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Let’s give support to students who are at risk academically when it makes the most sense
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Let’s give the support to students who are at risk academically when it makes the most sense. When is that? Well it isn’t in grade nine when there sitting in my classroom- that’s for certain. It’s way before that. It’s way before they’re even in school. It’s before they’re three years old. Yes, before they are three years old.
Studies in British Columbia have shown that in some areas 10% of the province’s kids aren’t ready to attend kindergarten because of social and emotional issues while in other areas of the province it’s 50% . Imagine that- 50% of kids who arrive at school are not ready for school. What’s a teacher to do when faced with that situation.
Now these figures are for British Columbia, I don’t really know what the figures are for Ontario or Mississauga where I teach. I suspect that many of the “at-risk” kids that we give extra academic or behavioural support to at our school are victims of poor nutrition and/or social and emotional deprivation. The school that I teach in is located in a low socio-economic area where lots of people are coming and going all the time. Lots of upheaval going on in the lives of kids. Many families area are struggling to survive.
Now, if you just do a cold utilitarian calculation and not even consider the moral aspect of the issue , it would seem prudent to do whatever it takes to help these kids be ready for school so they can succeed in school. If they succeed in school, they’ll have a better chance of succeeding in life. They’ll become winners instead of losers. They’ll benefit; society will benefit.
OK, I know there’s a big debate around what society should do to support it’s members. Here in Canada we have universal health care and free education until the end of high school. We also have a safety net of sorts. Unfortunately, some time ago social assistance to needy people was cut by 25%. That really impacted negatively on people’s’ lives, on children’s lives. With thosemajor cuts, buying nutritious food isn’t always possible, especially fresh fruits and vegetables. Children need nutritious food to develop physically and cognitively.
Other factors can also impact negatively on a child’s development. Many children live in homes that are very chaotic and have been for a long time. Chaotic lives have a negative effect on a child’s sensitive developing brain. When children are surrounded by chaos, the executive function of the brain develops differently and leads to more distractability and ADHD or ADH type symptoms. The added stress caused by the chaotic life state children experience harms them by creating stress response pathways that are hyperactive. I”m seeing more and more evidence of this in the classroom.
Chaotic lives and the stress that the chaos creates are not the only factors to impact negatively on our children’s cognitive development. Studies have shown that children from birth to age five who live in a poor social economic environment often lag in language development. They hear an average of 32 million fewer words than other children, consequently their receptive and expressive language skills lag far behind and this of course affects their progress in school. I see this in my classroom. Students who are in high school are actually functioning at the grade 4 to 6 level.
Oh, before I go on I should tell you that two podcasts that I listened to recently, Jill Eisen’s “Sick People or Sick Societies” parts 1 and 2, inform what I’m saying here. I’ve always felt that a child’s early years were really important and that we should be supporting preschool kids and their parents so that the kids could get a good start. After listening to Jill Eisen’s podcasts, I now know what the problem is.
Other countries like Sweden who have a deeper and wider safety net for it’s neediest citizens have shown that individuals and society benefits when it supports it’s most vulnerable citizens, it’s children. Supporting parents by helping them develop positive parenting styles, providing excellent, affordable daycare and ensuring that there’s enough nutritious food on the table really isn’t an option if we want our nation’s kids to develop to their fullest potential. We don’t have to make it a moral question if that’s a problem. We can make it a utilitarian one. Politicians and bureaucrats should do that utilitarian calculation and provide the support to our most vulnerable citizens, our children.
What do you think?
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