HISPANIC ADULT EDUCATION

During the semester I have been working online with Adult Education for Hispanics. A few years back a Mexican guy working with Utah State University in Logan started a program to teach adults basic computer skills and basic English to Hispanics with collaboration from a private university in Mexico called Tecnológico de Monterrey. The curriculum is in Spanish so that the students can understand instructions. In March 2011 I started groups with the Mexican organization that I am part of; the first group was in Tooele with 12 students. In the following months a group was established in Heber City, Park City, and finally Cottonwood Heights.

Working with adults sounds easy to do since you are dealing with people that are supposed to be responsible, but it is not that easy. There is a problem that Hispanic adults are having when it comes to learning new things; especially working with computers for some adults is a little bit frustrating.

With the Functionalism Theory basic computer and basic English education is needed for Hispanic adults since we live in a time and in a country where technology advances very rapidly. In consequence some information has to be received through the internet and, in some cases, socialization for some people can be done online. But in this case the group that I work with was very hard for them because they felt many times that they couldn’t learn due to their age, or because it was hard for them to study since they needed to work to be able to provide for their families.

Here is where the Conflict Theory also applies because some of the students didn’t feel that they could have equal education opportunities in American society and they didn’t feel that studying was going to make much difference. Talking with different people who support these classes told me that for them it was very important that Hispanic adults be able to learn the basics in computers and English so that their kids no longer have to do everything for their parents.

In the Symbolic Interactionist Theory, adults were focused on performance because, being an adult, they felt that society was expecting them to do their best. Some students told me on a couple of occasions that friends were telling them that since they were adults they should learn more quickly; but they felt pressured by those comments and some of the students decided to quit the class with the excuse that they needed to work.

There were more problems that were present during these courses making some students not to continue. Unfortunately with the Hispanic community we find issues in the different areas of our society, education, health, culture, etc. Hispanic adult education is where I will continue my focus.

Low Income Child Care Programs

Throughout the semester I have worked with various children's programs. The majority of my service has been done through the Boys and Girls Club organization where i have learned a lot about their early child care program. Many low income families cannot afford to have a parent stay home with young children, therefore the need for affordable child care assistance in crucial in society. Often single mothers or families living in poverty need a place they can leave their children that is reliable and safe. Organizations such as the Boys and Girls Club don't have the necessary funding to provide the necessary amount of care for each child attending. Volunteer efforts are extremely important to programs like this that do not have adequate funds to have the required staff.

Symbolic Interactionism examines meanings, labels and perceptions. Often children learn through example and from the people they are around often. Unfortunately the cycle of poverty affects numerous aspects of life. Low income families often have patterns of deviance, crime, lower education levels, etc... Children need necessary child care programs so that they do not go unlooked as they grow up. Often children who live in higher income homes get more attention both in school and their families. These stigmas and labels affect children from a young age and into their adult life.

Conflict theory looks at competing groups and the root cause behind societal conflict. Although children are often unaware of their situation, the affects of being rich or poor has a large effect on their life from an early age. While talking to one little girl in the class i volunteer in, i learned her father was in jail for stealing and she claimed that it was my mistake. When she told me this she made it sound like it wasn't a big deal. This showed me that children are unaware or do not fully realize of the hardships of life. That is why they need proper authority figures in their life to help guide them from cycles of abuse, neglect, and poverty.

Low-Income Families and the 3 Theories

My social problem consists of the effects that being in a low income family has on children. Between the three perspectives we can see the different views and reasons this may be a problem. This is a problem in society because it not only limits a child’s education opportunities and health care but it will also damage our society as a whole.

Starting with Conflict Theory, the theory suggesting that the root of problems stems from the idea of which group is gaining and which group is loosing, we could assume that rich versus poor is the root of our problem with low income families. The way that we distribute our resources is quite dysfunctional. For example, there are some profits that are distributed at the very highest class/corporation but that money will not continue to trickle down to the lower classes. This alleviates and benefits the richest, but not the poor. The minimum wage is also an issue. For example, the payment from one or even two jobs from both parents does not equal what the cost of living is in a given community.

