How Will You Leave Your Mark On the World?

Often when I'm hiking, I see trail markers that people have left. Usually they're fairly nondescript, composed of small rocks gathered from the trailside. Sometime they indicate direction, reminding hikers to stay the course, keep climbing, move right along; but other times they just seem to send a more subtle message from the hikers who created them to the world - I've been here. Please remember me.

I think, if we're honest with ourselves, we all want to leave our mark on the world. Maybe your mark will be bold and maybe it will be subtle. But whatever it is, make sure that it's true to YOUR course, your direction, your purpose. And know that often times, your mark might be discovered by people long after you've left it. Impact isn't always immediate, or glorious, or proud. But if it's genuine and heartfelt, then it's always important.

Who Are the "Have-Nots," Really?

Affluence separates people. Poverty knits 'em together. You got some sugar and I don't; I borrow some of yours. Next month you might not have any flour; well, I'll give you some of mine. – Ray Charles

This quote from the late, great Ray Charles really speaks to us – in part because it does such a good job of reminding us of the importance of not viewing people who may seem different from us with a deficit mentality.

Working with low-income children and families, it can often be tempting to focus on what people do not have – and on how they might be more successful academically, socially and emotionally, if their lives looked a bit more like ours.

But the truth is, we will be far more effective if we can recognize the strengths that exist in these families and communities and then empower the people there to build upon them in ways that work for them.

An example: One of the most admirable qualities we often find in low-income neighborhoods is exactly what Charles describes here – an amazing support network of people who are willing to help each other through times of need.

Really, it is not surprising that such a network is not as easily found in middle and upper class neighborhoods, because in those communities, people can more easily pay for things like childcare and transportation.

In lower income neighborhoods, valuable support networks often evolve through informal barter and trade systems, where one person provides a service for another individual or family and gets something in return when needed.

This is seen, for example, with car repairs.

In middle class neighborhoods, people are more likely to pay for a mechanic to repair a car. And if the car becomes too unreliable, it is replaced with a new one. But in low-income neighborhoods, people recognize that they may not be able to go to work or take family members where they need to go without transportation. And so they come to rely on each other, helping each other with repairs.

This sort of support network is an enviable one, especially to middle and upper-income families who may have made numerous moves in order to secure a better job or to gain new experiences.

So, next time you are in a community or with individuals who are different from you, we hope you will see the assets of the community – it is never really as simple, after all, as simply being a “have” or a “have not.”

Study: Low-Income Children Can be Well Prepared for School if Families are Equipped to Help

Parents matter.

This is one of our strongest and most deeply held convictions at The Institute for Educational and Social Justice.

And those convictions were reinforced once again this past week, with the release of a study that shows that a rich home environment can close the readiness gap that has dogged low-income children for years.

The study seems to show that children from low-income families can enter school well prepared if certain factors are found in the home.

These factors included frequent literacy activities in the home, including telling stories and nursery rhymes. Maternal engagement, including how well mothers respond to their child’s needs and cues and tried to stimulate language development and thinking, also was critical. The availability of certain educational resources, including books, toys, musical instruments and art supplies, also seems to play a role.

Our hope is that this valuable research can be used to help make the case for more classes for low-income parents. These classes could help build understanding about how to read to children effectively, ways to ask questions about reading, and to build on storytelling and other verbal communication skills that parents have.

At the same time, it seems that providing low-income families with learning materials also could be valuable in increasing school readiness.

One interesting finding in the research is that many low-income children who start their lives with supportive families find that support flagging by the time they are about three years old – a critical time in literacy and language development.

This is a reminder to us that parents need to be encouraged not just when their children are born, but throughout the parenting process.

Are you familiar with effective parenting classes? How do you think we can best support low-income families? How might this research be used to help make that case?

Our Children are Much More than the Grades on their Report Cards or the Scores on their Standardized Tests

At first glance, you might see an "average" teenage boy - one who loves to play football, talk to girls, and listen to his I-pod. A boy who does well in school, and yet every time a teacher praises him for his academic promise, he looks away as if embarassed. He wonders where he'll go to college and worries about what his future will look like. He has a short temper sometimes, and other times can appear withdrawn and introspective.

But if you look a little deeper and listen a little more closely, you might just understand the complex story of this young man.

It's the story of a child who remembers, at the age of seven, being told by his mother to put his shoes on the wrong feet, wear his shirt backwards, and "act retarded" when they went into the government office to collect the child's disability check for $700 a month. And it is a child who, when the government agency cut his disability funding because they realized not only was he not mentally disabled, but he was excelling in school - bringing home all As and Bs and scoring high on state standardized tests, started to hide his report cards so his mother wouldn't beat him, stab him, try to shoot him. Because, you see, she "needed" his $700 a month to help support her drug habit, and because her son was excelling in school, she no longer received this money.

