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A powerful al.IY for poor children
By WrlgbtEd
America's poor children
desperately need some good
news. Their numbers have
grown in the past decade. They
face a much higher ri than
other children of teen pregnan­
cy, dropping out of school, job­
leuness, and raising their own
children in poverty. Their plight
has been significantly worsened
by an uncaring Reagan Ad­
ministration.
Just when they need it most,
poor cbildre have gained some
new, d very po erful allies:
members of the business com­
munity. In Sep ember, the busi­
ne a-led Committee on
Economic Developmient
(CEO)· ued a statement call­
ing on the nation to make com­
prehensive, preventive invest­
ments de igned to give poor
children fair chance to suc­
ceed in school and beyond.
B S HAS A clear self-
intere t in investments in
children: the need for an ample
supply of able, qualified
workers. Changes in the job
mar et mean that today, most
workers must have more than
deft hands and a strong back to
get a job. Business needs
employees who can read and
write and compute, aad they are
CHILD
WATCH
tured to better respond to the
needs of disadvantaged stu­
dents, according to the CED.
This means principals,
teachers, parents and students
making decisions together. It
means more teachers who kno
how to teach disadvantaged
children and who care bout
them. It means smaller classes,
more services like health care
and counseling in the school,
and more opportunities for
children to have fun and learn
after school as well.
rwedokno thatwor : the
CED reminds us. A range of ef­
forts, from the federal Head
Start program for youngsters to
a non-profit business-school
partnership in Atlanta, Georgia,
have shown us how to help poor
children do better in school and
in later life.
THE CED ISSUES a chal­
lenge to ct on what we know:
"Business leaders, governors,
state legislators, school officials,
and teachers need to show disaf­
fected young people that they
care about them as individuals
and want them to succeed."
Marian Wright Edelman is
president of the Children's
Defense Fund, a national voice
for children.
ailing
rried about a shortage of such
orkers in coming decades.
THE CED PROPOSAL
urges the nation to start early
and be thorough in our help to
poor children. Help would
begin even before birth, with
complete health care to poor
pregnant mothers. It would con­
tinue with health care for in­
fants, parenting education for
fathers and mothers, and child
care or preschool aIQ""8ements
that will give young. s a head
start on their schooling.
The CED would like to see all
children attend schools that
work. "Too many schools offer a
large, impersonal environment
that more closely resembles a
factory than a haven for learn-
ing."
Schools should be restruc-
hrough Arithmetic
than going through the usual
steps of addition and subtrac­
tion.
For the child who has begun
to balk at learning arithmetic,
let's try It's AU Done With Num­
bers by Rose Wyler (Doubleday
1979). This book approaches
numbers through magic tricks,
such as how to come up with the
same number that some one
writes down after asking a few
questions; or how to know which
card or number a person will
choose, or how to get a right
answer from though-waves. The
author explains how these tricks
are done with very simple arith­
metic and gives clear directions
on how to stage this kind of men­
tal magic.
Children who have mistaken­
ly begun to believe that they are
not as smart as other people
need a book which will help
them get over this poisonous
idea. A boo which should do
this job nicely is called Math for
Smarty Pants by Marily Burns
(Little Brown 1982), in which
the author says: "You're not
born being a math smarty pants
- it is something you learn. The
real trick to being a math smar­
ty pants is believing that math
makes sense, or can make sense
if you put your mind to it," This
fun-filled boo can help
youngsters get over their mathe­
matical shyness.
The I Hate Mathematics
By Dorothy Rob on
How does your child feel
about arithmetic? Do they take
it like a duc takes to water, or
are they afraid to do more than
dangle their fingers and toes in
it?
Parents can do a great deal to
help children perform weH in
arithmetic by helping them to
feel comfurtable with numbers.
Children who are on friendly
terms with numbers can sail
through arithmetic and right on
into mathematics and algebra
with the greatest of ease. But
tho e who are frightened of
number will always feel in­
timidated by even the tiniest
problem.
It i n't necessary to .be a
teacher or to hold a high chool
OT college degree in order to be
able to help your child have fun
with numbers. There are many
books available in libraries
which were written expressly for
this purpose. . ..
