Discovery

The Lasers Manifesto


I'm really down for this kind of thing.

To Every Man, Woman & Child....
1. We Want An End To The Glamorization Of Negativity In The Media.
2. We Want An End To Status Symbols Dictating Our Worth As Individuals.
3. We Want A Meaningful And Universal Education System.

... here for the rest

My job <3

It's not all fun and games, but this is what I really love about my job. I can't help but smile looking at this picture, it reminds me of why I like working with kids and in the community.

Two days ago there was a shooting across the street from the school where I work. Since I'm there for the after school program, I missed the events of the day, but got the aftermath. I drive up to the school and there are at least 10 police cars, crime tape, and neighborhood members standing around watching what's going on. Oddly enough I didn't have any sense of fear, maybe caution, but not fear. I find out later that there was a quarrel in the street, and a guy was shot two times in the chest.

Where it relates to my life...
The kids I work with saw the shooting. It happened around 11:30 AM, when the 2nd graders were having lunch. They saw the man being shot through the windows of the cafeteria, and they know both the victim (who died) and the gunman. At the age of 21, seeing someone shot would have a huge impact on me, and I can only imagine what it feels like when you are 7 or 8.

The school went into immediate lock down. Everyone had to sit in their locked classroom with the lights off huddled in a corner. Unfortunately, this is the life of which these kids have become accustomed. Shootings, arrests, drug deals, police searching their homes, etc. And no, I'm not stereotyping or making generalizations, because I have either seen these events first hand, or had a child at work tell me about their own personal experiences.

Although they experience such turmoil and stress at a young age, I love when they can be kids, smile and have a great time.

Fixing Broken Windows: Restoring Order and Reducing Crime in Our Communities

The information was taken directly from Wikipedia. I'm putting trust and hope in the information that it is valid. After reading an article on the broken windows theory, it seems to correlate appropriately.

The book is based on an article titled "Broken Windows" by James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling, which appeared in the March 1982 edition of The Atlantic Monthly.[2] The title comes from the following example:

“Consider a building with a few broken windows. If the windows are not repaired, the tendency is for vandals to break a few more windows. Eventually, they may even break into the building, and if it's unoccupied, perhaps become squatters or light fires inside. Or consider a sidewalk. Some litter accumulates. Soon, more litter accumulates. Eventually, people even start leaving bags of trash from take-out restaurants there or breaking into cars.”

A successful strategy for preventing vandalism, say the book's authors, is to fix the problems when they are small. Repair the broken windows within a short time, say, a day or a week, and the tendency is that vandals are much less likely to break more windows or do further damage. Clean up the sidewalk every day, and the tendency is for litter not to accumulate (or for the rate of littering to be much less). Problems do not escalate and thus respectable residents do not flee a neighborhood.

The theory thus makes two major claims: that further petty crime and low-level anti-social behavior will be deterred, and that major crime will, as a result, be prevented. Criticism of the theory has tended to focus only on the latter claim.

I'm interested to read the book so that I can form my own opinions on the broken windows theory. I find in a sense from what I've briefly gathered, that some of it can hold true, but find that there are always complexities to an issue. Therefore, I'm sure I would need to read the entire book and do other research to understand the theory.

I look forward to it.