I came into my class this morning with a positive spirit after a nice bike ride, a hot tub soak, a bagel and latte and left with a cloud hanging over me. Not only have my rose-colored glasses been removed but they were slapped off my face and crushed into tiny shards on the cold concrete.
My teacher began by having us put our chairs into circle which is always foreboding. It turns out that the teacher said something last week about some former students which could have been perceived as being false information. A handful of students had caught her misunderstood slip-up and so all of us had to be subjected to a support group type of meeting and I still don't know what the hell it was about. Anyway, it left me perturbed and not in the right frame of mind to address the next topic.
Our last paper of the year will be a group assignment. As a class, we are examining a specific problem in the community from several different approaches. The population we chose is sexually exploited youth. Portland has a tremendously large legal sex industry, consisting of strip joints, porn shops, adult theaters, etc. Along with the legal comes the illegal though. ABC recently did a special on the prostitution industry in Portland, focusing specifically on sexually exploited youth. It was shocking and disturbing. Then, we had two of our classmates who work with young girls, many of whom have been a part of this industry. It was terribly hard to hear their stories and to get a completely different perspective on my fair city.
They named several streets which are tracts for the youth to be bought and sold on. It's so pervasive that it's mind-blowing. I'm only grateful that there are people like my two classmates who are out there working to help these youth. There are so many other populations besides adults with developmental disabilities that I want to work with but I am only one person. That's what's really bothering me. I see that the problem is so huge and I don't know what to do about it.
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