Elizabeth Barrette (ysabetwordsmith) wrote,
Elizabeth Barrette
ysabetwordsmith
  • Mood: tired

Pushing on the Short End of the Lever

I saw this article ...

James Forman Jr. | No Ordinary Success
James Forman Jr., The Boston Review: "How much can schools improve the life prospects of children growing up in poor neighborhoods? This question has divided the education community since at least the 1960s, when a group of researchers led by James Coleman attempted to quantify the extent to which segregation hurt black children. Coleman concluded that differences in family background had a greater impact on student achievement than did differences in school quality."


... and had to wonder if it ever occurred to anyone to create a concerted program for teaching family skills in poor neighborhoods. Yes, education is important; good schools help, while bad schools can be fatal. But of course family environment has a huge impact -- children can't learn well if the parents are drunk, stoned, violent, neglectful, terminally clueless, or otherwise worse than useless.

Think of raising a child like trying to grow a tree. It needs good soil (the family) and good light (education). You can't fix a soil nutrient deficit by holding a magnifying glass over the leaves.

We need to nourish families. First that means stopping the habit of picking on ones that aren't fashionable but do work, such as families headed by pairs of siblings, or by grandparents, or by homosexual couples, or by single parents living together to save money. Second, it means reaching out to people in need and teaching them practical and social skills that can improve family function. Ideally, the outreach should be done by people who have lived through similar circumstance, or who share ethnic, religious, or other common ground with the target audience.

For instance, I was pleased to see a MOPS booth (for mothers of preschool children) at a local event with a big sign encouraging "Teen MOPS" to join so they could learn parenting skills from experienced mothers. There was even a tent for breastfeeding, changing, and other baby care. MOPS is a Christian organization that actually puts their faith into practice with activities that meet people's needs. That's worth emulating. Even if the teen mothers eventually decide to practice some other religion, they'll have more parenting experience and friends to build on.
Tags: education, family skills, networking, news
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  • 2 comments
browngirl

browngirl

June 3 2009, 12:20:39 UTC 12 years ago

I've seen such programs run out of churches and community centers (you know, the kind of community activism Republicans derided during last year's campaign).
ysabetwordsmith

Cool!

ysabetwordsmith

June 3 2009, 17:29:05 UTC 12 years ago

I think that community involvement is better than government involvement for most purposes, particularly social ones like this, although grant money and networking from the government can be a big help. Local folks usually do a better job of understanding and solving local problems. So it's really encouraging to hear that people are working on this in at least some places.

For a party that purports to believe in "family values," the Republicans seem to spend far more time attacking families than supporting them. The Democrats do somewhat better, though I think the Green Party is far and agone ahead of everyone else on family/community issues:
http://www.gp.org/tenkey.shtml