Sustainability for Our Youth

...

a mentorship program for the underprivileged students is due to an educational disadvantage. The West Frankfort Grade School is funded by the public sector and the United States government has made drastic cutbacks on grade school funding. This issue combined with our grade school educators being underpaid results in a domino effect. The United States citizens should realize that educators are not only teaching our youth, but they are also counselors and role models to our youth. Sadly, our educators are all some kids have to talk to and receive constructive advice. However, our educators within the public grade school system are increasingly exhausted and therefore causing a major disconnect between teacher and student communication. According to (Mentoring.org), “Mentors help with homework and can improve their mentees’ academic skills.” This is why I strongly believe that providing the underprivileged students with a mentor would help the child greatly with grades and academic attitudes. According to (Mentoring.org), “In terms of educational achievement, mentored youth have better school attendance; a better chance of going on to higher education; and better attitudes toward school.”

Providing a mentorship program to the West Frankfort Public Grade School, underprivileged students seem to be the best logical and cost effective solution to the problems of economic, social and educational disadvantages. A recent study done by (Mentoring.org), found that, “mentoring by a caring adult over a prolonged period of time has been shown in countless academic studies to be effective in combating numerous risk factors. A number of studies have revealed a correlation between a young person’s involvement in a quality mentoring relationship and positive outcomes in the areas of school, mental health, problem behavior and health.” However, with each positive solution there is always a negative to bring up, look at and fix. The primary negative that I found was that there would not be enough adults with a clean background and desire to help the underprivileged children. Being able to find enough adults to be interested in the mentorship and passing a “background” check would limit the amount of people allowed in to the program. There may also be parents of the child that are against having any outsiders involved in their child’s life, because they simply do not understand the entire process and they may be secretive towards outsiders. This could certainly cause an obstacle for the mentor to get through. The last obstacle to get through would be money. This program would have to raise their own money and would do so by a private foundation and the foundation would have to raise enough funds to cover the brochures, field trips and many more resources.

Even though there are obstacles that the mentorship program would have to face. I believe that this program is feasible and with the right people, all of the obstacles could be work through. The youth of my hometown and the youth of the United States is in dire need of a community and educational system that care for their students’ well-being. I do believe that as a parent, educator and community member, it is our responsibility to make sure that we provide our youth with hope and protection. The gap caused by economic, social and educational disadvantages can be overwhelming. However, many great solutions can be provided. Rockwell (1997), “argued that the social and economic context is becoming less hospitable to opportunities within communities for natural and volunteer mentoring. He thus suggested that schools should be viewed as “mentor-rich” environments where teachers are “known, trusted, available, informed, and already committed to the well-being of youth.” There is a lot of truth to the statement made by Rockwell. As a community, we must strive for greatness, hope and provide our underprivileged students with a fighting chance not to become just another statistic.

Work Cited

Childre, Doc. "Sponsoring a Child Is Just Part of Compassion’s Ministry to Children in Need." Sponsor a Child. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 May 2015.

Mandela, Nelson. "Sponsoring a Child Is Just Part of Compassion’s Ministry to Children in Need." Sponsor a Child. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 May 2015.

"MENTOR: Expanding the World of Quality Mentoring." MENTOR: Expanding the World of Quality Mentoring. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 May 2015.

Rockwell. "The College of Education - Home Page." The College of Education - Home Page. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 May 2015.

"US Environmental Protection Agency." EPA. Environmental Protection Agency, n.d. Web. 03 May 2015.

...