Value of mentors
Juzang, who has focused his research and work on low-income urban students, said television, music and video games influence those youths in addition to the violence they witness in their neighborhoods.
In Baltimore, there is a higher probability that youths between 15 and 24 years old will die violently than there was for soldiers serving in combat in Vietnam, he said.
FOR THE RECORD - In an article on school violence in yesterday's Maryland section, the remarks attributed to Frank Clark of Howard County should have been attributed to Steward H. Frazier of Howard County.
THE SUN REGRETS THE ERROR
Juzang said mentoring is important. He cited a survey of 2,000 students with annual family incomes of under $25,000 conducted around the nation. It found that students who liked to read, were not sexually active and attended church could identify three or four adults, other than their parents, who were part of their lives.
An audience member, Epiphany Butler, is a recent graduate of a new, small Baltimore high school, most of whose students will go on to college. She said that her mother was incarcerated and that she had come from difficult circumstances, but that staffers at her school, Doris M. Johnson High at Lake Clifton, had become her family. "You say the teachers shouldn't have to raise us, but that is basically what they have done," she said.
Juzang said that school violence could be reduced if teachers learned to communicate better with the hip-hop generation. "You can't influence young people unless you can communicate with them," he said.
Many of these African-American students, he said, come from a culture that values oral communication. In that tradition, it is common to challenge a speaker's views and to enter into intense dialogue. Teachers need to understand that tradition and use it to their advantage in turning around the misbehaving students. Particularly, he said, teachers must identify the leaders in a school or classroom. "He may not be the kid you like," he said. But if the teacher can convince the student that there are better choices than violence, he could be an effective advocate in keeping the school safe.
"Don't blame the media. Don't blame the games. Don't blame the parents, because then you give up power," Juzang said to educators.
Analysis rejected
Not all members of the audience of several hundred accepted Juzang's analysis. Frank Clark, who has worked with youth in Howard County, told Juzang he was wrong about the older generation. "We understand young people, but we don't accept everything they do," he said.
Clark said he has volunteered in schools for years. "You have to take back your schools. ... Make the parents responsible for their [children's] bad behavior," Clark said.
Solutions, said Cummings, could start with empowering teachers by giving them a better understanding of the students in their classes and how to deal with them. Rules must exist, and they have to be upheld, he said.
liz.bowie@baltsun.com
