If we could solve poverty we could solve a lot of our problems in society. Most of the problems we associate with race really have to do with poverty. Educated people usually find a way to sustain themselves and make a living. Uneducated people are more prone to find illegal ways to make a living. But we need to go farther back and say why do people shun education, to spend the rest of their lives living hand to mouth? If we take that step back, we come to the basic family structure and that is the crux of the problem.
I want those of you who are educated and seemingly making a good living, to think about how your family and your peers encouraged you and mentored you as you grew up and went though the education process. Left to your own means, you would not be where you are today. So I ask the question. How do we somehow intervene in this process of having family’s be more responsible for the well being of their off spring, and especially as it pertains to education. Poverty begets poverty and for many of those families with illiterate children, it’s becoming a way of life. What government interaction we do see, seems to be focused on taking over the chore of raising these kids for these people. Something that just exasperates the problem.
My grandfather told me, “When you raise your son, you raise your son’s son. If you fail in that process you will fail generations to come.” We need to, as families, encourage others, brothers, sisters, even neighbors to do their jobs as parents and educate their kids. No government intrusion will ever work. Just common sense caring for each other and a way back to the basic way of living life. Education first.
Last week in St Paul, there was a story in the news, of St Paul teachers hitting the streets to recruit more students for their school district. A district, which is millions of dollars in debt with declining enrollments. I applaud these kind of efforts by educators and especially if their target is kids that are no longer going to school. My parents were poor people who knew the value of an education and would not have ever allowed any of their children to quit school. The biggest reason for declining enrollment in public schools is two fold. Parents who allow their children to quit school, by not caring if they go to school or not, is the big one. The second reason is competition from private schools. That being said the competition problem in schools is not contributing to the illiteracy problem, only to the public school problem of declining enrollment. Parents who pay to send their kids to private schools are very well involved in their children’s education.
Look. I’m just an old writer with a lot of opinions based on living seventy some years of life. But along with those opinions are some dreams and aspirations for the world to come. I know those will have to come from the youth of today. My class had their chance and we didn’t get the job done or I wouldn’t be writing like this, would I? To the parents. Tell your kids you love them and please, please keep them in school. This country needs new blood and new leaders if we are going to make this country great again. Yes, I said again, because were not as great as we once were.
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