10% in Prison

The New York Times is running an article entitled, "1 in 100 U.S. Adults Behind Bars, New Study Says." I've posted a series of questions to promote discussion here.

But, I'm wondering does anybody else find this number astronomically high? 1 in 9 African American young men end up in jail. Do you agree that this number is staggering?

So, what can we, as educators, do to try and reduce this number? Can we do anything?

People end up in jail because they can't find their way in society. They can't get jobs. They can't fulfill their social and spiritual needs without violence and drugs. They can't manage money. In short, people end up in jail when they can't do the things that an adult has to do.

An argument could certainly be made that it is school's responsibility to help students learn to do the things that adults must do. Schools should help their students become happy and healthy self fulfilling adults. Unfortunately, however, many students become alienated from school before they have the chance to learn these skills. So many students feel isolated and excluded from what is happening in schools. They do not feel as if school has anything to say to them, personally.

Technology and Web 2.0 are certainly not the answers to everything. However, I can only wonder if effective use of technology would enable educators to meet the idiosyncratic needs of individual students more effectively than we have been able to do until now?

I wonder!! What do you think?