Reflection on Boys of Baraka
Watching The Boys of Baraka was eye-opening. While the dire situation in America’s inner city schools is not news, it is something that many of us, even when dealing with the school system in general, don’t see very much. I was touched by so many moments in the film: heartbreaking scenes of parents separated from their children, kids shouldering awful burdens, whole communities turned into wastelands. Watching these shell-shocked boys venturing bravely out to the other side of the world was inspiring. These children knew exactly what was in store for them if they stayed in Baltimore, and of course it wasn’t pretty. Their courage in trying out such totally unfamiliar territory as a foreign boarding school put a lump in my throat.
Aside from the emotional aspects of this subject, I was also left contemplating the plight of our poorest urban schools, and was pleased to find some bright notes in researching the film updates. Because the home and community environment these students live in is at least as much of a problem as is their school, a new solution is being tried out now which looks very promising in the wake of the closing of the Kenyan school. The SEED Foundation is now operating a co-ed public boarding school in Washington DC, and a second campus in Maryland is opening this fall. Feasibility studies are going on for opening more campuses around the country. This organization focuses on urban youth in grades 6-12, who would benefit from a rigorous academic environment and a removal from their troubled homes in the inner city. The DC campus has been running since 1998 and reports that 97% of its graduates go on to college. In a community where just convincing kids to even bother entering high school can be difficult, let alone graduate, this school’s program is exciting. In addition to its academic credibility, I see a couple of elements of the SEED schools as beneficial. It is co-ed, meaning that more students are eligible and can take advantage of the resource, and for more years than at the Baraka School. Also, the campuses are relatively local to their students’ home communities, so family involvement is possible and highly encouraged. This ongoing connection with positive elements of students’ lives strikes me as healthy for both the kids and their families.
As we saw with the Baraka School, relocating at-risk students is a valuable tool for turning around their worldviews and getting them on track academically. For those students who remain in the conventional public school, clearly more must be done to facilitate learning and ensure safety. What is this “more” that is needed, though? Frankly, I don’t know. Obviously money is a factor, but throwing cash at an institution that is in such chaos that resources are likely to be squandered by the recipients is not reasonable. Some scenes in The Boys of Baraka suggest that this would be the case: kids hollering and carrying on, ignoring a teacher’s calls for order, fighting and spinning around on office chairs instead of having a conversation with an advisor. And ultimately, though the responsibility for children’s behavior rests on themselves, it’s not really their fault that things have broken so far down. Trapped in chaotic and dangerous circumstances everywhere they go, misbehavior and detachment from responsibility are pretty much inevitable. Those who stay on track and graduate from high school are applauded because they are noteworthy exceptions and because everyone knows what extreme dedication it takes in those circumstances, and therefore how uncommon it is. Exposure to a wider world, whether it’s through travel to Kenya or crossing the county to attend boarding school, is more than enriching for kids from the inner city. It could be life saving.
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