The contrasts between the two schools and the students were so stark, it was like I was on a bad TV movie of the week.
After the metal detectors and security check of my bags, after walking past 5-6 security guards in baby blue uniforms, after watching not 1 but 3 fights break out within an hour of my visit (with full-on cussing, pummeling, taunting crowds egging the fights on, fleets of guards sprinting and shouting down the hall to break each one up) all I wanted was Starbucks. Which of course was no where to be found in this neighborhood.
I'm gonna have to figure out how to adapt all my material for this very different crowd.
Right after I said goodbye to these students on Tuesday, I went up to visit the school in the Bronx I'll be working with come January. The contrasts between the two schools and the students were so stark, it was like I was on a bad TV movie of the week.
After the metal detectors and security check of my bags, after walking past 5-6 security guards in baby blue uniforms, after watching not 1 but 3 fights break out within an hour of my visit (with full-on cussing, pummeling, taunting crowds egging the fights on, fleets of guards sprinting and shouting down the hall to break each one up) all I wanted was Starbucks. Which of course was no where to be found in this neighborhood.
I'm gonna have to figure out how to adapt all my material for this very different crowd.
posted by Duncan and Jen | 8:45 AM
1 Comments:
Can't you just hear "Gangsta's Paradise" playing the background of your life's current soundtrack? lol. You've gone to far off places and faced everything and anything that I think is scary, so don't be scared of this! You're one of my heroes and no I don't need help looking for a job!!!(at least not yet, nor will it ever be in the fields that I tell Yeeyee which she relays to Mom!!! haha)
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