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My name is Jason Greene and I am a 9th grader going to Science Leadership Academy.  For my You and the World project,  I chose to talk about public education in the great city of Philadelphia.  I chose this issue because this is one of the many issues facing the city today.  Public education has a lack of funding. This is important to me because me and all of my friends are affected by the lack of funding for our school district.  Education is important and we need to find out how to fix this.

This is the headquarters of The School District of Philadelphia in Center City.

When my English teacher gave me and my class this project I started to think about what I wanted to do.  One of my goals in life is to become Mayor of Philadelphia.  Since I want to do that when I grow up I started to think about some issues that face the city today.  I decided to do my YATW project on public education because I feel like it is the most significant.  Most of the money goes to charter schools and not public ones.  Because of this you can get a better education at charter schools.  We should care about this issue because most kids in the city go to public schools and it’s not fair that kids that go charter and private schools get a better education.  Coming from a public middle-school I know how these cuts feel.  At my old school we don’t have a music teacher no more.  I used to play trombone and was part of the all-city middle school band for three years.  Since my old school doesn't have a music teacher anymore there is no more band.  We also do not have an art teacher.  A parent that used to be an artst now comes in twice a week to teach.  Now I go to Science Leadership Academy.  This is my first year here so I don’t know how this school was effected but I am sure that a this school was effected.  I am just lucky that I can go to a school that can give me a great education.

This is the graduation rates of boys and girls who went to public schools from 2002-2011.

This is the graduation rates of boys and girls who went to charter schools from 2008-2012.

In 2012 The School District of Philadelphia had a 304 million dollar budget shortfall.  Because of this they had to close down they had to close down 23 schools and lay off 3700 teacher,nurses,music teacher,art teachers and other workers.  While all of this was happening according to labnotes.com 9 more charter schools opened and their budgets have been increased by 107 million dollars.  Why would they do this?  Instead of increasing the budget for the charter schools and opening new ones why don’t you use that money to fund public schools.  That 107 million dollars could have saved 9 public schools.  Now that makes more sense to me.  Over 10,000 students are at new schools this year because the school that they went to last year is closed now.

This is University City High School.  637 students went here last year.  0 go there now.

Going on with this project there are some things I want to learn.  I am going to go volunteer at my old school John Story Jenks Elementary School in Chestnut Hill.  When I am there I also want to talk to some of my old teachers to see how they are dealing with the budget cuts.  I will also talk to some of the students there to see if they notice anything different from last school year to this school year.  I hope to find out other thing while working on this.

This is J.S Jenks.  This is the school where I will be doing my volunteer work at.

This issue is very important to me.  This is important to me because this is effecting me and my friends.  This is also going to the kids that live in Philadelphia and get a public education in the future. I feel like no one really cares about this or say that this will change soon.  I don’t want soon I want now. We could change this.  If we come together and show that we care about we can change this.  

If you want to see my bibliography click here.

      Today, now more than ever, parents are influencing their child’s outlook on education. Everything from checking their child’s homework to just giving them a pep talk, everything a parent does affects their child. However, according to a New York Times article,

  There’s no question that a great teacher can make a huge difference in a student’s achievement…...But here’s what some new studies are also showing: We need better parents.     Parents more focused on their children’s education can also make a huge difference in a student’s achievement.

As stated above, teacher play a huge role in students education, but parents have an important part to play too. Parents influence their children in a big way, but many of them don’t even realize this. This leads me to my topic: How do parents influence their children’s outlook on education?

        This topic hits very close to home. Both of my parents never received a college education. Because of this, they could not receive well paying jobs. Even though they are able to get by steadily, they remind me everyday how much education is important in order for me to have a good future. I have met and still know many kids who have the same situation as me, but their parents don’t motivate them. Because of this, I see these kids, who have the potential to be great, set education as a non-factor. Not only is this sad to see, but it gets me, and probably other people, infuriated because their parents don’t step in. According to TIME magazine,                      

 What they need to do with their children is much simpler:   talk. But not just any talk. Although well-known research by psychologists Betty Hart and Todd Risley has shown that professional parents talk more to their children than less-affluent parents — a lot more, resulting in a 30 million “word gap” by the time children reach age three — more recent research is refining our sense of exactly what kinds of talk at home foster children’s success at school.

