The other day my husband and I were talking about the many continuous cycles of life in the “˜hood. We both grew up there, so we’ve seen it occur firsthand. It doesn’t happen to everyone, but it happens to more than we’d like to say.
Usually, if you’re living somewhere in the “˜hood, you’re not too well off financially. Maybe there are exceptions to the rule, but I’ve yet to meet them.
Because you are possibly forced to live paycheck to paycheck and are barely making ends meet, you really don’t have the means to move out. So you’re stuck there until things get better ““ if they ever do.
Once you have kids, they eventually go to school and the crappy schools are typically located in the ghetto. You’d better not try to send your kids to a good public school that’s outside of your zone, lest you be thrown in jail (and thus being unable to be there for your children).
And because you’re in the “˜hood, the high price of private school is probably not much of an option”...so your kids are left to receive a sub-par education that barely prepares them college. If you’re truly lucky, you’ll be in an inner city school zone that has one of the few exemplary facilities ““ but those are few and far between. Your best hope is to win a charter school lottery and send your little one(s) to one of those. But many of them don’t have busing available”...so now you’ve got to figure out how to get them to school and not be late to work at the same time. Can’t afford to get fired. That’s a whole ‘nother issue.
So your kids grow up in a losing school system, while the toxic waste dumps that are usually located in the poorer neighborhoods are slowly making you and your family sicker and sicker over time. But you don’t even know it, because it’s a gradual death that occurs over decades of living near one of these hazards. Healthcare is crazy expensive, and you can’t afford to pay it out of pocket. Let’s pray you have a job that provides health benefits. If not, once you actually start to show signs of said (possibly terminal) illness, you’re likely to be stuck at the free clinic or some other sketchy neighborhood medical facility in order to hopefully get yourself healthy.
Education is the known key to success. Your kids were forced to receive a below average education that hasn’t prepared them for much, so while you’re slowly slipping away and receiving less than satisfactory medical care, your children are trying to figure out a way to make life better for the family. After all, family sticks together. They plan to go to college so they can graduate and get a good job. But again, the education system failed them and they aren’t prepared to compete for scholarships that would hopefully be the beginning of an end to this cycle. You can’t afford to send them to college; the medical bills are piling up. So they try their hand at a community college, hoping to end the cycle of life in the “˜hood and get the whole family out once and for all. All too often, these kids end up having to drop out for some reason or another.
They go back home, get a job that barely pays the bills but covers just enough. They eventually have kids. The education system is now failing your grandchildren…
Where does it end? Why is there such a clear discrepancy between the haves and the have-nots? It seems to be that if Waiting for Superman is any indication of where we’re going with education in this country for our children, many of us are doomed before we’re even born. What are your thoughts?
Let me say this first, I live in Philadelphia where we have school choice via lottery and plenty of charter schools(some good some bad). My parents sent my brothers and I to a public school outside of our neighborhood for k-8 and then we went on to different high schools, here in Philly you apply to high schools or go to your neighborhood school or in our case it would have been the feeder school from our k-8. Now that I am a parent, my children have always been bused or dropped off by us at their elementary charter school(our school district buses kids beginning in 1st grade). I live directly across the street from my neighborhood elementary school but refuse to send my children there. My neighbors are so impressed that my children don’t go there, but I am doing what is right for mine. I don’t consider my neighborhood the ‘hood…there are only a few duplexes(houses converted into apartments), the majority of the homes are owner occupied, you can’t see the projects from our block(I believe the closest is about 20 blocks away and they have a different neighborhood school), the crime rate is very low, etc. But I know people who left my area for a nearby county(fake suburbia) and they talk bad about where I am despite the poor education quality and crime in their new neighborhood.
Here’s my take in relation to my city….you can get out of this cycle!!! For my fellow Philadelphians it is nothing more than thinking out of the box, yes there is a school a few blocks from your home but how good is it? If you’re not happy there you can send them someplace else pretty easily. If your Section 8 or PHA grant is well below normal rental rates(these are housing subsidies) then your child should not be wearing the high end clothing and shoe lines, instead invest that money into bettering their future(computers, books, extracurricular activities, etc.). My husband broke the cycle, his childhood home was nicknamed “the home of the brave,” his mother raised him on welfare and paid $15 a month rent…he got a job as soon as he could and has continuously worked ever since, we own our home and cars, and the list of cycle breakers goes on. The cycle can be broken!!!!
Let me say this first, I live in Philadelphia where we have school choice via lottery and plenty of charter schools(some good some bad). My parents sent my brothers and I to a public school outside of our neighborhood for k-8 and then we went on to different high schools, here in Philly you apply to high schools or go to your neighborhood school or in our case it would have been the feeder school from our k-8. Now that I am a parent, my children have always been bused or dropped off by us at their elementary charter school(our school district buses kids beginning in 1st grade). I live directly across the street from my neighborhood elementary school but refuse to send my children there. My neighbors are so impressed that my children don’t go there, but I am doing what is right for mine. I don’t consider my neighborhood the ‘hood…there are only a few duplexes(houses converted into apartments), the majority of the homes are owner occupied, you can’t see the projects from our block(I believe the closest is about 20 blocks away and they have a different neighborhood school), the crime rate is very low, etc. But I know people who left my area for a nearby county(fake suburbia) and they talk bad about where I am despite the poor education quality and crime in their new neighborhood.
