by Mario Depeine Sr

Created on: April 29, 2008

I have been an educator in an urban school system for approximately 5 years. Prior to getting into education, I was in banking and finance. I majored in Psychology (clinical and social) and I have always enjoyed working with people and looking for ways to empower people to succeed at what they do and overcome obstacles. I realize that educating a child is not just a matter of curriculum but overcoming environmental stimuli that compete for a child's attention.

The city that I work in has a lot of distractions that are very hard to avoid or ignore. There are shootings. There is gang violence and drug trafficking. There are also many single parent households. There are car thefts and of course high unemployment. Many of my students are experimenting with sex and some are being afflicted by sexual diseases. A student in that environment has to overcome and process many things just to get an education.

Each child, unless he or she has severe learning disabilities, has every opportunity to succeed. What I am seeing is that some children have more obstacles to overcome than others. Also, one child's obstacle may be another child's "easy pass." Many of my students come in on Mondays discussing not their difficulties with the homework, but who "got shot" during the weekend and who was "jumped" by gang members. Some have seen their parents killed right before their eyes. Some have seen their friends killed or severely beaten. Many have had brothers and sisters who died before reaching the age of thirty. Many have friends and family members who are in jail. It is a common thing to see students wearing shirts with pictures of loved ones as a tribute to those who have died at a young age.

I often ask my students about their parents. Many of them do not know their fathers. Some have lived from one foster home to another. Many of their moms are eager to treat them as equals by the time they are 12 years old. Many are confused into thinking that they are adults even though they so much crave the attention of caregivers who will sit them down and gently walk them through how life should be lived as a child. It is common to hear young boys (11 - 13 years of age) refer to themselves as "grown men." It is true that many have seen things that many adults have not yet experienced or never will experience. Yet, they are, at the core, children. They are children who still need to be taught to hope and to still expect the best and strive for a good education.

In such an environment

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