Well, where can I start? The week seemed to have just passed too quickly. We had our first quiz, started and discussed Fist Stick Knife Gun, “Violence in the Inner City” and finally on Thursday our class had the distinct honor of meeting and hosting the remarkable Camden students from MetEast high school (http://www.meteast.org/).

The class day before before the MetEast students arrived our assigned reading was “Violence in the Inner City” by Elijah Anderson. As a well-known sociologist who documented his observations of codes of conduct in the inner city, Elijah Anderson attributed the violence in the inner city to three main factors: racism, lack of jobs and drug trafficking. While we discussed the topic Professor Siegel helped clarify what Anderson describes as the two orientations inhabiting the inner city, “decent” and “street.” Compared to our first reading assignment, the article was both easier and more enjoyable. It is important, however, to point out that Tuesday was also our first class quiz based on all previous discussions and readings. Frankly, the fuss made over such a small quiz by fellow honors students was disconcerting and the apathy and discontent seemed much more embarrassing when the high school students from Camden arrived and were more prepared to discuss the readings. Yet, on a lighter note, most of us left class eagerly anticipating the arrival of the students from MetEast. Most of us had no idea what to expect, and we had heard such impressive things about them.

On Thursday, our anticipation finally came to an end. However, before the students had come, Dr. Siegel had explained to our class that MetEast was a part of a network of schools funded by the Big Picture Company which claims that its mission is to, “catalyze vital changes in American education by generating and sustaining innovative, personalized schools that work in tandem with the real world of their greater community.” At MetEast, their vision for student success is founded on the principle of, “what’s best for students…using the principle of building meaningful relationships, making school work relevant, practicing rigor, and connect the students’ interest to relevant and meaningful learning experience to the real world.” These schools we were told, did not have “classes” they had advisories (essentially the same thing) Their teachers, who also function as advisors help to, “provide a learning context appropriate to student interest” Furthermore, students were expected to participate in internships throughout their four years, and in their senior year students wrote a “senior thesis” based on some of the research they had conducted.

The high school student’s advisor, Mr. Keinan Thompson, was the first in classroom and the first to introduce himself before his students arrived in the classroom. As the eight or nine students that had come began to shuffle in however, it was clear that none of the Rutgers students knew what to expect. After introduction went around however, it was clear that these were some truly remarkable students. Some accomplishments named off, were internships working with: pediatric neurosurgeons at Cooper Hospital, another had worked in a lab measuring the spikes in brain activity through neuro-machine interfaces, some had dabbled in physical therapy and researched the efficiency of sports clothing at a local industry, one student even worked with a well known lawyer in the Camden area. As Dr. Siegel began to facilitate a discussion about Fist Stick Knife Gun by Geoffery Canada, we began to discuss violence and codes of conduct both those found in the book as well as the codes of conduct we had been raised with. When a Dr. Siegel posed the question, “what codes of conduct were you raised with?” I was speechless when I noticed that both in discussing the book and answering a simple question, our honors students were fumbling. It was clear that many of us had not read the material and were being outperformed by high school students, and embarrassing moment for honors students. Yet, while we discussed the book, our discussion turned to the similarities between what Geofferey Canada talks about in his book, which takes place in the south Bronx, and the dangerous Camden neighborhoods, not to mention high schools. They told us stories about literal riots that would occur at Camden High and how violence would recklessly escalate each day, how teachers, police and administrators were powerless to stop the violence before it happened. They told us about how death, drugs, guns, and violence the streets were all a routine part of living in the city and school, how one just “gets used to it” and “moves on,” how you learn to fight back and take nothing for granted because everyone knew that each day was not necessarily guaranteed. To them MetEast was a “sanctuary.” It was a place of hope, dreams and certainly a place where they could jumpstart their future. The impact of these stories is difficult for an amateur writer like me to describe. Many of us from such simple suburban areas had never been, seen or felt anything as ratcheting, scary or foreign to us before. It seemed as if we were hearing stories from a warzone, in our own backyard, and we were oblivious to all of it. Moreover, the level at which these students were able to analyze and speak about Fist Stick Knife Gun further impressed me, since these students were performing at a level comparable to a magnet school. If first impressions are the most important than these students certainly blew me away, I eagerly await to start working with them as soon as possible and hope that our collaboration will be equally rewarding for us as it for them.

A Perspective on Perspectives

Hi again Rutgers,

Since my last blog entry, several new things have happened in class. In my last entry I wrote about my predictions and high hopes for this class as a model for similar classes. The past two classes have been filled with new material and various discussions covering the topic of children and violence. However, of those two days I specifically wanted to share a story which occurred on this past Tuesday (September 9^th) that I feel describes a typical day in class.

For our first assignment, Dr Siegel wanted us to read and prepare to discuss the Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 2006 National Report. As the title adequately states, the extremely comprehensive report, compiled from a conglomeration of sources, highlighted various statistics to show trends in juvenile crime and victimization. Yet, for all the information the report held within its pages, the sheer amount of statistics, graphs and main points made it difficult to glean meaning out of the report.

Thankfully our class discussion reversed that feeling. In fact, Dr. Siegel facilitated the discussion so well, that the report, which at first had seemed like a jumble of numbers and graphs, soon held serious meaning and could in the context of growing and decreasing juvenile trends. As we discussed the report further and the class grew more inquisitive, a serious discussion about the topic of race, poverty and its relationship to violence mutated from what began as a simple discussion on Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 2006 National Report. As the conversation about race and poverty began to pull more people in, a broad spectrum of perspectives appeared. Some people expressed feelings of misunderstand of why segregation occurred and why it was necessary or unnecessary to categorize and maintain statistics by race.

As each member of the class shared their perspectives on race, poverty and violence I realized that this was what the class was truly about, not only were we given a chance to learn from a very knowledgeable professor, but we were also being given the chance to learn from each other, an opportunity rarely given inside a college classroom. While we shuffled off to our next class, our next assignment was given, read two reports: Violence by Teenage Girls: Trends and Context and Risk Factors For Youth Violence.

My Potentially Awesome Honors Seminar

Hello Rutgers Community,

As a freshman hailing from Chicago, it is a privilege to be given the chance to continually blog about one of the newest and most fascinating seminars offered through the honors program, “children and violence.” Presented by Dr Jane Siegel the seminar aspires to provide various opportunities “in which violence is present in children’s lives, whether through victimization, children’s own use of violence or through children’s exposure to violence” These opportunities include, “significant class discussion of readings and other learning sources”, as well as, “a unique collaboration between the class and a high school in Camden [MetEast]”

As a pharmacy major, a course in child violence seems completely out of line with my field of study. However, on closer inspection I believe the course will offer me both a broad perspective on violent and victimized children through the eyes of the law, but also an interesting view of public health and its effects and through the eyes of these children. As someone who has a passionate interest in understanding the connections between healthcare and human rights I believe this class can provide some answers to those links.

The class experience however is one that I most enjoyed about the seminar thus far, and its relatively small size of about 15-20 students makes the class a great atmosphere for discussion. Our assignment for the day was to read specific text from the Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 2006 National Report. I have to admit the text was quite long and although it tended to be interesting in some parts, there were just so many statistics on juveniles that content would was easily muddled in the mess of percentages and numbers. Anyways, coming to class prepared to discuss this report I was a little disappointed when we were only able to cover definitions of children and violence before running out of time. Not to say that the discussion surrounding that was not stimulating, however since our topic next week is Violence by Teenage Girls: Trends and Context hopefully we will cover this reading before running out of time. For now however I am excited for all the material and discussion that will surely follow these texts.