i watched a movie in my child development class called The Hard Scrabble Childhood. This movie was completly eye opening.
This movie depicted the lives of very poor children growing up in the state of New York. It showed the emotional and societal hardships these kids have to face everyday. I was shocked by this movie because although I understood that their are families who are struggling I did not realize how bad off some are. I felt that living in a well developed nation that everyone was at least living with the bare necessities such as running water and homes with all four walls intact. I had heard about families struggling to feed and heat their homes but it was still a blurried vision to me until seeing this movie. I always thought that people that are struggling would be receiving assistance whether through a food bank, salvation army or welfare I did not dwell on the subject long enough to realize that it maybe be very hard for people in country areas to receive this help.
I was also shocked at the way the teachers treated these poor children. Filling their heads with the ideas that they will not succeed. I was actually surprised by how knowledgeable and how well these children were handling their situation They seemed very well informed about how the world works at such a young age. They knew how DSS worked and that they would need to hide when a social worker showed up. There was a twelve year old boy who grew up with an abusive, drug addictive father was already comparing his behavior with that of his fathers and was genuinely concerned for his brother also following in this fathers path. I don't think at twelve I was as aware of my surroundings as he is. Many of the kids shown in this movie I feel could move past their poor childhood and in their adulthood make a great contribution to society if they could only have a positive support system such as teachers. I understand that teachers can not do everything but telling a child they will not amount to anything is unacceptable to me.
If anyone ever comes across this movie they should try and check it out. It definitly made me more aware. I didn't come from a family that had money, i worked for everything i have.... but this still suprised me
It's just aweful that the opportunities we have in life are almost entirely based on how much money we are born with.
That is such a shame that even teachers are keeping kids down based on their economic backgrounds. Kids should be taught that they all have the ability to succeed and all they have to do is work hard. I will have to check out that movie - thanks!