More problems than just education

families need the gospel to transform them

So I’ve spent a good amount of time with my mom who worked as a social worker in Philadelphia for about 6 years. One thing about social workers is that it’s a ridiculously tough job and you don’t have regular work hours. Once you know the problems in the neighborhood you can’t separate yourself from it. Even though my mom’s work was focused on the elderly, she knew enough of the programs and opportunities that she ended up helping a lot of local Vietnamese immigrants in the Southwest Philadelphia area. This included a lot of their kids. This branched out to a lot of the local African American children that she met through their parents. The neighborhood is crime and drug and alcohol ridden and there is a large immigrant population from Africa, especially Liberia, and Southeast Asia, particularly Vietnam and Cambodia.

My mom will invite the kids out to go places and invite them over our house a lot as well. Spending time with these kids help me to know that though they come from rough backgrounds, they’re just still kids and are very intelligent. Some are very mature and were bred that way because they needed to grow up faster to take care of their younger siblings. Some had to grow up faster to start helping out their family through a local business or cook dinner or essentially be the adult of the house. In these high immigrant areas you realize that they’re trying to make their way in America and barely know any English. Without a good grasp on English it’s hard to figure out opportunities for your kids.

Even if the kids can learn English quickly, you can’t expect them to know how to get into programs or better schools or even know where to start looking. They’re just kids. That’s another big problem. There are a ton of programs out there but many families don’t take advantage of them.

Many families are too lazy to simply fill out some forms to get food stamps or even cash assistence and thus their children have to suffer for it for the next year or until the next time the parent actually fills it out in time for the deadline. Students will end up with not enough food in their homes and can sometimes only find food in their schools.

Another thing is that many parents are simply not around. The men many times are so engrossed in work and will take any free time for themselves. Many are taken over by drugs and alcohol and the like that they essentially are taken away from the families. This is also very true of many of the mothers. Sometimes the children will not even come home for days and no one will care. Giving these examples to their children will show them that this is what they too will grow up to be like or this is what is waiting for them when they grow older. There aren’t many people around to show them a better way of life or give them hope.

Recently my mom called up a free tutoring program and found out that they can’t even get enough kids to sign up for it! Schools are not advertising it and parents are not taking advantage of it. Kids definitely don’t have the motivation to go sign themselves up when they can have the time to go play on their own. These programs are already paid for by the government and they can’t even get kids! We realize that there are many cracks in the system and communication and because of this, a lot of money is wasted and opportunities wasted as well.

There are so many problems at home that will affect the way a child thinks and acts. This culture that they grow up with will be brought with them to school as well. If they see that their parents don’t care about them, they will not tell them anything or respect them. They will go anywhere and their parents wouldn’t care a single bit. If a child isn’t taught to respect authority in the house by the time they’re old enough to attend school, the teachers will have a hard time getting them into shape when they have a classroom of 30 something kids to take care of! If they see that their parents don’t care about work and don’t have a good work ethic they too will see no point in doing work or homework for that matter. This will all be brought to school all by the time they’re just in kindergarten or 1st grade and travel all the way up their education years.

One thing that is clear is that the gospel is needed to transform and redeem these families first! Jesus needs to be Lord of the lives of these dads and moms and children. The adults first because they need to live for someone greater than themselves. A lot of these adults are heavily involved in gambling, drug, or alcohol problems which affect their families and children. They need to be redeemed and live for the God who makes all things new! God calls men and women to love and take care of one another. Loving from the Bible isn’t just a feeling you have toward another person but a life, actions, your whole relationship with another person. Men need to love their wives. Women need to respect their husbands. Both parents need to work together for the good of their children. Parents also need to be the main disciplers of their children as well helping them to grow in the ways of the Lord, helping them to become men and women of God.

True education first starts at home. I understand that many kids from rough backgrounds have made it but it’s essential that we get at the source of the problem and the solution for the source of the problem of family is Christ. Parents who love the Lord are called to love on their partners and their children and raise them up properly and righteously. This is one solution to education that we can all help out in. This is to continue to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and help out families around us that we see are in trouble.

There are children out there. Children that God loves and children that deserve a better future. We all need to do our part and love our neighbor, in every sense of the word.