Portland Observer, October 1,1981 Page 7
Our children: Where will they go?
G ra u ro o l Ntw a, N. IF .— “ In the
p a it y e a n 10 much emphasis has
been placed on women’s rights, the
elderly and minority affairs, and a
lot o f this concern has been properly
placed. But there is a population o f
people that we have been neglecting.
N ot so much the runaw ays and
dro p -o u ts, but the adolescent
pop ulatio n as a w h o le .” Lee
M adison, a treatm ent coordinator
o f H a rry ’s M o th er, a youth treat
ment center, describes the forgotten
children o f our com m unity whose
environm ent w arrants flig h t, and
those so-called p roblem students
placed in exile because they fail to
conform to a set o f standards. These
children are m ore than a statistic
because each one represents another
Dr. Charles Drew, Harriet Tubman
or Langston Hughes.
Rance Spruill, director o f one o f
the most effective support structures
th a t’s open to the forgotten child,
the A lb in a Y o u th O p p o rtu n ity
Schoo, believes that the root o f the
problem stems from the tran s fo r
mation from child to adult. “ I guess
it starts in the 4th or 3th grade. His
or her mind moves to d iffe re n t
things and they start to lose them in
the schools. The school carries on;
the kids go one way and the school
goes another. Maybe the two meet
up som etime by g ra d u a tio n ,
however, in the m eantim e, the
student is lost. They have lost
whatever they gained in those first
four years.”
“ When you enter high school, the
system expects you to survive on
your own and in many cases these
youth aren’ t prepared. They need
n u rtu rin g and a tten tio n that the
high schools can't give them because
they have 1,000 other kids to deal
with. So therefore, they find it
somewhere else and generally it ’s
going to be in unacceptable ways.
So you got .hese kids running
around two steps below the gang
mentality. These groups are running
around getting into problems.
Sometimes you see more kids out
side the school than inside. School
just becomes where everybody’ s
at.”
" I t wasn’ t any d ifferent when I
was going to school but we d id n ’t
have the alternatives. We w ouldn’t
dare have a crap game across the
street from school. The kids today
are very inform ed but they are not
making wise decisions.”
“ A m ong the problems is one o f
chronic nonattendance. When they
aren’ t in school, they are either at
home or walking up and down the
streets. The kids that were here in
*71 generally came to school because
there wasn't any options open. I f
they were in the streets they ended
up getting into trouble. Nowadays
there’s a lot o f neighborhood com
petition. I call it program hopping.
They w ill move fro m whoever is
paying the buck. They run around
in a circle but they really are at a
standstill. It creates a dependency.
M an y program s concentrate on
volume and cost-effectiveness and
the m ental part o f that person is
last. This needs to be turned
around.
” 1 don’t think any child goes bad.
There are some things you d o n ’ t
have anybody else that you can hold
responsible for, like the judge or the
courts, so you hold that child. Is it
the k id ’ s resp o n sibility to have
something to eat or clothes to wear?
And a lot o f kids are put in that
s itu a tio n . By the tim e th e y ’ re IS
years old they are adults having
gone through things that most 23
year olds haven’ t. By the time
they’re 20, they have done
everything. W hat then is there to
look forward U»T They are lost in
the shuffle and they don’t see how
they fit in so they just survive. They
go from whatever and whoever is
going to satisfy their immediate
needs.
“ They don’t develop any skills to
plan their life by because they are in
the habit o f just existing. You do
w hatever you have to do and I ’ m
not saying that it's a bad way, but
you have to be able to change with
the times. Later on, if you have to
get up early and you have got in the
habit o f sleeping late, it ’ s going to
be hard. N ow there are a lot o f 23
year olds who think from hand to
mouth like a 13 year old. They just
get lost and then they do whatever
they have to d o .”
Another way to drop out is to run
away. “ There are about one million
R A N C E S P R U ILL
child ren w ho run away each
family structure isn’t set as such.”
year— 6,000 in the Portland a rea.”
