Not that I want to play sociologist here, but there is a more basic force at work in these lives.
Without solid parenting, these kids hit puberty without any built in restraint on their urges. I'm not speaking only of their sexual urges, but any urge.
For guidance, the 12-13 year olds look up to the 17-18 year olds who are smoking, drinking, screwing, fighting and drug dealing. That's the adult life they see. They go home, and Mama is off at the club - drinking, smoking, screwing and fighting - while grandmom looks after them.
That's the life. Run by bullies and dedicated to getting high and getting laid. Not much emphasis on education, not that math or literature will benefit them in getting high or getting laid, so why bother?
Their lives are run by one simple dictum - If It Feels Good, Do it!
I believe that your post is in the 10-ring.
I tutored "at risk" minority kids, all Afro-American, for awhile, but stopped when I finally realized that I cared about their success more than they did. Although I have no proof, I believe that the kids who I tutored were capable of academic success, they, as a group, just didn't view academic success as the road to a better life. I don't even know if they could envision what a better life would look like. It seems that academic success has a negative stigma in the poor Black community, in that a kid from that community who does well is "trying to be white". Heck, I even had one kid tell me that my "ride" was a POS 'cause I didn't have low-profile tires and 20" rims on it.
I knew that it was time to leave when the kids couldn't be bothered to do their homework assignments or even bring their workbooks, scratch paper, or pencils to the tutoring sessions.
