How Society Fails Our Children

This article is written for the children who don’t have responsible parents. For the children that are being neglected and feel that they have no one. When a child is born there is only a limited number of people involved in that child’s life: the hospital where they were born, the parents, the family members and the doctor’s office. After a period of time, the community might become aware that there is a new baby that has just arrived. So from the moment that child is born until the child enters either pre-school or kindergarten the community is the only thing besides family that might be in contact with that child.

When the child gets old enough for school, more people will be involved in the child’s life: the doctor giving a physical for entrance into school, the community, the parents, and the family members.

The key factor in all of these; is the community’s interaction with that child. There is no one else to see if that child is safe, especially if family members do not come around or if the child doesn’t go to church or school yet. Please keep this in mind; the bad people will continue to do bad especially when they know no one is taking any responsibility for that child. If the parent doesn’t accept responsibility for whatever reason, the community HAS to step up and intervene. The child needs to feel safe within the community. For an example, if you had an emergency, your children would know where to run. They would know the person’s house that they are going to. This is the same circumstance, but this child doesn’t know you or anyone else in the community. Where is he/she to go? Who’s going to protect them and look out for their safety? Who are they going to turn to? We need to be more proactive, don’t wait for someone to come knocking at the door. Take the initiative and go knock on their door. And guess what, if people are coming around looking, let them, let them be nosey because at this point, not being nosey is killing too many of our young children. They don’t even get a chance at life. So if someone comes to your door and wants to talk, talk to that person and say ”thank you for caring,” because that’s all that it is. I would rather have someone care than not care at all.

When a child starts school there are more people around the child. At this point, there might be the bus driver, the school teachers the principal, maybe family members and anyone else. At this point, these are the key people involved with the child, and the community as well.

Usually when a child experiences something, it will reflect in a child’s school performance. There is usually a drop in the child’s grades, or the child starts getting into trouble, acting out. When a child brings home their report card and his/her grades have dropped down from an A to a D, this is a sign that’s something’s wrong. The teacher will probably have a conference with the parent to make sure they know about the problem and to get their input about the matter. Things will be monitored more from that point. But if you get more than one child in a classroom that has bad grades, and there are over 30 students and one teacher, how much can you truly monitor? Oh I’m sure that a plan was devised to help bring the child’s grades up, and the parent probably had to sign off on all the children’s assignments, but that and maybe a follow up meeting is it. I have spoken about a responsible teacher, a good teacher. But what about all the teachers that are sitting there babysitting for the day? Why are they still in the positions to teach our young? You know the ones I’m talking about, they pass the child along, just because. They don’t issue any homework assignments because they don’t want to spend the time grading it. Those types of teachers don’t deserve their jobs, and they give teaching a bad name. Those types of teachers are not helping our children and they are not worth their paycheck. So let’s get rid of them.

I feel so sad for these children and I honestly feel that our system has failed so many of them. All those little voices are not being heard at all. This is not the teachers fault; they have heavy workloads and oversized classrooms. And their jobs are being cut. What we have been doing simply hasn’t been working. Why would you care, it’s not your responsibility? Guess what, it is your responsibility! You will be paying for a long time for that child’s lack of education. You will pay for special schools for them to go to when they get kicked out of the public school system, juvenile detention centers, and maybe the penitentiary. So yes, you will pay for these children either now or later. Remember, if a child wants attention, they will get it either positively or negatively. If they’re not getting positive attention at home, they’re going to get the attention they need, negatively.

How can we help? What can we do about it now? The answer is simple; give a teacher the help that she needs to do her job effectively. So what does that mean? It means give her more help in the classroom. I know people are grabbing their heads going, but we’re getting rid of teachers. Yes we are and it’s so sad! Do we really as a society want our children to do poorly in life? I don’t think so. I think there should be 1 teacher and 4 or 5 assistant teachers in every room. This will help insure no child slips through the cracks. It’s time our society starts fixing all the problems with children, before there is no more hope. They are our nation’s future. This is what I feel should take place. If a child’s grade starts to fall, have the teacher speak with the child, and then one or two of the assistants. What you’re trying to do is figure out WHY the grades are dropping. What’s changed, or what has happened to the child that caused him/her not to care about their grades. This has everything to do with home issues and not school issues. You see, if anything bad happens to a child, it will be during the school years and it’s our obligation to look out for them. Let that child interact with a few different people. Sometimes children feel more comfortable with one person over another. After the teacher and a few of the assistants have spoken to the child, then let the parents know about the grades slipping.

After the child and the parents have been spoken to about the grades and no changes have taken place, it will be time for the next step. The school should have a counselor, more like a social worker to see what’s going on with that child. I do feel that a school counselor should be mandated for every school at the elementary level. Let the child build a rapport with someone, they will have to learn to trust that person, and a teacher simply does not have the time. It might just make them feel better knowing that they have someone on their side, someone who cares about them. Please remember one important fact; a child will not divulge any information about anything unless they feel 100% safe. That’s why there should be 4 or 5 assistants; they can open up and speak freely. If the child is abused in anyway, they will protect the parent. Try and get children involved in after school activities; they learn how to interact and it helps their coping skills as well.

I cannot tell you how many times during my life time I have seen a rocket blast off into space. I cannot tell you how many times I have seen an athlete that just signed a new contract with a new team with earnings that are just shocking. I cannot tell you just how screwed up our society is. Take those things that I just mentioned and then add this to it. The number of times you’ve heard about a child being beaten to death by someone in their own household. The number of times a child has been sexually or mentally abused by someone in their own household. The number of times that a child died in their own house; with no parental supervision. And that doesn’t even count all the children that have been hurt or hit by a car because of a parent not watching them. How many parents don’t know where their kids are, or what their doing? How many of them actually care? If you don’t care about your child, why do you have them? Why don’t you put them up for adoption and let someone else raise them and love them? Why are older children parenting younger children? That is not their job, it’s the parents job. That’s why we have to do something. As a member of society, and as member of the community as well we need to take these children under our wings and watch out for them and keep them safe, we might be all they have. We might just be the only one who cares what happens to them. Let’s change what hasn’t been working and find something that does. My plan is just that, a plan. It might not be the ideal way of resolving the issue, but it’s a start. It’s a plan that if initiated, might just save the life of a child. Or much better put, if this plan was already in place, how many lives would have been saved. And by saved, I mean juvenile detention centers, penitentiary and possibly death. We owe it to our young; let’s start hearing their silent cries.

I want to mention that the state of Indiana has recently passed a law that will have classes on dating and violence as part of their curriculum in their schools. This is a very positive change and I hope that more states follow in their footsteps. Thank you to the state of Indiana for taking that huge step in incorporating humanitarian issues into the curriculum. Awareness brings knowledge, and knowledge plays a vital role in prevention.