As reported in yesterday's Chronicle the recession is hitting kids hard. There's less at school and less at home.
The article quotes the recently published California Educational Opportunity Report: "one in four California students lives in poverty and is likely attending a school with reduced funding, larger classes and fewer instructional materials."
But what's the solution? The middle class is struggling too. . . The key point in the Report for me is this: "The short term is crucial for the millions of students who can't wait for the economy to improve. They only get one chance to have a high-quality and equal education." I think we are blowing that chance.
In their inspiring book, Half the Sky, Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn share a Hawaiian parable about a boy walking along a beach. Thousands of starfish have washed ashore and their chances don't look good. As the boy picks up a starfish and throws it back into the water a man asks - why bother, there are too many for you to possibly make a difference. The boy answers, "It sure made a difference to that one."
The issues contributing to our education disaster -- unemployment, underfunded state pensions, foreclosures, rising health care costs, crowded prisons -- are too complex and too politicized to be solved in time for today's 8th graders. As the Report makes clear, even if we could pump more money into schools, that won't solve hunger, homelessness and underemployment.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/mpark/detail??blogid=164&entry_id=55893#ixzz0dXdgw3GJ