Reply to It's (finally) time for reparations. It's time for the US to pay its debt.

Forum Index » Political Discussion

Reply to "It's (finally) time for reparations. It's time for the US to pay its debt. "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]Example: Black children do not do as well in school as white children. There are many reasons for this. [b]We need to look at those reasons and fix it. [/b]One reason is that poor black children don't go to preschool. So they came up with Head Start. It worked, but only covered a small number of children. So let's have Head Start for all poor children. I don't know what this costs. The improvement in school and job performance down the road is big social economic benefit, so we don't need any other justification.[/quote]

I began my career teaching very, very poor Black children along with a handful of whites who were also very poor. 
 I would not say that the Black kids did not do as well as the white children I taught at that time.  Economics was the driver more than the color of the skin.

Now, for the reasons that these kids did so poorly:
Home environment.  When kids are poor, and it is systemic, there are lots of issues in the home.  I am absolutely convinced that this has nothing to do with lack of love--but lack of knowing how to raise them.  This is the systemic issue--not systemic racism.  The following are generalizations, but indications of the problems.  And, again, this is true for Black and white, but in this case, my classes for these years were primarily Black with a handful of white kids.
1. Lack of books and reading material in the home.  
2. Lack of respect for the value of education.  If the parents had a bad school experience, this is also systemic.  They frequently do not show up for conferences or school events.  Sometimes it is because of work, but sometimes, it is just the lack of interest.
3. Drugs and alcohol. If mom is passed out on the couch, the kids are not getting lots of attention.  (This can also be a factor in affluent homes, but it is pretty common in poor families.)
4. Yelling at kids rather than talking to them--poor parenting skills.  Poor discipline in the home.  
5. Behavior of kids--I broke up fights every day, and these were first graders.

I taught one little girl whose 19 year old brother was charged with a vicious and violent rape of a stranger.  I felt very bad for the mom because she was a parent who did try very hard to do the right thing.

I taught another child whose dad was killed in a knife fight in a bar.  She had frequently talked about her dad affectionately.

This same child passed a tapeworm in the restroom one day at school.  Kind of explained her stomachaches.

One boy didn't come to school because he had no shoes.  Our social worker took him to get shoes.
This child was extremely bright and had been to Head Start.  No question that Head Start is helpful to these kids.

Do you think it is easy for kids to learn in these circumstances?  But, just handing out money won't fix it---again, drugs and alcohol.

I don't have the answers.  Schools with poor kids get lots more federal money than the  more affluent ones.  The problem is that the money does not get to the classroom or kids--it is siphoned off at every level of the bureaucracy.  We did have a teacher write up a grant for extra teachers that succeeded.  Too long to go into detail here, but we had a very successful, simple program that was quite effective for math.  But, it was a [b]grassroots program[/b] that was developed by an extremely talented and creative teacher (not me, but I was proud to be a part of the program.)  
The problem with the money is that people try to make complicated programs that end up spending money on materials and programs rather than teachers who work directly with kids.    Our program was simple.  It had a basic premise: take the kids where they are and push and pull them as far as you can.

Money in education is frequently wasted.  Just check out the contracts for technology and textbooks.  Follow the money.

Suggestions:

Parenting classes starting at birth--in the hospital. 
Head Start is helpful. Get all the poor kids into it.  
Smaller classes
Simple, basic academic programs--expand as kids get older.
Afterschool tutoring and activities in the school
Access to technology--but not total reliance on it, nor too much of it
Community schools--make it convenient for the parents to get there, and try to offer parenting classes or interest classes of some kind.  Encourage parents to volunteer,

What does not work
Busing--I taught in a bused school.  The more affluent left  (white flight).  When kids are bused in, it makes it harder to get parental support.

Later, I taught in schools that were a cross section of American demographics--without the extreme poverty.  But, the skin color was the cross section.  There was absolutely no difference in the achievement of Black, white, or Hispanic.   So, it is not race.  The difference?  All kids had at least one parent with a decent job.  Definitely not affluent, but working.

[/quote]
I am the PP you are responding to and I agree with almost all of this.  I think it's true the racial gap is really a poverty gap.  What we are calling systemic racism is really just the fact that black children is more likely to be born into poverty and less likely to get access to the educational and other resources they would need to do better than their parents.  That's why I brought up Head Start as an example and I appreciate that you've filled in the picture more fully.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics