Broken Schools

“Either they don’t know, don’t show, or don’t care about what’s going on in the hood.” One of my favorite lines from Doughboy in the 1991 blockbuster movie, “Boyz n the Hood.” For everyone reading this who “don’t know” what’s going on in the inner city school system, what follows is a brief glimpse of the situation based on visits to 8,500 middle school children in five major American cities. The experiences related here demonstrate that no matter how bad you believe the conditions are in inner-city schools…they are far worse.

Although anecdotal, the conditions described here are representative of all the schools we visited as our organization, City ACES (Athletes Changing Expectations), progressed on its nationwide tour of America’s inner-city schools.

These are my reflections, generated through individual observation and prolonged discussions with school administration officials both on and off the record. Principals and teachers expressed their desperation, and implored me to tell the world what was going on in the inner-city school system. This is my attempt to do so.

At many of the schools, the first thing we noticed was the constant din of children yelling, screaming, and generally being unruly. Adult supervision was scarce, and where there was an adult present, the adult was scurrying from one end of the classroom to the other, quieting the children here and breaking up fights there.

The hectic environment immediately led one to wonder: How can anybody possibly learn under these conditions? The answer, of course, is that they cannot. Students’ mental aptitude and willingness to learn becomes irrelevant. The level of activity and disorder fosters an atmosphere where you literally cannot hear yourself think, let alone comprehend new ideas and concepts.

The most heartbreaking element of this situation is that many of the kids who attend these schools are fiercely intelligent, but the school system is slowly eating them alive, and every adult at the schools we visited, including myself, knew it. I use the expression “eating them alive” because that is the best way I know how to describe the situation. The crushing feeling is analogous to how it must feel for a creature to be eaten alive by a python. What makes the prospect so sickening is that the prey is still alive and conscious as the snake is swallowing them whole, caught between life and death, painfully aware that they are being eaten, but powerless to do anything about it.

This is comparable to what is happening in America’s inner-city school system, and is a reality for many of the children who attend such schools. The teachers, and many students, realize that the educational system is failing them, and that they are ill prepared to face the real world beyond graduation. As one principal remarked, “Where the schools fail, the streets will take over,” and all involved parties can only look on with a sense of helplessness, caught in a diabolical waiting game as the schools and the streets vie for the hearts and mind of the children.

Conversations with some of the children revealed a pervasive nihilism and a feeling that forebode an inevitable early death, whether it be in the form of a physical death on the streets, or a death of identity that occurs when one enters the justice system and effectively becomes dead to society.

As if to underscore this point, and perhaps to act as a precursor for entrance into the justice system, many of the schools remind one of a prison, both in their physical layout and the very visible presence of uniformed police officers all around the building. It is no secret that if you devalue human beings and begin treating them as animals, or future inmates, they will eventually begin to act as such. It is no different in the American inner city school system.

However, despite apparent acts of deviance, teachers who talked to me off the record stated that the student’s behaviors were symptomatic of a more psychological problem, as many of the children were effectively suffering from “post-traumatic stress disorder.” In hushed tones, these teachers described issues that students were forced to deal with at home, and how the students deal with an ever-present understanding that many in the school’s leadership have no sincere or abiding interest in their future welfare. Rather, these “leaders” are interested in housing them for eight hours, without truly teaching or imparting knowledge, and then releasing them back into the custody of their parents or guardians. They were more interested in maintaining eight-hour babysitting facilities than running schools. Rather than confronting and truly aiding these children in discovering the bigger motivational, psychological, and emotional factors that were causing them to act out academically or otherwise, these administrators were quick to scream, intimidate, and channel the children to uniformed officers for reprimand. This treatment served to desensitize them to the fear of authority or detention, and began preparing them for a life within the justice system at an early age.

As it stands, the inner-city educational system must be fundamentally restructured, from the way the schools are financed, to faculty recruitment and expulsion. As we move forward, the urgency of the situation comes into sharper focus. If our children cannot run to us to fix the situation, then to whom can they run? If we do not take action now, then when?

C. Frank Igwe is the Executive Director of the non-profit organization, City ACES (Athletes Changing Expectations).