My three grandchildren marinate in adult attention. Love, books, toys. I've watch all four parents in action, up close and over time, and have nothing but admiration. They rock.
The only problem, as I see it, is that all children aren't given such a leg up in life.
Not close. Most stories vanish, but this one has sat in mind for nearly 40 years, and I thought I would post it now, to mark the end of my surgical recovery period and prepare for my first column being published tomorrow.
This is a story was written as part of a team producing a series, "The Critical Years." We developed a questionnaire, working with the Board of Education, the Erikson Institute, and Chapin Hall Center for Children at U of C (we did things up right, back in the day) and sent hundreds to Chicago Public School kindergarten teachers, following up with focus group interviews with teachers and parents — I remember sitting in a room at the Robert Taylor Homes, conducting an interview with half a dozen parents, thinking, "We're not in Berea anymore...."
As shocking as this story is, in my memory, the reality was worse. Children would show up to kindergarten not knowing their names — they'd know a nickname, "I'm Little T!" They wouldn't know the primary colors.
Whenever critics of Chicago Public Schools are slamming CPS for their results, I remember this story and want to pipe up, "But consider where students start at. A lot of these kids are royally screwed from Day One — with the best conceivable education, many would never catch up."
The news today is hardly better. One in four adults in Cook County is functionally illiterate. The ham-handed slashers of the Trump administration have gutted Headstart and other programs designed to throw a lifeline to such kids. I'd be a little reluctant to share such an old story with you, were I not completely confident we could write the same thing today. Maybe we should. That said, it's quite long — feel free to skim.
This story ran on the front page, bylined, "By Don Hayner and Neil Steinberg."
A 5-year-old boy came to kindergarten at Drake Elementary School last year not knowing common words like "doll" and "cat."
He didn't know how to look at a picture book, or how to do things most children learn "from just being alive," said Judith Bowden, his teacher at Drake, 2722 S. King.
The boy's mother is illiterate and could not read to him, which Bowden said was a major cause of his school problems.
More than six of 10 children in city public school kindergartens are not read to by parents, according to teachers responding to a Chicago Sun-Times survey.
By comparison, nine of 10 kindergartners in Wilmette public schools are read to by their parents, as are 87 percent of middle-and upper-income children attending Chicago public schools. Yet experts say reading aloud to children is crucial to their educational development.
"The single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children. This is especially so during the preschool years," according to the landmark 1984 report Becoming a Nation of Readers by the Commission on Reading.
One ongoing study by Linda Meyer, a senior scientist at the nationally recognized Center for the Study of Reading in Champaign, goes even further. Meyer's study suggests that parents reading to their children is not enough. There must be quality reading that involves an exchange of questions and insights between parents and children.
Teachers surveyed said six of 10 children have parents who do not know how to prepare them educationally for kindergarten. Teachers in Wilmette said only one of 10 children has such parents and slightly more than two of 10 middle- and upper-income Chicago children have parents who don't know how to prepare them.
Typical survey responses from kindergarten teachers:
"The children are left to take care of themselves." "Parents don't talk to children or ask them questions." "Nobody worked with these children. Television is their baby-sitter."
Many Chicago children are far behind when they start school. And while the study indicates parents want to help, it also shows they don't know how.
Educators, who for a long time looked within the school system for the key to academic improvement, are increasingly looking to parents.
"It is unlikely that we will be able to make a major difference for the child unless we place equal priority on education and academic remediation for the parent," warned a 1988 Ford Foundation study, Toward a More Perfect Union: Basic Skills, Poor Families and Our Economic Future.
Once a young child falls behind, he may never catch up, said Burton L. White, director of the Center for Parent Education in Newton, Mass., and author of The First Three Years. He added:
"The child who is delayed at age 3 when he enters Head Start invariably, with virtually no exceptions, is behind on language. And if he's nine months or more behind on language, the chances are very good he'll never be an average student. Ever. The probability that any Head Start program is going to make him even an average student is very, very low."
Teachers said some parents don't even talk to their children.
"Many young parents don't know, for example, that even though a child is not verbal, the mother or father being verbal helps language develop," said Laura Devon, spokeswoman for Ounce of Prevention, a statewide project assisting children at risk.
