Jonathon Kozol based this book on a neighborhood in the South Bronx, called Mott Haven. Mott Haven happens to be not only the poorest district in New York, but possibly in the whole United States. Of the 48,000 living in this broken down, rat-infested neighborhood, two thirds are hispanic, one third is black and thirty-five percent are children. Not only is Mott Haven one of the poorest places, it is also one of the most racially segregated. The book itself is an on-going dialogue between Kozol and the neighborhoods residents, interjected every so often with thoughts from Kozol.
The way the houses are built and all the garbage in the ground show this symbol of “poverty”. The quote, “One year, there was enough to eat. Another year, there was more of a home to live in. The sheet was replaced by a divider made of scraps of aluminum and, later, a well of reject bricks, which established his home as the sturdiest dwelling in the row. The feelings that washed over him when he considered the bricks diver were several: pride; fear that the quality of the bricks was so poor the wall would crumble; sensory relief.
How is a child to learn the meaning of having friends or of dignity growing up this way? Poverty and homelessness are not just temporary conditions: For hundreds of thousands of children, these circumstances will have an effect on the rest of their lives. The effects of poverty and homelessness on children are numerous. Many of these children grow up with no friends and become emotionally, mentally, and socially disconnected. Scheller, growing up extremely poor herself, explains that spending your childhood in incessant, unflinching poverty can replace normal self-esteem with a feeling of shame (356).
Single parents have a lack of funds to support their children’s needs. There is a certain amount of social stigma pointed towards children living in poverty, and it’s these children, who, not only have to deal with that stigma and embarrassment, but, also they are dealing with the dramatic health consequences as well. There are a number of strategies in place to end child poverty. Improving social mobility and promoting work are high on the agenda, along with services to help promote the most vulnerable and hopefully, this in turn, will eradicate child poverty for good. There are a number of causes to child poverty in the UK.
Some people run to the suburbs while others choose urban living because one is trying to escape from the other. Peer pressure, fighting, bullying, and gangs can cause some of today’s young adults to make poor choices as I myself once did. Peer pressure is one of the hardest things that a child has to face. Based on my experience, while growing up as a child, just going to school was one of the toughest decisions that I had to make. My school was in a rough neighborhood, and I was raised with very high standards and respect for others.
Peers, family, society, and time play a huge factor in the amount of stress the student body has. These external stress factors can cause consequences like jail, expulsion, tarnished reputation and loss of morals, and even depression. The stress can lead to pretty serious outcomes. There are many examples of how being stressed by the amount of work received each week by schools leads to either drastic or positive endings. Ultimately the pressure is placed upon the student to determine how they deal with it.
Living in the ghetto is a time of darkness and despair for most black families and for a majority of the people it is a way of life and death. In “Sonny’s Blues, Baldwin captures the lives of one particular African American Family tumultuous life in Harlem during the era of segregation with conflict and secrets that almost destroy the family structure. The analysis of the Narrator’s character helps to understand the theme of acceptance through the art of listening. As the story unfolds, the Narrator is alternating between unbelief and fear over his estranged brother’s troubles and the acceptance of his [brother’s] lifestyle. “I read about it in the paper, in the subway, on my work, I read it, and I couldn’t believe it and I read it again.
Toni Bambara also clarifies this by saying “and she gets to the part about we all poor and live in the slums.” Slums are defined as a highly populated, run-down, unclean part of a city, occupied by poor people. Another thing this quote verifies was how rude these people can be, knowing they hated Miss Moore just a little after she first moved into town implies the rudeness they had in them, its seems as if they had
From 3 pm until the time an adult arrives home at 6 pm children are at risk of being introduced to and participating in criminal activity, whether it be peer pressure, gang activities, or just hanging outside. Having an extracurricular activity and a safe place to go can help prevent or minimize these activities from taking place. Without the use and access of an afterschool program many of these children especially those beginning at the age of 11 participate in gang violence and vandalism. The African American and Hispanic communities are in high demand for Afterschool programs, they are also the communities where budget cuts are high and the funding is not enough to keep a lot of these programs open. The programs that are trying to stay open have to fight and compete each year for funds just so they can have activities to provide for the youths, they try to not focus on the academics and more of being mentors, and providing a safe space so they won’t have to be outside causing and getting into trouble.
Homelessness can be defined as not having a home to live in, not having a stable income, having no support and being forced to live on the street. Robert Swindells Stone Cold is a novel describing the life of a homeless young teen named Link. It exposes the harsh reality and troubles of living homeless and gives an insight in the lives of these people. Homelessness can be seen as an extreme form of social exclusion due to the lack of identity homeless people have, their isolation from the rest of society and the discrimination they suffer in the workforce. Most homeless people have come from troubled backgrounds such as abusive family relationships, lack of support, loss of income and many other reasons which have forced them to be become homeless.