Our Urban Experience: Day Five- Lookout Mountain Youth Services Center.

Friday morning, Shannon and I packed into the car. My sister-in-law came over at 7:00 a.m. to watch the kids for the day. Shannon had a meeting in Denver at 9:00 a.m. and I was supposed to be at Lookout Mountain Youth Services Center at 8:15 a.m. for my last day of the Urban Experience. We made it, but barely.

The cohort arrived in Golden, Colorado, a small town in the foothills west of Denver rather promptly, considering that we had bad driving directions from MapQuest. We met with the director of the program and two residents for about half of an hour. Lookout Mountain is a maximum security detention center for adjudicated teens. The center incorporates a fully operating school and encourages residents to complete their high school diplomas or GEDs. In addition to their regular schooling program, the Center offers a culinary school which has received national recognition and offered troubled kids a way to a better future through the culinary arts.

After our talk with the director, we were escorted to our classrooms. Each of us was to observe in two classrooms in our content area, then were were to have lunch at the cafe, served by culinary arts students.

The first classroom that I was in was actually a remedial math class. One of our instructors, Lee Evans, a 30-year veteran of teaching Junior High School Math classes, was in the class with me. I worked with one kid on reducing fractions. He looked to be about 16 or so and was really struggling with this rather simple task. I helped him as best I could. He then took off for a visit to the Campus Library.

I then talked with Jose, a young Hispanic man. Our talk turned to gangs and he began to tell me of his life and why he was in Lookout Mountain. He told me about how he and his older brother were jumped by members of a rival gang and his brother was killed. He then took a gun and hunted down the gang members that had killed his brother and shot and killed one of them. He was 7 at the time. Since that time, he has been in and out of detention centers, usually for gang involved violence. His weapon of choice seems to be a knife. This is his second time in Lookout Mountain and he says that this time, he has turned things around. He has been here for eight months and will be getting out in about two more months. He already has a job lined up as a drywaller in Vail.

Juan told me that it is very hard to get out of a gang. If you get married and have a family or if you begin going to church every week, the gang will respect you and leave you alone. Otherwise, leaving a gang can be a death sentence. Juan said that he has been involved with the gang for so long, and "done so much stuff" that the gang would leave him alone as well. I wished him luck. It sounds like he might need it.

Then, I went to a business class. I am still not sure what the class was about, exactly, as the teacher merely read sections of a book called "How to be a CEO" by Jeff Fox. The book had little tidbits of wisdom like "Keep a personal contact list," "Make your boss look good" and so forth. It was a little strange. After class, I asked the instructor about his methods. He indicated that he had tried standard business textbooks in the past and that the kids did not respond well. He said that reading from this book and others like it keep the kids engaged and "interested" in the course material. He didn't sound overly enthusiastic.

We then had lunch at the cafe. It was served by hardworking young men. The food was excellent. We started with a salad, then moved into a very tasty tuna dish and finished with a chocolate mousse. It was one of the better meals I had all week.

It was then pushing 1:00 p.m., the time that Shannon had arranged to meet me. I excused myself from the final discussions and was escorted to the front of the campus. Shannon eventually picked me up, though quite a bit late. We drove home. I was glad to be done with this very long week...