Lunch Programs

Lunch Programs and Poverty

It is a wide known issue that there are poverty stricken families in Canada. We need to realize this and make an effort to help in schools to make the quality of life better for our students. In Edmonton they made a lunch program called E4C. E4C is a charitable organization that feeds their students lunch to help them learn easier, to improve food security for individuals and help caregivers develop skills. I believe this is a remarkable effort to give children the fair advantage they deserve in schools and life. I think more schools should take the initiative to place a positive program like this into their learning environments.

The links to more on this program are:

http://www.e4calberta.org/pdfs/slpfactsheet.pdf

http://www.e4calberta.org/eslp.html

Stay at home mother

Today in class one of the girls mentioned that society doesn’t accept that being a stay-at-home mother is considered to be a “job.” I agree that society doesn’t recognize this as an important necessity is today’s communities. I think society underestimates the work and patients it takes to be a stay at home mother. They take on many other jobs within the home than most people believe. I found this quote in an article on the internet. I personally believe being a mother is one of the most important jobs out there.

“A stay-at-home mom holds many job titles including housekeeper, chef, sitter, chauffeur, shopper, banker, tutor, doctor, entertainment coordinator and law enforcement to name a few.” –Carole Ligi

When I become a mother I will undoubtedly be a stay-at-home mother. I came from a home where I was put into another person’s house for daycare while my mother was at work. I personally do not agree with this choice that my mother made. I believe the first few years in the life of the child is when morals should be instilled and the times when children learn to trust their parents. If a mother goes out and works and leave the children in the lives of another caregiver, the morals you want your children to have in their life may not necessarily be the ones you want them to have. I was lucky enough to have a great caregiver, my auntie. She taught me many lessons during that period of time that I still take into my own life. I believe I am who I am because of how my auntie raised me within her own home. I have realized although in my later teenage and young adulthood years that there has been a lot of tension between my auntie and mother because some of my ideas today that came from my auntie which are not what my mother necessarily would have wanted. If my mother would have been the one to raise me these tensions wouldn’t of arisen. When I become a mother I don’t want to have this tension between anyone else. I want to be there for my children and teach them the morals and manners that I want them to have. I will take on the most important job of a stay at home mother when it comes to be that time.

Thoroughly Modern Marriage

The documentary on CBC, Thoroughly Modern Marriage, opened my eyes up to the different types of families and marriages that I had previously not been exposed to. It made me more open to learning and discovering the marriages that work for other people. Even though I personally want to be married into the more modern wife and husband, kids after, and no extramarital sex type of relationship, I need to be more open to the ideas of other types of families I will be in contact with in my teaching career.

When in the classroom I have to understand that my students may come from different parenting styles. I have to use caution when generalizing the family types my students come from. I have to be aware of saying “parents” rather than saying “mom and dad” because it is becoming more popular to have same sexed parents who are or are not married. I need to also be cautious of not generalizing that every student’s parents are married. It is often that children have parents who are common law or divorced parents who don’t live under the same home as the student. By avoiding generalizations, it will boost the confidence of the student who may be discouraged by the family and parents they have and while it is being made more acceptable in their communities make it will make it more accepted in the classroom as well.

Living.

Within families I have noticed that there have been many changes. As apposed to earlier days, it is rare to see a nuclear family living within the home of an extended family. Because there are less family farms and more people are becoming involved in their own careers at their own place of work, there has been a huge shift from habituating with extended families to living with their husband (or boyfriend/friends) and/or children. Less people are feeling obligated to continue living with their extended family members.

I am currently in the process of moving out of home and moving in with my boyfriend during the summer months I am in my home town. My parents have been very accepting and supportive of the fact that I am taking this step in my life and I believe this is because of the change in families needs. If my family was a farming family or if we were living in the earlier days when they may of needed my labour, I don’t believe they would be as accepting and most likely appalled at this idea. Changing from an advanced farming industry to a more industrialized society changed our views on the ideas and acceptance of nuclear family living situations.