As the parent of a precocious two-year-old, public school education has never meant so much to me as it does now. I was blessed to have had parents with the means, and the wherewithal, to send me to a private, all-girl, college Prep school called Notre Dame de Sion. When you say it put some French on it! Now my little one is participating in public education. But at this rate she won't be for long because I cannot afford to fail her by sending her through public school.
This week the Hickman Mills School Board voted to cut the Parents As Teacher Program (PAT) budget by 50 percent http://www.kctv5.com/education/27528532/detail.html. PAT works with parents to teach them how to teach their children from birth to kindergarten. http://www.parentsasteachers.org/about/what-we-do They aren't building weapons of mass destruction, they are educating OUR children who might otherwise not have access to one-on-one tutoring. They work with special-needs students. They are educators with years of experience and the certifications to back it up. These are the teachers that all students and parents want teaching them. Yet when lawmakers look at ways to curb spending, such programs are the first to suffer.
This is devastating because jobs will be lost, and children between the ages of 1 and 5 will lose out on valuable pre-school learning that is essential for future educational success. We as a society know that if we set our children up early they will be successful later in school. But why do lawmakers keep failing our children?
More importantly, all of OUR children must be educated. Not just those whose parents can pay for school or relocate away from blacks and browns to send their kids to public schools so homogonous, and white washed as to be just like private schools. We are all connected on this planet, yet we act as if we are separate. If one of our children are suffering in ignorance then we all suffer. Case in point, when children are failing in school they often are distracting and act out which takes away from the others who want to learn. Our kids pay the price. Then without the foundation for career success, kids who drop out of school often times end up on welfare or in prison, where they ARE society's responsibility.
PAT is truly a gift for me and my family because my two-year old now possesses a 150-word vocabulary, and it's ever expanding. Its due to the twice-monthly visits at our home with her parent-educator, Karen, who teaches me how to teach. It's the books we receive monthly, and the baby- sing-and-sign classes that have clearly given my little one a leg up on her age mates. Gymboree two times a month has taught her countless physical developmental skills. Because of PAT she is prepared for school NOW. When I talk about the priceless gifts imparted by PAT I cry. Tears roll from my eyes because this child is but six generations from slavery. I boo hoo because of the opportunities that will be afforded her because of her knowledge. Joy fills my heart and tears tumble from my eyes in a dichotomy of emotions that overtake me at times. I have a purpose.
I also shed tears when I work with her three-year-old playmate who cannot decipher numbers or words at all. She is in a daycare where they are "teaching" her. I cry because her parents don't know how to access the assessments and tools that will give her a 150-word vocabulary. I despair because her parents were educated in public schools, and they do not know how to be outraged because of her delays. I cry because there is a school system waiting for this child that is comfortable with cutting much needed funds for her, and her schoolmates. I cry because lawmakers trade our children for the blood money of big corporate interests. I cry because the likes of many businesses like H&R Block and Jackson Hewitt Tax Preparers market to uneducated and impoverished consumers helping earn them $4 billion in a four-month tax season. http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/04/gary-rivlin-tax-prep-refund-anticipation-loan I cry for this country.
Education cuts have caused many an Englishman to rise up and strike a blow to the rich and wealthy Royal Family http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/12/09/world/main7134510.shtml . The French know how to pick a fight with their president when their children are being short-changed, yet Americans do nothing as our future is slowly being imprisoned by but a few rich and powerful like the Koch Brothers whose goal is to keep the working man a captive-consumer http://thinkprogress.org/2011/04/13/koch-industries-price-gouging/ . Where is our American fight? Where is our American outrage? Where is our indignation!
We must ask ourselves who does it serve if an individual possesses a quality-education that empowers them to take care of themselves and their families.
This week the Hickman Mills School Board voted to cut the Parents As Teacher Program (PAT) budget by 50 percent http://www.kctv5.com/education/27528532/detail.html. PAT works with parents to teach them how to teach their children from birth to kindergarten. http://www.parentsasteachers.org/about/what-we-do They aren't building weapons of mass destruction, they are educating OUR children who might otherwise not have access to one-on-one tutoring. They work with special-needs students. They are educators with years of experience and the certifications to back it up. These are the teachers that all students and parents want teaching them. Yet when lawmakers look at ways to curb spending, such programs are the first to suffer.
This is devastating because jobs will be lost, and children between the ages of 1 and 5 will lose out on valuable pre-school learning that is essential for future educational success. We as a society know that if we set our children up early they will be successful later in school. But why do lawmakers keep failing our children?
More importantly, all of OUR children must be educated. Not just those whose parents can pay for school or relocate away from blacks and browns to send their kids to public schools so homogonous, and white washed as to be just like private schools. We are all connected on this planet, yet we act as if we are separate. If one of our children are suffering in ignorance then we all suffer. Case in point, when children are failing in school they often are distracting and act out which takes away from the others who want to learn. Our kids pay the price. Then without the foundation for career success, kids who drop out of school often times end up on welfare or in prison, where they ARE society's responsibility.
PAT is truly a gift for me and my family because my two-year old now possesses a 150-word vocabulary, and it's ever expanding. Its due to the twice-monthly visits at our home with her parent-educator, Karen, who teaches me how to teach. It's the books we receive monthly, and the baby- sing-and-sign classes that have clearly given my little one a leg up on her age mates. Gymboree two times a month has taught her countless physical developmental skills. Because of PAT she is prepared for school NOW. When I talk about the priceless gifts imparted by PAT I cry. Tears roll from my eyes because this child is but six generations from slavery. I boo hoo because of the opportunities that will be afforded her because of her knowledge. Joy fills my heart and tears tumble from my eyes in a dichotomy of emotions that overtake me at times. I have a purpose.
I also shed tears when I work with her three-year-old playmate who cannot decipher numbers or words at all. She is in a daycare where they are "teaching" her. I cry because her parents don't know how to access the assessments and tools that will give her a 150-word vocabulary. I despair because her parents were educated in public schools, and they do not know how to be outraged because of her delays. I cry because there is a school system waiting for this child that is comfortable with cutting much needed funds for her, and her schoolmates. I cry because lawmakers trade our children for the blood money of big corporate interests. I cry because the likes of many businesses like H&R Block and Jackson Hewitt Tax Preparers market to uneducated and impoverished consumers helping earn them $4 billion in a four-month tax season. http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/04/gary-rivlin-tax-prep-refund-anticipation-loan I cry for this country.
Education cuts have caused many an Englishman to rise up and strike a blow to the rich and wealthy Royal Family http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/12/09/world/main7134510.shtml . The French know how to pick a fight with their president when their children are being short-changed, yet Americans do nothing as our future is slowly being imprisoned by but a few rich and powerful like the Koch Brothers whose goal is to keep the working man a captive-consumer http://thinkprogress.org/2011/04/13/koch-industries-price-gouging/ . Where is our American fight? Where is our American outrage? Where is our indignation!
We must ask ourselves who does it serve if an individual possesses a quality-education that empowers them to take care of themselves and their families.
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