Besides lacking basic parenting skills or information, parents have some ideas that are just plain wrong.
"When you think you've heard the worst, something the next day always tops it," said Cheryl Stampley, a nurse working with new parents at the Robert Taylor Homes.
Often, mothers feel that showing attention to newborns will "spoil" them. Some fathers feel that, until they are 6 months old, babies cannot see. Or hear. Or feel pain.
A surprising number of parents will not put their children in a crib. They're afraid of crib death, although the crib itself, of course, has nothing to do with Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
A parent does not have to be poor to be overwhelmed with the responsibility of child rearing. Middle-class parents also frequently don't know what children need.
"As bright as they are, they are totally unprepared (to be parents)," said Pat DeMar, director of a Family Focus drop-in center in Lincoln Park.
While poor parents may lack knowledge, said DeMar, affluent parents, ironically, sometimes have too much.
"They read numerous books, on child bearing, on child rearing, but they reach a point where they're so well-read they lack security in their own instincts," DeMar said. "I worked at Cabrini-Green and Robert Taylor, and I saw better parenting because they felt their instincts were OK."
Without adequate parental involvement, children can be so far behind when they enter school they have great difficulty catching up, even if the school does its job.
At Terrell Elementary School, 5410 S. State, next to the Robert Taylor Homes, fourth-graders made a year's worth of progress in reading during 1987. Yet they still remained about 1 1/2 years behind the national norm.
"We have to work twice as hard to get the children half as far," said Terrell Principal Reva Hairston.
Parents often instill in their children a distaste for school that never goes away.
One young mother, Kathy Jackson, sees her lack of participation as the cause of her son Robert, 11, having trouble in school.
"He's not interested in school," said Jackson, "I didn't read to him, I didn't do anything with him. I believe that had a lot to do with it." She said she has begun to read to her younger son, Rodney, who is enrolled in the Dewey Child Parent Center, 638 W. 54th Pl., and that he seems to like school.
It's futile telling some parents to read to their kids. "There is that tug-of-war between being a responsible parent and doing what you want to do," said Laura Devon of Ounce of Prevention, a statewide project aiding children at risk.
Many parents are illiterate. One of every three to four adults in Chicago is functionally illiterate. From 650,000 to 1 million Chicagoans above the age of 16 read below the sixth-grade level. Only one-half of 1 percent of these adults are enrolled in literacy programs, according to the Chicago Literacy Coordinating Center.
Illiteracy itself, though, needn't prevent a parent from enriching a child's early years and helping to foster a desire for learning.
"Even if you can't read yourself, you can contribute by telling your child anything from fairy tales to stories of your childhood. You create a social event in which the child gets the idea of gaining meaning," said James Garbarino, president of the Erikson Institute for Advanced Study in Child Development.
Many parents are themselves children. In 1986, 9,959 children were born to teenage parents in Chicago. If these children were entering Chicago public schools today, they would represent one-third of all kindergartners. Studies show teenage parents are more hostile and punitive to their children. They also don't talk or listen to them as much as older parents do.
"I was 15 when I had my little girl," said Estasia, a mother in the Beethoven Project, which assists parents in caring for their children. "I had to give up cheerleading. I loved that uniform. She was my responsibility, from the moment I got home from school."
"There is that tug-of-war between being a responsible parent and doing what you want to do," said Devon of Ounce of Prevention.
"Often young parenting increases the incidence of child abuse and neglect. We've seen that in news accounts of the last couple months, where a mom left her baby in a cold garage. Many young moms might think it is OK to leave an infant in that situation for a couple hours."
More than 10 percent of the babies born in Chicago are also dangerously underweight, according to the Public Health Department. Low birth weight - anything below 5 1/2 pounds - is caused by a range of prenatal factors, from drug abuse to poor nutrition to depression.
Low birth weight is a factor in 70 percent of Chicago's infant mortalities, and surviving low-weight infants have a greater chance of suffering physical and mental handicaps.
Most poor parents want the best for their children, according to the Sun-Times study. They just don't know how to get it.
The survey shows that 65 percent of parents come to school to discuss their children's progress more often than the two times required to pick up report cards.
