carrot or sticks?
on august 16th 2007 michael pena was killed.
the police still don't have a suspect or a motive in his death, but what is clear in the la times article by sam quinones, is that michael led a double life as a los angeles high school music student and tagger who recently dropped out of school when he realized he was short the required credits for graduation.
my initial reaction was anger, i knew many "michael pena's" who lived double lives outside of school. how was this kid able to be in band and ditch school as much as he did? (as implied in the article) what about the drug use and tagging? i had many kids who had those lifestyles and i made it abundantly clear that that is wasn't going to be tolerated. if a kid was caught with drugs or tagging they were gone. fighting and stealing the same, but looking back who is to say my tough love did any good? these days when i catch up with many of my former students they seem to be still fighting the same battles in their late 20's as when they were 14 and 15 years old.
i think many coaches (music and athletic) try and walk the fine line between the carrot and stick to keep these students in school and out of the troubles they find when left to their own devices. with a little distance i think the more important story here is dichotomy of views; did we (the system) fail him? or did he continually make the choices that put him on that path? whether we like it or not at the end of the day i still think the school is being used as a substitute for parents, which will always fall short. i still worry about many of those students i met during my short career in LAUSD and what their futures might hold.
the police still don't have a suspect or a motive in his death, but what is clear in the la times article by sam quinones, is that michael led a double life as a los angeles high school music student and tagger who recently dropped out of school when he realized he was short the required credits for graduation.
my initial reaction was anger, i knew many "michael pena's" who lived double lives outside of school. how was this kid able to be in band and ditch school as much as he did? (as implied in the article) what about the drug use and tagging? i had many kids who had those lifestyles and i made it abundantly clear that that is wasn't going to be tolerated. if a kid was caught with drugs or tagging they were gone. fighting and stealing the same, but looking back who is to say my tough love did any good? these days when i catch up with many of my former students they seem to be still fighting the same battles in their late 20's as when they were 14 and 15 years old.
i think many coaches (music and athletic) try and walk the fine line between the carrot and stick to keep these students in school and out of the troubles they find when left to their own devices. with a little distance i think the more important story here is dichotomy of views; did we (the system) fail him? or did he continually make the choices that put him on that path? whether we like it or not at the end of the day i still think the school is being used as a substitute for parents, which will always fall short. i still worry about many of those students i met during my short career in LAUSD and what their futures might hold.
Labels: los angeles, teaching
posted by paul bailey at
10:39 AM
1 Comments:
i don't know. my best friend from high school was in a similar position. but had it not been for his connection to the band program, i think he would have been worse off. our band director was a special person and not many people could ever do what he did for his students. he's a big reason why my friend is making it today.
i don't think the school system is entirely to blame. i think it's the life a lot of these kids are born into. their parents don't care if they go to school or not and they just don't care about them in general. also i think there is a deep-rooted socio-psychological train of thought that is infectious when one lives in "the ghetto." it will swallow you up. is it easy to fix? no, not at all. i think it goes beyond being poor. i do believe there are a lot of cues from society that tell these kids that they aren't good enough before they can even try to find out.
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