Learning the Streets

The "students" were junior-college teachers from big cities across the U.S. The instructors were tough street youths -- blacks, Chinese and Mexican Americans -- ranging in age from 14 to 25. The course, a one-month summer institute that has just been completed at City College of San Francisco, was unique. It was designed to send teach ers back to campus in the fall with a better understanding of the ghetto-bred stu dents in their classes.

At the institute, the teachers spent the morning in traditional classroom sessions on campus, hearing lectures by experts on the legal and medical problems of the poor, employment, community-action programs and school decentralization. This constituted their "basic training," explains Ray Towbis, 37, a tough-talking product of Brooklyn slums who, together with City College's Don Peterson, helped organize the institute, and did much of the lecturing. "In the afternoon, they went into combat They weren't going out on no field trips to see the natives. The real contents of the course was in the streets."

Safe Conduct. In "combat" every afternoon, each teacher accompanied one of the street youths through a typical day in a slum neighborhood, participating fully in the daily activities as the youngster ran errands, visited his friends, "rapped" on street corners and --if he was one of the few who had found work--did his job.

Some teachers tried to impose their suggestions on ghetto residents they met; others simply listened and learned. One told Towbis that he had attempted to reorganize the Mission Rebels, a youth group that makes a special point of running its own affairs. "You might do it better," said Towbis, "but that doesn't mean they can do it better that way. We can't do it for them. At best we can ask the right questions." This kind of informed insight was invaluable to the teachers. Said a white professor from Laney College in Oakland: "In seven years of collegiate and university training, this is the first time I ever had any instructor lay it on the line."

Some of the teachers were apprehensive about entering the summer institute: one woman instructor asked Towbis if he could guarantee her safe conduct for the month; another teacher updated his will before leaving home in Tennessee and took out a $37,000 life-insurance policy. Towbis, who is working for a doctorate in education at Berkeley, brushed aside their fears. He insisted on the need for daily immersion in slum areas to "understand the kids' background from working in the ghetto instead of out of sociology books."

The street youths, who were paid $70 per week, seemed to understand their responsibility too. "Listen, man," one said, "the money ain't the only reason I'm doing this job. I'm doing something to teach 'the man.' He come in here all cocksure about the ghetto. These guys don't know nothing except their two cars and sweet life. I'm showing 'em where it's at. If they don't catch it today, they never going to get it."

The teachers apparently caught it, and headed back to their campuses with a wholly new perspective. Says Mae Ethridge, from Fresno City College: "We knew about the injustice and poverty intellectually, but we had to feel it before it became meaningful." Bob Brower, who teaches at New York State University's Urban Center in Brooklyn, learned firsthand about ghetto justice by spending an afternoon in court with his youthful tutor. "That damn judge," he said, "was handing down decisions he made before he ever saw the facts. It was like processing hamburger meat, just put it in the grinder." Tom Carey, of North Hennepin State Junior College in Minnesota, says of his one-month exposure to the streets: "I have been turned inside out."

Elated at the impact the institute has had on teachers, Towbis and Peterson are planning a summer session next year for college administrators and mass-media executives. "It all boils down to teaching and communications," Towbis says. "We've got to get the message across to the people who can influence others."

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