[kjo]

You are right, it's not a universal attitude, but it's prevalent. Some black kids are committed to an education, but they are few and far between. As a high school teacher, what I see are a large majority who are content to get through school by taking the easiest possible classes. They have no interest in college beyond perhaps attending a community college. When you ask them what they are going to become they have no answer. Most black kids I have NEVER turn in homework. They say they're too busy after school to do it. Most admit they NEVER study for a test. Guess what? Most fail. When I call home, mother, or more often, grandmother, tells me she can't control them. And the band played on.

[hinckley buzzard]

When you ask them what they are going to become they have no answer.

I encounter this routinely in working with young black males out of juvenile detention. It is clear that they have never projected into the future, say, six weeks down the road, much less farther. The very idea of setting goals and working toward them seems alien to them. I attribute this to a lack of hope and I attribute that hopelessness to the universally f*cked up families of origin which sent them out into the streets without a clue in the first place.

It is heartwrenching to see a healthy, strong, attractive, reasonably intelligent 17 year old, who could be working and receiving mentoring, whiling away his days "jus' chillin'" and waiting for lightning to hit the sh&t-house.