[shakespear1]

I just posted the story in the thread The War On Drugs, but part of the interview needs its own thread.

Here we have an example of how something positive is being done and apparently works. Read it, it is a little ways down in the article.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', 'reason: What reforms do you think are necessary? What can policy makers do to make public schools more effective?

Burns: Five years ago I couldn’t have given you an answer to that question. But I’ve learned about a program right now in Harlem. It’s been around for 12 years now. It’s called the Harlem Children’s Zone. The basic philosophy is so logical and so obvious. What works in the middle class is that you have input, the healthy positive input into an infant every day of that child’s life, as an infant and as a young child. Somebody’s always there. That’s how we raise our kids, and the success rate is very, very high. There are some failures in the middle class and the upper middle class, but the success rate is high.

That’s what they do in Harlem in the Children’s Zone—with about 35,000 kids. From birth, someone is with that kid until he gets out of college. They’re normal kids—not geniuses or anything—but they will be able to break the cycle of poverty and of drugs in those neighborhoods because those kids are not focused on drugs and poverty. They’re focused on the positive aspects that come from traditionally raising kids where you expect things from them. You tell them how good they are, you boost their egos, and you light the fires under them. That’s how you do it. That’s how it’s done in most middle class homes. I mean, that’s how simple it is. In Harlem, it cost them $4,500 a child.
')

Something can be done IF three is a will and some money.

The Interview

[FourOfSwords]

What an interesting and positive initiative. Sort of reminds me of what was done in Ancient Greece, as well to do citizens had a mentor continuously with their son to guide and mold him...modern twist,if it works, lets hope it's picked up elsewhere.
Cheers
Alex