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<p>People care a lot about their own young ones. It is more questionable about how much they care about others’ young ones.</p>
<p>Notrichenough…</p>
<p>Yes, it is true that statistically, children from single parent households have worse educational outcomes. They are also more likely to drop out of school, more likely to get involved with drugs, more likely to have a teen pregnancy, and more likely to live in poverty, more likely to commit suicide, and more likely to commit crimes. They are also more likely to be victims of sexual abuse. </p>
<p>Does that mean that a child is doomed if raised in a single parent household? Absolutely not. There are just a higher incidence of these issues amongst children raised in single parent homes.</p>
<p>Hmmm… interesting article [Life</a> Satisfaction Among Children in Different Family Structures: A Comparative Study of 36 Western Societies - Bjarnason - 2010 - Children & Society - Wiley Online Library](<a href=“http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1099-0860.2010.00324.x/full]Life”>http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1099-0860.2010.00324.x/full)
</p>
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I did say “in general”. How much higher is the incidence? </p>
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What does this even mean? What about if you control for “actual” family affluence?</p>
<p>In any case we are talking about educational outcomes, not “life satisfaction”.</p>
<p>“Feel somewhat lynched here. Just felt Dstark’s tone was completely off key in terms of the American sentiment for kids right now.”</p>
<p>I don’t think that was anyone’s intention, and I don’t see personal attacks on the thread, just conflicting points of view.</p>
<p>Okay, guys. I think there is a lot of bathos in our society right now about kids, poor kids, etc. and I think a lot of that is driven more by self-interest among those whose personal franchise happens to be in teaching said kids, working with them, fostering them, whatever.</p>
<p>I was responding to a very flip post by Dstark that our society tends to blame “kids” when their lives don’t go well.</p>
<p>I just reject this statement completely. I don’t think it’s true anywhere in America where I have ever lived. And it bothers me because I think that sort of statement just slips by and gets added to the detritus of bitter resentment attitudes that are really counter-productive.</p>
<p>Look atour literary heritage, for goodness sake – Mark Twain, Dreiser. </p>
<p>We don’t blame the kids in this society. We mourn them and we have tried many political and economic tactics to make things better but things seem to stay awful. Just this morning I read about multiple child homicides in NYC. I think far outside the box of the liberal establishment but I can assure you my blood boils over lost, childhood blood in this country. </p>
<p>I just really am offended by the suggestion that this country doesn’t care. And I do think many in the “helping professions” are terrible hypocrites – poor at-risk kids are indeed their personal franchise and they do not like anyone butting in, looking objectively at what we are doing – at every opportunity these people will scream “Oh, they don’t really care about the kids!”. </p>
<p>Enough is enough. If our education system is failing these kids then high time, for God’s sake, to overhaul it, big time.</p>
<p>My own kids spent a combined 26 years in a public system where there were murders, there were rapes, there was very little education happening. The parent with any wits about them catered to very lazy, incompetent pigs who called themselves teachers or administrators. </p>
<p>Sorry to the teachers here at CC who are not in that camp but they exist and they bring you all down. All of you. No profession has tenure but teaching. If we cannot objectively look at how a teacher performs in terms of lifting their students then truly what is the point? Why would anyone beyond those drawing a paycheck form this miserable franchise go on supporting it?</p>
<p>I. Will. Never. Forget.</p>
<p>Come at me anyway you want. I hold my ground. I’ve lived it.</p>
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]</p>
<p>Really? I thought one of your kids went to private high school for at least a couple of years.</p>
<p>Kid I -Preschool - 8. (10 years Thump, I can count!)</p>
<p>Kid 2 - Perschool - 10 (12 years, Thump)</p>
<p>So wow, you are a quite the stalker, Thumper!!! 22 years! Caught me. Wow!</p>
<p>So creepy the CC posters who sort of lurk here directing any semi or overtly political discussion.</p>
<p>And Thump, my son really doesn’t cook because he really doesn’t have to cook because he went to great schools eventually and now can sort of not cook. Have a nice day!</p>
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Are you blaming teachers for rapes and murders in school? Do you really think that’s teacher’s responsibility? You are calling teachers pigs? </p>
<p>Unless you have more than 2 kids, your kids didn’t spend 26 years at public school. Your youngest just graduated from one of the best private schools.</p>
