4 The Hampton Roads Messenger Editorial


When Should the Roles of Parent and Child Reverse?


what it used to be. A pot left on the stove all night can have serious consequences for an elderly person living alone.


Believe it or not, elderly people


are losing their homes at alarming rates. Homes that have been in families for generations are being foreclosed on causing the elderly occupant to become virtually homeless, if it were not for friends or relatives providing them shelter. Adult children may feel it is not their place to ask questions about their parent’s finances. If it is not theirs, then whose place is it? It is better to be told to mind your own business than to be told that your parents have lost your childhood home to foreclosure and need to come live with you.


BY ANGELA JONES Our parents raised us from helpless


infancy through defiant teen years to adulthood. Through the ups and downs of child rearing, most parents do their best to provide their children with a sense of love, safety and security in addition to the bare necessities of food, clothing and shelter.


There comes a time in the lives of


many adult children when they have to face the reality that they need to be as vigilant in looking after their parents as their parents did for them when they were children. The parent and child roles often reverse; the once protector becomes the protected; the once provider becomes the dependent. We should frequently evaluate the dynamic relationship we have with our parents.


As parents age, it is not surprising


that they may need some sort of assistance from their adult children. Some parents have planned for the day when they can no longer care for themselves by purchasing insurance policies that will allow them to be cared for by strangers who work for an agency. Of course, a stranger cannot provide the same tender loving care as one’s relative would provide. For some of the elderly, for whatever reason, a stranger is their only option.


I believe we have to make tough


choices for our parents even when it is not what they would choose for themselves; choices such as whether or not they should stay in their home alone when they are not fully capable of taking care of themselves. When we were children, our parents often had to tell us “No.” A lot of the times it seemed as though they were not considering our feelings, but they were putting our safety ahead of our feelings as we should do for our parents. Accidents can happen to anyone but as we age our memory is not


Sometimes it is necessary to ask a


parent to limit their driving. They may feel more comfortable driving on local streets than on interstate highways. It is not unusual for elderly people to decide, on their own, to give up driving but sometimes, someone may need to point out the dangers of slower reflexes on the road. In this situation, safety should always trump feelings. One may need to have an uncomfortable conversation and ask a parent “Do you think your reflexes are quick enough to continue driving?”


Adult children can subtly look for


signs that a parent needs assistance. For instance, if a parent is eating canned food every night for dinner, the parent may have realized that they are not as comfortable driving to the grocery store as they once were. It is important for everyone to eat a balanced diet and if certain foods are not readily available to one’s parent, the adult child can make sure their parent has access to multivitamins and is drinking plenty of water. Dehydration is one of the most common reasons for hospitalization for people over 65; half of the Medicare recipients who are hospitalized for dehydration die within one year, according to the National Institutes of Health.


When one realizes the time has


come to pay more attention to their parents because of their age and diminishing capabilities, they can lovingly express their concerns and work with their parents on a plan to gradually incorporate the changes of their new roles. Reversing roles does not have to be a sad or traumatic experience; it is a natural progression that can become a smooth and seamless transition with the proper preparation. When one’s parents are in a situation where they feel safe and secure, the entire family will feel more comfortable.


Volume 6 Number 9


May 2012


For Minority Kids, Preschool Narrows Education Gap


BY YOLANDA ARENAL Celia Rubi Medina is quick to raise


her hand when her teacher asks about the meaning of the word, metamorphosis.


“It’s when the little caterpillar


becomes a butterfly,” says the 4-year-old girl, a Head Start student at Tracy Elementary in the Baldwin Park Unified School District (BPUSD).


The school is located in the San


Gabriel Valley, east of Los Angeles, in a predominantly working class community. More than 86% of the students receive free or reduced lunch (compared with 56.7% in the state’s general student population).


]“We don’t have a lot of money, but


we strive to (give) the best education for our children,” says Gema Morales, mom of Celia Rubi and her twin sister, Gema Mariana. They are two of the more than 1,600 students attending preschool at Tracy, thanks to the BPUSD’s consistent efforts to get funding for the educational cycle.


“We have been providing early


childhood education since 1942,” states Froilan Mendoza, associate superintendent of BPUSD, emphasizing that the district takes early education very seriously.


Dodging the effects of financial


swings over the years has been challenging, but even during the educational cutbacks of recent years, BPUSD has managed to keep open the same number of preschool slots. The 1,635 children attending preschool this year represents a 235 increase over the last school year.


“State funding cuts eliminated


20 slots, but we were able to fund an additional hundred through the federal Head Start program,” said Ricardo Rivera, director of Early Childhood Education at BPUSD, noting that each year brings a new challenge in balancing federal and state funds, and ensuring that the net number of students served is not diminished.


Glovin Salido, mother of a Established 2006


Angela Jones, Publisher Chris Parks, Editor


Rae Willis, Graphic Designer Ida Davis, Contributing Writer


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4-year-old girl who also attends preschool at Tracy, emphasizes that for families like hers what matters most is to having an option for quality preschool, wherever the funds come from.


“If I had to pay, my daughter


would’ve missed this important phase of her education,” said Salido, noting that her husband is a minimum wage construction worker.


“In this area, private preschool


costs about $700-a-month, something we just can’t afford,” she said.


Closing the gap Parents, like the overwhelming


majority of education experts, are convinced that early childhood education plays a crucial role in narrowing the achievement gap for minority and low-income children.


“I have no doubt that my daughter


is excelling in kindergarten because she attended preschool,” says Sasha Alvarenga, mother of Tirsa who, after two years of preschool at Los Angeles Universal


Preschool (LAUP), is now a student


at 49th Street Elementary School in Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). After being diagnosed with autism at 3, Alvarenga said, Tirsa was categorized as a special education student.


“She didn’t speak at all, and the


doctor told me she wouldn’t be able to learn in a regular classroom,” Alvarenga said.


Alvarenga said she witnessed first


hand the transformation of her daughter during the first months of preschool.


“By the time she entered


kindergarten, the autism diagnosis had been withdrawn, and she is now one of the advanced students in her class,” she said.


LAUP does not maintain data


about the academic performance of its preschool children in subsequent years. But studies show its benefits.


Some of those benefits are still


evident 30 years later, according to the findings of a study announced in late January by the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill.


The study started in the 70’s with


111 children (98% African-American) and to the present has been able to follow the evolution of 101 of them. The research—which provides new data for the prestigious Abecedarian Project led by the FPG Child Development Institute at UNC, suggests that the participants were four times more likely to have earned a college degree (23%, compared to 6% in a similar group where children did not receive early education).


“This achievement applied to both


boys and girls, an important finding given the current low rate of college graduation for minority males in our country,” said Elizabeth Pungello, scientist at FPG Institute and co-author of the study.


Research on the Chicago Child-Care


Centers initiative, published in mid-2011, also emphasizes the positive effects of early education. The study, conducted among 1,400 low-income African American children who were observed for 28 years, show an increased high school graduation rate (50% compared to 39%), lower participation in special education (14% versus 25%), and better EDUCATION GAP PAGE 5


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