Strollerderby : poverty

Chicago Doula Works With Poor Pregnant Teens

Miriam Axel-Lute — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 19:30:00 GMT

For all those tempted to think of a doula as a luxury who merely provides pampering, it's worth taking a little time to watch A Doula Story.

Loretha Weisinger, the subject of the documentary, a former teen mom herself, works with pregnant teens in a poor area of Chicago. She's really a combination of childbirth educator, doula, lactation consultant, and parenting educator, which is a hell of a job, but clearly a crucial one.

I keep remembering the moment where she takes a cell phone away from a new mom who's trying to breastfeed in the hospital in order to tell her boyfriend that, no, breastfeeding isn't "nasty." Or her careful explanation that she wasn't going to leave the delivery room until one of her "girls" was ready to hold her baby and got to do so. Or her repeated insistence that her girls actually talk to their babies, in utero and out.

It's not exactly a feel-good flick, as the lives of these girls, and Loretha herself, are hard. But it also shies away from what I came to realize, as I found myself tensing for it, must be a stock documentary habit of sticking a tragedy in somewhere around 2/3 of the way through. No deaths or horrendous confessions. Just the day-to-day work of trying to improve the lives of babies and parents.

(Hat-tip: Citizens for Midwifery)

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The Cheese Sandwich Policy – Poor Students Singled Out With A Cold Lunch

SunnyChanel — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 23:00:00 GMT

Public school in Albuquerque, New Mexico have a new way to differentiate between the have and have nots, the cold lunch. Last month the school system instituted what is being called the “cheese sandwich policy.”

According to the AP, the schools is facing mounting unpaid lunch fees which were at about $55,000 in 2006 but are looking at about $300,000 by the end of this year. In reaction to the problem of the unpaid lunch fees, kids who’s parents who are behind in lunch payments are being singled out and are given a cold lunch of a cold cheese sandwich, fruit and a carton of milk, whereas the rest of the school has a piping hot lunch. To be the unlucky recipient of the cheese sandwich meal, kids in elementary school would have had to miss 10 lunch payments and in high school, two lunch payments.

But not all the kids in families who are in financial straits will have to succumb to this policy, the school district has about 2,000 students who receive free or a reduced-price lunch. Out of the 46,000 meals served each day in the school districts only about 80 of the cheese sandwich variety. And it should be pointed out that in other districts, kids who don’t bring lunch money don’t get anything at all. The director of the school’s food and nutrition department has said the Albuquerque schools have “historically gone above and beyond as far as treating children with dignity and respect and trying to do what's best with for the child and I think this is just another example.”

Yes, perhaps the “system” is trying to be respectful but when the student is handed the “punishment” of the cold lunch, other kids are surely going to single the kid out for razzing and taunting. The article noted one student who was pulled out of line and given the sandwich lunch and now “never wants to go back to school ever again,” surely embarrassed by the moment.

Do you think of the as punishment for the poor student or a respectful alternative?

Source AP.

Does Obama's Election Mean Black Kids Now Have "No Excuses"?

Kate Tuttle — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 16:00:00 GMT

Op-ed contributor Charles Blow, writing in the New York Times, recently assailed comments by South Carolina Congressman James Clyburn that, in a post-Obama age, "every child has lost every excuse." In other words, if a blak man can become president, you -- black child, Latino child, poor child -- can scale every mountain, too. I can see what Clyburn meant, that his aim was to both exhort and inspire (and he spoke these words at a BET event, which I think is significant), but Blow's right: "no excuses" is a vast overstatement of how even the playing field now is.

The statistics Blow cites can make you cry: 60% of black kids grow-up in low-income homes, half of them in what the government offically calls "poor" households (believe me, what the Feds call poor is several steps more grim than what you or I would). Black kids are twice as likely as their white and Latino counterparts to be the victims of mistreatment, ranging from neglect to physical abuse. They are far more likely to be raped.

