Reflective Journal: Family Home and School Issues of Students

Kelland, K. Children with ADHD say stimulant drugs help them. Retrieved from Reuters

Kids with ADHD (attention- deficit hyperactivity disorder) are a serious issue for schools, families and communities. Children with untreated ADHD are unable to pay attention in school and may disrupt the classroom. At home, they may be difficult to discipline and may have problems staying on task with chores and homework. Finally, in the community they may act out disruptively which may cause some people to become upset or angry with a child's parents. Typically, ADHD is treated with drugs such as, Ritalin although stimulant drugs are easy to abuse. The big problem with this Kelland's article is that children are not educators, parents, or doctors. Basing whether or not Ritalin and other stimulant drugs used to treat ADHD on the opinions of the child taking it, especially when they are interviewed right after starting treatment. ADHD can be treated and families can and do learn to live with ADHD. However, implying that Ritalin and other drugs work just because a child has changed behavior immediately is not effective in determining if a treatment works.

New England Cable News. Family homelessness is on rise. Retrieved from NECN

Homelessness affects families, communities and schools. This article argues that family homelessness is increasing in the United States. Often homeless families do not have the resources they need. It is difficult to feed one's family, to find medical care, or to find a job. Children who are homeless may not have clean clothes, or a place to do homework which affects overall school performance. Finally, family homelessness puts a strain on community resources. This is a problem for today's families. It can be argued that many families spent more money than they should have in the pre-2008 economic boom and as a result, one might assume that many of the current homeless families were not previously living in poverty. This is problematic in that unlike families that have always been working class or poor, these families have little idea how to live with few financial or social resources. This creates a situation whereby families are even more traumatized than they would be otherwise.

Associated Press . (October 14). Social Security increase for 2013 could be lowest since 1975 . Retrieved from Fox

Elders rely on Social Security for financial support. Without this support, many elders must rely upon family or continue working past the time when they should have retired. While this does not have a significant effect on schools, it can have serious consequences such as, increase financial strain on both families and communities. According to Fox News, the Social Security Cost of Living Increase for next year could be the lowest in over 30 years. This may increase the financial strain for the elderly and their families. In the face of increase homelessness unemployment and other problems for American families, this is a downright shame. The main issue with this is that elders paid in a significant portion of their income in order to have this money to rely upon in their old age. The government truly should have been better prepared for the increasing number of elderly and had money set aside to assist them since they have known since the 1960s that the Baby Boom generation is one of the largest in history.

CBC News. B.C. teen's family asks bullies to stop in wake of suicide. Retrieved from CBC News.CA

According to the Canadian Broadcasting Company, a British Columbia teen committed suicide after being consistently cyber-bullied over Facebook. Her family has requested that families and schools support the anti-bullying movement. Bullying is a serious issue; it is commonly defined as physical verbal or even sexual abuse by one's peers. This can occur at school, in the community, or even in one's home if one is bullied over the internet. Children and teens are bullied for various reasons including, families' socio-economic status, sexual preference, intellect, or extracurricular interests. Various methods have been used to deal with bullying however; awareness and empathy training seem to be the most effective methods of dealing with this problem.

Bullying of students is the one thing that schools should be zero tolerance about. If one looks at teen suicide, school shootings, and school violence, in general many of these problems can be traced back to a child or teen being bullied by their peers. While to an extent it is acceptable to teach children and teens to deal with emotional hardship not child should face bullying on a consistent basis due to things they cannot help.

The New York Times. Sunday Dialogue: Transforming Our Schools

Retrieved from NYT: This article highlights a central debate in relation to public schools. Do we teach to the test, or do we teach students critical thinking skills. The central argument is that standardized testing and No Child Left Behind have had a negative effect on public education. This is seen on having a negative effect on families (less educated means less able to support a family), communities (less educated means not contributing to the community and/or being supported by the community) and schools (schools that do not educate their children have bad reputations. This article is interesting in that both sides have good points. While teaching to the test is harmful to a child's education, standardized testing itself is merely one more educational tool that teachers can use to determine what a child is learning. The problem is that schools sometimes rely only on this tool instead of looking at other ways in which a child could be learning.

Sanchez, C. School Choice: A Subject Both Candidates Support. Retrieved from NPR

This article focuses on the idea of school choice or the right to choose what school one's child attends. Sanchez argues that both Obama and Romney support the ability of a family to choose what school in a town or city their child attends. School choice affects family's schools and communities in several ways. First, family's can choose which school their child attends thus giving them the right to pick a better school for their child. Second, school choice may have a negative effect on schools in that it gives some schools little motivation to improve the quality of education offered while putting a human resources and financial strain on other schools.

Communities are affected as well in that taxpayers in one community may pay for children from other communities to attend their schools. The main problem with school choice is that parents are allowed to pick and choose schools like one would a new videogame or book. Instead of allowing school choice money should be spent on improving the quality of every school so that parents do not have to choose to send a child out of the local area to attend school.

Murrell, D. Empathy: The Antidote to Bullying . Retrieved from Huffington Post

Murrell suggests that the cure for bullying is to teach children empathy. By understanding how others feel, children will be less likely to bully others. There are problems with this approach. First, bullying is not related only to a child's empathic skills. There are many causes for bullying of others including, child abuse and other home problems, learning disabilities and psychological problems, and being bullied oneself. Teaching empathy is helpful but it does not resolve the root cause of a child bullying others. Lack of empathy is also a problem on the part of adults in the community in that they only seek to stop the bullying not what is causing a child to bully others since in many cases, bullies are also victims.