Christmas is for children. Christians are celebrating the birth of a child--the Christ child. It should be the season of Peace and Good Will for all the children.
Now may be the time to think about what is really happening to them. A recent newspaper advertisement asked people to join in a nationwide candlelight vigil for homeless kids. The announcement of the event said that: "over one million American kids are homeless every year. They are hungry and terrified. We must not write these young people off; they are not a lost generation. They are a generation in blossom, whose lives can be brought to full fruit if, as a nation, we really care about them and prove it."
Doctors will no longer see children in the early stages of a respiratory problem , but only after such problems have advanced to the stage of acute asthma or pneumonia.
How are we showing we care? A recent Gallup poll estimated that more than three million children are physically abused each year in the name of discipline. The poll found that five percent of parents punish their children by punching, kicking, throwing the child down or hitting him with a hard object. The poll also discovered that 1.3 million children are sexually abused each year.
The director of a study entitled, Children Now, came to the conclusion from the data she collected that many children are living in well-founded fear of a wide variety of health and safety threats. She feels they need help in order to survive in a dangerous world.
The recent overhaul of the Medicaid program leaves it uncertain whether children will continue to receive medical coverage. The new mandate only requires that states give prenatal care to women and immunize children up to age 13 and ends coverage for older children. Previously, children in Medicaid received regular checkups and could see the doctor when they became ill. Without such coverage, these children may only see a doctor in the emergency room when they are in crisis.
The general counsel for the Children's Defense Fund says that while immunizations are important, you cannot immunize against broken bones and strep throats. Doctors will no longer see children in the early stages of a respiratory problem , but only after such problems have advanced to the stage of acute asthma or pneumonia.
When welfare aid for Dependent Children is turned over to the states, it is predicted that children will receive no more than five years of aid throughout their lives. A Rutgers sociologist says that once you lower benefits, children could go without food.
Children in poverty have few chances to change their lives. Even the federal student loan program is in jeopardy. This program enables trade schools to lend money directly to the high school graduates rather than requiring them to apply to banks for loans. These students would have difficulty getting loans from banks. This program may be abolished because the banks complain that they lose business from the middle class students whom they regard as more acceptable borrowers.
Finally, the education aims of Goals 2000 are not being met. Goal one: "All children are to start kindergarten ready to learn" i.e. ready to succeed in school. How can this be achieved when cuts in head start and programs which affect the health and nutrition of children make it very hard, perhaps impossible, for them to come to school at all much less ready to participate and to succeed?
Let us work to ensure that all of our children have a share in the joy of a Christmas morning. As we look at our Christmas trees this morning, let us not forget them. They need us to notice and to care.
First published in 1995
Permalink: https://www.cassandrasclassroom.com/columns/child-abuse-poverty-and-neglect