I don't think it's an excuse to say that the circumstances in which a child grows up have an overwhelming influence on her or his opportunities to lead a happy, healthy life. Nor do I think that acknowledging the inequalities that still exist in our society is in any way throwing a damper on the incredibly inspiring story of Obama's rise to the presidency, nor on the real-world solutions all of us hope his adminstration can bring to bear on them. And while I like Clyburn's old-school call for kids to overcome whatever obstacles they face, I cringe at how a slogan like "no excuses" sounds in the mouth not of a black warrior for equal rights, but yet another clueless white conservative pundit. So yes, I hope that President Obama means, among many other things, that nobody will ever again assume a black child can't get there, but I also hope it means we can all work together to improve the chances that she or he will be able to.

And besides, it didn't seem to me as if having a President Bush in office prompted academically sub-par rich white kids to stop making excuses.

Teacher Wants to Drop Huck Finn, To Kill a Mockingbird, "For Obama"

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Child in "Migrant Mother" Photo, Now 77, Remembers Hard Times

Kate Tuttle — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 22:01:00 GMT

To read the recollections of Katherine McIntosh is to travel to another time of economic privation, and realize that however bad things are now, they were far worse then. McIntosh, now a senior citizen, was four years old when the photographer Dorothea Lange took pictures of her family as part of a WPA project documenting life in the migrant farm camps during the Great Depression.

McIntosh now works as a housecleaner in California, and says she's proud she to be employed and sheltered -- two necessities that must have seemed like luxuries when she and her six siblings lived in tent cities or beat-up cars, going to school only sporadically, and enduring the taunts of better-off children when they did.

Her mother was just 32 when the iconic photo was taken; McIntosh is the child on the left, burying her face behind her mother's shoulder. Her advice to the rest of us, who haven't been through tough times before? Don't live paycheck to paycheck. Keep some savings. And make sure you have clean sheets.

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Child Hunger in the U.S. Doubled in 2007

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

The Agriculture Department has reported that 700,000 American children went hungry in 2007, up from 430,000 in 2006. Since this sharp increase in the number of kids who are not getting enough to eat came before the economic crisis, it’s very likely that 2008 will be an even more difficult year for children in lower income families.

As if the president-elect didn’t have enough world crises to combat, these new figures make Obama’s promise to expand food aid and end childhood hunger by 2015 even more important—and more daunting.

Among those families suffering from “food insecurity” (i.e., the inability to afford or get assistance for enough food to maintain a healthy lifestyle), the hardest hit were—in descending order—those living below the poverty line, single mothers, African American households, and Latino households.

Overall, 12.2 percent of Americans didn't have enough to eat in 2007.

Photo: Total Broadcasting

Second Haitian School Collapses

Kate Tuttle — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 21:28:00 GMT

In what has been a devastating week in the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation, a second school has collapsed in Haiti. This time no children died, but it only adds to the horror that befell Haiti last Friday, when the La Promesse school in Petion-ville collapsed, killing (at current count) 93, most of them children.

Nine children were hurt in the second collapse, at Grace Divine Primary and Secondary School in Port-au-Prince, and two children were injured at another nearby school, when they panicked because they thought their building was shaking and about to collapse.

The minister who owned and built Grace Divine will no doubt be prosecuted for his criminally shoddy construction practices, but there's no bringing back those kids. For a country crippled by poverty and ravaged this year by storms and flooding, Haiti has just suffered its cruelest blow yet. Americans are justifiably freaking out as we enter what looks like it'll be a sustained recession, but I hope those of us who still have a buck or two to spare will consider spreading it around. Red Cross International is a good place to start.

I Dare You to Find a Cuter Kid Video

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 00:03:00 GMT

The eight painstaking years I spent studying French just paid off. I don’t know who this girl is or where she came off, but I am pretty sure that she will one day inherit the earth.

Just in case you temporarily forgot that little kids speaking French is the best part of life, I share this video with you of a master storyteller with the most zurbert-able cheeks you’ve ever seen. She spins an impressive tale involving Tigger, poverty, a clawed mammoth, a suicidal hippopotamus, and allergies to magic. Truly, this is not to be missed.

Photo: gledwood2.blogspot.com

Once upon a time... from Capucha on Vimeo.

Don't Neighborhood Hop for Trick or Treating

Amy Kuras — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 17:31:00 GMT

When dusk falls and the little ghosts and goblins come out tonight, where will you be? Do you stick to your own neighborhood, or do you try to scope out the spots with the best candy?

