October 30, 2006
Catching up with The Boys of Baraka
We finally caught up with watching "The Boys of Baraka" last week. It's a fascinating DVD about a program that sent 20 12-year-olds from Baltimore public schools to Kenya for two years, so they could focus on learning, not slacking and fighting.
It took me a while to get a copy because of this DVD's popularity -- it was always checked out of the Canton Blockbuster, and the Enoch Pratt library had a long waiting list. I finally drove out to a Baltimore County public library and got a copy.
I was struck by two particular scenes. After their time in Kenya, the film-makers returned to Baltimore with the boys for the summer. An administrator gathers the parents for an emergency meeting to tell them that instability in Kenya would force them to cancel the second year of their sons' program (click the arrow to play):
Note the mother saying, "My son is not gonna be the next statistic ... my child is going to make it. They're not going to send my child to Calverton because that's his zone."
How do the students fare once back in the schools? One, Richard, appears lost in the chaos of his classroom. Take a look (click the arrow to play):
Why are Richard and the other students crashing around in office chairs as if they are at an amusement park?
Why does not adult seem to be present, except for the visiting Baraka recruiter?
I bought up the fact that there seems to be no adult supervising the children on a Baltimore Sun talk forum thread, Baltimore City School Woes Depicted on ABC's Nightline.
Apparently it is quite a serious disciplinary matter for a school to allow children to be unsupervised in a classroom, so I am e-mailing now Loki Films, maker of "The Boys of Baraka," both for permission to post these clips and also to clarify whether there is possibly an adult in the classroom (perhaps the figure seen fleetingly at a desk, as Richard caroms around the room?).
I wondered how typical the disorder shown in these classes is of the schools at large. So I spoke with two students, aged 11 and 9, who I have known socially for years and who attend Coldstream Park Elementary School, in Northeast Baltimore. We saw a DVD called "The Boys of Baraka" that showed kids snatching papers, talking out of turn, not writing in their notebooks, and arguing in the schools. Was this typical of their school, I asked?
They said there were fights in their classrooms, and students talking out of turn, and it was difficult for them to learn. The 11-year-old told me earnestly, "There was a fight in the cafeteria one day, and Miss J------ got knocked down and hurt her leg." We talked a bit about whether there was an alternative charter school in their neighborhood. They didn't know if there was and were fearful it would cost money they didn't have. I'll look into the matter.
I will take a look at the Baltimore Sun archives tomorrow to see if they have information on how some of the students depicted in this film are doing.
- posted by jbelliveau at 8:43 AM in Books, Music, DVDs
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