Having worked with troubled teens from the school system, I know only too well how important it is to give these kids hope and proper mentoring to impact their lives to the positive. I tried to get to the kids while they were still young, ages 7 to 13, before they ended up an issue for the court system.
This story is about helping troubled teens - who have often been jailed - gain new purpose near Washington, D.C., in Alexandria, Virginia through a mentoring program of teaching small ship building.
This is what real teaching is all about: taking unproductive unruly people and giving them a hands-on approach in a job situation to turn them into productive people who will know how to behave and succeed in a normal job situation in the adult world. It costs less money to care about someone and teach them than it does to be punitive and treat them as society's throw-aways. Take a look at this success story:
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These teens are referred from the judges and police officers in the court systems in Virginia. It costs over $100,000 to house one juvenile for a year. This program of teaching them a trade only costs $15,000 a year - and half of that money goes to paying the teen after they have finished the program! Many return to the program as teachers; it built their confidence so much they wanted to give back. Now that's what I call inspiring people!
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