I am hugely, hugely against neighborhood hopping. I live in a mostly poor city, and the neighborhood where I grew up was one of the only decent ones for miles around. On Halloween night, it was literally impossible to get into and out of the neighborhood because of all the cars choking the streets. First of all, let’s discuss driving kids around for Halloween – at the risk of sounding old lady, when I was a kid we walked for our damn free candy.

I love Halloween; I have no problem buying copious amounts of candy and handing it out to all of the neighborhood kids. What I don’t like is people who don’t live in my neighborhood, who I have never seen before or since, taking advantage of my generosity and good will and making it impossible for those of us who live in the neighborhood to simply make it home from work.

I feel for kids whose neighborhoods are too bad to trick or treat, but social service agencies, churches and the Y all throw free Halloween parties for those kids to have a little fun, and I’d happily buy candy for those groups. I’d also happily give out candy to just the kids, but not their mothers, siblings whose voices have already changed, and toothless baby cousins. Whose bags, believe me, I have been instructed to fill.

It ruined Halloween for me when I lived at home. Now, I am right across the city border from a more affluent suburban community on one side and north of very well-off neighborhoods. Our middle class enclave gets few, if any, outsiders, and if we do it’s a manageable level and I don’t mind.

So my take is: Stick to your own neighborhood, and if that’s not an option, find a party or event that your family can go to instead for trick or treating. And if you must neighborhood hop, park the damn car and make ‘em walk.

Art: Gus Grimley

Your Stress Is Making Your Kid Fat

Amy Kuras — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 16:02:00 GMT

This, this is just kinda sad. Researchers have found that stressed-out moms may be raising fat kids because those kids respond to family stress by turning to food.

Awww.

More to the point, this affects kids who are raised in poverty because of their mother's money worries, long work hours, health insurance concerns and other factors, said study leader Craig Gundersen of the University of Illinois.

"People will eat in response to feeling stress," he told Reuters news service, "and in this case children may be eating more in response to stress-related trouble at home."

Gundersen's fix is a better social safety net for poor families, such as food stamps and better health insurance coverage and better financial education to help people manage money.

Gundersen and colleagues at Iowa State University and Michigan State University looked at data on 841 children in families living below the poverty line who were part of a government nutrition survey conducted from 1999 to 2002.

Certainly many of us have been guilty of "stress eating" – grabbing carb- and fat-laden foods that taste good and have little to no nutritional value, and we probably unwittingly pass that behavior on to our kids.

But I think this also overlooks a really important fact: Many people who are living in poverty also live in what are termed "food deserts" — places where it's difficult to find fresh, healthful food. I live in a pretty poor city and while my neighborhood is blessed with two decent grocery stores, that’s not the case for much of the city. What is common are gas stations and party stores selling chips, cookies, candy bars and pop, with not a healthy choice to be found.

If you're a mom working two jobs just to make ends meet and it's two bus rides to the nearest grocery store, I refuse to blame you for your child's obesity because you're stressed out and sometimes are reduced to shopping at the gas station. I think finding a way to make more healthy, affordable foods available to low-income families is key to the health of the next generation of urban kids. Sure, parents need to be responsible in what they feed their children, but offering them smart choices is key.

Poor Kids Face Hungry Summers

Amy Kuras — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 21:30:00 GMT

For too many kids, school is the only place they can be guaranteed a good meal every day – a situation that is sure to get worse as more families get squeezed by skyrocketing prices on food and gas and rising unemployment.

In summer, though, those kids are not in school and so aren’t getting the nutrition they need. During the summer, fewer than one in five get the free or reduced price lunches they are entitled to year round.

School officials in many cities find ways to get kids to come to school during the summer just so they can be fed, and parks and recreation summer programs and church groups also help pick up the slack. Some schools even offer food during the summer to families who qualify, whether or not their kids are in summer school programs.

Some experts believe that lack of nutrition and idleness during the summer months account for the summer slide – the phenomenon by which children lose a great deal of their progress in school over the summer. Over time, low-income kids end up about two grade levels behind higher income children by the end of elementary school.

This Washington Post article details some of things being done in that city's suburbs. This is such a simple solution to one aspect of the cycle of poverty that I hope other cities do similar things. I hate thinking that some of the major victims of this economy are innocent kids.

