Culturally Deprived School Children: A Study of the Higher Horizons Program in New York City 1959–1963 and Its Effect Upon the Attendance of an Elementary School in the Bedford Stuyvesant Section of Brooklyn
Abstract
For many years, educators have been content to treat school absenteeism in a superficial manner. Absenteeism was categorized as a problem concerning only the individual child and the immediate family. All too often, emphasis was placed on attendance problems only because the school attendance affected budgetary reimbursements. Today, we realize that the child not only has a right to receive an education, but it is also the obligation of the community to insist that this right be exercised. Poor school attendance on the part of a child may be noticed at any level of learning. From the kindergarten to the senior class, anywhere along the way, problems may emerge causing a breakdown in a child's school adjustment. The nature of the problems are as different as the varieties of personalities who are affected. To try to list the reasons for poor school attendance would be an attempt to only scratch the surface of describing some of the ills of individuals, families, and society. The one thing we do know, however, is that the result, for any reason, of a child deprived of his right to an education is a loss not only to the child, but to the community as well. It, therefore, must be considered that absenteeism is symptomatic behavior important to all concerned with the continuation of a meaningful educational system. It is this very symptom that alerts us to important malfunctioning. Whether the malfunctioning can be traced to the individual child, or his community, is something with which we must concern ourselves. At the present time, efforts are being made to improve the school and its immediate environment in some of the low socio-economic areas of the city.
Subject Area
Social work|Social studies education|Elementary education|Educational sociology
Recommended Citation
Sokol, Philip, "Culturally Deprived School Children: A Study of the Higher Horizons Program in New York City 1959–1963 and Its Effect Upon the Attendance of an Elementary School in the Bedford Stuyvesant Section of Brooklyn" (1964). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI30725047.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI30725047
