No Chewing Gum...Or Shooting Your Classmates!

Dark Dude by Oscar Hijuelos

In 1950, a poll was taken in which American teachers were asked one simple question:  “What are the biggest problems you face in the classroom?”  Their answers included:  passing notes, chewing gum, whispering, etc.  In 2010, the poll was taken again, with American teachers being asked the same question.  This time, their answers included:  guns in the classroom, students taking out a contract against me with local gangs to punish me for giving them a low grade they actually earned, students coming to class on drugs and doing harm to themselves or others, etc.  When you consider that Columbine is a middle-class suburb, think what happens in inner-city schools.

All of this came to my mind as I read Dark Dude by Oscar Hijuelos.  Rico is a 15-year-old Cuban living in New York City who looks so much like a white person that racist teenagers attack him.  But when he tries to escape this by moving to a little town in Wisconsin, he still encounters hostility from those who know he’s Latino.  No matter where he goes, Rico’s world – like the world of so many teenagers - is filled with violence, racism, sex, drugs, etc.

While the book appealed to me with its honestly, it simultaneously saddened me with its glaring truth that our children are losing their innocence in an ever-increasing downward spiral.  If that aforementioned poll is taken of teachers 20 years from now, what will their answers be?

Google Images:  yanewyork.com

     Hijuelos, O. (2008). Dark dude.

               New York: Antheneum Books.