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Yesenia Ruiz
Professor Mercado
English 113B
25 April, 2016
Better Beginnings
The city of Los Angeles holds a current population of 3.8 million people, in which 18%
are living in poverty, according to the American Community Survey. The Los Angeles
neighborhoods have created a cycle of continuing poverty for the next generations because of the
lack of funds for new parents. The young generations in poverty do not have the resources to get
out of poverty. The way to avoid poverty rates from rising is by changing the new generation
education system for everyone, including parents. Although many elements go into why a place
is in poverty the top three reasons are because locations lack of parent resources, education, and
jobs. The city of Los Angeles should fund more community projects for new parents in poor
neighborhoods so that new generation can have a strong foundation to build on their learning
skill and over time these new generations can help lower poverty levels and raise academic status
in this country.
When a child is born, the first three years of life are known to be the most important
because it is when major parts of the brain are being developed. During these few years a
relationship between the parents and child is important, because the child is depending on
someone to provide comfort and support. According to the Director of Infant Mental Promotion,
Chaya Kulkarni, during this time a child is creating around 700 synaptic connections in a second,
(Poverty and Brain Development). Synaptic connections are neuron connections located
everywhere in the brain, these connections help with the overall building of the brain
architecture. To ensure a child with healthy connections the child would have to get the most out
of a care giving relationship in order to avoid any harmful stress kind of stress a child can go
through is called toxic stress. Toxic stress comes from frequent exposer to violence, neglect,
verbal abuse, mental illness, and emotional abuse. This kind of stress kills brain cells which then
damages the learning, reasoning and behavior process. To avoid toxic stress, it is advised that the
parents should constantly obtain a stable and caregiving atmosphere. The problem with poor

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parents are that they can often not afford to dedicate the time to create this caregiving and stable
atmosphere because they have a low paying job due to the lack of education.
First thing to know is that a parent without a proper education is often forced to take a
low paying job where not much skill is needed. This causes them to live under the poverty line,
not being able to afford a stable house, or pay off bills on time. Education is key when it comes
to making it in the city of Los Angeles, a decent job requires a person to speak English and have
at least a high school degree. Los Angeles is home to many immigrant families that do not speak
English properly making it harder for them to find a fair job. The children in these family do not
have the choice on make English there first language. For some of these future students they will
have to go through the difficulties of comprehending English. Effecting there literacy
achievements and making the achievement gap to never fully close. It seems like this gap can
never be closed because there are always going to be students that start off with all the right tools
and students that do not have the same opportunities. The education gap is most likely to never
come to a fully shut but, it can be shrunk.
Next thing to understand is that poverty exposure can also effect a childs personality
development. According to Zahid Shahab Ahhmed, Family distress causes problems in the
relationship between adults that are, in turn, linked to less effective parenting a complex notion
that involves insufficient surveillance, lack of control over the childs behavior, lack of warmth
and support, inconsistency, and displays of aggression or hostility by parents or older siblings.
The frustrations and negative emotions witness by a child gets added to their personality. It is as
Barbara Kingsolver says Be careful what you give children, for sooner or later you are sure to
get it back. New parents need to be aware that there child in developing emotions that will
cause future frequents fights with the parents. For this reason, it is a good idea to have a parent
and child therapist so problems can get fixed immediately before the child develops rude habits
that can effect there education in the future.
The lack of health is also a problem, unhealthy students or family members because of
poverty, effect the students state of mind making it difficult for them to focus in there education.
Family are less likely to afford medicine that is highly needed causing the child to witness pain
from a parent or vice versa. According to Ashley Brooke Barr, author of a social science and
medicine book, she explains the idea of health problems with parents effects students education

