What Is Going On?

One morning in December I was reading the Des Moines Register as I do every day, and on two consecutive pages I saw the following headlines: Census: 1 in 2 people poor or low income followed by Survey: 1 in 4 U.S. women violence victims. Quite honestly, I was taken aback by both of those headlines, and as I read through the articles, it was difficult to be anything but discouraged. As an educator, when I read things like this the first question that I generally ask is “What could we have done differently?” But in recent years, I have quit assuming blame on behalf of the public school system. These two problems cannot be blamed on the public school systems; rather the finger needs to be pointed at a number of different entities out there. But then again, why blame? What needs to happen is that we recognize the problems and do something about them.

Rising living costs has decimated the middle class. America was built by the efforts of the middle class, which has been the key to the economic greatness this country has achieved. However, earnings have dropped so much that many of them have fallen into the low-income bracket, some now being classified as living in poverty. More discouraging is that experts say that continued cuts by the federal government in some of the “safety net” programs would result in even more people barely able to scrape by. A lot of people are out of work and in some cities, 1 in 4 people need emergency food assistance. And we wonder why kids from these families are struggling in school!

As a father of a teenage girl, the statistic of 1 in 4 women being violently attacked by their boyfriend or husband is one of those things that give you a sick feeling in your stomach. There have been times over the years that I have been a principal when a counselor or teacher will come to me concerned about the welfare of a female student who it being abused by a boyfriend. Yes, it happens, and it happens in our community. Of course battered girlfriends are no different than battered wives; they are in fear and struggle to know what to do. They feel a strong sense of shame, as well as hopelessness. Quite honestly, it sickens me. I have always wondered how a man can strike or in some other way physically assault a female under any circumstance. That does not happen in civil society, yet it happens in our country at every level of society.

Now I go back to my role as an educator. What can schools do to improve these two aspects of American life? First of all, whenever a young person comes to us and provides credible evidence that they are being abuse, whether by a family member, boyfriend, or anyone else, we report it to the proper authorities. Our “bar of proof” is very low. While we have been trained, we are not the experts. But we do assume the responsibility with which we have been entrusted and we turn it over to those people that are the experts. We counsel and support, and at times we will sit in with a student when they wish to have one of those tough conversations with a parent or someone else. So often the target of abuse feels alone and perhaps the most important thing we do is show support. We are also looking for ways to be proactive, to provide educational opportunities to talk to students about respecting one another, treating each other with dignity if for no other reason than they are human beings.

The poverty issue is very real in our school right now. The number of students qualifying for free and/or reduced lunch continues to increase. There are some positive signs as we hear that more jobs are coming to our area soon. However, that will not satisfy all of the problems. For those kids and families that are truly struggling and looking for that hand up, we are very conscious of ways that we can help out a bit. I have been amazed by the generosity of some of our staff members who will dig into their pockets to help out a deserving student. And, there are other supports available that we can direct a child and a family to. The bottom line is that it is not hopeless and if people are persistent, they can find a way.

I guess that these conditions may be part of our new reality. But like so many challenges that we confront, these can certainly be managed and dealt with. At North Fayette we care about our kids and we will work hard to lessen the burdens that they face so that they can focus on the reason that they are hear – to learn.