The Wire

So I just recently started watching The Wire. Yeah Yeah Yeah, I know I'm late as hell, but better late than never right. So In Season 1 Episode 8, Wallace's (about 17 yrs old) Little brother or cousin or whatever (their relationship is besides the point) comes into his room to ask him for help with a worded math problem. I must admit that I, like most people watchin this, believed off the bat that Wallace would not be able to read well or wouldn't understand the problem. What else am I supposed to think? He's a young drug dealer and the media has convinced me that all young black drug dealers are idiots. But to my surprise he reads well and is very intelligent. He reads the question aloud to the little one who can't seem to figure out the answer. So Wallace, like the genius he could be, uses the drug trade to get the point across. He makes up a story of one person buying this amount and then getting more of that amount, and selling another amount etc. The little one gets the answer with almost no effort. Wallace asks him "How the fuck can you keep the count right, but not do the book problem then?" The little one replies, "count be wrong, they'll fuck you up."

I had one of those "what the hell" moments after watching this. Kids are MUCH smarter than we think they are. Kids of all races and backgrounds that is. We just need to find things that interest them in order to get them to understand the basics about math and science. And if selling drugs is one way to do it the I say "what the hell" go for it. It'll benefit everyone in the end.

Special Shout out to all the educators out there. Keep up the good work!