Presented to
Institution
Presented by
Date
Policy Reduce Poverty
Prevalence of worse education outcome, lower future income, and poor physical and mental health condition of children in disadvantaged family
Most early childhood programs aim at promoting positive parenting and create a friendly environment that enhances child development. The high prevalence of poor education for children, low future income for families, and poor physical and mental health conditions among children is associated with poor families. The parenting and child development outcomes expected from children in most disadvantaged families were very low and others resulted to negative effects (Wagner, Spiker and Linn 67). The poor outcomes are due to poor parental involvement. Moreover, poverty results to poor grades in class because children are unable to concentrate remembering the situations they face at home. Studies conducted from rich families were very different as results indicated more productivity in education and good health (Webster-Stratton 185).
The research conducted by National Longitudinal Survey’s Child-Mother produced significant results on the prevalence of the poor performances for the disadvantaged families. Children from disadvantaged families have poor education outcomes because their parents have not undergone comprehensive trainings that most rich families attend. The research on education performance between the disadvantaged and advantaged families in United States clearly analyzes the effect of lack of proper parental guidance. The research results concluded that children from disadvantaged families show poor education performance compared to those coming from well established families. In addition, the researches focused on children races and ethnicity backgrounds (Currie and Thomas 3-4). On the other hand, most children from disadvantaged families end up experiencing low income levels in the future. Moreover, most poor families do not give children essential learning experiences during the early stages of growth leading to poor adult lives. An essential early childhood education consists of proper care, adequate stimulation, and a friendly learning environment without harsh and punitive activities (Halpern 366-368).
Policies dealing with the problem
The U.S. government has a key role to play in delivery of effective education to the members of the public especially the disadvantaged families. The present parent training programs fulfill the government goals especially for well established families, but the disadvantaged families never enjoy the outcomes. The government has demonstrated an effective support of the poverty reduction practices by introducing comprehensive training programs in early childhood classes that focuses poor families. In this, the government formulates poverty reduction policies and enforces the implementation of these policies in all sectors. In addition, the government ensures the policies are followed by becoming the first organ to implement the formulated policy. Funding of early child hood education centers is a crucial need for the institutions that offer such services. The government has fully participated in funding of the education centers effectively (International Monetary Fund 1999).
The first policy associated with the following problem the education for enhancing opportunities policy. The policy accounts for the creation of more opportunities that introduce comprehensive actions and stimulates the overall goal of poverty reduction in United States. The policy encourages innovations in all life aspects aimed at improving growth and job creation for children from disadvantaged families. The introduction of comprehensive training programs by the government ensures disadvantaged families find opportunities necessary for improving their living standards. In addition, the policy encourages such parents to build human, natural, physical, and financial assets to sustain sufficient public spending in terms of local and economic services. The parent training program also entails frequent home visits that ensure parents gain more knowledge and experiences on how to create quality living conditions for their children (David and Kraay 144).
The Kentucky’s Adult Education Transition to Post secondary Education policy also plays a significant role in poverty reduction in the U.S. The policy calls for a streamlined adult education where parents can assess education at old age for the benefit of their families. Many parents miss the opportunity of securing well paying jobs because they lacked the necessary education due to the poverty. The adult education puts parents in a better position of securing the necessary knowledge for use in job searching. The policy contributes more to the problem since it provides the necessary protocol followed in involving parents and their children in training. Moreover, the policy ensures that most people acquire the necessary education and meet their goals in order to improve the living standards and reduce poverty levels. On the other hand, the policy encourages adult development courses that contribute in early child hood development, and assists eliminate cases of poor health and poor social development (Venner 17).
The health policy and poverty alleviation forms the third policy associated with poverty reduction. The policy helps in analyzing the problem of poverty reduction by defining various tools used in improving health conditions for the poor. The policy encourages active collaboration of the poor and other groups in a community in an effort to create a sustainable environment for the benefit of all. The poor people are introduced to decision making strategies that strengthen their abilities and contribute in many changes observed today. Moreover, the policy encourages government participation in various childhood education programs that will be of benefit to the poor. First, it encourages access to health information that contributes to personal development and creates a link between parents, children, and facilitators. Second, it increases participation and inclusion where poor families attend training programs aimed at improving their standards. Parents get more open and transparent about issues affecting their families leading to effective monitoring of each parent’s situation. Finally, the policy makes most programs more accountable by strengthening the methods used in delivering information through active participation both in class and at home. The support for poor people through assisting the poor improve their way of living contributes in building a healthy nation (David and Kraay 147-148).
My proposal
In United States children from disadvantaged families face many problems because they do not have access to better parental guidelines due to high poverty levels. The high rate of poverty makes children from disadvantaged families experience some developmental growth problems resulting to a significant reduction in chances of success in their later lives in both social and economical aspects. The impact of the head start program on school performances is low for the children from poor families (Hawkins et al 106). In order to deal with the issue, the government should introduce parent training courses in the program. The parent training program will provide acceptable discipline practices that create more cooperation between parents. The practices ensure more parent involvement in child’s education and takes serious measures to parents from poor families who ignore their children. Children from poor families who attend the Head Start program achieve poor grades, poor adult life, and mental and health problems compared to their counterparts from rich families. These are the most common risks associated with poverty that calls for a more comprehensive training program for disadvantaged parents (Hawkins et al 120).
