Welcome to a new post on gang issues in education. First, I would like to add that my time is drawing near for my NASRO presentation on July 29th, and I’m really jazzed up about it. I am truly hoping to give the conference attendees another view on street gangs that they are not normally used to seeing; an educators point of view. I also hope that many of my readers will be able to make the trip to Phoenix, AZ, and attend the conference. It should be a fun time for all, and who knows you just might learn something new in the process. Anyway, now to the main part of this post.
Since arriving back from my trip to Europe, I now understand the impact gangs have in that part of the world. It’s hard to believe that the gang issues are the same for them as they are for us here in the U.S. Street gangs are truly global, which makes dealing with gangs here just that much more difficult. As I stated in my last post, because of mobility, many gangs here can be affected by a new member who comes from another part of the world, and may I add, not in a positive manner.
As I further my studies on street gangs, I’m finding how interconnected gangs really are. The way they behave, as well as the way they show who they are; tags, graffiti, etc. are eerily similar. I guess kids will be kids anywhere in the world one travels. But is this really due to kids being kids or are other factors involved?
I started to think to myself, why such similarities of street gangs. As far as I can tell the Western culture that we live in is definitely having an impact in other parts of the world. This, unfortunately, includes the bad influences we have here as well as the good. I wonder how much of the gang issue in Europe is influenced by our culture and especially what we show on television? I guess answering this question is another research topic in itself. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll be able to find the answer to this question. But for now I”ll just keep working on how street gangs impact the educational process here in the U.S.
I would love to hear your comments on how our culture (Western culture) has an impact on street gangs in your part of the world, either from my readers here in the U.S., or some other place in the world. Please e-mail me your story, and one of my lucky readers will have their response published on this website. You can send your response to the e-mail address below.
That’s all for now! Until my next post on gang issues in education; later.
If you need to contact me about this or any other problems you may be having with gang members in your school, feel free to contact me via e-mail at cabgil@aol.com and I’ll be glad to try and offer you some solutions to help you deal with the problem.
Thank you and come again.
Gilbert