NCJ Number
199836
Date Published
2001
Length
112 pages
Annotation
This book presents a critical analysis of the public education system, with a focus on the inequalities that disadvantage many American youth.
Abstract
Too often racial and economic disparities predispose certain youth to receiving below average education in below average educational facilities. These youth become discouraged with school, home life, and their community and may turn to acts of delinquency, including violence and drug abuse, if no one intervenes. The point made throughout this book is that partnerships between schools, communities, and families is important in order to properly educate youth and steer them away from lives of crime. Many studies have confirmed that poor school performance is one of the strongest indicators of whether youth will use drugs or alcohol, use weapons, attempt suicide, or have sex at a young age. Youth who end up in the juvenile justice system have disproportionately received inadequate education, display poor literacy skills, and have a history of truancy problems. All too often, adults in the school system, in the community, and in their own families have given up on these youths. The book also discusses the way in which the “Zero Tolerance” policy has had the unintended consequence of pushing at-risk youth further out of the educational system; almost guaranteeing that they will fall into a life filled with criminal activity and frequent stints of incarceration. The lesson of this book turns the “Zero Tolerance” policy on its head and asserts that there should be zero tolerance for leaving youth behind, so to speak. There should be zero tolerance for letting some youth skate through the educational process without receiving an adequate education. It is asserted that turning our backs on certain youth guarantees that our society will continue to be plagued by violence and other crimes. Recommendations are made at the close of the book that stress the fact that learning does not occur in a vacuum; instead issues involving family, community, poverty, racism, mental illness, under-funded schools, and learning disabilities all present barriers to education for American youth. The recommendations are focused at all levels of our society, from the President and Congress to community action groups and family units. A resource list is also presented at the close of the book. Bibliography