By Frosty Wooldridge

Part 2: Rich versus Poor, Smart versus Illiterate, Middle America versus Inner-city America

During my college years, I became a volunteer teacher at Franklin Street School in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I read all the educational success stories of inner-city teachers. I ate it up. My high-energy enthusiasm walked into those classrooms "knowing" I would change the world for the better.

Two years later, I fled those classrooms because of the violence, sexual deviance, drugs, beatings, alcoholism and emotional abuse those inner-city kids faced on a daily basis. Their parents suffered from illiteracy, joblessness and simply not being able to cope with American life or the jobs that required educational...