Father's Day

The sign behind me says "Do not touch the monkeys -
They can bite!" but my little friend can't read.

Yesterday was Father's Day in the United States. For the last three years I have acknowledged the Bolivian counterpart, celebrated on March 19. However, I also have intense Father's Day memories, both of my father and my children, on each third Sunday of June.  So it was yesterday when I remembered how much patience my father showed toward me.  I also thought about how far away Lynn and I are from our children and about how lucky I have been to be a father, learning through them more and more about life.   Yesterday I reflected on the close relationships our daughter and son had with each other, with their dogs and cats, with us.  I remembered that in college our son chose a campus job of working in a child care facility.  He remarked that they--the two- and three-year-olds he cared for--were great to be around but a little hard to relate to.  Lynn and I understood that and also that being a parent will make you want to do everything you can to understand them, set things right for them (or show them how)--even if it's an unexpected phone call with news that you would rather not hear.

Lynn and I once visited that facility where our son worked. We arrived at nap time, and it was a treat to see the children slumbering with their blankets and stuffed toys and the music of waves and whales. We knew that wasn't all their lives were about. We knew that those who had such a tranquil place for naps were fortunate. As a contrasting experience, here in Bolivia we know the difficulty of being among a large number of abandoned or orphaned toddlers, all eager for attention. I wondered what will become of them and the many more to come after them. I hoped they would not end up living and working on the street. 


I don't know, but I think the problem of abandoned or neglected children is not as great (not as great a percentage of the population) in the United States as it is here. However, we have our own problem set to contend with, that being that children disadvantaged from the outset may have little opportunity to rise from poverty throughout their lives. Obviously these children represent a lot of potential talent and leadership that may be lost because not enough attention and direction was given to them during their early years.  In the US we are fortunate to have a variety of programs that can benefit the care and education of disadvantaged children and parents, but for the programs themselves to survive budget tightening they must demonstrate effectiveness in preparing children to accept/qualify for any opportunities that may come their way. 


Yesterday, with these thoughts in mind, I read the first chapter (the free download chapter) of an interesting study published by the Brookings Institution Press: Investing in Children: Work, Education, and Social Policy in Two Rich Countries, by Ariel Kalil, Ron Haskins, and Jenny Chesters. The two rich countries are Australia and the United States. From what I could determine from the first chapter I think the study attempts to evaluate program strengths honestly for the purpose of influencing policy decisions affecting the futures of individuals in this population group.  Just as wellness education and wellness care seek to reduce rising healthcare and insurance costs centered on preventable maladies related to lifestyle choice, effective investment in childcare for the disadvantaged should offer more future citizens an option other than legacy poverty and comparatively greater expansion of the social safety net. The study Investing in Children seeks to determine what areas of investment have been effective.