Several recent headlines sent shock waves throughout Memphis and Shelby County, but it was years earlier when the seeds were likely planted in the form of domestic violence that thwarted optimal brain development and put children at risk. We cannot effectively deal with youth violence until we deal decisively with domestic violence, because they are often links on the same chain.
Early Teaching Helps Children Later
September 21, 2011
With the recent decision to consolidate our schools, as well as an influx of money from the Gates Foundation and the federal government's Race to the Top, this should be a pivotal moment for our community. However, the Urban Child Institute recently published the 2011 Data Book: The State of Children in Memphis and Shelby County, which offers frightening evidence of the growing number of children in Memphis and Shelby County who are not ready to enter kindergarten.
JoeAnn Ballard spent her childhood as one of 45 foster children being raised by her great aunt and uncle in rural Mississippi. This experience turned out to be one of the best things to happen to her; saving her from an unhealthy home and showing her what love and care looked like.
These last few weeks, the 8,000 members of the Class of '25 took their first tentative steps along their journey into school, toward high school graduation and beyond. Today, they’re just five years of age, and are learning about cubbies and backpacks, kindergarten schedules, and successfully navigating naptime. But in little more than a dozen years, these same kids will be newly minted high school graduates.
There was a recent headline in The Commercial Appeal that said, “Fewer two-parent homes in Memphis,” and it reported on a trend that has existed here for more than a decade. The article reported recently-released 2010 U.S. Census information: two out of three children younger than 18 in Memphis are being raised in one-parent families.
Children's First Teachers Set the Path
September 14, 2011
Right now the talk of education in the Mid-South is all about funding, and more specifically how there isn't enough to go around. It seems obvious that our children are our community's future and therefore our schools must be well funded, but most of us know running a government is far more complicated than cutting the pie and passing out slices.