This quote shows that parents, even in the littlest ways, affect their kids. By just talking, some parents give their kids 30 million more words than parents who don’t talk to their kids. I know that every parent wants the best for their child. However, if they don’t take the time to support them or even just talk to them, they won’t see how great their child can become.

     Another reason why this topic is so important to me is because of the fact that I have friends who I know can be great, but they don’t have any motivation. For example, I have a friend named Trapetas. She is one of the smartest people I know,however, her family doesn’t support or motivate  her in any way.  But even with no support, Trapetas still focuses on school and always gives 110% in everything she does. After noticing this, I knew that parents do not always have to influence their children. Trapetas could have been just like my many other friends who basically gave up on education. She went against what was expected to be her outcome and she inspired me to help people like her. What I mean is that if kids don’t have parents/elders to motivate them, could I give them support? Could I be their “parent” to advise and help them? Questions like these led me to choose this topic.

   In an article by the Washington Post, It states,

               Let’s begin by noticing that the whole question is framed by the extent to which educators think parents ought to be involved.  The parent’s point of view is typically absent from such discussions.  And, of course, no thought is given to the student’s perspective — what role kids might want their parents to play (or to avoid playing).  But then that’s true of so many conversations about education that we scarcely notice its absence.

Essentially, the author is trying to make the point that parent involvement is not really provided because student’s inputs are not looked at. When people think of parent involvement, it’s either two things: parents don’t do enough or they do too much. However, if students were able to make comments on how their parents should be involved, parents would be  to meet their child’s specific needs. But what if kids don’t have parents that are willing to listen? That’s where I step in. As I start to access the needs of students, it becomes clear that I can help them, if only I listen. Many people would look at kids in Philadelphia as kids who are not going to do anything with their lives. Those assumptions will not help them. The first step is must to listen and for these kids I believe in, I will be all ears.

      This topic has been on my mind for a while and now because of this project, I will be able to finally do something about it. I believe that you give everybody the benefit of the doubt until they prove you wrong. You give them a chance and that’s what I am going to do with these students. If everybody else has given up on them, I will be their support. Every child has something great to offer to the world, but they need help to see that and I am prepared to give them that help.

       As this project goes along, not only will I be able to figure out the problems kids face with education, but I will be able to build a support systems with these kids. Even if their parents don’t support them, I will show them that they still have people that care and will work hard to see them succeed. Like I said before, I believe that every child has something to offer to the world, but they need people to just push them to their own greatness.

        Thanks for reading my blog and watch out for follow- up blogs 2 and 3!

Hey, my name is Fodie Camara. My topic is hunger. I choose this topic of hunger because I want to know all about hunger and how it affects people  in differents ways. When I learn it, I want to tell people and try to stop hunger. I will spread the information around to teach people about hunger and many different.

We have many different groups in Philadelphia to stop hunger or support food to programs. We have Stop Hunger Now, Coalition against Hunger,  Philabundance. They all have one motto, is to stop hunger and feed people who don’t have enough meals in Philadelphia. They try their best to help people without food or in some type in trouble.

Stop Hunger Now works with  international partners that ship and gives meals in country.

Volunteers come and package the meals. They serves 70% of its meals to provide programs such as school feeding programs, vocational training programs, early childhood development programs, orphanages, and medical clinics. Stop Hunger Now is an international hunger program that has been promised to stop hunger for more than 15 years. They working with school and after school programs will try to stop poverty.

Philabundance was created in 1984. Philabundance works with families hit hard by the recession. They work with seniors trying to make ends meet. They are the largest hunger group. They are now able to address hunger through direct service such as food cupboards, emergency kitchens, shelters, and many more. Philabundance has take hunger really serious in Delaware Valley. They use Food donations, and the community. Philabundance helps 72,000 people per week.