Gangs and gang violence are hot topics with almost everyone in Bermuda.

Everyone has their version of why the problem exists and who the perpetrators are.

Almost everyone says it's unruly youth. But how do we tame them, how do we get them to behave peacefully?

In Southampton a lone teacher is making it her mission to address the problem early with a programme called SMART (Stimulated Maturity through Accelerated Readiness Training), designed to improve physiological and neurological deficits.

Allison Figureido said it's clear to her that if nothing is done many of her students will become the wall sitters, drug dealers and murderers of tomorrow.

The health and physical education teacher at Heron Bay Primary School said even now she can identify those children likely to meet this end.

"They say there is a problem with black men. Well, I have a lot of little black boys and I can point out who is going to kill," she said. "So many don't have daddies and they have rage issues."

Black boys aren't the only children in desperate need of intervention at Heron Bay.

"We have drug babies," she said. "They have vestibular problems problems with their balance where they cannot learn the traditional way.

"And it doesn't help for a teacher to tell these children to sit up straight. Straight to them is not what we would call straight."

Determined to make a meaningful change in the lives of these children Mrs. Figureido is offering the SMART programme to 30 children for an hour-and-a-half, every morning before school.

Mrs. Figureido is at the school between 7 and 7.15 to prepare for a 7.30 a.m. start. The programme employs a very physical element to learning.

Children may have to roll or bounce as they read, or trace a finger down a coloured line while balancing on a small roller contraption.

It's all very precise and based on a method of learning that is proven to get through to children who don't typically have success by traditional methods.

In fact it was in her work as data analyst at Heron Bay that she realised that the children who underperform in primary one, were in all instances, still underperforming in primary six.

She said it was at this point that she searched for a method with proven success at turning around children's ability to learn.

Her research led her to the SMART programme. Last summer she travelled to Minnesota to take a four-day intensive course at her own expense.

Adamant that the children should not have to wait for the tools to learn, she took on the expense rather than wait and try to convince someone else to fund it.

Fully trained she started the programme at Heron Bay in September, again, at her own expense.

She said letters were sent to parents of children who most needed it.

"I only wanted 20 students in the class," she said. But the enthusiasm of the children in the programme soon led other parents to request that their children also be included.

"Now I'm up to 30 children," she said, " and I don't have room for any more. Parents are still calling me trying to get their children in."

One parent does more than simply drop her child off. Angela DeRosa is an occupational therapist.

She comes each morning and actually helps Mrs. Figureido run the programme. There are also student helpers who provide physical support for some of the more challenging manoeuvres the children have to do.

Heron Bay Primary only has about 90 students. Thirty of them are enrolled in the SMART programme and, according to Mrs. Figureido, another 20 come in as helpers. "I have more than half the students involved," she said.

Mrs. Figureido wants to see the programme carried over into the classrooms.

And she's made time in her personal life and created a schedule to show exactly how the programme could be incorporated.

Mrs. Figureido has two boys of her own, aged nine and eleven years old.

She said she rarely gets home before six in the evening and on Sundays the whole family meets at the Heron Bay gym to set up for the week ahead.

"I have a physical plan that I draw up every week," she said. "We come in here on a Sunday, I place it here (on the stage) we all look at it and everyone gets to work.

"The boys will be lifting the Plexiglas tiles into place, my husband will be placing the big equipment; sometimes my sister comes and joins in too."

While she's dedicated and excited, she admitted that the long hours are taxing and said that next year she may be too tired to run the programme and teach health and PE as well.

"What I'd really like to do is the SMART programme full-time," she said.

Mrs. Figureido said although the programme is a great tool for helping those with learning difficulties, it also works with children who are performing well by the traditional methods.

It simply strengthens neural pathways in the brain, making the children better able to learn and retain information.