KEEP KIDS IN SCHOOL--AND OUT OF PRISON

YOUR SPACE: GUEST COMMENTARY

By Frank Victorio

Sacramento Bee: August 28, 2008

    Currently, our society is in a state of war. A war waged against our children and ultimately our families.

    The statistics are staggering. High school dropout rates are exceeding 30 percent--of those 75 percent will lead to a life of crime, drug abuse and ultimately imprisonment, according to the California Department of Education Web site.

    The cost in present-day dollars to society is astounding--over $2 million per inmate per year, according to the National Center for Juvenile Justice Web site. Compare this to the cost of educating a child in the public school system, a paltry $10,000 per year, according to the National Center for Education Web site. So what is the answer?

    There are key elements that have been identified to keep our kids from becoming a statistic. No one can argue that children need to be protected, so safety is important. Mentoring and tutoring are essential for a child's academic success. Keeping them busy in sports and after-school programs fills their time in a positive way and being loved and cared for by an involved family can provide a strong support system.

    Sounds good. Makes sense.

    But don't we have a huge, expensive system that is supposed to keep our kids safe? And if you look in our local community services directory, don't you find more than a handful of after-school, tutoring and sports programs? And really, wouldn't it be nice if all our kids were born into well-adjusted, financially secure, two-parent homes?

    We all recognize that these "key elements" can help our kids, but they are not the answer. The answer is values. they are called values because once you learn them, you value yourself. It seems that today anyone talking about the values is attacked. Just ask Bill Cosby and Sen. Barack Obama. Why are we so afraid of values? Maybe because they hold us accountable for our own individual actions.

    The first value is courtesy: to be nice and respectful. Are we?

    The next value is integrity: to tell the truth. Do we?

    The third value is perseverance: to never give up. Have we?

    The fourth value is self-control. Where's our restraint?

    And our indomitable spirit: the strength within us. Are we strong?

    These are the values that the Moral Values Program teaches. If we, as the adults, teachers, educators, politicians, leaders, parents and role models use these values, our children won't be so confused and will believe in themselves because they see that we do.

    Our educational system has to start teaching our children these values starting at the elementary level.

    At what age did a child start dropping out of school? Maybe it was when someone told him that he was dumb and stupid, when they started laughing at him because he couldn't read, when he got home and no one cared about him, when there was no one to help him with the problems he had a school, or when he was told, "I don't have time."

    How long have we been dealing with dropouts? And our kids aren't just dropping out of school, they're dropping out of society and into drugs, poverty, prisons and despair. Ask any kid if this is the future he wants, and he will tell you "no."

    If we don't teach them to value themselves with the right values, someone will come and teach them another way. And we've all seen what that other way is--we see it every day in our newspapers and the news. Since 2001, we've lost more than 50,000 kids to violence in the streets, and the number continues to grow.

    Instead of being so scared of values, we need to embrace them. We also need to realize that not everyone automatically has them. Ask yourself: If all people understood the word "courtesy," would they be yelling at one another, calling one another horrible names? If we truly understood the word "integrity," would we tell our children, upon receiving an unwelcome phone call, to tell the person calling that we're not home?

    What did you teach your children to do? Perseverance is absent when we drown ourselves in self-pity instead of facing our problems head-on. Haven't we just taught our children that it's always someone else's fault, and then we wonder why they are not responsible.

    Are we using self-control when we hit our children or assault them with our words? Then have the audacity to be shocked at the violence on the streets? Are we an example of strength when we, as adults show our children that we don't believe in ourselves?

    These are serious questions that need to be answered by each and every one of us. It's time to look in the mirror and take inventory, to add it up and see if we are winning or losing. At the rate we're going, we are losing. Our kids are telling us every day. I think it's time to listen to our kids. We can win this war--if not, God help us all. Remember, our kids are watching, listening and learning.

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Frank Victorio is a director with the nonprofit Moral Values Program in south Sacramento.