It is what the Harlem Children's Zone is about. Curing a dysfunctional community.
Of course, Harlem is different from most other communities, in good part due to segregation. The model may not work in many places due in part to that difference.
EDIT: The above was intended to be a response to the following post:
We've talked about this.
The only solution I've seen us come up with as a group are boarding style schools, where the child can be removed from the bad environment which is dragging them, and basically reparented by social workers, housemothers, and teachers.
When there is no effective parental role model in the home, or in the child's extended family, the child is going to be at risk unless you remove them from the home. Children will find role models that are like family- and in the inner cities those are like to be gang members.
You could start with mothers, at the birth of their children, and invest a lot of time and energy into making them better role models- but I'm not sure society is willing to do that, even though I think it would be cost effective, especially considering the number of children at issue in some of these families. But the more punitive model of taking children away might work- and might work for most of the children, if you could get over the squeamishness of terminating the parental rights of toxic parents. |
