San Francisco Educator Works to Keep Young People 'Alive and Free'

High school អនុវិទ្យាល័យ               drop out of school ឈប់រៀន            don’t do drug កុំប្រើគ្រឿងញៀន       middle school ថ្នាក់ទី៦និង៧                      getting pregnant មានផ្ទៃពោះ           kind of ហាក់ដូចជា   ended up នៅទីបញ្ចប់

Call-in show កម្មវិធីអ្នកស្តាប់ហៅទូរស័ព្ទសន្ទនា                                      graduated ទទួលសញ្ញាបត្រ  right now ឥឡូវនេះ                                                      guidance ការណែនាំ

copied ចម្លងតាម                            turned មានអាយុ

More than half of young black men in the United States do not finish high school. Many grow up without fathers and in neighborhoods with gangs, drug and violence. Sixty people of those who drop out of school have spent time in jail by the age of thirty-five.

Joe Marshall co-founded the Omega Boys Club in San Francisco, California, twenty-three years ago. Mister Marshall tries to give -- boys and girls—a safe refuge and a chance at a better future. Every week, he has two basic messages for his young students: “Stop the violence and don’t do drug.”

Mister Marshall spent twenty-five years as a teacher and administrator in San Francisco. He taught math in middle school and expected to see his best students go to college. But he said a lot of his former students ended up dead or in prison for selling drug or being involved in gangs. And many girls ended up getting pregnant. The Omega Boys Club serves more than hundred young people every year. Two times a week, it offers after school classes in math, reading, family and life skill, and college preparation. In many ways it serves as a kind of family. It provides teenagers with structure and support.

Joe Marshall has a doctorate in psychology. He sees gangs and violence as a disease that need to be dealt with as a public health problem. He tells young people to follow some new rules for living. Those rules will decrease their chances of ended up dead or in prison and increase their chances of staying alive and free. The club represents the headquarters of what he calls “alive and free movement.” But his most effective way to spread his anti- violence message is through radio.

In nineteen ninety-one, Joe Marshall started “Street Soldiers” a weekly call-in show. It airs on popular hip- hop station KMEL in San Francisco. Marlena was one of the graduates of the Omega Boys Club. She is at Southern University right now, going into her third year. She talked about what she had learned by coming to Omega. The Club provides guidance and financial assistance to help students to stay in school. Over ninety percent of members who were accepted into college have graduated.

Twelve other American cities have copied the program. Joe Marshall has been invited to speak in Canada, Nigeria, South Africa, and Thailand. He turned sixty-three this year. He says he has no thoughts of retiring any time soon.