Next we have Symbolic Interaction Theory that suggests interpretations, symbols, and meanings behind actions play a large role in social problems. For example, a perception that a teacher has (in a classroom setting for a child) of a low-income student could affect how she treats him/her. Say Betty Jo has a very well-off family, but Clara has a low-income family. Mrs. Frederickson may pay more attention and provide more help to Betty Jo because she believes that children who are from low-income families have poorer behavior and parents who don’t care, therefore, Clara has no chance to succeed. This will negatively affect outcomes because if you treat Clara as a trouble make, she will become one.

Lastly there is the Functionalist Theory, a theory that suggests if one part of society does not function correctly, the rest of society will suffer as well. Because the low-income section of society is so large in our current economy, and the employment rate is so low, it is obvious that there will be more health problems, creating a need for more health care, however health care is very limited to many people due to lack of insurance or other financial circumstances. Other issues that low income families may face are not being able to provide their child with the best education available, including the issue of teachers’ perceptions and the at home stress in the family life.

Juvenile Delinquency Structural Functionalism & Symbolic Interactionism

I would like to talk about Structural Functionalism and Symbolic Interactionism and how both of these theories can be applied to Juvenile Delinquency. For instance, Structural Functionalism looks at behaviors and functions of institutions such as: family, school, religion and even government offices. Structural Functionalism also looks at what is functional and dysfunctional within a social problem therefore, they want to explain why things happen and they also look for who or what is to blame. For Example, the institutions in the case regarding juvenile delinquency would be the family, school, religion, juvenile justice facilities, and even the authorities such as the law, police, judges, case workers and etc. the functional aspect of juvenile delinquency would be that the juvenile justice facilities provide structure and stability which is something everybody needs they also help the kids to get back on the right track again. However, the dysfunctional aspects of juvenile delinquency is the family dynamic which includes broken homes or single parent families, parents who have to pay for food, electricity, gas, water, clothes in other words, parents who are working hard to get the basic neccessities and resources of life to provide for their kids and their families which is functional but yet at the same time has the potential to become a dysfunctional dynamic because then there's no time for structure and stability and kids commit truancy. Wanting to belong and be accepted can also be a functional aspect but that too also has the potential to become and serve a dyfunctional purpose because then there is peer pressure which also contributes to juvenile delinquency. Symbolic Interactionism looks for symbols and meanings within a social problem as well. For example, a Symbolic Interactionist might describe Juvenile Delinquents as "bad, good, innocent, guilty, frustrated, angry, threatening, intimidating, seeking attention, wanting a sense of belonging, seeking acceptance, looking for love, looking for advice and guidance, creative, talented, and artistic"

Low-Income Kids Need After-School Care

Low-Income school aged children in the United States need good options for adequate after-school care. When children do not have supervised after-school activities, there are numerous problems for society. To name a few problems, we deal with juvenile delinquency, children in unsafe environments, no supervised homework opportunities, gang activity, isolated children, children without peer support, and children without positive adult role models. The list of problems for unattended children goes on and on. When these issues are not addressed for our children, we as a society deal with other social issues when these children become adults.

From a conflict theory perspective, we look at the issue of the unequal distribution and control of resources. Let’s look at it from an income perspective. In most low-income working families, there are no adults at home after school to watch the children. In 2 parent homes, both parents are likely working and in 1 parent households, that parent is likely working and not at home after school to supervise the children. In some households, the parent(s) will arrive home after normal working hours of around 6pm. This is not the case in every family, but we will simply address the time between school letting out and roughly 6pm. Typically children have about 3 hours during this time on a regular school schedule. The low-income parents cannot afford after-school care for their children, so the kids are either left unattended, or if they are lucky, they can attend a free or low-cost after school program.

For middle to upper income families, the children, for the most part are not left unattended after school. In some cases, one parent is at home after school because the family may not need 2 incomes contribute to the family financial well-being. In other cases where both parents are working or in single parent middle to upper income homes, the parents are able to pay for after school care or activities to keep the children attended until after work.

Conflict theory applied to this problem works because the lower socioeconomic class is perpetuated when, in part, the poor kids are creating trouble after school and getting themselves into trouble with the law or not performing well at school. Because of these issues, they, in turn also become low-income due to lack or skills, confidence or incarceration.

