There’s a Hole in the Bucket–Redux 1

As promised in our article entitled “There’s a Hole in the Bucket, Dear Liza” I stated that this was a metaphor for the complexities of the issues facing Alief, and for that matter most urban cities in America. I further stated that we would look at some of these issues and their interconnectedness. For the most part many of these issues tend to be looked at in isolation; Let’s start with a list:

1. Over 80% of children in Alief are on free or reduced lunch.
2. Many parents work two and three jobs.
3. 85 languages are spoken
4. Over 30% of families move at least once a year
5. Alief ISD is quite concerned and committed to engaging parents to be involved in their children’s education.
6. Participation in school activities by parentsis limited
7. Many parents make poverty level wages.
8. Many parents are unskilled with a low level of education and lack of command of the English language.
9. In some areas of Alief crime is a problem.
10. Most churches in the community are small.
11. A number of churches in the community have many of their congregation living outside of Alief.
12. There is a prevailing distrust of neighbors.
13. Over 1000 Alief students are homeless this Christmas
14. There is a large contingency of undocumented parents in the district.
15. Lack of healthcare
16. Issues of fear exists.

Community positives
1. On the positive side there is a strong Asian community that is primarily responsible for infusing millions of dollars into the community and building large commercial centers in the community.

2.There is a management district that makes infrastructure improvements and provides security to businesses in the community.
3.The Alief ISD is a very progressive and supportive of children.
4.There are strong non-christian places of worship.
5.There are relatively congenial relationships between the different ethnic and religious groups.

As you can see there are a lot of holes in the bucket. Plug one and you’ve got at least 15 more. One example of this is the lack of parental engagement in the school and their child’s education. A fair number of parents will come for open houses but as far as getting parental support for volunteering and the governance in schools, the system is sorely lacking. This is where TMO (The Metropolitan Organization) comes in. Working with Alief ISD school district we are working to create a culture of collaboration between parents, parents and teachers and the community.  Specifically the process is called family engagement where parents are engaged in their children’s educational performance as well as learning about school governance.  In the last two years we have made good progress but relation building is a slow process.    The reason parental engagement is so important is that studies have shown that parents who are not actively engaged in their children’s education will be more likely to drop out or go to college and remain in poverty. When asked why parents are not engaged, the reason most often given  by the schools is that the parents are working, often in two or three jobs, and cannot take the time to come to the school. Many of the parents are undocumented and they are quite hesitant to become involved in anything that requires them to sign papers or be engaged. Even churches have difficulty getting undocumented parents to sign any kind of papers signifying membership or participation. More cynical outsiders to the system sometimes say that non participation of parents in school activities is because parents don’t care about their kids or don’t value education. This we have not found to be true. Last year TMO and parents  interviewed over 500 parents and asked them to tell what their hopes and dreams were for their children. Almost to the person, the answer was that they wanted their children to get a college education and be successful in life.

So, in this one example we have several factors contributing to the cycle of poverty. But I could probably develop the linkage between most of the items enumerated. They all contribute to the overall malaise of poverty. So, if we just provide food to children at lunch they still have to get fed at home. For those of us in the middle class we may have one of two issues effecting our families at one time, but not 12 or 13.

TMO focuses on developing relational power. In other words, getting people to know and trust one another to make a changes that are in their interest. Note the blog entitled “Six Brave Mothers and Grandmothers Change a Neighborhood”. There were numerous elements to making change in the Best elementary community. But it boiled down to establishing relationships, trust and power and went far beyond having children score well on standardized tests.