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Effects of marijuana on the teenage brain essay
Effects of marijuana on the teenage brain essay
Effects of marijuana on the teenage brain essay
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Family Instability in The Boys of Baraka
The Boys of Baraka is an inspiring documentary that follows the lives of four African-American twelve and thirteen-year-old boys from the “projects” of Baltimore, Maryland. It is a neighborhood swarming with crime and poverty, but even in the middle of such hardships and against all odds, these four boys have hopes and dreams that can be materialized eventually. Aspiring for more than what Baltimore and its educational system can offer, which based on Anyon study is a working-class school, due to the way in which work is performed (197), they are presented with an opportunity of a lifetime. Thus, they are given the chance to get out of their crime-prone, drug abusing environment, to study in a remote location, far away from their homes and families, at The Baraka School, located in Kenya, East Africa. Consequently, family instability through drug abuse is portrayed in the documentary as one of the main causes of student drop-out. For example, Devon, one
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Someone struggling with drug addiction may feel that recovery is a very difficult process. However, the steps which Lisa needs to follow when approaching addiction recovery are quite manageable, when taken one by one. In consequence, as the first step, Lisa must realize that she needs to make a change in her life, meaning that she should overcome her drug addiction for her son 's sake. At approximately minute 9:50 of the documentary, Devon is presented by the speaker of a manifestation in the neighborhood as being one of the boys who are going to The Baraka School in Kenya while Lisa is deeply asleep, which might be a suggestion of her using drugs. The sight of his mother being asleep clearly makes Devon feel embarrassed and uncomfortable. Moreover, Lisa needs to explore her treatment options. In accordance to the journal Adults with Behavioral Health Needs under Correctional
In the book “There Are No Children Here” by Alex Kotlowitz, the author followed the lives of two young brothers (Lafayette and Pharoah) while they grew up in the harsh streets of Chicago in the late 1980’s. The author uses the story of the two boys’ lives to discuss the social divide in our very own society and to persuade readers that there is a major problem in “the projects” of the United States.
Harding, D. J. (2010). Living the Drame: Community, Conflict, and Culture Among Inner-City Boys. Chicago, IL: The University Of Chicago Press.
...lms these students get away with murder and still go on to college. This simply does not happen in real life; therefore, looking to Hollywood films for the true colors of schools is not in the best of interests. We have to realize that directors produce these films in their vision of American culture. We as Americans always look to the American Dream of sometime “making it.” The films neglect to see the loser’s point of view, meaning Hollywood films only look to a positive ending because it is in our nature to believe in the American Dream. This book allows our society to actually look past the films fantasies and observe the true inequalities in school. Although Hollywood films do correctly show how urban, suburban, and private students behave in schools, they do not show the true outcomes of real life.
Instead of loving and caring for her baby, and forgetting about Danny, she became worse than him. Rodriguez presents many aspects of the minority class that live in the United States, specifically the South Bronx. Even though the cases presented in Rodriguez’s short stories are difficult to mellow with, they are a reality that is constant in many lives. Everyday someone goes through life suffering, due to lack of responsibility, lack of knowledge, submission to another entity or just lack of wanting to have a better life. People that go through these situations are people who have not finished studying, so they have fewer opportunities in life.
In his observation of the boys, he finds that these boys are criminalized by many social forces besides the police. “I found that schools pushed out boys who had been victimized.” (pg. 6). Many boys feel that their school system blames them for crimes that have occurred in their area, or as a danger to other students in the classroom. These boys think that these experiences of victimization are part of their street life. Rios says that if the institutions of social control believe that all young people follow the code of the street, then programs and interactions with margined youth’s will be based on this false information. This dishonest perception of youth is what leads to their
Raquel and Melanie are two poverty stricken students that attended University Height’s High School in the South Bronx, because their school was not federal funded, it lacked resources; so it does not come as a surprise, perspective students like Melanie and Raquel have more of a ...
...ce and the struggle to achieve academic success in inner city public schools. The book looks beyond statistics that show the impact of the drug trade in communities like Oakland and into the lives of families that are most affected. Though the book’s intention is not to analyze the effects of the loss of jobs, teenage pregnancy and lack of parental involvement, it successfully does that and more as it presents the stories of these young people who have had to overcome all of those issues and more. This story should serve as an inspiration to anyone who wants to make a difference in their communities, as well as to anyone who wants to change their own situations.
