Guys I'm NOT saying that ALL families who don't have as many resources as a suburban middle class family are uninvolved or that poor people are slackers or whatever.
I'm not advocating a "Lost Generations" (the social experiments where Abrorginal or First Nations families were forcibly removed from their culture ) style experiment at all. I do not think that this should be a universal placement. I'm ALL for continuum of placement....it really does depend on the kid you know. There are some kids who thrive in the res school setting, and then there are kids who do well seeing their family every day.
I'm simply saying that maybe in SOME cases where there's really stereotypical horrible problems, due to poverty but not quite bad enough to involve social services ....SOME cases that it might be good to get them out of their current living sitution, and into a more stable placement. Yes, not all poor people face really bad existence situtions....and I mean this is a LOT better then in the old days when poor= Third World standards. Heck many of them are poor due to just not having the right oppertunties.
But in the cases where there's poverty PLUS the really bad associated problems of poverty, (but not bad enough that social services be involved) maybe a residental school placement might help. Did you know that there are a couple of HEARING residental schools like this?
Boarding Schools Nurture Low-Income Students (washingtonpost.com)
I AM NOT stereotyping poor familes at ALL. Why would I? I'm just pointing out, as a sociologist that poor families very often may not have access to a suburban style education or to resources to improve their child's education, and they can and do deal with severe issues and concerns that aren't that big of a deal for someone who is middle class and above. Say for example, a middle class family could fight the school board with a decent lawyer for placement in the regional dhh program. A family where the adults are composed of a single mom who works at a minimum wage job, prolly couldn't have the resources to fight for something like that. Yes, there's pro bono and court appointed lawyers...but the legal teeth really does seem to be with the families who can afford to spend more money on things.
After all, did you know that the residental blind schools were started b/c the people like Samual Gridley Howe were very impressed by how bright the blind kids that they saw in the work/poorhouses were? The work/poorhouses were supposodly really bad. They were designed to serve the poor to give them a leg up. Heck, back during the Depression a lot of kids were sent off to the State School, so they could have a place to live and got an education and food to eat.
faire joure, I'm not suggesting that ALL poor dhh kids be shipped off to res schools. Just that maybe it might be a better placement then an inner city school where there's not even toilet paper or the textbooks and equiptment are VERY outdated, and where there's drugs and gangs?
