Engaged kids who are loved have edge for success

Summer is waning and that means that young people everywhere, and their caregivers, are getting ready for school to resume in September.

In some homes, this ramp up to the new educational season is welcomed by everyone. Young people who are supported in their education are excited by the opportunity to challenge themselves and reconnect with friends and teachers. They have an innate sense that their promise will be fulfilled and their dreams realized. Parents have confidence in their children and pride in the progress they have made.

Caregivers are ready to breathe a sigh of relief and send their charges back to the structure and stimulation of the classroom. Teachers and administrators are busy readying curricula and facilities to engage their students. The floors are being shined and the bulletin boards reflect the optimism that enables teachers to ignore overcrowded classrooms, inadequate supply budgets and a work week that almost always includes Saturday and Sunday.

On the first day of school, everyone is an "A" student.

But in our community, not everyone is looking forward to the start of school.

The United Way says that 40 percent of Thurston County children are not ready for kindergarten when they start; they lack the learning readiness skills that enable them to succeed. The governor's Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee notes that nearly 800 teens drop out of Thurston County schools each year. DSHS statistics show that they annually place over 900 county children under state protection for abuse or neglect.

These young people may well end up among the 654 homeless youth in our county, or among the 1,553 youth who are arrested and enter the juvenile justice system every year. When we look at overall data for the county's incarcerated population, 68 percent never completed high school; and 60 percent were abused as children.

The costs of these issues are felt both individually and by the community. Over a lifetime, the difference in on-the-job earnings for a high school dropout compared to a college graduate is one million dollars. In Thurston County, the cost to keep a person in jail is $73 a day, or $26,645 a year — enough to send two people to a state college for a year.

There are some very simple remedies to these issues; remedies that are available to every one of us who cares for a child.

First, current brain research now conclusively demonstrates that children are born learning. Even during those early months of infancy, their systems are being wired for the future. Read to them. Take them in your arms and read to them everyday for at least 20 minutes.

If you do this regularly, by the time they go to kindergarten, they will be reading to you. And all academic success starts with the ability to read and critically engage material, no matter the subject.

And as they progress through their studies, give them the gift of your time. Ask about school, help them with homework, quiz them on their spelling words. Engaged children who know the love and support of caring adult are far more likely to succeed. And don't you think every child deserves that opportunity?

Cliff Moore, director of the WSU Thurston County Extension program, is a member of The Olympian's Board of Contributors. He can be reached at: moorecc@wsu.edu.