Parenting While Poor

Adrienne Martini — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 18:30:00 GMT

Fingers are easy to point when it comes to poverty in the developed world. But once you start to unpack the issue, it's hard to know exactly where that finger ought to aim. No, child welfare isn't a sexy topic. Still, we ought to be able to pay just a little bit of attention to something that has a negative impact on kids.

This piece by Gaylynn Burroughs in the Huffington Post breaks down the larger fears that a poor parent deals with on a daily basis. It's a sobering reality check for those of us who infrequently worry that our kids will get sucked into our state's child protective service system because we can't afford to feed them.

Sadly, Burroughs doesn't have any great solutions on offer because the problem is complex enough to not have an easy fix. Still, a little education can't hurt, right?

Children of Men (for real): Japan's Child Pop. Drops for 27th Straight Year

Cole Gamble — Mon, 05 May 2008 15:00:00 GMT

While we in America like to celebrate the 5th of May by depositing large quantities of tequila into our stomach (just for safe keeping before we deposit said tequila in a toilet later that night), in Japan they celebrate Children's Day. Thing is, at the rate they are going, pretty soon they won't have anything to celebrate.

The population of children in Japan has declined for the 27th straight year in a row. The reasons are thought to be a product of modernization. I.E: as a country becomes richer, birth rates tend to decline. Yes, it's a stereotype but it is true, the poorer and less educated a population, the more kids get popped out.

The effects of such a decline in Japanese youths could potentially be disastrous. Just look at the fears we have with our own withering Baby Boomer generation. Time will come when the infirm and incapable will outnumber the vital and capable, and when it does, look out. It's simple math: when there are more people who are taking out of the system than there are people putting in, well everything kind of goes to hell.

The impact of this youth drain could prove dire for Japan, but at least they'll get watch us fall apart first. Maybe they can learn something from us as our capital building is transformed into a Denny's and the a street gangs of elderly men take to mugging innocent people for their precious Viagra money.

Photo: www.ctv.ca

More Moms Choose the Boob

Amy Kuras — Thu, 01 May 2008 13:03:00 GMT

To listen to your average sanctimonious lactivist, breastfeeding is under attack everywhere and nurses shove bottles of formula into the groggy, exhausted hands of postpartum mothers while binding their breasts to cut off milk supply.
Ain't necessarily so, at least according to the Center for Disease Control. More than three-quarters of mothers breastfeed for at least a short period, according to their annual study of breastfeeding rates.
That's an all-time high, and is being counted as a clear victory by breastfeeding promoters like the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. So it would follow that most women are actually being encouraged to breastfeed by people who have a lot of influence at the time they have to make that decision, and it's working.
All mothers are breastfeeding more, although rates remain lower among some populations. African-American women now breastfeed at a rate of 65 percent, up from 36 percent in 1993 and 1994. Rates for Mexican American mothers and non-Hispanic white mothers were highest, 80 percent and 79 percent respectively.
Sadly, the babies who would most benefit from breastfeeding aren’t getting it as much. he Only 57 percent of poor mothers and 43 percent of mothers under 20 breast-fed their babies.
Here's where I’d like someone smarter than me to weigh in — why is this? Formula costs like a million dollars, and the health benefits of breastfeeding could really help poorer people who likely struggle to pay for health care and might find the antibodies that come with breastfeeding help keep their babies healthier. Why? Are there misconceptions about breastfeeding, or not enough encouragement? I don’t get it, that the people who have to struggle the hardest to pay for formula breastfeed the least.

Family Auctions $103,000 in Debt on Ebay

Rachael Brownell (Redsy) — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 15:02:00 GMT

This is one way to handle the housing/food/gas crunch non-recession of 2008. One woman is attempting to auction off the entirety of her family's debt = $103K or so.

She even itemizes it for you...

Please note that you don't hear this poor family (as in sympathy not poverty) arguing their debt is due to $4 gas.

Meanwhile, this seems like a very commonsensical (if a little last ditch) method of dealing with debt.

Plus, you can keep her car and her house if you like (though that's optional), though apparently not her kids (who look quite cute, especially compared to the husband).

Compared to my family's debt, this seems small fry, baby.

