My Christmas rant. I’ m a regular TV viewer, now that I don’t have to set an example to young children. Last week, I decided to watch Struggle Street on SBS. Two-thirds of the way through I had to turn it off. Not because it was poor TV, because it wasn’t.
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It was, though, an excruciating reminder of what life can be for some people who live outside my bubble. I was a teacher years ago, and I taught in so-called disadvantaged schools for many years. So, I have seen both physical and psychological poverty before. I understand the attitudes and disabilities that are passed across generations. I know what living from day to day can be. And I know who to hold to account and why.
There are the parents who were neglected themselves, who lack skills most of us take for granted. How is it possible that a drug-affected family can care sufficiently for a child? They exist in a spiral of poverty, addiction, poor physical health and anger. How can they be held to account?
We don’t have the resources, the government says, to support the most disadvantaged in a way that might create long-term change/benefit. That is as big companies fail to pay taxes, our political class – without conscience – wastes public money and the media rewards trivia with endless attention. Most importantly, education is poorly considered and delivered for disadvantaged children. At the same time, governments offer substantial benefits to schools that already have swimming pools, auditoriums, overseas trips, music, drama and film programs. Don’t get me started on the rights of the rich, many of whom have acquired money on the backs of workers, been handed a family inheritance or who work in grossly high-charging professions. Choosing to opt out of the state education system because they see it as inadequate. Many state schools are run down, contain asbestos, lack equality in provision of sporting, cultural, social equipment and staffing. Students come from over eighty cultural backgrounds and some students, institutionalised in crime, poor health or abuse go without the assistance they need. Where is the money? Try a private school that doesn’t need it.
Parents universally love their children and usually do the best they can. Often the best is not good enough though, not because the parents are cruel but because of inter-generational ignorance. All my life I have believed in the “potential” of education to rectify that disadvantage, to create equality and a fair platform that supports everyone. I still believe it would be possible to educate a whole generation of children away from poverty and ignorance. To provide counselling, hearing tests, health checks, free dental care, breakfast and food education. To offer all the things that some parents are not able to provide. We need to stop pretending that there is not an underclass of extreme disadvantage. It is not the fault of the children.
When I say advantage, I really mean rights. The right to free and equal education in its broadest sense … with rewards for achievement, classes for catch up, teaching compensation (extra time, extra skills) for learning impairment, access to culture for free, food if you need it, compulsory music education, art, exercise, creative thinking and outstanding teachers who are properly paid. Maybe some helpful old-fashioned systems might help. School attendance records, so called “truant” (what a word) officers who followed up on absentees and could then know where to target help. Class roll calls that “noticed” absences and followed up on them. There were also maternal health centres on every corner and that’s where young mothers learned all about sleeping, feeding and baby health. Parents who did not attend were followed up. That’s not to say that there are not systems today that are dedicated to help because I know there are. But nutrition is a concept/idea that some people know nothing about it.
We need resources outside schools, maybe teachers who work in travelling teams to educate and inspire. We need them now. Food, health, money, basic domestic skills, drug education and access to the idea of personal power for kids … and how to get it.