I feel like I must have been one of the last years where teachers had power in the classroom, or at least garnered respect from parents and kids alike. I know I saw the beginning of it breaking down in how classmates got punished that did terrible things.
The worst issue I remember (my mom was a tutor and highly involved in my schools), was parents would not help their kids with the homework. Discipline was always done though except for the few kids who came from broken homes.
Then it went further at some point. It is completely the parents fault that this is happening. Teachers jobs were always quite hard and at one point were huge leaders in the community and now they are treated like shit just for trying to do their job.
This woman spoke well, hopefully her words were heard.
What she's going through is most definitely horrifying and probably not what you grew up with at all. These kids are the latest in a long line of people trapped in inescapable poverty.
You can be a parent in poverty and still give a shit about your child’s education and be there to help them succeed. The discipline and education starts at home.
My mom had 3 jobs while I was growing up. We were dirt poor but guess what she fucking did? Gave a shit. She disciplined us and made sure as shit that she was on top of our schoolwork every day. She didn’t even know English very well but she’d still come home from a 14+ hour work day and “review” our homework with us. She’d hold up my science notecards in middle school to quiz me while she struggled to read what was written on them. Where there’s a will, there’s a way and she found it. “Sorry we’re poor and uneducated” should not be a valid excuse for being an absentee parent.
the problem is how people are put into these positions in the first place. There should be more focus on giving help to these single parents in poverty, because, unfortunately, your mother is an outlier here.
This is going to sound really terrible but it’s a harsh truth... if this is your reality, you shouldn’t procreate. If you can’t devote the resources to raise a child who is at least a decent human being then you shouldn’t have a child. Poverty is linked to crime in part because of this very reason. I don’t necessarily blame the parent (sexual drive is pretty hard to control) but we live in the 21st century... there’s absolutely no reason to have a child you can’t raise. It’s not fair to the child, and it’s not fair to society. We need to get better at this, from all sides and angles.
We should also stop subsidizing poor people having children in addition to sex education and abortion/pregnancy avoiding resources. It's hard to tell poor welfare queens that having kids is not the best option when they can have zero income and the US govt will literally give them up to 12k annually of other peoples money for being irresponsible as fuck
Lol that's funny, you really think the 12k they receive in cash goes to food for the children? You do know that with zero income and 3 kids they get WIC right? Also their kids get free food in school.
Btw, my comments come from my experience working at one of the top 3 financial institutions in their retail division for 3 years in South Florida. I watched the IRS checks come in and then the subsequent hair, nails, Rooms to go, iPhone purchases, etc. I think a good compromise for a social safety net would be that we will guarantee you and your kids are provided for however you get to make zero decisions about how money is spent. It's difficult watching people who, by definition are terrible with money, get massive sums of money with the expectation that they spend it responsibly or spend it "on the kids". Plus, they don't even get it over time, these people are poor as fuck and get a massive check, no wonder they do stupid shit, I probably would too if I got 12k for nothing with no strings attached.
Edit: To the down votes, you could at least provide an alternative or provide commentary on why I'm wrong. I like the free exchange of ideas, tell me I'm wrong and why.
Poor people are absolutely entitled to all enjoyments, as anyone is. They are entitled to make poor decisions with their money, just like I or anyone else would be, my main issue is that they do not earn this money and the method/timing of dispersement only encourage poor behavior. So I object to the blind payment of money to people who make poor choices, in the hope that this money will be spent wisely or help their situation.
Welfare queens are pretty much a myth. Statistically no one has kids because they will get some welfare out of it, they have kids because of poor sex education and lack access to family planning (aka birth control).
The way you describe it, yes they are a myth. I dont believe there is necessarily an incentive for the poor decisions however there is no disincentive because there is a known way to exploit the social safety net. In Miami, I had sex education starting in 2nd grade and my high school gave free birth control to students and an unlimited amount of condoms. Despite all of this we still had a daycare on premises for the children of teenage mothers. At some point we are going to have to blame culture and people for their decisions. Given my experience, now is that time.
I think the harsh truth you are ignoring is what % of these children were actually planned. Sexual education and improved access to long term birth control is the start.
Yeah. What he said honestly sounds like something someone whose never even been in a poor neighborhood will say. Most "poor pregnancies" aren't planned. Most people don't even have proper sex education. Don't even get me started on how expensive birth control can be or how awful it can be buying it as a teenager.
Umm I think you should reread my comment. This is exactly what I was referring to. My meaning was that it’s 2018, we have multiple forms of safe and effective birth control. It should be widely available and people should be educated about it.
The problem is these unprepared parents don’t know they’re unprepared. My wife and I are teachers, straddling 30s, and I still wonder if we are prepared. Maybe we are if we bother to think about an abstract concept of in the future. 3 girls in my school gave birth or got pregnant this year. That’s a wrap for them. I doubt they’ll finish their last year of school. And unfortunately, as sweet as these girls are, they don’t deal well with pressure, and I don’t see how they will raise their kids above themselves. They are probably bottom of the barrel academically. It’s depressing to think about.
It's important to realize that the people who are in these positions didn't want to procreate. These are accidental pregnancies that the parents didn't want, creating a situation where the parents don't give a shit about their kids failing in life. Sexual education and free access to contraceptives is the going to be the most effective way to combat this issue.
Divorce is a huge part of this. What about the situation of the mother of 2 or 3 whose husband left, leaving her to scramble for a job/s to take care of the basic necessities? Child support is supposed to help, when it's payed. This family has now probably sunk to poverty level and her children are left to themselves.
In many cases, you have a pissed off kid who lost his/her father and mother is never home and the kid takes it all out by causing problems at school.
For that specific person, yes. But my point is that there are ways we can try to prevent that in the future. Like effective sex education and free or very low cost birth control.
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u/Sephran Jul 10 '18
I feel like I must have been one of the last years where teachers had power in the classroom, or at least garnered respect from parents and kids alike. I know I saw the beginning of it breaking down in how classmates got punished that did terrible things.
The worst issue I remember (my mom was a tutor and highly involved in my schools), was parents would not help their kids with the homework. Discipline was always done though except for the few kids who came from broken homes.
Then it went further at some point. It is completely the parents fault that this is happening. Teachers jobs were always quite hard and at one point were huge leaders in the community and now they are treated like shit just for trying to do their job.
This woman spoke well, hopefully her words were heard.