I know nothing about inner city kids and the problems they face.
However it was interesting. A few years ago I knew this kid and she had moved from a high unemployment county here in WV to a small town.
She was talking to me, sort of bewildered, about how most of her classmates here were going to have summer jobs. She didn't want one. Yet she was always being upset that she was poor and had no money.
I realized that in the county where she came from basically there was not enough work for adults much less kids and up there so the culture of working for the things you wanted was foreign to her and the concept of having to be dependable or to be somewhere at a certain time was just not there. Here sister had a lot of problems dealing with work because she wasn't used to anybody telling her what to do, so even just a boss telling you what to do and how to do it was "being mean". Also where they came from most of the adults they interacted with were home all the time. Retired, on welfare or disability, or simply just working when they wanted to under the table and hanging out most of the time.
So I think even if we have to spend the money I think maybe giving kids jobs so they can feel some self worth and get some work habits is maybe more important than even schooling.
This was something that sort of perplexed me. In general I feel like we put too much focus on material things and not on being happy with what we have. I feel as a culture we work too much and don't spend enough time enjoying and socializing.
However this sort of showed me the flip side. How lack of developing work habits early in life and acceptance of lowered living conditions rather than working to change them sort of handicapped kids.
= new reply since forum marked as read