"You don't discuss your child's progress unless there is interest," said Ted Sanders, Illinois education superintendent, commenting on that figure.
And nearly six of 10 try to help their child with homework, according to the study.
"I've never met a parent who didn't want her child to succeed, but some of them don't know what to do," said Reva Hairston, principal at Terrell for the last 12 years.
"So much depends on the home life and how much parents do with their children as far as listening and talking to the child," one teacher wrote, echoing a sentiment of many of those surveyed.
Although a distinct minority, some parents seem to have almost no involvement with their children's education after they start school.
About 14 percent of children have parents who have never come to school, not even to pick up their children's report cards.
"Many children raised themselves, and come to school when they feel it's time," said Pam Stevens, director of the Dewey Child Parent Center. "I went to a house on a home visit, and the door was open, the babies walking around, and the parents nowhere to be found."
Almost one of 10 children is regularly more than 15 minutes late for school, and 15 percent of all children miss more than five days of school a month, according to the Sun-Times study.
Bowden of the Drake school said she has one child who was absent 51 days and another who was absent 40 days this school year."I think some parents are so overwhelmed with their own problem they can't see, so their priority is self preservation," she said.
Teachers say many parents don't like to visit schools because it reminds them of their own academic failure.
"When they come to school, it's because their children are destructive," said Dr. Grace Dawson, principal of Beethoven School. "They come to school for negative, not for positive, reasons."
While parental involvement will improve a child's chances of school success, increasing that involvement is not easy.
"It would be nice if we said to parents that involvement is in your child's best interest, and they would do it," said Dewey director Pam Stevens. "But we have to use all kinds of bribes and incentives. We have to persuade. We have to be evangelical. There's a big gap between where we are and where we are supposed to be."
— Originally published in the Sun-Times, June 29, 1988
A 5-year-old boy came to kindergarten at Drake Elementary School last year not knowing common words like "doll" and "cat."
He didn't know how to look at a picture book, or how to do things most children learn "from just being alive," said Judith Bowden, his teacher at Drake, 2722 S. King.
The boy's mother is illiterate and could not read to him, which Bowden said was a major cause of his school problems.
More than six of 10 children in city public school kindergartens are not read to by parents, according to teachers responding to a Chicago Sun-Times survey.
By comparison, nine of 10 kindergartners in Wilmette public schools are read to by their parents, as are 87 percent of middle-and upper-income children attending Chicago public schools. Yet experts say reading aloud to children is crucial to their educational development.
"The single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children. This is especially so during the preschool years," according to the landmark 1984 report Becoming a Nation of Readers by the Commission on Reading.
One ongoing study by Linda Meyer, a senior scientist at the nationally recognized Center for the Study of Reading in Champaign, goes even further. Meyer's study suggests that parents reading to their children is not enough. There must be quality reading that involves an exchange of questions and insights between parents and children.
Teachers surveyed said six of 10 children have parents who do not know how to prepare them educationally for kindergarten. Teachers in Wilmette said only one of 10 children has such parents and slightly more than two of 10 middle- and upper-income Chicago children have parents who don't know how to prepare them.
Typical survey responses from kindergarten teachers:
"The children are left to take care of themselves." "Parents don't talk to children or ask them questions." "Nobody worked with these children. Television is their baby-sitter."
Many Chicago children are far behind when they start school. And while the study indicates parents want to help, it also shows they don't know how.
Educators, who for a long time looked within the school system for the key to academic improvement, are increasingly looking to parents.
"It is unlikely that we will be able to make a major difference for the child unless we place equal priority on education and academic remediation for the parent," warned a 1988 Ford Foundation study, Toward a More Perfect Union: Basic Skills, Poor Families and Our Economic Future.
Once a young child falls behind, he may never catch up, said Burton L. White, director of the Center for Parent Education in Newton, Mass., and author of The First Three Years. He added:
"The child who is delayed at age 3 when he enters Head Start invariably, with virtually no exceptions, is behind on language. And if he's nine months or more behind on language, the chances are very good he'll never be an average student. Ever. The probability that any Head Start program is going to make him even an average student is very, very low."
