He calls for more comprehensive preschool programs, but admits these would not transform the inner-city environment, which is the root of the problem.

The opportunities presented by the Ruth Lilly Outdoor Center offer these kids learning experiences not available in the inner-city environment.

It was a grim, towering, blackened building surrounded by high brick walls and set in a depressing inner-city environment of dirt and noise.

"Schools are geared to middle-class society, not to an inner-city environment," he said.

In inner-city environments, all volunteer programs tend to have more minorities than anyone else.

"The children are living in an inner-city environment that's very dangerous," Dr. Barlow said.

Clearly, therefore, children preferred the inner-city environment and family life in which they had been born and reared.

Thus lthough located in a rural setting, it is typically considered an inner-city school due the majority of its students from an inner-city environment.

Much of the staff turnover is due to the departure of young and inexperienced teachers who are not prepared to work in inner-city environments.

If they were raised in impoverished inner-city environments, children from rejecting and disordered families sought out criminal friends for emotional support.