Boys of Baraka

I was listening to PBS at lunchtime and heard this interview about a group of troubled youth who were given the opportunity to go to the Baraka School in Kenya. I could have titled this post "The Squeaky Wheel Gets the Grease." See one of my pet peeves is that our society rewards bad actors. There's a gazillion programs out there for troubled youth, but what about middle of the road youth? You see, while these boys come from bad situations, they are also the trouble makers in school, the class clowns, the disruptive element. Somewhere in the Chicago school system are kids that do what they're supposed to do, don't make trouble, and are not standout scholars--probably because the educational system is too busy paying attention to the squeaky wheels--the Boys of Baraka.