[Hat Tip: Consumerist]

Slumming It - Literally

Amy S.F. Lutz — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 17:32:00 GMT

I'm much more better off - financially speaking - than my parents were when I was growing up. So my number one fear, for my own kids, has always been that they'll grow up spoiled brats, with no appreciation for everything they are lucky enough to enjoy.

Maybe taking them on one of the growing number of organized slum tours - now available through the most tragically, poverty-stricken areas of India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa - would open their eyes.

Welcome to "poorism" - as its critics call it - where, for a small fee (Indian tours go for 300 rupees, or about $7.50) tourists get intimate with open sewars, exposed electrical wires and beggars. For souvenirs, they get to snap photos of children digging through garbage dumps.

If you're thinking, ick, you're not alone. Many tourism professionals believe these excursions amount to little more than exploitation, a new way to give Westerners a smug sense of how great their lives are.

To be fair, it seems the intentions of the tour operators are less mercenary than that. Some hope to change general perception of these neighborhoods by showcasing work by local artists and inviting tourists to participate in festivals and other rituals. Others stress the economic benefits the tours bring to the slums, by hiring locals as guides and allowing craftspeople to sell handiwork to tourists. One Mexican tour requires participants to help make sandwiches and fill water bottles for the needy they visit. It's all an attempt to humanize a problem that, whether we go and check it out in person or not, won't go away.

Still, I can't see how my children would identify with a group of people they need to be taken by a tour guide to see, like animals on a safari. It's a tough question: how do you teach children to be grateful and generous, without feeling superior?

Marriage Class: Useful or Not?

Amy Kuras — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 23:57:00 GMT

One of the underpinnings of welfare reform is encouraging marriage. In some places, it goes as far as strongly encouraging marriage with financial incentives and so on. Others, like this program in Kansas City, target low income couples with "relationship training" –teaching couples how to fight fair, listen actively, and so on.

The idea is that by getting married and staying married, couples can raise their standards of living and lift themselves out of poverty. But in many low-income communities, according to sociologists, the pickings are mighty slim in terms of good husband material. And actually, about half of the low-income couples that might benefit from relationship training get most of the economic benefits of marriage by living together.

The program in Kansas City targets low income parents and parents to be, with the thought that if they can keep moms and dads together, married or no, it will improve the emotional and economic lives of their families. Single parenthood is a significant indicator of poverty and keeping mom and dad together can help avoid that.

And teaching relationship skills can only help families run a little better. Parents who know how to use "I" statements and resolve conflict healthily instead of throwing china when they are pissed can only be good for kids, after all. It's something that middle and upper class couples have had access to for quite a long time – making sure people on the lower rungs of the economic ladder learn those same skills is all to the good.

Many Urbanites Go from House Proud to House Poor in 5 Years

Rachael Brownell (Redsy) — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 18:36:00 GMT

Admitting one has made a serious financial mistake as an adult (who is supposed to know better) and especially as a parent (who is supposed to teach children about money) is a source of great shame for most people...

So it's not surprisingly many folks are keeping mum about their housing woes. As the the rates of foreclosure in parts of the country skyrocket and unravel local economies, many cities are predicted to see house values decline by as much as 26% over the next 5 years. These cities include Seattle, Portland, Orlando, Greater Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Sacramento, Las Vegas, and others.

Say you elected an adjustable rate mortgage (ARM), a few years ago when appreciation seemed a sure thing and low monthly mortgage payments in the beginning of your term might have gotten your family into a bigger house, or a nicer area than you'd have otherwise been able to afford. Or, you refinanced or bought into an equity line to pay for kids' schooling, or vacation, or car, or remodel. Or, perhaps you bought a house because it was a good investment rather than a lovely place to live.

Many of us had our closest encounter with paper wealth as a result of the double-digit appreciation of the late-90's and early 2000's... So maybe we deferred saving for retirement or other smart uses of our money in favor of betting it all on our housing.

As the housing slump marches on, economic insecurity will hit many of us very close to home.