Parents and youngsters can
have great fun learning a new
way of doing arithmetic with
Complete Book of Fingennalh by
Edwin Lieberthal (McGraw
Hill 1979). This book shows
parents and children how to do
compl arithmetic with lightn­
ingspeed.
Number Ideas Through Pic­
tures by Mannis Charosh
(Crowell 1974) approaches
numbers through play .rather
Dorothy
Robinson
Together
Book by Marilyn Burns (Little
Brown 1975) shows youngsters
"how to change from a mathe­
matic weakling into a mathe­
matical heavyweight." It has a
chapter entitled "Maybe
Grownups Aren't As Smart As
You Think" which gives ideas
that will help children with
"grownups who don't really lis­
ten, or grownups who make you
feel like a dummy." Included in
this book is a marvelous idea on
how to get rich in 30 days by
doing the dishes. (Moms and
Dads need not read this sec­
tion),
The whole family, however,
should enjoy Nutty Number Rid­
dles by Rose Wyler and Eva
Baird. (Doubleday 1971). Ques­
tions such as "How many feet are
in an arm?" and "Ho can you
tell the number of grooves in a
phonograph record without
counting them?" should entice
everyone into doing some heavy
figuring.
Books such as these can take
the turbulence out of arithmetic
and turn the whole subject into
a breeze!
Le 's be fair in '88
By Dr. Lenora Wanl
On October 11 many
thousands of people from all
over the country marched in
Washington, D.C. for lesbian
and gay rights.
That would be wonderful - if
it were true! But it isn't. That ar­
gument only serves to cover up
. the fact that we live in a country
where gay people are routinely
harassed, discriminated against
THIS WAY for Black
Empowerment
Lenora Fulani
At a time when lesbians and
gays are under severe attac
from the fanatical Far Right,
and many of those who call
themselves liberals are looking
the other way, it is particularly
important that those of us who
believe in fairness and social jus­
tice for all people stand up on
behalf of our gay sisters and
brothers.
The Rainbow Lobby, an in­
dependent citizens' lobby based
in Washington, recently
launched a campaign to demand
the passage of a federal Lesbian
and Gay Rights Bill, a federal
AIDS Bill of Rights, a National
Health Service and a reversal of
the Hardwick ruling that uphold
Georgia's anti-sodomy laws.
Contrary to the opinion of
many major party politicians,
there is no such thing as too
much" fairness.
The Founding Fathers - al­
most all of whom were at least as
anti-gay as they were racist,
sexist, and anti-poor - initially
did not see fit to grant the
American people any rights at
all.
They added the Bill of Rights
to the Constitution only reluc­
tantly. And since then it has
been necessary to amend the
constitution in order to grant
rights to people they just happen
to have left out; Blacks, women,
the unpropertied.
Now their political descen­
dants argue against an AIDS Bill
of Rights on the grounds that
lesbians and gays and people
with AIDS are already
protected by t e Constitution.
and brutalized, where people
with AIDS are treated with less
compassion and justice than
were lepers during the so-called
Dark Ages.
Existing laws are indade­
quate to protect lesbians and
gays and people with AIDS.
Liberals who charge that ad­
vocating for an AIDS Bill of
Rights only "frightens" people
are simply Bor -ites in disguise.
People with AIDS
desperately need a Bill of
Rights, as do lesbians and gays -
just as women need an Equal
Rights Amendmen , just dis­
abled people, so-called illegal
aliens, the elderly, Indians, and
all those who are dis­
enfranchised and disinherited
need special protection against
the special oppression that they
endure.
That is why we must go
beyond the Bork-ite position
that the implementation of the
constitution automatically
guarantees everyone in this
country all the civil and human
rights they need - or deserve. We
need much more than that -
need all the fairness we can get.
I pledge my full support to the
struggle for fairness and in­
clusion for all.
Dr. Lenora Fulani is a nation­
al Executive Board member of
the New Alliance Party and
Director of Community Clinics of
the Institute for Social Therapy
and Research. She can be
reached at the New Alliance
Party, 2032 Fifth Avenue, New
York, NY 10035 (212) 996-6511.