Since children have nowhere to
Madison begins. “ Between the ages
go, they run directly to the streets
o f 12 and 18 they break away from
and its institutions. The curriculum
the parents. Things aren’t black and
o f the street o fte n leads them to
white. There’s shades o f gray. There
are environm ental factors such as conflict with the law . A nd there is
no running away from the streets.
problem s in school, parents, and
The concluding thoughts to
peers. And o f course the economic.
rem ind us o f these fo rg o tten
C h ild re n who come fro m broken
children are p rovided by D ista
homes are more likely to run away.
Caldwell. “ It is the underprivileged
“ Kids that run really have no
child about whom we are concer
place to go. They may go to a peer
ned. For it is this child upon whom
or another parent whom they feel is
the u ltim a te success o f our race
the best. But few run to the social
depends. We must salvage from the
agencies. From what I can see, black
wreckage this down and out group
children have a tendency not to run
and lift it to a higher plane o f
because o f the extended fa m ily
civilization if we as a group are to
structure. This is a natural part o f
survive and live on into the future.”
the Black fa m ily , and the w hite
Ground Beef
*1.39
FRESH
Dental school seeks child patients
“ W A N T E D : M o re Young P a
tients.”
I f the School o f D entistry’ s chil
dren’s clinic could post a classified
ad, so it would read.
According to the American Soci
ety o f Dentistry for Children, more
than half the youngsters in the U n i
ted States have never been to a den
tist. F ifty per cent o f all two-year
olds have one or m ote decayed
teeth. These statistics are confirmed
by Dr. Arthur Retzlaff, chairman of
the department o f pediatric dentis
try at the School o f Dentistry.
Why the neglect? “ Two basic rea
sons,” said D r. R e tz la ff. " F r e
q u en tly, parents* own anxieties
about visiting a dentist keep them
from scheduling checkups for their
youngsters. Then, there is (he popu
lar notion that baby teeth fall out
anyw ay, so why not postpone ap
pointm ents u n til the permanent
teeth come in? Both reasons con
spire to keep children out o f dental
chairs.”
According to D r. R e tz la ff,.p re
vention o f tooth decay should be on
every parent’s mind from the mile
stone moment when the child’s first
tooth emerges.
He cites "nursing bottle m outh”
as a common dental malady among
infants. “ Unsuspecting parents who
allow their babies a bottle, especial
ly one filled with juice or Kool-Aid,
are creating a great bacterial me
dium for tooth decay.”
D r. R e tz la ff recommends that
dental visits begin at three years o f
age, or sooner if suspected problems
exist. He suggests that parents con
sider the School o f Dentistry when
making that first appointment.
“ Here at the clinic, we emphasize
the virtues o f prevention as well as
on m aking visits to (he dentist a
pleasant routine experience for the
child . The c o m b in atio n o f early
checkups, a proper d ie t, flu o rid e
supplement, and good oral hygiene
at home can mean the difference be
tween a mouth full o f troubles and a
happy smile,’ ’ he said.
At the School o f Dentistry’s chil
d re n ’ s c lin ic , 160 undergraduate
dental students and eight pediatric
dental residents see approximately
700 children each month. “ Yet, we
are always in need o f more young
patients,” D r. R etzlaff said. “ A p
pointm ents w ith many children
give the dental students a broad
base o f experience.”
C are at the c h ild ren 's clin ic is
hightly supervised and makes use o f
the latest equipment and advanced
techniques. “ Undergraduate dental
students treat the less complicated
dental p ro b lem s,” D r. R e tz la ff
said. "Residents do the specialized
w ork.”
C hildren as young as 13 months
have been treated at the clinic. "O u r
cut-off age is around 12 years,” Dr.
R e tz la ff added, “ and we are
equipped to treat both mentally and
physically handicapped young
sters."
The clinic charges for treatment
at about half the rate o f private fees.
“ There arc no special re q u ire
ments to visit the c ln ic ,” Dr. Retz
la ff emphasized. “ I f a child needs
dental care, we are available.”
For more information on the ser
vices provided by the clinic and the
hours they are open to treat c h il
dren, the parents o f prospective pa
tients can call either 223-8880 or
225-8871.
Flori Roberts
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