Teachers said some parents don't even talk to their children.
"Many young parents don't know, for example, that even though a child is not verbal, the mother or father being verbal helps language develop," said Laura Devon, spokeswoman for Ounce of Prevention, a statewide project assisting children at risk.
Besides lacking basic parenting skills or information, parents have some ideas that are just plain wrong.
"When you think you've heard the worst, something the next day always tops it," said Cheryl Stampley, a nurse working with new parents at the Robert Taylor Homes.
Often, mothers feel that showing attention to newborns will "spoil" them. Some fathers feel that, until they are 6 months old, babies cannot see. Or hear. Or feel pain.
A surprising number of parents will not put their children in a crib. They're afraid of crib death, although the crib itself, of course, has nothing to do with Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
A parent does not have to be poor to be overwhelmed with the responsibility of child rearing. Middle-class parents also frequently don't know what children need.
"As bright as they are, they are totally unprepared (to be parents)," said Pat DeMar, director of a Family Focus drop-in center in Lincoln Park.
While poor parents may lack knowledge, said DeMar, affluent parents, ironically, sometimes have too much.
"They read numerous books, on child bearing, on child rearing, but they reach a point where they're so well-read they lack security in their own instincts," DeMar said. "I worked at Cabrini-Green and Robert Taylor, and I saw better parenting because they felt their instincts were OK."
Without adequate parental involvement, children can be so far behind when they enter school they have great difficulty catching up, even if the school does its job.
At Terrell Elementary School, 5410 S. State, next to the Robert Taylor Homes, fourth-graders made a year's worth of progress in reading during 1987. Yet they still remained about 1 1/2 years behind the national norm.
"We have to work twice as hard to get the children half as far," said Terrell Principal Reva Hairston.
Parents often instill in their children a distaste for school that never goes away.
One young mother, Kathy Jackson, sees her lack of participation as the cause of her son Robert, 11, having trouble in school.
"He's not interested in school," said Jackson, "I didn't read to him, I didn't do anything with him. I believe that had a lot to do with it." She said she has begun to read to her younger son, Rodney, who is enrolled in the Dewey Child Parent Center, 638 W. 54th Pl., and that he seems to like school.
It's futile telling some parents to read to their kids. "There is that tug-of-war between being a responsible parent and doing what you want to do," said Laura Devon of Ounce of Prevention, a statewide project aiding children at risk.
Many parents are illiterate. One of every three to four adults in Chicago is functionally illiterate. From 650,000 to 1 million Chicagoans above the age of 16 read below the sixth-grade level. Only one-half of 1 percent of these adults are enrolled in literacy programs, according to the Chicago Literacy Coordinating Center.
Illiteracy itself, though, needn't prevent a parent from enriching a child's early years and helping to foster a desire for learning.
"Even if you can't read yourself, you can contribute by telling your child anything from fairy tales to stories of your childhood. You create a social event in which the child gets the idea of gaining meaning," said James Garbarino, president of the Erikson Institute for Advanced Study in Child Development.
Many parents are themselves children. In 1986, 9,959 children were born to teenage parents in Chicago. If these children were entering Chicago public schools today, they would represent one-third of all kindergartners. Studies show teenage parents are more hostile and punitive to their children. They also don't talk or listen to them as much as older parents do.
"I was 15 when I had my little girl," said Estasia, a mother in the Beethoven Project, which assists parents in caring for their children. "I had to give up cheerleading. I loved that uniform. She was my responsibility, from the moment I got home from school."
"There is that tug-of-war between being a responsible parent and doing what you want to do," said Devon of Ounce of Prevention.
"Often young parenting increases the incidence of child abuse and neglect. We've seen that in news accounts of the last couple months, where a mom left her baby in a cold garage. Many young moms might think it is OK to leave an infant in that situation for a couple hours."
More than 10 percent of the babies born in Chicago are also dangerously underweight, according to the Public Health Department. Low birth weight - anything below 5 1/2 pounds - is caused by a range of prenatal factors, from drug abuse to poor nutrition to depression.
Low birth weight is a factor in 70 percent of Chicago's infant mortalities, and surviving low-weight infants have a greater chance of suffering physical and mental handicaps.
