Thank you for your insightful comments, Liz. I wasn¹t speaking of welfare queens¹ which I consider to be a pejorative term, rather parents who have come to expect and demand that schools do their job for them.
What I see on the front lines are kids who are kept home two or three days a week to babysit for younger children. One really nice student comes to mind. His parents go off to the casino and leave him to watch his 11 month old sister. Many of the parents we have are receiving assistance which is why their children are eligible for the breakfast and lunch programs. The most supportive parents are those who come to ³Back-to-School Night². Those we really need to see do not. Turnout for these 12+ hour days is usually very poor even though they are held right across the street or around the corner from where they live. Isolating children with head lice is not as easy now. One can send them home with a note from the nurse, but if they SAY they have treated them we have to admit them. That also goes with ringworm, amongst other communicable maladies such as the recent highly contagious Hand-and-Mouth disease. Most schools do have Nurse Practitioners, just not everyday and trust me those NP¹s are really stretched thinly. The other two days a week the School Community Coordinator handles it. Vaccines are free to poor families at Health Centers. We direct them to the closest ones, or ones that have personnel that speak the home language of the parents. We have the Eagle¹s Vision Van come and kids get free eyeglasses. We had Charming Shoppes come in and give every single, solitary kid a winter coat, scarf hat, gloves a school bag and school supplies; really nice stuff! Some of the kids lost those coats, some lose their glasses, maltreat them, break them or refuse to wear them. We do so much and it seems as if it¹s never enough and quite often not appreciated. Neither parents or children say ³Thank You². Some do of course, but the sense of entitlement boggles the mind. Not to mention all the extra work needed to organize these events. I daresay most people on this listserv have not been inside of a public school building lately. If my vote could do something to change the way these children are being brought up, so be it. However, the public cannot do everything and there has to be a limit at how far people can push the envelope for services and not do anything for themselves. Before I am accused of painting all parents with a broad brush, I am not. However, people need to know what schools are really like now. Try to catch ³Hard Times at Douglas High playing on HBO now. It¹s a good documentary. Wilma On 6/28/08 7:56 PM, "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > The myth of the Welfare Queen is often just a myth. For every mother who > chooses "hair extensions" over feeding her children there are many more who > are cutting their own portions to make sure their children get 'enough'. > > I see enormous sacrifices by some of the parents delivering children to the > school next to my home. Some walk their kids, rain or shine. Others > accompany them, to and fro, on SEPTA, than complete their own rides to work. > > As a society we are still voting bombs as a higher priority than child > welfare. Maybe basic "Food, Clothing and Shelter" should be 'entitlements'. > Schools make a good delivery system for food, and could also be used to > deliver the mandatory vaccines and other health check-ups that confound so > many parents living on the edge. It would be sooooo much easier to bring a > Doctor or Nurse Practitioner to a school, than to direct 600 families to a > health center. Maybe Schools could run year round or maybe some practical and > socially beneficial use for the buildings could be found for the summer > months. > > Healthy working parents are often overwhelmed by the demands of scheduling > family requirements. If we acknowledge that a huge number of humans are not > healthy, and that many suffer from debilitating mental illnesses and that many > of the ill are parents, than stresses within the current system become more > evident. > > As adults I believe our obligation is to comfort, feed and educate the hungry > children before we challenge the failing parents to do better. > > Teachers are the salaried front line of defense for our kids. There are good > teachers, and there are some that are worse than the stereotype of the > 'welfare queen'. Often teachers deliver tissues, require hands to be washed, > isolate the kids with head lice, report those who appear to have been abused > and quiet a riot before chalk touches black board. Like parents, teachers > need support systems. > > Society is complicated. Most of us contribute. DINKS might pay more in > taxes, for services being directed outside their own needs. Parents might > invest a greater portion of their time and money to their own kids. Those > kids might be our future tax base. Stay home parents might be eyes on the > street, a quiet deterrent to afternoon crime and possibly a group that gardens > or makes our parks look more people friendly. > > It would be nice if "them" were not just 'problems' but also 'opportunities'. > It would be nice if "we" paused, often, to contemplate all the good we > receive, and to say thank you. I am grateful that Wilma, provokes thought. I > usually, but do not always agree with her. I do admire her clear, frank, > brave writing. More than most, she enables me to better understand something > that is rolling around in my brain, collecting the lint of foundered ideas and > stuttered words. > > This is an election year. We have less than 5 months to declare our choices. > I hope all eligible Adults: register; make time to think about their visions > of a better society; examine candidate skills and plans; VOTE, for the people > that will bring us closer to the society we want. > > All the best! > > Liz Campion > > ---------- Forwarded Message ---------- > ... When you have parents lamenting the end of a school year because they > expect > schools to give their children free breakfast ad lunch, well... > > Why buy food and cook when <a parent> could use that money for hair extensions > that > take eight hours or more to put in. > > That is what <teachers are> up against. > > > ____________________________________________________________ > Click to for great deals on pitching machines and baseballs. > <http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2142/fc/Ioyw6i3mj5aJDRYcD2mtbtAm45YqeMV2R > UjeQUBH1TBhf5wSSHsTKJ/> >
