Giving Our Children A Fighting Chance

Giving Our Children A Fighting Chance

Much to our dismay, the achievement gap between kids in rich and
poor communities grows wider all the time. What to do? Some posit
that achieving parity of resources could be the equalizing factor.
Nope, not quite. The challenge cuts a lot deeper. That is the
message Susan Neuman and Donna Celano put out in Giving Our Children A
Fighting Chance: Poverty, Literacy, And The Development of
Information Capital.
The authors spent ten years (gotta respect that) studying two
Philadelphia neighborhoods, Chestnut Hills and The Badlands.
Geographically close, they are light years apart in advantages or lack
thereof for growing children. I'll let you guess which is which. The
consequences of this are severe. "In short, the spatial concentration
of poverty and affluence--in this case within the same school
district--virtually guarantees the intergenerational transmission of
class position. Poor children don't have a chance to succeed. Rich
children have little option not to."
Neuman and Celano based their research on Norman &
Roskos' (1993) environmental opportunity perspective. Children's
ability to gain knowledge is rooted in their everyday lives. Kids
from more affluent families get much more literary experience than
their lower income peers. They are read to more with more parental
enrichment of text and scaffolding. Not surprisingly they read sooner
and go from learning to read to reading to learn at earlier ages.
They also read more. Period. This all adds up to better strategies,
deeper and broader knowledge base, a huge knowledge gap between them
and less fortunate kids, and ultimately information capital being
socially stratified.
Both neighborhoods have good libraries. During the period of
research these libraries experienced serious technology
transformations. So it was possible to study whether the libraries
could ameliorate the advantage gap before and after this transformation.
Nope and nope. In Chestnut Hill parents carefully guided the
youngest: reading to them, asking questions to keep them engaged,
steering them to suitable books. The kids in the Badlands were more
on their own. This was true also for newly introduced computer
resources. Chestnut Hill adults guided to and helped youngsters to
engage in educational programs. Badlands kids found games.
I could not begin to summarize the wealth of information offered
in this deceptively slim volume. Basically it challenges what we
"know" about the rapidly growing knowledge gap. Narrowing it will
need to be a more holistic and comprehensive process than most of us
imagine. Despite what we're constantly told there will not be magic
bullet. I think this book constitutes a must read for all
superintendents, principals, teachers, and people who care about the
youngest generations.
Julia Emily Hathaway
On a personal note, we continue on with the 4th of July parade.
Recall I joined it unexpectedly. At the end I'm wondering if the
hubby will find me before heading to the in-laws' cookout. I'm not in
the least worried. I've stumbled onto a democrat cook out. Someone
has paid for me to eat. Lots of people want to talk about how great
it is that I won school board reelection and how much they love my op
ed pieces in the Bangor Daily News. So it's awhile before I find a
cell phone and connect with hubby. We go to the inlaws' for the
traditional cook out.
A great big shout out goes out to my whole extended family, known and
unknown, by blood and marriage, and the friends who make up yet
another family, especially my Kindred Spirits Girlz.
Julia Emily Hathaway


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