If you're not a part of the solution, you're a part of the problem

When I'm not surfing the InterWeb, bloggin', or otherwise blowing off time, I mentor a 15 year old here in Baltimore City. I'm not supposed to be bloggin' about my mentoring or the kid but I kinda need to get this off my chest. If I get fired then I understand.

This past Sunday my mentee and I went out for a few hours and I ended up taking him to the Walters Art Museum in the Mount Vernon area of Baltimore. This was after we'd tried to go to the Central Branch of the Enoch Pratt Library (shot out to the Pratt Contemporaries by the way) only to find out it was closed. Naturally, he wasn't too excited about going to an art museum and the only reason he wanted to go to the library was to "get on his myspace page". But I decided he could use a smidgeon of culture that didn't come in the form of a television show so we were going to the art museum.

As we're walking through the museum he starts talking about his "hood". How his hood "made him" and everybody in his "hood" knows him, etc., etc. At 15 years of age I can somewhat understand why his view of the world is as large as the borders of his neighborhood. Expanding those horizons is something I'm trying to work on with him. When you only see your future within a certain geographical boundary, it limits your view of what you see as achievable in your lifetime.

Speaking of lifetimes though, after he made a few more comments about his hood and asked me what I KNEW about the hood (which makes me chuckle at this point in my life), I asked him this.

"Since you want to stay in your hood, how long do you expect to live if you continue to live there?"

His completely relaxed response..."'Till I'm 19."

What in the F?

I'm not going to lie that response had me dumbfounded for a millisecond. The kid is 15 and he doesn't see himself living past 19 because he lives in a neighborhood that he can't visualize himself not living in. Or better yet, a neighborhood he doesn't want to get out of.

It's crazy but at the same time it makes a certain kind of twisted and unfortunate sense. I won't go on a diatribe about why it makes sense and what factors contribute to a teenager having this perspective of his life-span (and being completely comfortable with it) but I will say this...

When it comes to the children being our future and helping them grow into adults with sound decision-making skills and aspirations for their lives, IF YOU ARE NOT A PART OF THE SOLUTION, YOU'RE A PART OF THE PROBLEM!!!

If you're not helping a child (even if it's your own child) by being a positive role model or something that has a positive impact on his/her life, you should be. And if you're being a negative influence (or don't know if you're being a positive or negative influence) in a child's life you should go PLAX YOURSELF immediately. By not being a part of the solution you are indeed contributing to the problem whether you want to accept/believe that or not. Indifference is not acceptable.