Kid's Nutrition Education Useless: They Still Eat Junk

Karen Murphy — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 17:50:00 GMT

Over $1 billion spent this year alone by the U.S. government on nutrition education for kids, and just about all of it will go to ~~waist~~ uh, waste. The Associated Press reviewed 57 scientific studies about the various nutrition programs across the country and found only 4 exhibiting any sort of success. Despite dancing carrots and broccoli, prizes for eating vegetables, and kids who lie about their habits, kids are still eating junk and they're still fat. Obesity rates in kids ages 6-11 is five times what it was in the 1970's, and for kids ages 2-5? Three times what it was back then. I'm still astounded at the thought of an obese toddler: don't they burn zillions of calories simply by existing (whining, mostly)?

So if these federally-funded nutrition programs don't work, how come?

1. Parents. Yeah, blame the 'rents. But how can you expect kids to eat broccoli while the parents are chowing down on Doritos? That hardly seems fair. Plus, prenatally, babies will develop a taste for what mom eats during pregnancy. Which explains my kids' tendencies toward cupcakes, bananas, and pineapple.

2. Poverty. Sad but true: junk food is cheaper and easier to find than the good stuff. Highly urban, low-income areas tend to have fewer grocery stores where fresh food is available. And there aren't a lot of good choices for kids to play outside in inner-city areas either, and sports teams cost money. What's to do, then, besides sit inside and watch TV and have a snack or three?

3. Advertising. Have you ever seen an ad for vegetables? I don't remember many either. 'Nuff said.

But here's some more heartening news, which perhaps will help bring on some real change: "This spring the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation announced plans to spend $500 million over the next five years to reverse the trend of childhood obesity. It will fund programs that bring supermarkets into poor neighborhoods, studies that measure the weight of children who exercise more at school, meetings of advocates who are seeking to restrict junk food ads." In other words, by cutting back on ads, bringing more "real" food to those who need it, and getting kids to exercise more, there just might be some change to this alarming, and, uh, growing trend of childhood obesity.

Kids Feign Health To Protect Working Moms

Kelly Mills — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 12:32:00 GMT

Hey, is it too early in the day to have your heart broken? Usually I prefer to wait until after lunch, but it's a Tuesday, so what the heck. Next time you see a kid in school with a fever and a cough, it might not have been the doing of a desperate mom. Apparently lots of kids ask themselves, "Am I sick enough to tell mom and risk that she'll lose her job?" Groups advocating for paid sick days for low-income workers had lots of horrific stories about children who felt the need to hide illnesses in order to protect the family. One advocate described this: "her son Eric, then age 7, got hit by a car on the way home from school but chose not to tell her for fear she'd lose her second-shift job if she didn't go in to work. Later an older sibling called her to say that Eric was crying because his arm hurt from being hit by the car and she had to take him to the hospital. When Robbie informed her boss, he was adamant: "Leave and you're fired." Her pleas didn't move him. She did leave; she was fired. Eric turned out to have a broken arm."

Kind of makes a compelling case for paid sick days, doesn't it? Of course, it also really highlights the terrible situation of families living in poverty. Another activist reported, "My son had stopped eating...He thought it would save on groceries." Ugh. Kind of makes you want to run out and shake the nearest congressperson.

I Hope My Kids Are Poor: Escaping the Gaping Maw of Material Culture

Rachael Brownell (Redsy) — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 20:10:00 GMT

As recent reports indicate, Americans are spending more, saving less, and the outlook for future generations earning capacity is growing dim. To this I say "HUZZAH!" I hope my children make less money than I do. More than that, I hope they learn to live with lower material expectations than their peers and their parents.

Marketers have long known about the "nag factor" and are brilliant at accessing the bottomless and apparently trainable greed of younger and younger children. Manufacturers are no longer as concerned that Mom approves of certain toys. Instead they develop "work-arounds" to get the children to nag their way into securing their favorite slutty doll.

So I've developed a solution. It's called "Operation Sackcloth & Ashes" and it goes like this: From now on, for each Christmas, birthday, or gift-oriented event, I'm going to give each of my daughters a simple gift from nature -- a rock, a pinecone, a wee little tiny birds nest full of delicate eggs. Soon, the darlings will be exclaiming over the simple joys of eating breakfast, wearing clothes, breathing, and having heat and water inside the house.

By taking away television and restricting all contact with other children, I hope to have the children ready for Waldorf by Fall.