Most poor parents want the best for their children, according to the Sun-Times study. They just don't know how to get it.
The survey shows that 65 percent of parents come to school to discuss their children's progress more often than the two times required to pick up report cards.
"You don't discuss your child's progress unless there is interest," said Ted Sanders, Illinois education superintendent, commenting on that figure.
And nearly six of 10 try to help their child with homework, according to the study.
"I've never met a parent who didn't want her child to succeed, but some of them don't know what to do," said Reva Hairston, principal at Terrell for the last 12 years.
"So much depends on the home life and how much parents do with their children as far as listening and talking to the child," one teacher wrote, echoing a sentiment of many of those surveyed.
Although a distinct minority, some parents seem to have almost no involvement with their children's education after they start school.
About 14 percent of children have parents who have never come to school, not even to pick up their children's report cards.
"Many children raised themselves, and come to school when they feel it's time," said Pam Stevens, director of the Dewey Child Parent Center. "I went to a house on a home visit, and the door was open, the babies walking around, and the parents nowhere to be found."
Almost one of 10 children is regularly more than 15 minutes late for school, and 15 percent of all children miss more than five days of school a month, according to the Sun-Times study.
Bowden of the Drake school said she has one child who was absent 51 days and another who was absent 40 days this school year."I think some parents are so overwhelmed with their own problem they can't see, so their priority is self preservation," she said.
Teachers say many parents don't like to visit schools because it reminds them of their own academic failure.
"When they come to school, it's because their children are destructive," said Dr. Grace Dawson, principal of Beethoven School. "They come to school for negative, not for positive, reasons."
While parental involvement will improve a child's chances of school success, increasing that involvement is not easy.
"It would be nice if we said to parents that involvement is in your child's best interest, and they would do it," said Dewey director Pam Stevens. "But we have to use all kinds of bribes and incentives. We have to persuade. We have to be evangelical. There's a big gap between where we are and where we are supposed to be."
— Originally published in the Sun-Times, June 29, 1988
My son is a special ed teacher for 3 to 5 year olds and has been doing it for over 25 years. His stories break my heart and I marvel that he has been able to continue doing this heart-rending job for so long. I pray to God that there will always be people like him to. help the little ones!
ReplyDeleteThat there are illiterate people in this country in this day & age is beyond appalling. I can remember the time I was behind someone at McDonald's who actually couldn't read the menu board above the counter. he had to have the cashier read off all the items to him so he could order. he was in his 30s!
ReplyDeleteI have no idea on how to cure this, because it seems that there are people who just don't want to learn to read anymore!
The new millionaires' tax and a suburban payroll tax (looking at Neil!) tax on those who unfairly benefit from the city would help. Add-in a modest increase on state, County, City sales taxes to increase equity school funding and more taxes on streaming services, dry cleaning, and food sales (unhealthy fast food and more taxes on sit-down meals, again we see you Neil!). This would be a good start. Otherwise, the racism Neil spotlights will continue. Can we get some editorial support from the wealthy, isolated, and over-resourced suburbs, Neil? Thanks, Lynne.
ReplyDeleteTo quote a popular song from the 1970s:
DeleteAnd the politicians say more taxes will solve everything... And the band plays on
Whyeven tax billionaires, right? Capitalism will reach its peak when one person owns everything.
DeleteYes this article from 40 years ago could be written today. A tragic circumstance which has other components such as incarceration and discrimination as a broader component..
ReplyDeleteBefore I had my own children I volunteered with the juvenile department of Cook county. I took on twin boys not yet teenagers who had already been arrested as mentees.
It was a month before I met their mom who would just put them out on the porch for me to pick them up and I soon learned that first place we needed to go was to get them something to eat
Eventually I got into the apartment and she was locked in her room while we would do homework at the table.
One of the boys could not read and I discovered providing material that he was interested in encouraged an interest in magazines. I'm fairly certain I never read a book in his life
Sports illustrated and hip Hop culture were two of his favorites and after about a year he was able to read.
I remained involved with them for a number of years somehow they did graduate grammar School but neither one of them would go to high school they just wouldn't go and there was no one there to make sure they did.