So this is a story of a boy who, by the time he was thirteen years old, was on the streets selling drugs because that was the only way he was allowed to come home. His mother would kick him out, repeatedly, and then charge him $50 to come home and sleep in his own room for a day or two. She might beat him while she was home, or she might be so drunk or high that she'd forget he was even there.

And the story goes on. This is really only a glimpse into the life of a young man who is fighting every day to make a future for himself that looks different than his past.

But he cannot do it alone. And he can't do it until the adults in his life, the ones who are helping him keep his grades up, coaching him in football, keeping him well-fed and on the right medications to manage his bi-polar disorder, giving him a warm, safe place to sleep every night, take the time to understand the complexities of his situation.

And if there's any lesson that this young man can teach us, maybe it's that our youth are incredibly resilant, but they still need our love and support. And they still need us to take the time and effort to listen to their stories and honor their voices. And, if we do so, we just might be reminded of the many ways in which our children are much more than their grades on their report cards or the scores on their standardized tests.

Taking Small Steps when Big Ones Feel Too Difficult

“We can do no great things, only small things with great love.” – Mother Theresa

Is it just us, or has the news – from the local level all the way to the international one – felt more than a little overwhelming lately?

The Middle East is more unstable and unpredictable than ever.

Natural disasters have left many dead and even more with lives in complete chaos and despair.

Good people who have dedicated their lives to serving children, families and communities are losing their jobs because of budget cuts.

In such times, it is easy to become overwhelmed.

There is so much that we, as advocates for educational and social justice, cannot even begin to understand – much less do our part to fix.

During these times, we think it’s important to take heart in this call to simple love and kindness from Mother Theresa.

Although we should strive to do as much good as possible, and to think and work strategically and systemically whenever possible, there also are some days when, maybe the best that we can do is to put one foot in front of the other, to smile, to offer an encouraging word or a hug.

Those small things, when done over and over without any expectation of personal gain, can be the beginning of something very big – and very important.

And often, that is more than enough …..

A Student's Dilemma: "I am just so poor."

Sometimes, knowing that something is bound to happen doesn’t make it any easier to accept.

That was the case this week, when I received emails from two students informing me they would be dropping my class – not because they didn’t enjoy it or were struggling academically, but because they said they don’t have the money to pay for the class or need to pick up extra hours at work for financial reasons.

“I am just so poor,” one student, a quiet young lady with a bright smile and a natural sense of curiosity, wrote in her note. “I have to work more hours and just really can’t afford to be in school right now. I have looked at my budget and all my options. It’s just not possible for me right now.”

People, including fellow community college faculty members, sometimes argue with me about the merits of such explanations.

“Going to community college is cheap and there are all kinds of loans available,” one colleague from a neighboring college told me. “It’s really not that big of a deal. These students are just giving you excuses.”

And maybe taking on a few thousand dollars in debt over the course of a community college career doesn’t sound like much of a financial risk to those of us from middle or upper middle class backgrounds.

But taking on debt of any amount can feel too risky to many low-income students, particularly those who may have family members, including parents, younger siblings or their own children counting on them for financial support.

Some students are understandably apprehensive because they have seen people around them attend school and graduate but then, for some reason or another, not go on to secure a higher paying job.

For these students, college seems to not only have not paid off, but it seems to have saddled them with unnecessary debt they don’t know how to pay back.

It is true that community colleges remain an excellent option for many of America’s students, particularly nontraditional students and those from low-income backgrounds. And it is true that the poorest of students can often receive subsidies that do not require repayment. But many students are still not earning enough to comfortably attend school and take on loans and it is causing them to abandon their college and career plans.

Ideally, students who see themselves as “so poor” should still be able to figure out ways to remain in class – and instructors like me should have options to offer them.

Will the growing number of multi-racial families help bring racial reconciliation?

The nation’s mixed-race population is growing far more quickly than many leading demographers estimated, according to this thought-provoking article in the New York Times.

In North Carolina, the article says, the mixed-race population doubled, while in Georgia it grew by more than 70 percent. Similar growth was seen in Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, Iowa and South Dakota.

The statistics are even more impressive when you consider how much ground has been covered in the days since the Civil Rights Movement. In 1967, after all, it was still illegal for blacks and whites to marry in Mississippi. Today, the state is seeing substantial growth in the number of interracial marriages and in children who are identified as multi-racial.

At the same time, older people, who were not always as proud of their mixed ethnic heritage, are increasingly likely to identify themselves as being multi-racial. This self-identification represents a dramatic shift in thinking for many of these adults, particularly those who grew up in the Jim Crow South.

What do these shifting demographics mean for those of us who are advocates for educational and social justice?

Will race become a less divisive factor, as more people identify themselves as being multi-racial?

Will discrimination wane as the racial lines that all too often divide us become less clear, or will we simply find that society finds new ways to judge and discriminate?

The changing attitudes and relationships represented in this latest batch of statistics seems promising.

But truly, only time will tell whether we are able to move beyond ugly racial divisions and tension, to a place where, as Dr. Martin Luther King implored, people are judged by the content of their character instead of the color of their skin.