This
article focuses on talking about poverty amongst children and seeking ways on
which to help them out of poverty. There are many ways in which to try to fight
poverty and get children the help they need to have a better life, but the
system that we have today is working either too slow or not working at all.
Poverty
amongst children has had a great impact on my life due to the fact that my
parents didn’t have a great childhood after all and in the end they would be
placed amongst children that have no hope to achieve anything. Luckily my
parent’s realized that if they stayed in Mexico they weren’t going to have a
somewhat stable life, so they decided to start a new life here in the U.S.
Despite the fact that living here in the U.S. has opened many doors to my
family and me there are many obstacles that one has to go through to place the
oldest child in college. I feel lucky to be here with you all at DU simply
because of where I come from but I can’t help and remember all of my cousins
that weren’t as lucky as me to be here and now are fighting weekly to just get
by and pay their bills.
My cousins
are not the only ones that have fallen through this path, there are thousands
of people whom did so as well. The important fact to notice here is that there
are many more children running the risk of falling this dark path as well. This
situation has to get better and eventually disappear. My questions are as
fallow:
What would
you do to help children get out of poverty?
Would you
inject more money in the education system or in help services for parents?
Do you
think this situation would ever disappear? Why?
Do you think
the resources available today benefit the poor? Why?
I believe there are a lot of programs who's goals are to end poverty "one step at a time", such as building a house for the poor families or sending care packages. I myself would love to have this experience but have not been able to. Second of all I believe that sometimes the problems aren't the education system (although most of the time it is) but in my experience a lot of Mexican kids drop out of school because they have no other choice but to get a job and in order to help their parents. I feel like injecting money in education systems would be a good idea but only beneficial to those who stay in school.
ReplyDeleteI feel like poverty will always be a situation in this world, it is the problem every wishes to disappear but sadly it is not the countries first priority.
I believe there are many resources available to aid the poor such as food stamps and WIC because they provide necessities for families.
I agree with Jami that the entirety of the problem does not fall onto the education system when many students drop out to help their family. While this may apply to students who are old enough to get a job, the elementary schools could use more money and better programs to help children at an earlier age. If primary schools have a better education program then the children will do better and be more likely to stay in school and graduate. I think injecting more money into both types of programs, education and help services for parents, are necessary to reduce poverty among children. I dont think you can have one without the other and expect poverty to disappear.
ReplyDeleteAnother really important to note is how we fund education in this country: a funding system predicated on the income of the neighborhoods the schools service. What we often end up with is a system which specializes in catering to those with deeper pockets. A system of redistribution more than likely will act as a impetus for change in struggling communities. Education, in congruence with Bridget and Jami, can not be played down. But the cyclical cycle of poverty is a serious problem, and as Jami mention, many students of various background do not finish school to help their family. A newly developed educational platform (not yet implemented) actually focuses on an older group of students who can go to formal night classes to achieve GEDs and along those lines, help prepare these students for trade schools.
ReplyDeleteAaron Hinds
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jesus that the current education system is not where it should be when it comes to lower-income families. As a native of Florida, the Governor's policies when it comes to enriching the state is cutting crucial programs for the people like cuts to the education system. I think that educating our youth needs to be more of a priority for our politicians and legislators because I do feel that they take America's past education levels for granted. One thing that I would, if I was in a position of power, to get children out of poverty is giving low income neighborhoods and families easier access to state and federal grants and funds so that they can get the proper materials they need for their daily lives. Also, if I was in a national position, ensuring that education budgets are either the same across the country or given a strict minimum in which state politicians cannot cut their educational budgets below that level to ensure that each student. I think that poverty does have a direct correlation to the educational levels of a specific community and increasing the budgets of poor neighborhoods so they can rebuild their schools to either accommodate more students or make it more enjoyable for students to go to school and get an education is crucial as well, in my opinion. Eventually, I think the problem will disappear as long as we put the right amount of pressure on our leaders to make sure that they understand our feelings when it comes to educating the youth and I think simple American stereotypical fears will also, one day, play in part in that some Americans have a fear that either China or Japan will overthrow our hegemonic power since they have a higher value on their education than we do, so that may fuel American desire to educate the youth as well. Resources today could benefit the poor if that was the sole mission of people. I think that people don't really bother with helping the poor and getting rid of poverty since it doesn't affect them directly, so our resources are not being used to their greatest outreach and extent. However, there will be a day, hopefully, that poverty will end and young children everywhere will receive a quality education that they deserve.
Poverty among children is often a underrepresented topic. I think it is quite pernicious, yet it is something that we neglect and instead talk about the poverty of the parents. I think children are a special group, and are affected by the impacts of povery in very different ways than their adult counterparts. In terms of education, if we look beyond the stratification of property taxes for schools and look at federal programs like No Child Left Behind, these have more of a negative impact on areas of lower income than higher income areas.
ReplyDeleteBuilding onto all of the prior comments, in a class recently I had a guest lecturer present on the correlation between child development, adulthood success, and poverty. It was discussed that children are the future, and therefore we need to be putting as many viable resources into the success of the younger generations as possible. Everyone has been discussing education, and while I feel that that is very important, there are other factors that come into play as well. Living conditions and available resources (as Jamie suggested, housing or care packages) are often of very poor quality for people living in absolute poverty, which is a significant portion of the lower class. I think that that is where the attention needs to be focused; that is where the government needs to put in effort. That will translate into kids being able to focus on their education and not having to worry about their families' financial situation, and therefore lead to less dropouts and a more educated younger generation as a whole.
ReplyDelete