I was at banquets where mentors were honored for the work that they did and these young people some of whom were headed for college were quite the shining example of what could be accomplished by volunteers.
It didn't turn out that way for me. one of the boys was a parent at 15.
They both continue to have trouble with the law. And substance abuse.
I would see them two or three times a week and I would bring them to the shop on the weekends to sweep up so that they could learn a work ethic and some skills that I hope would brighten their future. They also have a few dollars in their pocket
Alas Sam died of an overdose on New Year's Eve 1996 he was 19
His brother couldn't come to his funeral because he was doing 3 to 5 years for a carjacking.
I thank God everyday that my own three boys have grown up to be fine young men there was a time when I blamed myself for Sam and Dan's failure to thrive.
A lot of children just never get a chance for success and even if that chance comes along later in their lives they don't always take advantage of it their mom dragged them down stole from them and continued to abuse them casting them from her home when they were 16.
Homeless drug addicted with a record how did their children ever stand a chance?
Generational trauma is difficult to escape.
Teachers cannot be expected to be able to be much help when the parents aren't providing the foundation of support required to enable these children to achieve success.
Oftentimes they end up simply providing child care and can't really do the educational exercises that one would expect in a classroom.
Thank you for reprinting this it reminds me of the time when I thought I could make a difference.
I still believe that we can somehow just don't know what the answers are
Sadly, I remembered seeing this story as soon as I began reading it. Two brothers...one dead and one in jail. And almost forty years ago, Mister S told a devastating and disheartening tale of early childhood illiteracy and neglect that is still happening today, and which may even be worse.
DeleteMy wife was a volunteer tutor for the Cleveland school system, which is abysmal. Her job was to help kindergartener's catch up. It was like trying to empty Lake Erie with a spoon.
She soon found out that many of the kids did not even know their "letters"...their parents had never taught them the alphabet. So they were not only starting from scratch, they literally didn't even know what scratch was.
The biggest problem was the transiency factor. A kid would start making progress, and then disappear. Their parents moved often, and residency and living situations were often temporary, short-lived, and fragile. Evictions, breakups with spouses or partners, arguments with relatives,...and suddenly the child would be gone from the neighborhood, and living on the other side of town.
My wife saw some the same kids two and three years in a row. They were dropping out and failing kindergarten repeatedly. Kindergarten! And they were forgetting everything my wife had taught them. "I was staying over on the East Side", a kid might tell her. It was always "staying"...not "living"...which even adults of color say. Tells you a lot about what their lives are like...whether they're 5 or 55.
Changes in school personnel made the situation intolerable for my wife. They were micromanaging her to death. She quit, and began tutoring at an organization called Seeds of Literacy. it's exactly what it sounds like...allowing adults to be able to learn enough to pass the GED exams.
Some of her students are dropouts, some are immigrants whose English skills are limited, and some are just the folks who fell behind early, struggled to survive, and then had kids of their own. My wife is much happier now, and she feels like she is making a difference, one person at a time.
I also remember this column when it first came out in 1988. I feel as helpless now as I did then. I have a lot of rant within me on the topic but will spare all of us by not dredging it up. I just wanted to express gratitude to FME, Grizz's wife, Linda C-B and all the others who volunteer so much of themselves to individuals caught in this quagmire. you are the best our communities can offer. Thank you.
DeleteCindy said: "You're welcome!"...and added that it's an old story...one that goes back far beyond the Eighties. Her first husband was a teacher.
DeleteFME that was good of you and kudos to your wife, Grizz. Some people though should never be parents and are so irresponsible. And now the goon administration wants to cut off Head Start funds.
DeleteSadly, this is the case in some of the poorer neighborhoods.
This gets to the absolute heart of one of this country's most persistent problems. If equal opportunity is to become reality, it needs to start before birth. How much progress would be made if every child born was wanted, fed, cared for, and welcomed by society? How many other problems might we forestall?
ReplyDeleteThe adult literacy problem is another huge factor in this and I have no idea how to address that. None whatever. And little if anything will hold anyone back more than the inability to read.
Alan, yes!
