Rent...

It's always nice to be simultaneously entertained and enlightened, and last night we watched a film that did just that. Boys of Baraka is a documentary that chronicles a chapter in the lives of four Baltimore youth - four lives completely different from my own, but it taught me alot that I think I can benefit from. The Baraka School runs in Kenya and every year 20 "at risk" boys are selected from Baltimore city to attend for 2 years. These boys are usually about 12 years old, and in their last 2 years of school before high school. Their neighbourhoods are poor and crime-ridden, and in general their life circumstances aren't very optimistic: 76% of boys in their districts don't graduate from high school.

This documentary follows four of the boys in particular, Richard and Ramesh who are brothers, and Devon, and Montrey, possibly the biggest trouble maker of them all. There are the usual lessons to be learnt from their experience, and I won't ruin the story here, because I hope that you will rent it and enjoy it yourselves. Perhaps the most prominent theme for me throughout was the disappearance of childhood for these boys. It is extreme in their cases, they have to be constantly on the lookout for their safety and perhaps their next meal... but I think it demonstrates that the "system" is constantly expecting more from all our children, younger and younger. I was pretty surprised to learn that in certain parts of the U.S. children have to *apply* to high school, so the ones with the best grades get to go to the best school. Those who aren't doing well, or aren't committed, get stuck with the lesser quality "institutions" (if you can even call them that, they appear to be more like holding cells for the kids on their way to the real jails).

Is it a realistic expectation for 12 year olds to be able to prioritize their lives in order to reach a long term goal like that? I'm not sure that I would have been focused enough to work toward such an important goal - one so important that it can direct their future life's path, make or break their future? They are distracted by their own personal lives, and the more troubled they are, the harder it is for them to concentrate on school work. In my own life, my parents would have seen to it that I made it into the best school, but for many of these children, their parents are not a source of support, instead they are absent, or distractions in and of themselves. So how is child supposed to get ahead when he is coming from a disadvantaged starting point? That child is being failed on every level.

My favourite thing about this film is the interview with Bill Cosby in the special features. I really like what he had to say about a particularly rewarding event for the boys of Baraka - at the end of the first year of school they get to climb Mount Kenya, a difficult but rewarding task that is analogous to all the hard work they've done in the last year. It feels great, and you can tell that the kids are having "a moment", they are proud of themselves and exhilarated. Bill Cosby talks about that event and says, you don't tell a 12 year old that this is "once in a lifetime" experience. You don't make it seem like this is *it* to a child. You should be telling your kids, when they have an experience like that, that this is the first of countless amazing things that can happen in your life. You can have hundreds more like this, that you can work for them. Give them something to put in front of themselves, give them drive, a goal. Teach them that this is the thrill of success and that you can work to acheive it again and again, in all areas of your life. That accomplishing something feels great, and it is in your own power to do so.

Just a quick note from my own personal soapbox (hey, that's what blogs are for, right?), this movie also demonstrated to me the recurring evil of huge class sizes in today's schools. The children in this doc are slipping through the cracks of their education system - one boy is 12 years old and has the writing capabilities of a grade 2 student (someone almost half his age). Their class sizes run about 40 kids. It wasn't until they got to Baraka that they even realized that Richard had basically no english skills to compete with his peers. How is a teacher going to keep track of 40 students? and not just their english, but see that they are also competent in math, science and life skills? Aren't we asking too much of them? It was not until they were given some individual attention that these students began to flourish. If the class sizes were smaller I would have alot less of a problem with the public school system. Okay, end of rant.

I hope you'll consider Boys of Baraka the next time you're headed to Blockbuster or updating your Netflix queue...