It's The Thugs, Stupid!

In my sixteen plus years in the Memphis City Schools (MCS), there was a time when I was shocked at seeing a former student of mine's name in the paper accused of one crime or another. However, I am no longer shocked or even surprised when I read familiar names in the daily newspaper or see familiar faces on the 10:00 news -- names and faces often attached to one heinous crime after another. In most instances, I could have predicted such for these individuals. Such was their behavior in my class, when I tried to teach them English, the operative word being "tried." These non-learners of the first order simply would have none of it. In fact, most of these reprobates I speak of were outright hostile to any and all things school-related: English, math, science, rules, authority, order, etc.

It goes without saying that I was not the least bit surprised to see the mug of Christian Taylor on the August 30, 2007 10 PM newscast. He had escaped a work detail in Frayser, and the story told of his capture after a brief period of freedom in the 38127 area. That Christian Taylor was on the run from the police only seemed fitting to me, as the entire time he was a "student" at Westside High School, all he did was run the hallways, peeking around corners for administrators, taking momentary breaks to curse a teacher, harass a co-ed, disrupt a class, smoke some dope or vandalize the building in some manner. The kid was a chaotic, disrespectful and anti-intellectual ball of dysfunction and a royal pain-in-the-ass at the age of fourteen. God only knows...no, actually everyone knows...the type person he is now. It was not a real stretch to see prison in his future; it was a certainty.

Because the MCS did not expel -- the system does not expel in the numbers it should -- this non-learner, the system, in essence, is partly responsible for the plight of Christian Taylor, for it, by its non-action, told Christian that he could behave in any way he desired without consequence. Christian Taylor figured he could do the same in the "real world." Taylor is an MCS "success story," in that what he did in school prepped him for what he would do in his life after school -- running from the law (after committing burglary or robbery, of course). This is not to say his career is going well, as witnessed by his conviction and prison term.

There are many "Christian Taylors" in MCS high schools right now. For these non-learners, the arrival of their first pubic hair brings with it a wholesale rejection of all that is civilized and decent and a full embrace of the uncivilized and abnormal. The "Three R's" of academia are scoffed at by these types, who much prefer the values of hip-hop/gang/prison culture: sex, drugs and violence. For these non-learners, a book is merely a square projectile to hurl at another student; profanity is often their first language; dope-dealing and home invasions are legitimate career options for these anti-intellectual types. Homework to these non-learners means selling dope to a relative.

I do not exaggerate. Daily, I venture to the Shelby County Jail website. I am seldom surprised by the names or crimes of these former students of mine. A May 2007 visit to the kiosk found 18 former students of mine locked-up for an array of charges ranging from the mild (possession) to the violent (first-degree murder). I am sometimes bothered by what I see, for some of these perps had good heads on their shoulders. They did not, however, possess any desire for anything decent. lusting instead for the "thug life" championed by the dead hoodlum (and sometime rapper) Tupac Shakur.

It is disheartening to see young people -- some as young as thirteen years of age -- willingly and lustfully choosing to join gangs and the life of crime it entails.

I do not believe the schools can do anything to save these type of non-learners. These young people bring problems with them that the school did not create. Therefore, there is not a thing the schools can do to fix them. A school's job is to educate and to prepare the young to be productive and good citizens. It is not a school's job to be a parent. Unfortunately, this has been forgotten, and teachers have to spend an inordinate amount of time on these "nut-jobs," thus hurting the well-intended "real" students.

I got into teaching out of a real concern for young people. I believed that as a coach, I could help young folks navigate their high school years and have a real impact on their lives. Instead, I (and other teachers) have become nothing more than a cog in the "expensive baby-sitting arrangement" Ann Coulter writes of in her best-seller Godless, providing the needed service of "keeping hoodlums off the street during daylight hours."

While not the career I envisioned, I do have a great desk and get the summers off.