Don't beg

I hate when people ask for money. I never know how to respond. It bothers me that people will walk around asking random people for money. It bothers me on many different levels. Where are their family and friends? If I needed money, I wouldn’t wander around asking strangers for money, I’d ask my family and friends.

But maybe they don’t have family and friends who have anything either…or maybe their family and friends don’t want to help.

Is there a reason their family and friends don’t want to help?? Maybe they know something about the person I don’t.

So, if I have something, shouldn’t I give it?

I don’t want to encourage a habit. Plus, again, it really bothers me that people walk around asking for money. Why aren’t they employed? Why can’t they seek out the services that will help them get the skills for a job?

In Turner Courts, seeing the adults (usually addicts) standing at the store asking for money encouraged the young children to do it as well. They’d stand at the store and ask anyone who walked in the store for 50 cents so they could buy a soda or some chips.

Don’t beg.

That’s what I’ve been taught.

But when you have nothing…or, in a child’s mind, when you feel you don’t have enough, is it ok to beg? Is begging more my issue than theirs?

So did the guy at Taco Bell really need $2 for a bus ticket or something else? Was it a bus ticket, drugs, or something much deeper that I didn’t take the time to find out about? What makes a person begin to ask random strangers for money? Was he from that community and all of a sudden decided he needed to go to Baylor so he went up the street to ask people for $2, hoping to gather enough money? Has he known he needed a visit to Baylor for a while?

Is it any of my business?

I didn’t give the money. I felt bad. He didn’t look like a drug user.

I’m afraid I may have made the wrong decision. Is there a right decision??

Who’s to say that his request isn’t a devastating result of our current economic situation??

How do we handle situations like that in a way that always maintains a level of dignity—for myself *and* for the other person??

Have we lost our minds?!

Florida is thinking about changing their public schools to a 4-day week. The Orlando Sentinel reports that the school district is financially strapped and is looking for cost-cutting alternatives.

What in the world are we thinking???

Rearrange city services...cut legislator's pay...let the banks fail...arrange for bartering systems or something...but NEVER cut education!!

I am a big fan of being "green." Part of Florida's plan is to eliminate the 5th day of school...probably a Friday...so that they can power down the electricity for three days in a row. Saving electricity makes sense to me. Cutting kids' education doesn't.

Not only does cutting out that 5th day lesson a child's exposure to education (I didn't read anywhere that said they would extend the other days to make up for it), but it also creates a system of more unsupervised children on the streets for an entire day of the week. Cutting out an entire day would either require businesses to restructure for their employees or will cause children to be at home alone and unsupervised.

If we are going to change the way schools operate (which I am not opposed to that...we are working on an agrarian system that was developed long ago), we must also change the way we offer day care, create work weeks, and design education to maximize learning.

Why can we not make the connection that the way we choose to educate students now is going to affect our economy, our society, our communities? If we don't look at the entire picture, the devastating results are going to happen sooner than later.

We've got to change this mentality of cutting or even simply sustaining our schools. As I mentioned, I'm a fan of restructuring the schools. We need major investment into our schools. Every school wired for the internet. Every child using a computer. Every child required to take an annual technology class that would teach them innovative uses of technology. Technology incorporated into every other class as well. Practical application of basic subjects (e.g. DNA studies for science, dance classes for math, use of checkbooks and debit cards to pay for lunch and a financial literacy class to help them balance their checkbook, business simulations, etc.).

Right now, several states have let elementary and secondary schools switch to the shorter weeks, including Colorado, Idaho, Louisiana, Minnesota and Montana. Others, including Missouri and New York, are weighing it.

What do we need to do to get our voice heard on this?? Who's making the changes...and who are they asking for advice? If it's not parents who have children in public schools...and if it's not teachers who truly have an interest in educating children...they are asking the wrong people.

Who said money can't solve problems???

Recently we were awarded a technology grant from the Communities Foundation. It has changed the entire way we conduct a program and quickly developed some skills in the kids that we've always tried to figure out ways to cultivate, but never had the resources or knowledge of how to.

With our new digital cameras, we choose one of the kids to be a Photographer who documents the program. With our voice recorders, we choose a daily Reporter who asks people questions throughout the program. The daily Historian writes about or illustrates what we do in his/her journal and we are able to scan it and post their drawings/writings on their blog (http://www.ourasafamily.blogspot.com/).

Because we now have working computers and a projector, I have been able to sit kids at computers while I demonstrate how to do things on the overhead projection. The kids (1st-5th graders) are becoming more and more independent in their own blogging capabilities. All of the kids can sign in to their blog independently. The posts you see on their site are all their own. Some of them have taken on the task of writing their own posts and calling in their own audio blogs; others dictate their thoughts to the adults. Everything posted comes straight from them.

The educational possibilities are limitless with technology!

By blogging, kids are reading their own writing and the writing of their friends. They are learning the importance of learning to type. By labeling their blog posts, they are picking out the main idea. As we ask the kids to develop questions for the audio posts and voice recorders, the kids are finally beginning to gain a curiosity for what's around them. While the questions started out as closed-ended questions like, "Do you read healthy books?" "Do you work out when I'm not home?" they have developed into open-ended questions like, "What is fiber?" "Why do people say carrots make you see better?" "How does eating fruit make your muscles bigger?" We have now started researching these questions on the internet. They are developing critical thinking skills!

True enough, technology didn't *create* the learners...but what it did do was provide us with the tools that allow us to be creative in our approach and has helped us connect with people and opportunities/resources we didn't know existed!

Money may not be everything...but being without it sure creates quite an information barrier bewteen people who have access and those who don't. What kid doesn't love technology and want to learn the cool things you can do with it?? It's not just the kids; the parents are involved in different ways as well. Keep checking their blog (www.ourasafamily.blogspot.com) to see and hear their thoughts, parents comments, their photography, and all kinds of other great stuff!