WE ARE FAILING OUR CHILDREN

Some of you may look at the title and think to yourself, my children are fine. All of my kids graduated high school on time, they are in a college, university, or trade school, they are working, they attend church regularly, and they stay out of trouble. I have not failed my kids!

While this is true this is also very false. I love the old African Proverb it takes a village to raise a child. So, it is not just about your child but about all of the children in our communities. When we lose one young person to violence, when a child decides to drop out of school, we as a community as a whole have failed that child. If we started looking at things that way and taking accountability for one another we will be one step closer to changing our communities, cities, states, and the world.

This morning riding on the train some students that attend Urban Prep High School were near me talking. Their conversation caught my attention because they spoke about

• a 16 year old 6th grader



• an 18 year old freshman in high school

While it is a good thing that both of these students are still in school and haven't dropped out, they are truly behind their counterparts. At 16 a student should be in their Junior year of high school and at 18 one should be a freshman in college. In no way does this mean to give up hope. These students can both turn out to be highly successful business people, entreprenuers etc. However, this is a prime example of how we are failing our children. We as in parents, schools, teachers, community leaders etc. ALL of us are failing OUR children! There is no reason why these children should be that far behind in school. There comes a point when we must take a stand, send our children to summer school, get them tutors do whatever it takes to ensure they are successful in school. Even going as far as giving them work at home if we feel like their schools are not challenging them enough.

It just so happened today I was doing research on City Year, their website states "A breakthrough comprehensive study from Johns Hopkins University found that students most at risk of dropping out of school can be identified as early as middle school through key indicators - poor attendance, unsatifactory behavior and course failure in math and English. When just one of these off track indicators is exhibited by a student as early as the 6th grade, they have less than a 25% likelihood of graduating from high school." (http://www.cityear.org/whatwedo.aspx )

Less than a 25% chance of graduating if only 1 of the indicators is present. Now you may think that seems a bit much, not considering that 50% of Chicago Public School high school students do not graduate from high school, which happens to be the same as the National average for African American students about 50% do not graduate from high school.

We are failing our students. So now I see you reading this saying what is the solution? The solution is to care, the solution is to raise your own children and instill in them the value of education as well as get them involved in extra curricular activities. Then take it one step further and care about someone elses child and their future. Volunteer, mentor, give back, be it to a mother of a young child, to a mother that feels there is no hope, or to an actual child. There are a wealth of opportunities and organizations that you can give your time in any way to help the mission and vision of the organization. Your child as well can volunteer and give back as people are usually more receptive when receiving help from their peers.

We have to realize, yes we can make a difference. It only takes one person to make a difference. You may feel you don't have anything to give or to offer. Yahweh, God, Allah, Buddah, whomever you call on blessed us all with special gifts that can be used to help someone else achieve their goals. Your blessing is in someone elses hands just like someone is waiting on you for their blessing. The Most High uses people to bless other people, the blessing comes from Him but we are the conduits they are given through.

Simply put, DO SOMETHING! Its not enough to sit around and talk about what's going on, shake your head and say what is the world coming to. For as the saying goes if you are not a part of the problem you are a part of the solution.

Some organizations to consider: City Year, After School Matters, Charm Mentoring and Outreach Services, In2Books, Allstars Project, Dress for Success, Your local library, YMCA, YWCA the list goes on and on and on.

Which side are you on? The problem? The Solution?

Be a blessing and be blessed,
Epiphany Essentials