One of the main things that I learned was how a lot of the reason people do drugs is not because they’re bored or simply curious, but to escape tragic events and stressors they had experienced in their lives. Another fact that I hadn’t known before watching this intervention was how all-consuming an addiction is. A lot of addicts don’t just do drugs every day, but many, many times a day. It’s hard to imagine how an addiction where you’re shooting heroin seven times a day would leave time for anything else. Lastly, I learned how important relationships are in the progression of addictions. From the beginning, Dallas’ relationship with her mother was not a healthy one. Having to be your mother’s emotional support at such a young age is not an easy task for anyone. Now their relationship has evolved, but not into any significantly better one. Now Dallas and her mother have done heroin together and are more of friends than mother and daughter. This relationship not only enables Dallas, but encourages
In Imagining the Urban: Politics of Race, Class and Schooling the urban jungle is described as, “Black, Brown and Yellow bodies, which are poor and dirty, criminals and dangerous, violence and drugs tied with the images of majority of urban people.” Leonardo (2007) This perception of urban fails to look outside of one’s own stereotypes and attributes some character perceptions to describe a group as a whole. The media also plays a big role in our depiction of the urban, men and women who live in urban walls are seen as villains. An example of this is in the 2015 movie Fast and Furious described by IMDb as a “Crime film/Thriller.” Here we see an increasing majority of the character’s to be men of color and the themes of the movie were fast cars, vulgar language, violence and gang affiliations. The media constantly shows in the news that the response to manage the villain living in the urban is jail or death. The end result for most teachers who see urban in this way believe teaching students in these various demographics as a “waste and hopeless.” This perception held by policy makers and teachers has attributed to what Brenzel and Kantor (1945-1990) have described as a “crisis” that needs to be fixed, “urban schools receive insufficient funding, and have out dated facilities leaving them far below the achievement gap and increasing their dropout rates.” That was the case in the 90’s and is still the case today 25 years later. So in conclusion our perception as educators has a true impact on all students, the way we see them early on and relate to their urban can save them from prison and/ or death. It is challenging to be fully invested and truly help children if you do not trust them, as future and existing teachers we owe it to our students to think beyond the media, and our own
It explains that the rationale for this is that more prisons are built as more African American boys enter preschool within the United States. After addressing the issue, the author explains they will be discussing different topics related to the problem. These topics include: Reviewing some of the trouble spots in the developmental progressions of African American boys, discussing the conditions that give rise to the problems, and finally identifying the steps families, schools, and communities are taking to reverse the digression of African American
Alex Kotlowitz’s book, There are No Children Here, is a story about two boys, Pharoah and Lafeyette Rivers growing in the late 1980’s in Henry Horner, a housing project in Chicago. The boys try to retain their youth while they see constant gang violence, death of close friends, their brother in jail and their dad struggling with a drug addiction.
The drama takes place in Peru, in an underprivileged town. We quickly learn that from a young age the children are aware that avoiding gang involvement, or the “University” is almost impossible and that is why they “[call] it the University because it’s where you [go] when you [finish] high school” (Alarcón 93). The characters know being involved in some type of gang related activity is their fate. However, we are shocked when we find out that the term “University” is used to symbolize jail, since it is the complete opposite of the generally accepted definition of the term. Clearly, the gangs restrain the children’s futures and the gangs control the children’s fate.
Michael Oher was from an all-black neighborhood located in the third poorest zip code in the country. By the time he was a sophomore, he’d been to 11 different schools, he couldn’t read or write, and he had a GPA of 0.6. In his first-grade year alone, he missed 41 days of school and ended up repeating both the first and the second grade; he didn’t even go to the third grade. Oher was one of the thousands of children that have been identified as having four or more of the at-risk factors mentioned by the National Center of Education and Statistics (NCES). According to the NCES, poverty and race are high on the list of things that negatively affect students’ ability to succeed at school. Other risk factors include changing schools multiple times and being held back from one or more grades. Oher’s biography, The Blind Side by Michael Lewis, proves how socioeconomic status impacts a child’s academic success because placed in perspective, education is not as important as the hardships of reality.
Kwasi Enin grew up in New York with ‘tiger parents’. His parents valued education and set very high expectations for his academic career. They pushed him to use his resources and ‘would not tolerate grades lower than 95%’, since they believed those grades reflected his work ethic and dedication to his academic success. Martin Altenburg, who grew up in North Dakota, had more easy-going parents, who allowed him to be a ‘free-spirit’. Martin’s parents believe in giving their children
The television sitcom Modern Family produced by Steven Levitan and Christopher Lloyd shows the many different types of a modern American family. According to Andrew Hampp, “The show is among the most-viewed scripted programs in prime time in its second season, averaging 11 million viewers during original airings and often ranked as the most DVRed program most weeks” (2). The television show is a frequently watched show and is liked by many viewers. Modern Family's storyline helps the families of viewers by being an influential and relatable show to different types of families. The show is about the lives of three different families that are all related. In the show there are Jay and Gloria, an intergenerational couple with two sons-- Manny (from Gloria’s previous relationship) and Joe, their new baby. Jay’s adult son Cameron is married to his gay partner Mitchell, and they adopted Lily from Vietnam. Finally, Jay’s daughter Claire is married to her heterosexual partner named Phil and they have three children. The show is influential to our culture today because it shows these different types of families and addresses controversial themes such as gay adoption, the different family connections and communications, intergenerational coupling, and acceptance of diversity within an extended family. The family is easy to relate to while watching because it is based off of real family situations.