Hi, Mikey!!!
Gee, I was going to respond sooner and formally welcome you to the Feelings thread, but as you so colorfully remarked, there was a lot of piss in the cornflakes over here, condoms flying around instead of phonics books, and all sorts of less than harmonious stuff going on, so I wanted to clean up the place a little first. Anyway, I enjoyed talking to you at 'Tis the Season, and was happy to see that you dropped by.
I think that maybe some people assume incorrectly that everyone around here was born with some sort of silver spoon in his mouth--sterling or at least plated--because we are all so erudite now, and such clever investors. But you are the second person I have encountered who has been either homeless or close to it, and I bet there are a lot of others for whom it was so painful an experience that they don't even want to talk about it, less admit it publicly.
I would agree with you incidentally, about illiteracy, education and what the child brings with him to the classroom. There are some schools where I live where half of the five-year-olds have witnessed a serious beating or a murder. Many of these disadvantaged children have never lived with both parents, and may never have seen their fathers. Some of their mothers are strung out on crack cocaine, and the children are being reared by aunts and grandmothers. They come to school hungry, and the meals our local school cafeterias serve them are often frozen in the middle, reheated improperly so that the food is spoiled, and held in unsanitary conditions. A child who is damaged, frightened, malnourished and hungry is almost certainly not going to be ready to learn, and the tendency is that he will fall further and further behind over time.
The fact that a child comes from a broken home, however, does not mean that we can afford to write him off, or moralize about how it would be a lot better if families were intact. Of course it would! But that does not help these children who already exist, many of whom will end up in our prison system unless the larger social pathologies are addressed.
I believe that we should fully fund HeadStart, and start it earlier, and make sure all the children who need it are able to attend. I have not figured out how in a democratic society we would be able to seriously discourage women who are drug addicts or alcoholics from having children, but I think offering extensive, high quality substance abuse treatment on demand would be helpful. And the patchwork programs we have to help children whose homes are so horrible that they need to leave, and the throw-away children whose parents push them out, could certainly be improved so that they have a viable second chance.
Not likely in the political climate today!! Penny wise and pound foolish, we are willing to spend big bucks to imprison people later, but not a little bit now to feed and otherwise care for children at risk and try to ensure that they grow up strong instead of suffering.
Anyway, Mikey, thanks for stopping by! My soapbox seems to be disintegrating in this heavy rain we are having, and I'd better go before I turn into papier mache or something!
Christine |