Here’s my take in relation to my city….you can get out of this cycle!!! For my fellow Philadelphians it is nothing more than thinking out of the box, yes there is a school a few blocks from your home but how good is it? If you’re not happy there you can send them someplace else pretty easily. If your Section 8 or PHA grant is well below normal rental rates(these are housing subsidies) then your child should not be wearing the high end clothing and shoe lines, instead invest that money into bettering their future(computers, books, extracurricular activities, etc.). My husband broke the cycle, his childhood home was nicknamed “the home of the brave,” his mother raised him on welfare and paid $15 a month rent…he got a job as soon as he could and has continuously worked ever since, we own our home and cars, and the list of cycle breakers goes on. The cycle can be broken!!!!
We need more mentors and people that have “made it out” to help people out of the cycle.
We need more mentors and people that have “made it out” to help people out of the cycle.
I was educated in the Detroit Public Schools, went to college, and have been gainfully employed for more than 20 years. I still live in Detroit but it is by choice. I am not living paycheck to paycheck nor was I raised in a household that barely made ends my meet. My parents chose to live in Detroit and raise their children there as well.
The tone of this article is so incredibly negative that it is hard to determine the authors motivation. As the previous person commented, the cycle can be broken. Consider this, maybe there was no cycle of poverty. Maybe some of the individuals that live in the ‘hood do so because they believe in their neighborhoods and want to contribute to the “comeback” of large urban cities.
Hmmm…I fail to see the “incredible negativity”. Sounds to me like the author is pointing out an observation from a 1st hand perspective. Everything isn’t green grass and roses and sometimes it just is what it is. I agree with the sentiment. There are numerous examples in society of the broken cycle but there are many, many examples of the cycle continuing. Reality isn’t always a pretty picture.
I was educated in the Detroit Public Schools, went to college, and have been gainfully employed for more than 20 years. I still live in Detroit but it is by choice. I am not living paycheck to paycheck nor was I raised in a household that barely made ends my meet. My parents chose to live in Detroit and raise their children there as well.
The tone of this article is so incredibly negative that it is hard to determine the authors motivation. As the previous person commented, the cycle can be broken. Consider this, maybe there was no cycle of poverty. Maybe some of the individuals that live in the ‘hood do so because they believe in their neighborhoods and want to contribute to the “comeback” of large urban cities.
One of the things I notices is that we are saying that the answer is to take our kids out of the schools that they are in rather then making those schools better my question is this why not work to make the schools better. Not just one parent but a group of parents this will not get better unless we stick together but it seems that we have lost that part of ourselves. In this society we have bought into the me way of thinking. There was a time when we could not go to this school or that school and sit at this lunch counter or that lunch counter and work in this job or that job and we made it. I also feel we were on the verge of creating our own. We still can but WE have to do it together.
Sounds good, but what are you supposed to do in the meantime while you’re helping to fix the school? I’m sorry, but I’m not sending my kids to a bs school just so I can help fix it. I’ll help fix it, but rest assured, my kids are going to a much better school while I’m helping to fix the one that sucks. They’re academic potential will not suffer so that I can make it better for other people’s kids. Again, I’ll help make it better for other people’s future kids, but while I’m doing that my kids will be getting a great education at another school in the interim.
One of the things I notices is that we are saying that the answer is to take our kids out of the schools that they are in rather then making those schools better my question is this why not work to make the schools better. Not just one parent but a group of parents this will not get better unless we stick together but it seems that we have lost that part of ourselves. In this society we have bought into the me way of thinking. There was a time when we could not go to this school or that school and sit at this lunch counter or that lunch counter and work in this job or that job and we made it. I also feel we were on the verge of creating our own. We still can but WE have to do it together.
You act as if parents are passive observers in the educational process? Do these patents value edu ation, attend parent teachers conferences? Are the kids led to believe being smart is acting white but selling drugs is admirable? How many books are in these homes vs video games? Black kids watch more tv than any other group? Why?
The schools are a reflection of the values of the community. I recall my detroit teacher friends dealing with violence, aids, gangs, the glorification of ignorance and drug culture. We get the schools we demand.
God bless all who make it out with gifts and tenacity to help improve the places where they came from. Luke 12:48 “For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom
men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.”
Totally agree the cycle can be broken. We (my husband and I) are living proof of that. But sooooooooo many people we know are still stuck. Some of it through their own poor choices in the past; others because of various other reasons no one is privy to but them. I have friends and family members who are still going through the cycle and it breaks my heart. I want to help but we obviously cannot fully financially support our family AND someone else’s. So we do what we can for them and do charitable work in the communities, as well. My husband and I both mentor and he speaks to youth in the poorer communities all the time. We have to do our part. Somebody was there for each of us; we’ve got to be there the pull others up and out. too.