I really believe the children are our future
I just got severely depressed at work today.
I knew the preschoolers we were working with were "at risk"/"poor" but i didn't imagine what that meant.
I had to go through some of their info sheets.
There's a section on there about total family income
Most of the kids' families fall into the $20-25k range
But there was a kid i saw today who lives in a household of 2, where the income is "$5000 or less"
Then there was a family of 8, where the income was $20-25k.
Then you get to the parent contact sheets of some of them and where it says "Father Information" there are just big angry words "Does not apply!" or just a big X thru it.
It's like "why aren't these kids paying attention in class?" MAYBE BECAUSE THEY'RE SO FUCKING HUNGRY
Just shit like maybe lil Claudia didn't get dinner last night or breakfast this morning.
Or Jimmy has issues with authority figures because his parents are never around at home.
and the problem is just gonna get fuckin worse...because of Bush's piece of shit plans. "No Child Left Behind", right? So you take a school in a poor urban or rural area and because of VARIOUS reasons they aren't passing state regulations on academic achievement. So you cut their funding. Where might that money come from? Maybe the school's free breakfast program? Maybe the school's computer budget? So the kids are hungrier and have less access to educational tools that other kids take for granted because their parents can easily provide for them. No sex ed then teens are having more kids, more poverty, those kids have so many issues, they live in poor neighborhoods, have no hopes or dreams of getting out
The cycle of poverty continues
The rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer
Yeah, every now and then a few poor kids make and break through, but not nearly at the rate they should be
No matter how great your teacher is...if you're getting CONSTANT negative reinforcement from your family and peers, you're still in a lot of shit.
YouKnowTJ02: a kid spends much more time at home than at school
If you take an "at-risk" kid OUT of that bad neighborhood, bad parenting situation, and give him/her a good teacher (even a decent teacher) he/she has a great chance at success.
I knew the preschoolers we were working with were "at risk"/"poor" but i didn't imagine what that meant.
I had to go through some of their info sheets.
There's a section on there about total family income
Most of the kids' families fall into the $20-25k range
But there was a kid i saw today who lives in a household of 2, where the income is "$5000 or less"
Then there was a family of 8, where the income was $20-25k.
Then you get to the parent contact sheets of some of them and where it says "Father Information" there are just big angry words "Does not apply!" or just a big X thru it.
It's like "why aren't these kids paying attention in class?" MAYBE BECAUSE THEY'RE SO FUCKING HUNGRY
Just shit like maybe lil Claudia didn't get dinner last night or breakfast this morning.
Or Jimmy has issues with authority figures because his parents are never around at home.
and the problem is just gonna get fuckin worse...because of Bush's piece of shit plans. "No Child Left Behind", right? So you take a school in a poor urban or rural area and because of VARIOUS reasons they aren't passing state regulations on academic achievement. So you cut their funding. Where might that money come from? Maybe the school's free breakfast program? Maybe the school's computer budget? So the kids are hungrier and have less access to educational tools that other kids take for granted because their parents can easily provide for them. No sex ed then teens are having more kids, more poverty, those kids have so many issues, they live in poor neighborhoods, have no hopes or dreams of getting out
The cycle of poverty continues
The rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer
Yeah, every now and then a few poor kids make and break through, but not nearly at the rate they should be
No matter how great your teacher is...if you're getting CONSTANT negative reinforcement from your family and peers, you're still in a lot of shit.
YouKnowTJ02: a kid spends much more time at home than at school
If you take an "at-risk" kid OUT of that bad neighborhood, bad parenting situation, and give him/her a good teacher (even a decent teacher) he/she has a great chance at success.