The incorporation of parent trainings in the Head Start program follows some poverty reduction theories. The individualistic and pathological theory suggests that poverty is an inherent attribute that defines an individual character and personal abilities in life. Lack of proper poverty reduction measures leads in a situation where a country is filled with illiterate people who contributes to less development. The theory of individualistic claims that poverty occurs due to inabilities, but from my perspective, poverty occurs because of ignorance. Poor people are very ignorant leading to their children scoring poorly in schools due to lack of parental participation. With the availability of comprehensive parent training programs, people should be talking of poverty as a thing of the past (Webster-Stratton, Reid & Hammond 280). Parents should take it as a responsibility to attend such classes since they assist in improving the living standards. Comprehensive parent training program increases bonding among families practicing the new parent training program especially the disadvantaged families. Most of the families that showed positive results have indicated a significant growth in their poverty status and reduced the dependency rates (Haskins & Barnett 64-65).
The introduction of comprehensive parent training is expected to improve the productivity of poor families who use the Head Start program. Poverty has received global attention since the problem affects many nations and is an age-longed phenomenon. The theory of social economy tackles the problem of poverty reduction by encourages improved community participation in poverty reduction. Family income contributes more to a child’s physical health and school achievement, which has a significant effect on the future life. The introduction of a parent training program provides an opportunity for poor parents to teach their children life skills aimed at reducing poverty levels. In addition, the parent training program will make use of the current social approaches in providing the opportunity for the poor thus, increasing their productivity. Social involvement in economic growth has contributed in the improvement of living standards through improved interactions between people of different classes. The social economy theory of poverty reduction assists in unlocking values among people by providing them with a necessary education and life experience (Chui et al 15).
Moreover, Head Start program lacks only focuses on children growth ignoring the role of parents in shaping their children’s future. The active involvement of parents’ natural roles as their children’s first teachers assists in modifying children and making them focus on how to lead a healthy and wealthy life. In addition, parent involvement assist in promoting children social competence and get rid of behavior problems shown by children from disadvantaged families (Webster-Stratton, Reid & Hammond 284). Children from poor families always experience major health and mental problems both in their early child hood age and adult life. The program had no parental strengthening trainings that eliminate health risks faced by children. Research conducted towards the effectiveness of the Head Start program yielded poor results because some factors were not addressed. The parent training program consists of many topics that teach children life skills, positive living strategies, and effective parenting skills necessary for coping with life stresses. Lack of parenting skills in early child hood development contributes to developmental problems and health problems. In addition, poor families experience stressful life situations that contribute to developmental problems and have a negative influence on children (Baydar, Jamilla Reid and Webster-Stratton 1435-1436).
The Head Start program lacks comprehensive parental training program because of many factors. With the individualistic theory in practice, the program would ensure parents undertake their roles and responsibilities in ensuring poverty reduction takes place. In addition, the Head Start program fails in elaborating the parent expectations from their children. Parents are used of sending their children in class not for education purposes but because they are a bother at home. The program does not equip parents with the necessary knowledge, behavior and attitudes towards their children. In most circumstances, the program has produced few sustainable reports over time when the children under the program were studied together with those who participated in different programs. The studies concluded that the Head Start program eliminates the contribution of parents in child development that results to poor grades, mental and health problems, and poor adult life. In determining how such cases should be reduced, the parent training program was introduced. The surveys conducted about the program indicated a very wide difference between families involved in the two programs.
On the other hand, teachers face many challenges while teaching children from disadvantaged families because in most cases they deal with problem solving issues and leaves limited times for teaching. The lack of parent involvement makes the teacher assume all the duties making it impossible to achieve the education goals. According to Rosenthal & Rosnow, the parents contribute more to a child’s behavior compared to teachers because they know their children well and are the best people to direct them on the most appropriate social behavior. The data collected indicated that most children from families where parents attend training programs have acceptable behaviors, and are socially developed (1991).
The parent training program has a lot of significance in poverty reduction. The parent-teachers intervention programs strengthen the ability of children to perform well in class and acquire a happy life in the future. In addition, the program assists in modifying parents in a more competent and effective manner leading to good parent-teacher-child relationship. The parent training program is also effective in child’s development as it shows significant reduction on behavior problems leading to less child risk factors. The social economic theory provides a better base for the implementation of the program since it gives provision for the advanced community involvement practices in teaching various poverty eradication measures. Moreover, society involvement in poverty reduction assists in the country’s development and achievement of global competitiveness.
Conclusion
The head start program should be modified in order to promote effectiveness of staff knowledge and performance by introducing preschool programs. This will ensure intergenerational transmission of poverty is eliminated in the near future. Moreover, children from disadvantaged families will get a better chance of enjoying life like their colleagues from rich families who undertake the same program. Researchers conclude that the Head Start program is adequate for teaching people and eradicating poverty from disadvantaged families. The introduction of the parent training program would increase its effectiveness and quality. In addition, the incorporation of preschool programs like the parent training has assisted in reducing the intergenerational transmission of poverty. Disadvantaged parents who undertake the preschool training programs should always take the message home and encourage others to adopt the practice. With the high rate of unemployment in the United States and high levels of poverty such programs are essential in building a more independent country. The government should ensure early childhood institutions offering preschool programs receive adequate finance so that they run effectively.
The rise in the income level of the poor forms the key to poverty reduction. The discussed countries have contributed in provision of preschool programs that aid in poverty reduction. In United States Head Start poverty reduction program was established that has inspired early childhood training programs. The outcomes from the program with disadvantaged families were below expectations calling for a comprehensive improvement in the parent training programs (Currie and Thomas 88). The incorporation of parent training program aimed at providing parents with a positive learning environment and addressing services needs together with those of their families in order to improve their income levels (Craig, Sharon & Robin 864).
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