<p>I’m not going to argue with you because clearly you think you are right…but I will point out that your daughter got accepted to some mighty competitive colleges…and it was not just a couple of years at a private high school that gave her the educational background for that. She surely had some good public school teachers along the way.</p>
<p>Now…if we could just stop the teacher bashing, I would appreciate it. This thread was NOT about teachers…it was about poverty. Let’s get back to the topic.</p>
<p>^ My kids were in head start. It didn’t ruin them. All I’m going to say on the matter.</p>
<p>And I’m just so weary of teachers and those connected to teachers and administrators calling those who honestly care A LOT MORE about our at risk kids charlatans, which is precisely what DSTARK did so casually . . . so yeah. Go report it, lovelies. Drive everyone off CC who is willing to call it what it is. What do you win, really? </p>
<p>You are not going to win this. Not at all.</p>
<p>CC is suppose to be about college and you really can’t discuss college until you are willing to allow a frank and objective discussion about K-12 in this country.</p>
<p>And I care fervently about this. I think every kid in this country could be getting the quality of education my two got toward the end of their pre-college education with virtually no investment, just a hard eyed look at the system.</p>
<p>sewhappy - You appear to be a upper middle class family, even if your kids went to public school in the midwest (before you moved), it would be very hard for me to believe that you would choose to live in a school district where there is murder and rape. I would have moved to a different town or put my kids in a private school if I had the means, and it appears that you did. I have to assume that your are just trying to make a statement here.</p>
<p>I am not aware that any public school system offered pre-school, only K.</p>
<p>I believe the Headstart is what is being referred to as the public pre-K.</p>
<p>sewhappy - would you say any of those things you have posted here to anyone in person? I am very certain your kids didn’t go to any school where there was rape and murder.</p>
<p>^ Some don’t experience financial opportunity until later in life, Oldfort. We had no choice for a long time and I was slavishly supportive of our public system. It was our universe.I’ve never really been able to come to grips with the fact that we eventually had some discretion on our kids’ education. We really didn’t for most of their pre-highschool years. I am haunted by that. I really am.</p>
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<p>sewhappy - your kids were in Head Start? Your family was low income? Or did your kids have disabilities? You and your kids have done very well.</p>
<p>I don’t believe this is part of public educational system - I could be wrong.</p>
<p>"Romanigypsyeyes, I love your last post, because it was real, not some hypothetical.</p>
<p>There are tons of kids out there that don’t get a chance, and it is not because they are lazy or stupid. These kids aren’t getting opportunities because of where they are born, or their surroundings, because they don’t have roll models. They are hungry, and or their safety is in jeopardy.</p>
<p>I don’t know why some people like to blame the kids for the way they develop when the conditions for these kids is atrocious. I wouldn’t want to live in their conditions. I guess it makes people feel better to blame
the kids for their problems."</p>
<p>I wasn’t being flippant.
Now you sewhappy…</p>
<p>“Alh also makes a very good and very sad point about quality of teachers and schools. My own kids got lucky. Our older one did freakishly well on the SAT in a talent search and a local private school searched him out and offered him a scholarship. Otherwise he would have stayed in a really troubled high school where the resources were targeted toward just getting kids to graduate rather than grooming kids for top colleges. Our younger one was able to follow her older sibling to this same very generous and very good private school. There is no question that they benefited from the small classes, PhD level teachers and general serenity of the environment. Also, they encountered kids for the first time who were striving to get into name colleges. That was a totally new concept to them. (My DH and I are state U products)”</p>
<p>[Cutting</a> Head Start is bad fiscal policy - CNN](<a href=“http://articles.cnn.com/2011-03-14/opinion/mccartney.head.start_1_early-childhood-education-poor-children-single-best-investment?_s=PM:OPINION]Cutting”>http://articles.cnn.com/2011-03-14/opinion/mccartney.head.start_1_early-childhood-education-poor-children-single-best-investment?_s=PM:OPINION)</p>
<p>[Education</a> Budget Cuts From Sequestration Could Be Devastating, Duncan Says](<a href=“HuffPost - Breaking News, U.S. and World News | HuffPost”>Education Budget Cuts From Sequestration Could Be Devastating, Duncan Says | HuffPost Latest News)</p>
<p>Cutting programs that help kids…</p>