旧金山教育工作中帮助年轻人自由生活

    This is the VOA Special English Education Report.
    这里是美国之音慢速英语教育报道。

    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, drugs and violence. Sixty percent of those who drop out of school have spent time in jail by the age of thirty-five.
    美国超过一半的黑人男青年没有完成高中学业。他们中的许多人在缺少父爱,充斥黑帮、毒品和暴力的环境中长大。其中60%的辍学者在35岁前
    都蹲过监狱。

    Joe Marshall co-founded the Omega Boys Club in San Francisco, California, twenty-three years ago. Mr. Marshall tries to give boys -- and girls -- a safe refuge and a chance at a better future.
    23年前,乔·马歇尔(Joe Marshall)在加州旧金山市发起成立了欧米加男孩俱乐部(Omega Boys Club)。马歇尔试图给少男少女们提供一个安全
    的庇护所,使他们有机会拥有更美好的未来。

    Every week, he has two basic messages for his young students: "Stop the violence" and "Don't do drugs."
    每周,他都要向他的青年学生们传达2条最基本的信息:“杜绝暴力”和“远离毒品”。

    Mr. 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.
    马歇尔在旧金山从事了25年的教师和管理员工作。他曾在一所中学教数学,也期望他的学生们都能考上大学。

    JOE MARSHALL: "I got a lot of horror stories and a lot of my former students ended up dead or in prison for selling drugs, being involved in gangs, girls ended up getting pregnant."
    马歇尔:“我听到很多不好的消息,很多我从前的学生因贩毒、参与黑帮而丧命或进了监狱,女孩们则以怀孕告终。”

    The Omega Boys Club serves more than four hundred young people every year. Two times a week, it offers after-school classes in math, reading, family and life skills, and college preparation.
    欧米加男孩俱乐部每年为超过400名年轻人提供服务。它提供每周2次的数学、阅读、家庭生活技能和大学预备课程的课后辅导。

    In many ways, it serves as a kind of family. It provides teenagers with structure and support.
    在很多方面,该俱乐部都像一个大家庭,为青少年提供了组织与支持。

    Joe Marshall has a doctorate in psychology. He sees gangs and violence as a disease that needs to be dealt with as a public health problem.
    马歇尔拥有心理学博士学位。他认为黑帮与暴力是一种病态,应该作为公共健康问题来处理。

    JOE MARSHALL: "That's what these young people get. They develop a street mentality. The big part is dealing with the emotional residue of anger, fear and pain that they develop because they got invested in this in the first place.
    马歇尔:“那就是这些年轻人的现状,他们形成了一种街头心态。最重要的部分就是处理好他们形成的这种愤怒、恐惧、痛苦等残留情绪。因
    为他们从小就生活在这样的环境中。”

    "Then we tell them to follow some new rules for living that will decrease their chances of ending up dead or in prison and increase their chances dramatically of staying alive and free."
    “然后我们教导要遵循一些新的生活规则,这将减少他们丧命或入狱的风险。同时明显增加他们自由自在生活的机会。”

    The club represents the headquarters of what he calls the "alive and free movement." But his most effective way to spread his anti-violence message is through radio.
    该俱乐部代表了他所谓的“自由自在生活”运动的总部。但他传播反暴力信息最有效的途径是通过电台。
     
    In nineteen ninety-one, Joe Marshall started "Street Soldiers," a weekly call-in show.
    1991年,马歇尔开设了“街头卫士(Street Soldiers)”每周热线节目。

    JOE MARSHALL: "OK, let's talk to line two. Line two. And this is--Is this Marlena? This ain't the Marlena I know."
    马歇尔:“让我们接听2号线。这是谁呢?是马莱娜吗?我知道这并不是马莱娜。”

    MARLENA: "Yes Doctor Marshall, this is Marlena!"
    马莱娜:“是的,马歇尔博士,我是马莱娜!”

    JOE MARSHALL: "It is my Marlena!"
    马歇尔:“哦,原来真是我的马莱娜!”

    Marlena was one of the graduates of the Omega Boys Club.
    马莱娜是欧米加男孩俱乐部的毕业生之一。

    JOE MARSHALL: "She's at Southern University right now, going into her third year. She talked about what she had learned the hard way and how we helped her learn that by coming to Omega, by listening to 'Street Soldiers,' and she said she had learned how to love herself."
    马歇尔:“她在南方大学上学,正要进入大三。她谈到历经艰辛学到的东西,以及通过欧米加男孩俱乐部,通过听“街头卫士”节目,我们如
    何帮助她学习。她说她已经学会了如何自爱。”

    The club provides guidance and financial assistance to help students stay in school. Over ninety percent of members who were accepted into college have graduated.
    该俱乐部提供指导和财政援助,以帮助学生就读。考上大学的俱乐部成员90%以上都成功毕业。

    Twelve other American cities have copied the program. Joe Marshall has been invited to speak in Canada, Nigeria, South Africa and Thailand.
    12个美国的其他城市已经复制了该项目。马歇尔已受邀在加拿大,尼日利亚,南非和泰国等国发表过演讲。

    He turned sixty-three this year.
    他今年就要63岁了。

    JOE MARSHALL: "I want to build an institution. I'm not going to be here forever, so my big thing is to make sure this goes on."
    马歇尔:“我想要建立一个机构。我无法永远呆在这里,所以我最重要的事,就是确保俱乐部继续下去。”