Closing the Word Gap Between Rich and Poor - Essay Example

Closing the Word Gap Between Rich and Poor The achievement gap has always been there between the poor and the rich. Right from a very young age, there is a significant difference between the poor and the rich. This can be demonstrated by the word gap between infants from poor families and those from affluent families. The word gap is a term that was adopted in the 1990s researchers who found that infants of age three and below from poor families heard three million words less than those of the same age but from richer families (NPR Staff para 3). This lower exposure to vocabulary leads to poor performance form poor family children. Thus the performance gap in between the poor starts as early as immediately after birth. The main issue which may concern parents, educators and the government is that this word gap, as innocent as it might seen, contributes significantly in the latter academic years of the child. Those children with word deficiency are much more likely to be affected and to lag behind in their academic achievement (Straubhaar et al 69). This therefore this is a serious issue which must the looked in a different way because the issue of word gap, despite having been discovered over twenty years ago, continues to affect many millions of children. The word gap is also seen to be expanding and in turn the achievement gaps in elementally, secondary and colleges can be seen to also expand. Remedy It is rather an unfortunate thing that some of the factors causing performance gaps are factors which can easily be taken care of. For instance, world gap is an issue which parents and family members of a child can deal with by being more responsive to toddlers. It means that awareness should be given to the poorer parents and families in order to help them understand the need to be more responsive to their children and help them to learn as many words as possible. One of the issues which come up with regard to any kind of academic performance gap, such as the world gap, is that poorer families don’t see the need to engage in their child’s education. Unlike the richer families who engage in guaranteeing that their child will get the right education even if it is from home, the poorer families are less concerned and leave the burden to the teacher. This can be detected in the early years of preschool when the child is still learning their vocabulary. Poorer families may not have the tendency to want to teach their children basic needs. Poor families also seem to have a culture that does not promote the intellectual developing of their children. However, this approach of explaining development through cultural issues is countered by Erickson (299–306) in their article where they argue that everyone is multicultural and that not one can be affected fully by one culture. However as Lewis (23) seems to suggest, poverty can be a culture on its own and that in this culture, childhood is not cherished, thus the neglect. Poor families and time availability Poorer families are likely to have less time to spend useful time with their young children and this makes it harder for the children to learn such things as vocabulary and sentence structures. They are also likely to ignore their toddlers when they show interests in something. By ignoring the child, the parent or caretaker is denying the child crucial opportunity to learn vocabulary and to familiarize with the environment. This may lead to the child lagging behind after they join school with other children from the richer families where the child is given these opportunities to learn. It can be assumed that there are issues which are difficult to solve though. Most of the poor families have working class parents, some of whom have to work more than one job concurrently in order to make their economic ends meet. Such a parent may be tired to the extent of not being able to help their young ones with intellectual development. In this regard however, the question to ask is; should any reason come between the child’s educational needs, even for the fact that the parents are poor? Should a child’s parent’s economic abilities affect their education achievement, especially considering the fact that these achievements also affect how they will achieve in their adulthood? Rich parents are more likely to go extra lengths to help their children to perform well intellectually and academically (McNamara). The role of the government, and employers It has always been argued that the government always has something they can contribute. There are questions about whether there should be a government policy that can solve these issues once and for all. However, with regard to the word gap issue, the issue is the fact that the child is too young to be admitted to school and therefore the issue cannot be solved by improving the school systems. However, one has to ask; are there any government policies which can lead to poor parents being able to contribute more to their children’s intellectual development in the toddler years? Fact is that there is no direct answer to such a question because government policies are not effective unless the beneficiaries have the right attitude towards them. In this respect, it can be said that the best way to go is by looking at the issues which are fundamentally a social problem or a result of negative attitudes and then addressing them the right way. Therefore, there are some issues which must be critically considered in order to understand how to solve issue of word gap. Awareness in this respect is everything. Poor parents should be informed and made aware of the impact of their attitude will have not their children. They should be informed on the need to make sure that there is enough interaction between and their babies to help in making sure that their. While it is not easy to change these attitudes, is possible to change them slowly to make sure that poverty and differences in economic classes to not lead to differences in the way a child achieves in school. The education system and its contribution to leveling the academic playing ground The education system has always been blamed for not being able to provide a flat playing field which will help the students to be able to participate in the education system in an equitable way. There are many policies and philosophies which have been brought up with the aim of making sure that all students are involved in class like every other student, regard of their race, ethnicity, intellectual or physical abilities etc. there is however a question of whether this policies and philosophies such as the no-child-left-behind, are able to sort out all the issues coming up in the education system. For instance, is it possible to solve the issue of the word gap using policies and by improving the learning system? Problem is that this can be a very big challenge, considering that this is an issue which developed in the earliest years of a child, even before they are able to go to school. The government is not able to determine how people live in their homes and while education policies can be made, they can only be made with issues surrounding the education system, not the home environment. As such, the fact that the word gap is a domestic issue, there is no clear understanding of how this can be dealt with. Definitely, the government can work towards easing the economic burden of poor families, but this does not directly solve the issue. Works Cited Erickson, Frederick. "Culture and Human Development." Human Development, Vol, 45 (2002): pp. 299–306. Lewis, Oscar. "the Culture of Poverty, Vol, 215 (04) ." Scientific American (1966): 23. McNamara, Erin., et al. "From Social Ties to Social Capital: Class Differences in the Relations Between Schools and Parent Networks." American Educational Research Journal , Vol. 40, (2) (2003): pp. 319-351. NPR Staff. Closing The Word Gap Between Rich And Poor. 29 December 2013. 16 February 2014 . Straubhaar, Joseph, et al. Media Now, 2010 Update: Understanding Media, Culture, and Technology, Enhanced. London, UK: Cengage Learning, 2009. Read More