Slashdot Mirror
From Gang Bangers to Web Developers?
evenprime asks: "The Economist is running an article about a program that takes gang members in Milwaukee, sends them through rehab, and
teaches them web development so that they can have a decent paying job. I think this type of program - one that gives people the ability to help themselves - is a great idea, and it is something that many of us could help with. Do slashdot readers know of any similar programs in other places? If so, what type of qualifications do you think they would require before allowing someone to help teach web design?" Such programs are just too damned cool. Are there any others like it?
Aren't we being a little presumptuous here? Kind of like saying all members of that linux gang are hackers...
ok then your [sic] infringing on my copyright! Could you as [sic] me next time before STEALING my comments for your own?
They're already used to working with tags :)
Sorry, couldn't resist.
I think a lot of ex-web developers will be running to Compton, begging the gang-bangers to teach them how to pimp and push crack.
I think that web development is still a pretty decent entry-level job. While there are not as many new public web sites, most big companies are still investing a lot of time & money in their intranets. Web development is becoming like every other kind of software development -- 90% of it is done for internal company use. That's not going to change anytime soon.
Why is it that the proponents of "one nation under God" are so eager to get rid of "liberty and justice for all"?
Then-governor of Wisconsin Tommy Thompson (now Secretary of Health and Human Services in the Bush administration) tried something similar with the W2 program in 1996: giving welding training to welfare recipients so they could have decent-paying jobs and get off welfare.
Sounds great, but many of these people, as I understand it, had never worked before, and were fired shortly after being placed because they had no workplace skills that emphasized things like showing up on time or calling in if they were sick. They had welding skills, but there's a lot more that goes into getting someone ready to join the workforce. Specific-skill training seems a temptingly easy solution to transition-to-workforce problems, but it has to be part of a bigger plan if it's going to work.
-- http://frobnosticate.com
Would you rather your taxes were spent keeping these kids in prison?
Tom.
Oh arse
Right now most nations spend billions of dollars every year filling prisons with people who sit in cages all day watching television. Those people then get released years later, with no new skills, severely damaged social skills, and no real contacts other than criminals they met in prison.
Imagine if, instead of being locked down all day, the US prison population was educated. Classes all day, homework all night. Give them job skills. Rehabilitate criminals into functional members of society so that when they get out they know how to do something other than be a pain in the ass!
Of course, is most of the world this will never happen, because prison building and maintenance is now an important industry, and rehabilitation of criminals is detrimental to construction companies, their employees, police unions and their members, as well as prison employee unions and their members. Welcome the the twenty-first century, where deprivation of human freedom is a commodity.
Well it depends on your definition of "decent paying job". I think you're confusing "decent paying" and "high paying".
What's a reformed gang banger going to get a legitimate job doing? Suppose he/she has been Livin tha Gangsta Life(TM) since a young age, and maybe doesn't have a solid education beyond, say, elementary or junior high. What options would be available? Fast food? Secretarial work? Telemarketing? Various forms of manual labor? Now, what do jobs like that pay? Minimum wage? $10/hr? $17/hr after 25 years?
Now look at a low paying web job. What do they pay? $35000/yr? $40000/yr? It's decent.
After all, it worked for accountants.
-- "Complacency is a far more dangerous attitude than outrage." -Naomi Littlebear
It states in the article that the kids have the option of being programmers or being helped into colleges and other programs. Any intercity program that helps lower the crime rate, murder rate, gang membership is a good thing. Helping kids help themselves into being an asset to society instead of a number in a prison is not something to take lightly.
Everyone at some point in their life had some sort of influence that helped them along. Be it advice from a teacher, some news story or article, parent, or friend it got you where you are today. I see nothing wrong with giving these kids a different path to follow. In the end it will be up to the kid. If he/she stays the course and changes their life or fails. I'm just glad that someone is trying to help.
Goran
Carpe Scrotum - The only way to deal with your competition.
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
For starters, I am an employee at Homeboyz Interactive, the company reported in the article.
;)
Just wanted to clarify a few things. The students who go through the program are not simply taught how to launch Dreamweaver and click their way to a Web site. They go through about nine months of training ranging from HTML, to JavaScript, PHP, databases, data modeling, use cases, etc. We provide more skills to these students than most of my university peers seem to have! We are just starting to use Java to deal with some of our larger projects where PHP becomes a burden.
Think again if you're worried that this is just another basic class in WYSIWYG HTML editors... you are very wrong
I remember very well a little event in elementary school that changed my life forever. I had grown up in private school until grade 4, but eventually I guess it was getting too expensive and I was sent into the wild world of public school for the first time starting during the fifth grade. Now, since, until this time, I was always taught to try hard, be good, and be the best person I could be, you can imagine the little hell that I found myself in that year...
Anyway, I slowly learned the ropes, but I was still what one might call a "good kid". I didn't chew gum or talk or pass notes, instead I just tried my best to learn and not be a trouble maker. There were two girls who sat next to me, however, who were definitly not "good kids", at least by the elementary school rules of a decade or two ago. They were always laughing and talking and telling jokes, despite the teacher's constant warnings and threats to "put thier names in the book".
Anyway, this went on for a while, and eventually the teacher had a brilliant idea. She decided that for every day that these two girls did NOT talk, they would get a coupon. If they collected a certian number of coupons at the end of two weeks, they could have a pizza party with some of thier friends after school.
Now, for all of you thinking that this novel approach was the way to go, you are sadly mistaken. The next effect of this was that:
a) the girls didn't shift any more towards the "good" side, but instead found better ways of concealing themselves so that they could get the coupons.
and, most importantly, b) I learned that being "good" got you absolutely nothing at all. I was completely ignored bu this teacher. Being bad, however, gets you pizza. From that moment on I was an encouragable student...
If you are going to start giving perks away to those who are bad, you will only be teaching people that there is no reason to stay out of trouble. If you want to go around handing out web training, start with the people who DESERVE it first.
"Your superior intellect is no match for our puny weapons!"