Peace. Love. Philadelphia.

Today was a loooong day, but fun =) We woke up at 6am, went to get in the vans by 7am, and saw one had been broken into. One of the windows in the back was smashed and the GPS was stolen, so now we had a broken van with no direction around Philadelphia. They also stole our brand new art supplies and cleaning supplies for the school! So we all went to Target together to buy a new GPS then came back to the hostel to drop off Judy, our staff advisor, to handle all the dirty work. We finally got to the school a little after 9, so we missed first and second period, but we got there in time for our 15 minute advisory period at 9:37. For advisory, we each pair up in twos and go into different rooms for 15 minutes each day to talk to the students about college. In my advisory period (Lyndsey), my partner didn't come until the end because since today was the first day with the students there were mix-ups with room numbers. I was completely appalled though by the lack of respect the teacher had for the students. If I had been one of those students, I probably would not have respected my teacher much either because those students were not given respect at all (not all teachers, but in this one morning class I was in). One of the students disrupted the morning announcements and the teacher told him, "I hate you so much" and was saying all kinds of things like that to all of the students. When the teacher said that though, the student was like, "Well, I don't really care how you feel. That's not what we're here for, so TEACH ME." I was shocked. My jaw just dropped because these students actually want to learn, but they have so many circumstances holding them back from that. In Anita's advisory period with Estefi, they went to a room with just about 5 or 6 kids in a social studies class. At first, Anita thought it would be harder, but one of the boys we met the previous day was in there so he was receptive which led the other students to be as well. All of the students were attentive as they explained themselves and tried to connect with them. Anita and Estefi asked what the kids liked to do and a lot of them said business, biology, health, etc. We were kind of taken aback because we expected them to say football or something. Since they were ambitious though with subjects, that made my day. When we first walked in, they had their guards up so much, but by the time we left the kids were cracking smiles, so we felt like we had accomplished our goal, even if it was a small one. It was a first step. Leaving there knowing that at least one of them had a smile on their face, that we put there, was enough for me.

After the advisory period, all of us went to different classes like english, math, physical science, etc. Even though we were all in different settings, we each had similar but unique experiences and stories. Some of us really connected with the kids and got to know them on more personal levels. A lot of the kids were really smart, but didn't apply themselves because it wasn't the "cool" thing to do. I know one boy I worked with told me the answer and when I asked him to help the other student find it in the book, he pretended he didn't know the answer because he didn't want other kids to know he was smart. It's such a shame that they only see successful people and "smart" people in the media. College kids and college graduates only exist to them on TV, but they see rappers and gangsters on TV and that's real to them because they see it in real life, so when they're faced with either becoming successful through dealing drugs or going to college, the drugs seem more realistic to them. Today was encouraging, yet disheartening at the same time. So many factors tie into this cycle of oppression. Drug addicts become teen moms then raise their kids on welfare in a bad area, which results in their children aspiring to be nothing more than a teen mom on welfare. We saw at least 3 pregnant freshman girls (we're only working in the freshman wing) and saw four fights just today. There's also a cycle with teachers though because as students yell at teachers, teachers get frustrated and lash out on the students then which just continues to create more and more negative tension, building on to the cycle of negative interaction between adults and children. So many factors tie into the fact that these children are not getting an education. For example, one girl was fourteen and SO smart in class today, but she works two jobs at home during the week to help support her family, and on the weekends she's a prostitute and exotic dancer, so the teacher told us that Mondays she comes in just completely drained. The worst part about it though is that both of her parents and even her aunt know about it and they don't even care. How is she supposed to really care about getting an education and seriously fully apply herself when she has so many other things on her mind? She's not the only one either. A lot of the kids had similar stories. One boy had been put out on the street by his mom when he was 11, so since living on the streets he's been arrested a bunch of times. Another girl had straight A's until last semester because she got a D in a class because she got jumped by a group of people, so she got suspended and missed class for two weeks. You should just HEAR the announcements this principal says, too! At the end of the day the other day, one of the administrators told the students to go play in traffic on 7th street. In the middle of the day yesterday, the principal made an announcement and told the kids to save her the trouble of what they know is already going to happen and just come to her office now so she can expel them. These kids are a product of so many factors: society, their parents, their teachers, their peers, etc. They take part in self-fulfilling prophecies; even their own principal & some of their teachers & almost all of their parents don't believe in them and tell them they're destined for death or jail before they're 30, so when you ask them where they see themselves in 5 years, that's the response you get. I asked a boy today where he sees himself in 5 years and he told me "on a street corner." I asked him why and he told me "statistics." It doesn't make their lack of effort excusable, but kids model their parents and older siblings, and so when those people raise them like they don't matter, they begin to believe it. More than anything, they all just need counseling, and to be given a sense of direction.

After we helped in classes all day, we went to clean out a big old room to turn it into a teacher's lounge. We found a dead mouse in the middle of the room under some dust, but we made a lot of progress in the room in a short period of time. We plan to finish it up tomorrow after school.

Lastly, we planned what to paint on the mural tomorrow. We've been given a section of the hallway wall in the freshmen wing to paint, so we decided to paint a quote by Ben Carson, a black male that grew up in urban Baltimore, but became a self-made success out of the ghetto to become the first neurosurgeon. The quote says, "It's not about where you came from, it's where you're going." We're going to paint street signs with words like DREAMS and stuff like that on them.

When we left the school, we bought more art supplies and just chilled and talked a lot about our days and experience. Tomorrow we'll all be in different classes again and have a day kind of like today. PEACE.LOVE.PHILADELPHIA!