The stressor that I experienced as a child (age 3) was a house fire that happened on Christmas eve while we were away visiting family. I and our family were able to cope with this because of our family and friends. I/we lost all my childhood mementos, all our clothes except what we were wearing and what we had packed for our trip to visit our family our of town on the day it happened. The aftermath, for me, was that I lost my attachment to physical things. My "stuff" never again held an emotional pull for me. I believe now this is a good thing. I have never been very consumer oriented and I believe it is part of why I have never had materialistic attitudes. I believe that this is part of why I have tried to move through life without carrying a lot of baggage, both physically and emotionally. Only replace what you really need, and try to feel the freedom that comes with traveling lightly through life.
I chose the topic of Poverty in America because I would like to know more about how this is impacting the development of children in our country and what is being done to minimize the harm. I discovered through and internet search that more than 16.4 million children in America are poor, but they live in working families. A disproportionate number are Black and Latino. Poor children lag behind their peers in many ways beyond income: They are less healthy, trail in emotional and intellectual development, and are less likely to graduate from high school. Poor children also are likely to become the poor parents of the future. Every year that we keep children in poverty costs our nation half a trillion dollars in lost productivity, poorer health and increased crime (http://www.childrensdefense.org/policy-priorities/ending-child-poverty/). New data released by the U.S. Census Bureau shows a devastating increase in the number of children living in poverty.
4 comments:
I can't image having everything taken from you. I guess thats there my faith would come into play. Did you have faith during this time?
Angella ,
What a traumatic experience to have when you were young. I can certainly understand how something like that would change one's way of thinking in terms of what is truly important in life. It is so easy to get attached to "stuff". You realize when you hear stories such as your experience that it can all be taken away in a moment's notice.
Judi
My blog post was about poverty and how the way I was able to cope with it was because I had my family and friends to help me. I read that the same coping mechanism served you to overcome you disaster. Being aware of this I am able to try and be friend as many children so that they at least would have someone to help them through whatever obstacle they are facing.
Angella,
It is sad that you had to go through something like that but very good that you learned from it. I have never been a person that has been attached to material things, but I don’t know how I would react if I lost everything. Poverty is a huge issue not just in the U.S., but in other nations too. I have a few students who are at the poverty level in my room and most of them are low academically.
Arica
Post a Comment