Portrait of Mississippi
I began reading "portrait of Mississippi" with the expectation that what I would find would not be pretty. I knew the statistics that Mississippi was last in the nation in areas of education, health, and personal finance. I also was aware that there would be inequalities across race, gender, and geography. I was surprised however about how great those disparities are. While some areas in Mississippi are doing quite well(or decent at least), these areas are dwarfed by the poverty in a majority of the state. And while white people are not living up to the standards of whites around the nation, most blacks would be just as well off if they were living in Thailand or Libya.
The key to this is perpetual poverty problems passed from one generation to another. Most of these can be tied back to teen pregnancy and single parent homes, especially among african americans. The lack of a father in the home leaves many young black males searching for a male identity. Unfortunately, this leads many to educational dropout, drugs, gangs, and violence.
The one thing we can do as teachers is work to close the K-12 education gap. While, difficult programs such as MTC, Teach for America are doing what they can, but until that gap is closed, Teen pregnancy, gang violence, single-parent homes, and the basis to most of Mississippi's perpetual poverty will continue. Here's hoping we can be apart of a positive change for this great state.
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