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Flame » in reply to I think it should be defined as those who do not have cable TV

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Mary Anne — (archived)

I regularly encounter kids who have to do their homework on computers their families don't have.

They come to me. We have five, and we charge for printing, because we have to. My budget is very very small. My boss's hobby is saying no to me because she's trying to beef up services to adults and there isn't enough money to go around. We'll have that argument again next week.

The school has a lot of computers, but they close at 2:30, and the buses leave 20 minutes later. A kid who has to take the bus home, in this district with large rural enrollment, has no chance. No Child Left Behind has just about eliminated the opportunity for a study hall to use a computer during school hours, as well as a lot of the art classes. (Music parents are very well organized, so that program lives.)

So if kids come to me after school for their technology needs, the three nights a week we're open, they live at the library until we close or until a parent can come get them. I have turned a blind eye to kids eating in the stacks, which is strictly against the rules, because lunch ends at 1:00 and by 5:00 a kid is hungry. I have paid for printing out of my own pocket; most of the time they pay me back, sometimes by volunteering to sweep the stairs. I have given kids rides home, which opens me up to all kinds of liability, but it's a small community and I'm well thought of, so I take my chances. I'm not the only one in the US of A who does this kind of thing, and I'm not the only one who does so in defiance of policy. It's not a stretch for me to think of all the people whose respect for the rules or fear of their supervisors would prevent any stretching of rules to help economically strapped kids finish their homework.

Poverty isn't just about calories per day. It's about having the ability to compete in the economy one lives in. It's not about cable TV. It's about cable internet access, though, and the computer one needs to get it.

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