Life in Inner Cities is widely known as particularly difficult. There is not very much that can improve the situation of those living there. Poverty, unemployment, broken families, teenage pregnancies, racial tension, gangs, overcrowded schools, and frustrated teachers are real barriers to progress. However, there are three important guidelines one can employ to teach inner city children in order to give them a perspective and hope to change their fate.
The residents often grow up fearing and resenting authority in this environment. This is because their contact with controlling institutions is frequently negative. Police patrolling there tend to adopt a repression mentality and are therefore often regarded more as enemies than guardians of law and order. Many schoolteachers, sometimes lacking parents" support, have given up trying to teach and attempt only to maintain discipline. Therefore, those children have come to think of authority as people who neglect them, people who pull them over in their cars, and people who give them a bad time at school. However, this detrimental approach can be changed at home and at school if parents and teachers are willing to offer them a different way of thinking. They must be taught that we live in an imperfect world and those who have authority do not always use it wisely and fairly. If, by example, they are shown how to be responsive and respectful to those above them and how to disagree respectfully, one has taken a step towards helping them to be successful.
Secondly, children have to be taught to accept criticism. Everyone needs a sense of value and self worth, yet if children are constantly victims of discrimination, insensitivity, and intolerance, they understandably protect themselves by reacting negatively to any disapproval. They have to be shown that making mistakes is going to help them improve, by learning from them. Furthermore, if the correction is not deserved, they have to understand that when others provoke them, they do not have to take the bait.
