"I am the child that would make strange noises when you turned around at the blackboard. I am the child that you tell your spouse about, saying, 'I don't know what I'm going to do about him… I don't know if I can stand another day.' I am that child that cut a girl's braid off and hit another child in the head."
Carl Upchurch was that child many years ago. Today, he is the author of
Convicted in the Womb: One Man's Journey from Prisoner to Peacemaker
. Recently, he spoke to CTA members at the Urban Issues Conference in San Diego, offering advice on how to reach that type of child.
Author Carl Upchurch
Upchurch, who grew up in the ghettos of Philadelphia, spent much of his youth in juvenile detention facilities and later spent 13 years in federal penitentiaries for armed robberies.
In 1992, Upchurch organized the first-ever national gang summit that brought together more than 150 gang leaders from 26 cities across the country. A lasting truce was forged between the notoriously violent Crips and Bloods. He has served as a consultant to several school districts to help solve problems of racial conflict and gang development.
At the age of 9, Upchurch walked out of his elementary school, never to return, when a teacher criticized the American flag he had drawn. "Instead of putting my head on the table until ninth grade, when I could get kicked out, I took the short cut," he said.
Teachers must believe that troubled children truly matter if they are to help them. Speaking on behalf of these children, he said, "I personally thank you for thinking that I matter above my foul mouth and foul manner." He asked teachers never to give up on these students.
"I am asking you, pleading with you, to start a relationship with this child," he said. "And stay there, because you may be all that child has."
He was asked by an audience member, "Can I, as a white person, be a model for these children?"
"Yes, you can, no question," said Upchurch. "You know why? I feel that you care. I can see you care. You are looking at that child with love and respect. Your skin can't trump that. History can't trump that. Nobody said it could."
Later, after his speech, Upchurch acknowledged the difficulty of showing compassion and caring in today's climate of accountability, standards and assessment.
"I'm hoping that teachers take their authority back and challenge a system that doesn't allow them to teach," he says. "Teachers are absolutely needed. It is my job to remind them they are critical to the continuation of this republic."
Sherry Posnick-Goodwin