Through a Functionalists’ perspective, the institutions that are affected by kids being unattended are numerous. The family is affected because there is stress involved with not having enough money to survive, let alone pay for after school care. The school system also is affected because when kids do not have help with homework, they may fall behind at school and ultimately become low-achievers. The low income kids may be teased by other classmates at school (and have their self-esteem affected) because they are doing poorly at school, and also because they are not participating in the same after-school activities that the upper income kids are. Another institution affected by the unsupervised kids is law enforcement and the criminal justice system. When kids are unattended, they tend to have more opportunity to commit crimes or be mischievous. This is when law enforcement comes in and arrests the kids or addresses these deviant behaviors.

In summary, society is affected now and/or later from having kids unattended after school. A solution for this is to provide good quality after school care and/or activities for low-income kids that is either free or extremely affordable. The part of this problem that I work on is getting funding for a local Boys & Girls Club located in Sandy Utah.

Challenges faced by refugee children

I am working with refugee children for my voluteer hours through the International Rescure Commitee. When looked at the struggles they face here in America, I am able to look at them through a functionalism perspective as well as conflict theory.
The first thing to point out is that the language barrier faces by refugees affects every institution they encounter in the U.S. Not being able to fully understand or comprehend the native language causes everything to be twice as hard for them. Because they don't have a fully understanding of the language or can't speak it fully, they are automatically at a disadvantage. The American health care institution affects refugee children because there are numerous different sicknesses and diseases in the U.S. that these refugee children never faced back in their home country. Some of them they might not understand or even see that as a problem that can be fixed by the health care system. For examle, ADD is a growing issue among young boys in the U.S. If a boy from Africa comes here and is diagnosed with something that wasn't even diagnosed back in their home country, they won't even understand what it means or how it affects them. Most of all, the American doctors will not even consider that the refugee doesn't necessarily see this as a big issue or something that needs to be treated because they maybe didn't have ADD back in their country. The doctory will percieve them as being intelectually challenged instead of noticing cultural and language barriers.
Conflict theory can be looked at in the educational system with refugee children. Again, the language barriers cause the refugee child to fall behind in all of the school subjects, putting them at a lower level than the native children. The teacher may see them as intellectually challenged and may not give them as much attention as they give their "smarter" students causing even a bigger gap between the levels of refugee's learning compared to the native children's learning. This in the long run puts the native children in better academic standings for future schooling or future jobs giving the natives better and higher paying jobs while the refugees are stuck in the low level jobs.

Refugee Community Adaption in USA

Refugee community adaption depends on how long refugees have been in USA, either they have other family members who came before them or not, how much English they speak, how soon they can get a job, education,....Some studies also show that for people from war zones, it may take more time for them to trust anyone due to an abusive life they have experienced which leads them to isolation and lack of community adaption. For example, when i came to America, it took me a while to feel comfortable being in a movie theatre because being in the dark and hearing the noise reminded me of the genocide in my country. Many refugees want to eat food that they are familiar with, therefore going to American restaurants or being invited at the house of their American friends for dinner may be a problem.

Let's see how the three social theories impact refugee adaption in their communities:
SYMBOLIC INTERACTION and CONFLICT THEORY: Perception of Refugees: Depending on how much development refugees had from their home countries, coming to America may be a huge change in their lives (for example: facing more technology in USA than home) compared to non-refugees. If communities (neighbors, employers, teachers, health care providers,....) focus on saying that refugees don't have enough knowledge in technology (symbolic interactionism theory), refugees may lose many apportunities like employment and scholaships and this will lead refugees to being discouraged by the fact that there is competition between them and the dominant group which has power over them (Conflict theory), therefore refugees may end up by isolating themselves and feel like they are left behind and want only to intergrate with their fellow refugees who understand them.

FUNCTIONALISM: Language barrier (lack of English) makes refugees unable to express themselves and intergrate in the society. There are so many activities that refugees would like to attend/participate in, but the fact that they can't understand what's going on discourages them. Another problem that may influence this adaption can be the life that refugees lived back home. In some countries people don't pay much attention on being on time while in USA this is a huge deal, therefore it may take time for refugees to adapt to this new system.