The Sheltered Lives We Lead

Friday night, as I was flipping through the channels, I came across 20/20. The show began by mentioning a prospering city in NJ, explaining the wonderful jobs and the greats schools that existed there; overall a good life. Following the short segment on this prospering town, another city was mentioned. This city, not far from the one I just mentioned, is considered the poorest city in the United States, and in 2004 & 2005 was considered the most dangerous city as well. In Camden, NJ the murder rate is seven times the national average. Fifty-eight percent of the children residing in Camden live under the poverty rate. Preschoolers walk to school as citizens are being arrested or as drug deals as being made, and from their bedrooms at night, children an hear gunshots from the streets...

This particular episode of 20/20, which focused on the city of Camden, also focused on three students of Camden-- their lives, their education, their struggles. While each student had a different living situation and different struggle, their goals were the same: attend school and become something, anything, to help their family get out of Camden.

Members of the Camden School System explained they can only do so much for students: tutors and volunteers are needed since there is a lack of interest from teachers to work in the area. Furthermore, books and materials are limited.

As I was watching the students strive for a future and wish for something as simple as curtains on their windows, I began to truly realize the inequality that exists in our school systems. As we continue to talk about ways to include technology in the classroom, it occurs to me that some of these students have never even touched a computer, and the schools have trouble enough finding funding for texts. How, if we find ourselves in a school so shunned by the advancements education has seen, can we incorporate technology when we will be struggling to equip our students with books of their own so they can read at home? These student deserve to work on and use a computer as much as the students in their neighboring communities (the ones that have prospered), but what happens when the technology isn't available?