I just finished watching a video of Sammy Hagar at a school in St. Louis. I was one of those people that turned my back on Van Halen when he became the lead singer, but did hold on to his solo albums. He was there because he donated money to a program called Blessings in a Backpack. He donated money to send the kids home with backpacks full of food. He also announced that all of the profits from one of his restaurants will go to funding the program “forever.” Here is a bit about what they do:
Blessings in a Backpack is a results oriented program. This unique program is designed to feed children grades K-5 in Title 1 public schools who qualify for the Federal Free and Reduced Meal Program and may not have any or enough food on the weekends. Better test scores, improved reading skills, positive behavior, improved health and increased attendance have all been attributed to the success of this program.
$80 feeds a child in the program for an entire school year. Following a donation, a school is chosen and a local grocer partners with the program to provide food for meals in the backpacks. Every Friday, students receive their backpacks with food that requires little to no preparation. They return with their backpacks on Monday ready to learn.
I did not think much of the video at first. I taught for ten years at a similar school. At the end however, when the video switched to him putting the food in the kids bags as they walked by him my brain felt a little queasy. Here I am in my school trying to put laptops into kids bags when he is putting food into theirs. Food. Just food. Makes me wonder if the integration of technology should be lower on my list of priorities. My kids can’t eat, talk to, or feel love from a laptop.
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I started blogging jsut a couple days over a year ago. When I started posting, computers and technology were everything, they were the answer. But now, just over a year of reflecting and learning, I can see they are just a very small piece of the puzzle. No matter how flat the world becomes, there will always be hungry people. I think I’d pick putting food in their stomachs over computers in their hands every time.
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@ Paul
The most humbling experience I have had as an administrator was asking a young man to remove pieces of pizza from his pockets at a class pizza party. He asked to speak with me alone and I honored his request. I almost lost it with tears when he told me he wanted to know if he could bring all the left overs home for his family as it was a three day weekend and they wouldn’t have much to eat until school on the following Tuesday.
I’m sure the poor will always be with us. But overcoming stereotypes that the poor are poor because they are lazy and stupid should be a priority for all os us in education.
I imagine in the end out society will be judged by how we treated the least among us.
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Paul Bogush Reply:
March 16th, 2009 at 6:31 pm
Wow Charlie, talk about an experience that alters how you interact with kids in the future. It just seems that even when a kid is doing something “wrong,” there is usually a pretty good reason for it.
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When I saw Negroponte show a video of an aid worker in Africa showing kids use the OLPC laptop for light in the hut they lived in, it dawned on me that perhaps, just perhaps, if these people don’t even have a light source, then perhaps, just perhaps, giving them laptops should be a bit lower on the global priority list.
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