Selling more people more guns does not curb gun violence. In the U.S. over all, about 2500 children die from gunshot violence annually. U.S. children and teens are 17 times more likely to die from a gun shot than children in 25 other high-income countries combined according to the Children’s Defense Fund. In 2012 12,253 adults died from gunshot homicides. Many more adults committed suicide or suffered accidental deaths by gunshots, and also there were non-fatal gunshot crimes. How can we curb U. S. gun read more…
Low-waged single parent(s) cannot pay market rate for child care. Many children are in risky situations where they are neglected or abused. Some are lucky enough to have a relative or neighbor to provide care. Some are supported by childcare vouchers or are in Head Start. A minimum waged single parent working 40 hours weekly may be earning as much as $15,080 annually. This is below the Federal poverty line. The median income in the United States is estimated at $51,939. This is read more…
By Grade Pirez – A High School Student who volunteers for Promise the Children & Girls’ Inc. It’s difficult to put into words how incredibly moving Anna Deavere Smith’s Notes from the Field: Doing Time in Education was. I’d like to warn you, though, that I’m not familiar with stage performances outside of Broadway musicals, so I can’t give a particularly artistic review of the production. I am, however, familiar with the rampant racism that has been a pressing issue read more…
By Terry Roderiques, OTR/L Promise the Children, Volunteer As an Occupational Therapist that travels to many schools in my system, I have the pleasure of working with a number of very talented teachers. In researching and thinking over the topic of what qualities I would want in a pre-school teacher, I decided to pick 8 of my most favorite characteristics. This is a limited list and my opinion only. I have listed some references of several articles I found online. read more…
by Grace Pires, High School Student & Volunteer at Promise the Children and Girl’s Inc. With the way the world is now seamlessly interconnected– whether through technology, trade, or facilitated travel– it is beneficial for people to speak more than one language. Oftentimes young preschoolers are only taught English, and begin studying another language at middle school age. This is great for monolingual children, but it can hurt children who are already bilingual. In the classroom, children don’t have many read more…
by Grace Pires, Junior High School Student & volunteer at Promise the Children & Girl’s Inc. There’s no denying that America is a multicultural melting pot. So it’s only fair that the American education system openly acknowledges various white and non-white cultures and promotes diversity in the classroom. By teaching students about other cultures, starting in pre school and continuing in grade school, teachers can enable young children to respect others whose traditions and appearances are different from their own. read more…
“Summer slide” causes the achievement gap between children whose families earn less, and those that earn more. In summer children forget what they learned in the previous school year when parents cannot afford to send them to quality camps. A quality camp combines fun with learning activities. Children with wealthy parents who send them to well-rounded camps do not experience summer slide. The camp programs that prevent summer slide provide learning activities similar to the school curriculum, but more fun. Reading, writing read more…
By Melissa Orlowski This year I’m working as a para-professional teacher (until I take all my exams). And I am leading a kindergarten class which allows me to assess the preparedness of the children who had pre-k against those that didn’t. It’s not mandatory; pre-k that is. When I was starting primary school in Massachusetts twenty years ago, even kindergarten wasn’t mandatory. I went right into first grade. I don’t remember it much, but my mum says I struggled to read more…
Age-appropriate comics, or graphic books, can appeal to children of many ethnic groups. They can broaden children’s reading skills making a bridge to a wider variety of books.
ESSA – Every Student Succeeds Act – was signed into law by President Obama in December 2015. For the first time this act includes provisions for Pre-K education. Also the ESSA reduces the role of the federal government and gives the states the responsibility of being accountable for test results.
