One inner city works to insure that its future is a better one than its past has been. By creating a community wide program that assists in raising each and every children within the community. http://www.hcz.org/programs/the-hcz-project#baby_college . At this time one of the projects that The Harlem Children’s Zone Project is attempting to work on is a sense of community through helping to assure that every child in the community is successful in school. By instilling this into youngsters their hope is that as they grow the child will continue to take pride in where they live as well as in themselves. President Obama speaks in some length about the power of this project in this video. This HCZ starts before the child is even born by offering parenting classes and counseling to the future parents. This continues as the child grows and soon becomes classes for the child themselves. The hope of the program is to continue to follow the child trough high school and even into college. Each step of the child’s education includes additional programs to assist in making it easier for the child to succeed.
Does born poor mean forever poor? June 25, 2009
In Cynthia L. Selfe’s Technology: Literacy in the Twenty-First Century: The Importance of Paying Attention, the discussion is about how the government has mandated the need to educate today’s students into technological savvy graduates entering the workplace. Selfe states the almost obvious: affluent white schools are doing a better job at this than the poorer, colored schools in the country are capable of. The question for all is: is this only due to their financial situation or is it lack of desire by those in charge that is the cause? In most affluent schools, parents are typically very involved in the decisions that are made, whereas this does not always seem to happen in poorer schools. Affluent parents take a stand and push for positives for their children, raising funds where budgets cause a shortfall. This does not frequently happen in the poorer communities. Is this due to the lack of education on the parents part or simply because they don’t care? Research is unable to address all of these aspects due to the over abundance of different circumstances. Take Andrew Carnegie’s story, for example, (depicted in this YouTube video): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2-zNeB4qFE&feature=PlayList&p=3D9CCEDEBC72CD66&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=40Although I understand how this is happening across the board I believe that everyone has a hand in defining their own future. By this I mean just because you are raised in a poor household does not mean that you have to stay poor your whole life. It is possible to go from the slums and become something big as can be noted by these five rags to riches stories: http://www.lyved.com/success/5-rags-to-riches-stories/. It is clear to see that there is a lot of success available to those who want it badly enough. Hopefully this is a perspective that opens some eyes to the possibility of changing the future of your life. If Oprah can do it; you can do it!
