Dear Source:
The Arts can be the educational catalyst to Change! As a retired vocational art educator, I am still trying to have an impact on the vocational curriculum. The message, I would like to leave is most of the petty and the felony crimes that are committed in our society can be prevented. Today’s educational curriculum is outdated and underfunded. We graduate thousands every year, and the thousands of dropouts are sent out into our communities with a certificate/diploma. Some are barely able to fill out an application for a job. It leaves and puts a lot of them in a survival mode. Malcom X said By Any Means Necessary.
The youth allude to the crimes committed in this community as, “Street Tax”.
All are not college material. To send our children out into society without a viable trade or a marketable skill, we are breeding generations of beggars, criminals, thieves, welfare recipients or they leave. No child should leave school without a trade. Those college students with a trade could easily supplement their education without going into deep student loan debt.
We Have To Do Better!
Ivan Butcher II, St. Croix
