needing to vent

[Brit]

I teach your child to read and write, to tell left from right, and to tell right from wrong. I teach your child to tie his shoes, to speak politely, and to chew with his mouth colsed. ALREADY, I'm doing parenting.

but it is NOT MY JOB TO FEED AND CLOTHE YOUR CHILD! COME ON!

I had a kid bring 6 tim bits and a juice box as "lunch" today. That was it. another brought a pudding cup, two packages of "fruit" gummie bears, and two cookies. Our day is 6 hours long!

Three kids did not have winter coats today. it was 6 degrees celcius out (that's chilly!). Two of my kids don`t have shoes that fit. their shoes haven`t fit since September second, but they still don`t have new shoes. One kid has laces that take him -- no word of a lie -- 15 minutes to tie up. Give me a friggin`break.

If you can`t afford to feed or clothe your child properly, find a way, because I`m about ready to call FnCS the next time I see chocolate pudding for lunch and no winter coat!

[bella mundi]

The ones that kill are the ones that I know have the money to equip them properly, but won't for whatever reason. I work with special ed kids, but I can't stand the way some of them dress, or the food they eat. Just because they have special needs doesn't mean they need to *dress* like they have them.

I agree. Send some food, put your kid in a coat, and buy them some new clothes!

[coco2]

Unfortunately, some of these parents don't have the wherewithall or the smarts ( sorry if that offends anyone). I was shocked to discover how many kids didn't have coats but had a satellite dish in their yard. How many kids wear rags, but have a cell phone. Then there are those that just have nothing at all. I taught special ed in a rural community and did a few home visits that made me lose sleep. Some of the conditions these kids live in are disturbing. It's frustrating. How do you stop the cycle? Most of these kids will grow up doing the same to their kids. How do you end it?

[landreth2007]

Wait till you hear one of them comment on how the roaches in their new house weren't as big as the ones in the old house. Which, by the way, had a hole in the (dirt) floor of their bedroom.

I went to an inservice a few years ago based on the book "The Frameworks of Poverty". I hope I am remembering that correctly. It shed some light on how very low income families view things. Entertainment is top on their list of priorities, thus the satellite dish. It helps to know the mindset even though it drives you crazy.

I'll never forget the students who informed me that she couldn't afford a 50 cent package of index cards while proudly sporting the t-shirt that her parents brought back from their weekend at the casino. Whatever.

[Just ducky]

A couple of years ago, a one of my friends was asking a management employee when his MAJOR player in the communitcations business was going to bring internet out to the (fairly high income) neighborhood he lived in.

I got the picture of the world when the answer was.... "It will be a few years. Your neighborhood might appear to be a logical move. However, we will have to put networking in at all of the trailer parks in the area first. Your high income neighborhood will evaluate how they use their expendable income and we will not make as much money as we would in the lower income neighborhoods. They spend all of their money without considering other options."

Makes little sense to me, but it does give the big picture. I cut back to basic cable because I don't see paying a fortune for something I don't use.

[teacher5]

Brit- I don't know what they call the agency in Canada, but in the USA we have Child Protective Services. We were even given a Staff Dev. course last year on protocol on how and when to use this service. There is still a chain of command about reporting incidents like you describe. But a consistent pattern of little or no food, inappropriate clothing to meet the seasonal conditions, etc. would definitely warrant an alert signal. Of course in these situations we would have to let the school social worker and principal know what we are observing. Then the social worker would make an inquiry. If the pattern continues to exist after notification to the home, they would probably send a CPS worker to the home unannounced to investigate, further. You really don't want the child taken away from his parent/s or legal guardians, but if it is abuse, what other choice is there? Good luck.

[Brit]

teacher 5 -- we call the service FnCS...said "F**ing CS" by some.

I'd hate to see these kids taken from their families, but it's certainly something that I keep in the back of my mind. I know all the protocols and the signs, etc. Basically, we've followed step 1 with all the parents, which is to contact them and say "this is not acceptable". but the kids, though existing on pudding and juice boxes, are happy and healthy, so putting them into the system would just be sad, if you ask me.

I get the spending money on "luxuries" when you're poor. I lived below the poverty line for 12 years in school, and the only thing that got me though some days when I had to schlep my laundry 6 blocks on my back to the laundry mat or live off of rice and cabbage for a week was that it wasn't forever. Can you imagine if it WAS forever, and you saw no light at the end of the tunnel? I think that when people are demoralized like that, they make bad choices in an attempt to make themselves feel better. If you deny yourself everything all the time in an effort to make ends meet and ends still never meet, well, what's the point?

NEVERTHELESS, there's free food and free kids' coats for the taking in our community, and I know the charities well. I hate it when parents won't take the time and effort to get the stuff the kids need. Or worse, when they HAVE what the kids need, but don't take the time to pack the healthy lunch or look at their kid and see if s/he is actually WEARING his/her new coat.