ABSTRACT
In the world of today’s children, many have asked, what’s worth doing? Perhaps an examination of the conditions in which many children nowadays must function can suggest a direction we might consider (Morris and Stiehl 2002). It seems obvious to us that we cannot expect to have successful, broadly supported educational programs if they do not operate in concert with the larger cultural and social context. However, if we adopt this approach it is easy to be lured into a current cultural paradigm, the frame of reference from which we view the events unfolding in our world, which suggests an epidemic of urgent societal problems, terrible conditions in our schools, and an ominous future. We hear that in our cities, for example, kids kill kids and some sleep in the streets. More and more children are unhealthy, both physically and mentally. More suffer from child abuse, substance abuse, inadequate childcare, and family breakdown. Many are embittered and hurt. They live amidst violence and rejection, in broken streets, broken glass, broken sidewalks, broken families, broken hearts. Their music, their rap, their video, their art reflects their broken world (Morris and Stiehl 2002).
