I don't think MTV will be filming its Spring Break special from Detroit any time soon. Far from the tropical destinations of many Jumbos, Motown seems like a strange place to choose to spend a week traditionally viewed as a mass exodus from the Northeast to sunnier locations.
As a participant in LCS' Volunteer Vacations, I gave up my time on the beach for an entirely different experience. With a group of eleven amazing Tufts students, I volunteered with an organization called Save Our Sons and Daughters (SOSAD) for a week. SOSAD was founded by several parents in Detroit who lost their children to the gun violence that ravages this poverty-stricken city. These mothers and fathers have dedicated their lives to healing the wounds of the city that buries more than one hundred slain children a year and trying to prevent more heartbreaking losses.
With SOSAD, we ventured into four Detroit-area schools armed with lessons about peace and conflict resolution. (As we crossed the border from Canada into Detroit, the customs officer recommended we bring pistols when we went to the schools. Talk about a friendly welcome.) For the twelve of us, "inner city schools" were something we had only seen on TV and in the movies - we really had no idea what to expect. The schools themselves varied in pedagogical theory and overall quality. But they had one thing in common: They were full of children who are trying to learn to read and write just like their suburban counterparts. "Inner city schools" has become such a political buzzword that an urban war zone full of thugs and drug dealers has become the mental picture for middle class America. But just like everywhere we went to school, art work adorns the hallways, recess is still everyone's favorite subject, and kids want to grow up to be athletes, actors, doctors, and astronauts.
After a week in the schools, this Viewpoint could easily turn into a tirade about guns in this country. No right to bear arms should mean that seven-year-olds should go to sleep with a lullaby of gunshots outside their windows. I think no matter what side of the gun control debate you find yourself on, everyone can agree that guns and children don't mix. In the fourteen classes I spoke to, nearly every student, starting as young as first grade, agreed that they very easily could get a hold of a gun. Many knew where guns were located in their houses or where to get them elsewhere. Over 80 percent knew someone who had been shot and many had lost their brothers, sisters, parents, and cousins to senseless violence. Guns aren't the only problem in the area, either. The week we were there, the team from SOSAD was counseling three children who had watched their father slit their mother's throat.
After hearing such traumatic stories, it is so easy to get frustrated and want to do nothing more than walk away. But through the course of the week there were so many moments that gave me hope. It was amazing what a difference a good teacher made in those classrooms. Where it was obvious that the teacher cared the students were attentive, engaged, and excited. One teacher at the most depressing school said that new teachers were informed of an unofficial school policy: "help the ones you can." It is horrifying to me that people are ready to deem a first grader a lost cause. Education is the only thing that is going to help break the endless cycle of poverty and violence.
Somewhere along the way our generation lost the idea that teaching is the noblest profession. Between college loan debts and a driving force to make money as an investment banker or corporate lawyer, a paltry $30,000 making houses out of Popsicle sticks or teaching 5th graders the Gettysburg Address is not our definition of success. At some point we stopped measuring success by the impact you have on the world and started counting dollar bills instead. Studies have shown that our generation measures money as a symbol of success far more than any before us. And it is not our fault; we were raised in the eighties where we were taught overindulgence and the importance of the fast car and the big house.
But it isn't too late to change all that. As we enter the work force in the next few years we can go in with a new attitude. Teach for America and other AmericaCorps programs give graduating students an opportunity to play a real role in improving the community before they move on to graduate school or "real world" jobs. We need to work to erase the stigma that there is something undesirable about being a teacher. Teaching a child to read is one of the greatest impacts one human being can have on the world. Somehow negotiating a merger seems frivolous in comparison.
Unless bright motivated students like the ones Tufts produces every year take the charge to change things, kids like the ones I encountered in Detroit will be written off in a continuing circle of drugs, poverty, and violence. I know that the work I did in one week is simply not enough. These kids need positive reinforcement everyday, not only when a group of college students show up for a class period. We need to make these children aware of the opportunities available to them, not only the obstacles they will have to overcome.
My spring break opened my eyes to a reality that I could only imagine before. I know it will affect the decisions I make about my future when I start my job hunt next year. And for those of you still currently unemployed with 50 days left until graduation -don't discount Popsicle stick houses. They are more satisfying than consulting any day.
Erin Ross is a junior majoring in political science. She is a member of the Leonard Carmichael Society.