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forces. It is proven that students with unhealthy parents tend to do worse in school compared to
students that do not have unhealthy parents. Students in high school are less likely to graduate
and if they do college students are also less likely to graduate. Unhealthy parents or students are
resulting in low math and literacy achievement, according to the SES- achievement gap. For this
reason parent programs will be able to inform and provide resource for these family to receive
affordable medication. This help will restore the inner peace of a young childs mind, and will
soon make it easier for them to concentrate their energy in to their studies.
Students between the ages of 5 to 17 years old are in the processes of developing skills;
like how to stay concentrated, study correctly, meet deadlines, and form there individual options.
The reasoning part of the brain gets exercised daily in a classroom. For students these are the
years where teachers get to understand them and if teachers notice any struggles a student might
be encountering these are the years to get them help. The problem here is that many schools
located in poor neighborhoods have more problems with education achievements than other
schools, not going through poverty might not encounter. For example a student in middle school
might be reading in a elementary level or does not understand what they read most of the time.
Children in these locations are not keeping up with the levels other students where on. For this
problem a bill called No Child Left Behind was create in 2001, to insure that every student
had the fair opportunity to learn just like all the other students in this nation. Schools would
receive funds to create programs for children struggling with basic levels of knowledge. In fact
this Act provides free tutoring for student that need the extra help and practice.
Although this has help to an extent there should be more programs for new parents so
that the future generations can start off with the best care and then develop into the best of
students. Low-income families often have very small homes and do not provide a study space for
their children to concentrate on homework. As a result of all the distractions that are happening
in the home the child does not develop the skill of consecration, making it difficult for the child
to follow on what is going on in class. Parents on the phone talking having loud conversations, or
watching the television to loud, all of these things keep a child from thinking on their own.
Therefore parents should be provided a location in their neighborhoods to be educated on what a
child needs from them in order to grow into a strong learning student.

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Now for parents will younger children from zero to three there are other things they can learn in
order to put their children on the path into becoming strong learners. New parents should be
provided a place in their community to be educated on what exactly is going on in their childs
brain and what they can do to avoid their children from going into harmful levels of stress.
Communities with poor families should have free baby development programs that provide a
child with care and education from the young age of zero to three years old. The money to fund
these programs will be taken out of citizens that are ranked in the 10%. Many of them might say
that this is a waste of their money but they are wrong because by reconstructing out new
generations our country can be once more the best country in this world.
Programs like the (CDCLA) Child Development Consortium of Los Angeles should
continue to be fund and there should also be more locations for these programs. At this moment
there are only two locations near the East area of Los Angeles. These programs were created in
1978, to educate and protect the minds of a child. These programs are for infants, toddlers and
preschoolers. There should be more fundings for these programs so that they can explant to
every neighborhood. This can help the future generations start off on the right path instead of
them trying to find it on their own we can save time and energy by having these programs.
The key to eliminating the cycle of poverty from going around once more is by giving the
new generations the chance to get the best of education has to offer. Schools located in poor
locations in Los Angeles should be remodeled. After school programs should be provided every
day for every student. Teachers need to be qualified to correctly teach students and should be
paid fair for them to be able to afford to help. There should also be mandatory therapy for all
children going to school, this will help with any problems that are keeping a childs focus from
their education. Free therapy for parents in poverty can help tame the stress they possess and stay
focused on their goals as a family. Helping parents help their children develop the tools they
need to make something out of themselves is the main goal. In every neighbor there should be
new parenting programs where parents that are citizens and non-citizens can learn how the
children brain works during their first few years of live. Parents can get different expert options
and help from different programs. Although many will say this is a waist on money, they are
wrong because these new programs will help the upcoming generations to stay focus on an

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education which will lead them to pursue a carrier and most likely this will lead to producing
more jobs for the economy. Poverty can come to an end if a change is made right away.

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Work Citied
Haycock, Kati. Closing the Achievement Gap El Educational Leadership.
58. 6 (2001): 6-11. Web. 20 April 2016
Jackson Cherl. Poverty and Brain Development. Youtube. TVOparents, 19 October
2012 Web. 12 April 2016.
Roseberry-Mckibbin, Celeste. The Impact of Poverty and Homelessness on Childrens Oral
And Literate Language: Practical Implications for Service Delivery.
Presentation at ASHA Schools Conference Milwaukee, Wisconsin (2012): 1-14.
Sastry Narayan Bonnie Ghosh-Dastidar, John Adams, Anne R. Pebley. The design of a
Multilevel survey of children, families, and communities: The Los Angele
Family and Neighborhood Survey. Social Science Research 35.4 1000-1024.
Print. 8 April 2016.