Delete
ReplyDeleteJoseph Kellman, a successful businessman born in North Lawndale, founded a Corporate Community School there that exists today. He was one of my own mentors and a dear friend. We met when he reached out to me after a 1981 Sun-Times story about my foster son, who came home with us after three years in pediatric intensive care at U of I. Joe and I kept in touch for decades about emotionally abandoned kids and what to do for them.
He raised serious corporate money for that school and its teachers, and spent it well. He also knew money wasn’t enough.
What’s left to raise is the awareness of adults willing to act, a relatively scarce resource that’s dwindling: tutoring, volunteering, CASA, fostering, voting locally on behalf of schools (where a relative few usually turn up.)
Nearly 40 years on, the question is still what parents lack, understandably a focal issue. But a child doesn’t only need a better parent — she needs more adults who see her. That isn’t a program. It’s the rest of us.
Back in the old days of my youth, there were many who believed we should spend lots of money on public education in order to give all students an opportunity to succeed. But in the latter days of the 20th century, fewer and fewer cared about spending money to help those students. And here we are, almost forty years later, with public schools that still can't meet the needs of all students! So much for progress!
ReplyDeleteFor the last 50 years there has been an open assault on education in this country, spearheaded by the right. It started with Reagan.
DeleteSchools have been defunded. Public works projects erased. Promises that prosperity will trickle down from those with all the money.
Study after study has proven every republican initiative to be exaggerated in their successes or flat out lies.
Any vote for a republican, or really anyone at this point in the "center" is a vote to destroy everything good the united states has ever stood for. and you can quote me on that. the elite in this country are the welfare queens we were warned about, but our black and brown brothers and sisters voting is the real issue.
Reagan and the Republicans are not the reason that some kids don’t even know the alphabet. Re-read the article. Catastrophic failure of parenting is the problem here.
DeleteMy comment was in response to Audrey's comment, Joe Doakes.
DeleteHowever, I do believe that while the parents do deserve some of the blame, the lack of support given to keep our most vulnerable above the water line by republicans (spearheaded and started by Reagan) deserves a much larger percentage of blame.
I believe that the functionally illiterate rates have gone up since Reagan was in office.
Breaks my heart in so many ways. I read a book similar to this in the mid 90s I can't remember everything about it, but i know it followed a few kids from the Chicago projects and really helped illustrate how they had so much to overcome, just to get to "even."
ReplyDeleteThere was a time when we as a society believed in bettering ourselves and the world around us... at least most aspects and most people.
Sesame Street is a wonderful example of that.
In an attempt to help enable children who had less involved parents (parents that had to work two or three jobs, single parents, many other reasons) to get closer to their peers when they entered kindergarten, by means of already available technology and access, Sesame Street was created. The show was developed to be a small stand-in for a parent who couldn't be there. After all, the kids were going to watch TV anyway, why not give them educational television, for free, and help them out at the same time.
Research showed this to be wildly successful. Ironically, the results in children who had involved adults was even greater.
I don't want to suggest that sesame street would have saved or helped these kids. But i do want to point out that we were actively invested in those children. Even if it was .5% of every ten cents spent in the US, we were doing something. Something selfless that ended up becoming crazy selfish.
Republican's ended up weaponizing that. Civic engagement became woke. Learning about AIDS and your neighbors was a bridge too far. If they can't indoctrinate children how they see fit, it must be wrong.
And besides, what does it matter if you can't read these days? you can still be a YouTube star, a republican congressman, or president.
Teachers should be paid a million dollars per year. the top .5% of the richest people in this country should cover the educational and nutritional needs of every single sub 18 year old in this country. The welfare queens are the rich. man these truths anger me.
Um -- you mentioned the care of your three grandchildren --- typo? or has another recently appeared? If the latter -- congratulations!
ReplyDeleteThank you. No typo. Number Three arrived three weeks ago. Quite exciting.
DeleteAnd you didn't say anything at the time??
DeleteOr some parents who aren't fit, want others to do their work for them.
DeleteOh wow, 3 and can you mention the gender on this one? Nothing was mentioned. I know you had one of each before this. Is this from the older or younger son? Congrats!
ReplyDeleteThis story deserved a repeat and glad you did that.
ReplyDelete