Essay about There Are No Children Here - If I Grow Up

The book “There Are No Children Here” by Alex Kotlowitz details the challenges two young boy’s face by being raised in the inner city housing project (Henry Horner Homes). These challenges stem from racism, discrimination, the social construction of reality, social location, social class, and the deviance theory, which is due to their location and influences at which causes many youths to lead a life of crime. The book focuses on the Conflict and Symbolic Interaction theories of sociology. What is the true cause of their struggle? Is it the run down housing, lack of education, race, gangs, violence and drugs? I think that all of these play a part into their everyday

In addition, this book succeeds in terms of depicting real life situations to young children. As presented in the story, Reed’s father lost his job; thus, causing him to move back in with

It seemed as though I was reading a science fiction novel when I read these pages describing the living conditions at Henry Horner. It infuriates me that an entire group of people, the Chicago Housing Authority, let this happen to a group of human beings. What’s more disgusting is that it was not an oversight but it was decidedly severe neglect. Some people at the CHA knew it was this dilapidated but made a conscious choice to cover it up. I am truly sickened by the reminder that there are people out there with no regard to the human race whatsoever. These conditions were festering for 15 years! How do we expect people to be law abiding citizens and contributing members of society when we put them in a biohazard wasteland? Their health and wellbeing may be better being homeless than they are in these quarters. This is the epitome of the forgotten, the shunned, and the not worthy people. Sewage in their apt! They didn’t have a working appliance! They would have been better off in a box on the street quite literally. Everyone at the CHA with a connection to this should be incarcerated for neglect and abuse.

The author of the book, Wes Moore, describes the different opportunities and life style he had with another person who shared the same name. The similarities that those boys had when they were younger were significant. Both boys grew up without a paternal figure and their mothers had to work extremely hard to take care of the rest of the family; they were constantly moving from city to city to ensure education and safety. Their mothers had to work excessive number of hours to cover the most basic needs. Living in poverty changed the future of the boys.

There are No Children Here, by Alex Kotlowitz, tells a story about the family of LaJoe and Paul Rivers. The book focuses on Lafayette and Pharaoh, two of the younger children in the family, and their interactions with each other, the neighborhood, their family, their friends, and the police. Following the family over three years shows the importance of neighborhood factors when it comes to crime. According to Sampson and Groves (1989), social disorganization refers to “the inability of a community structure to realize the common values of its residents and maintain effective social controls”. Many aspects in the book exemplify how neighborhood factors, social controls, and community factors have impacts on crime. The book exemplifies how neighborhood disadvantage can lead to informal social controls, which in turn produces crime. Due to these factors, social disorganization is the best theory to explain the crime that occurs in There are No Children Here.

In There Are No Children Here, Kotlowitz describes the experiences of Pharoah and Lafayette to highlight the racist and classist undertones existing within the criminal justice system of Chicago in the late 1980s. This essay will utilize the theory of critical criminology to illustrate the structures of inequality within the criminal justice system and the subsequent marginalization of youth that exists within the Henry Horner community, leading to youth deviance and violent crime. Beginning with a brief outline of the major characteristics of critical theory, the essay will then address the increasing focus on gang involvement as an explanation for inner-city youth crime, using examples from the Disciples and Vice Lord gangs, and how that focus demonstrates the bias and inequality within the criminal justice system. Next, the necessity of the Henry Horner community creating a system of “self-help” will be analyzed, a result of the perceived inadequacy of the criminal justice system in addressing the problems that the community faces. The theory of critical criminology demonstrates how structures of inequality are represented in the criminal justice system: the incessant focus on gangs and inadequacy of the system to provide protection causes the marginalization of youth like Pharoah and Lafayette, reinforcing instances of youth deviance and crime.

In Horner, there are two gangs that claim it as their turf, and the Rivers family is constantly ducking from shots of gunfire there. They live in an overcrowded apartment with leaky facets, heating problems and animal carcasses in the basement. The boys' mother, LaJoe, tries to keep them away from gangs and violence since her eldest children fell to the harsh reality of the neighborhood.

The book “There Are No Children Here” by Alex Kotlowitz details the challenges two young boy’s face by being raised in the inner city housing project (Henry Horner Homes). These challenges stem from racism, discrimination, the social construction of reality, social location, social class, and the deviance theory, which is due to their location and influences (social control) at which causes many youths to lead a life of crime. The book focuses on the Conflict and Symbolic Interaction theories of sociology. What is the true cause of their struggle? Is it the run down smelly housing project completely taken over by gangs, where murders and shootings are an everyday thing, is their family, school, society, the system, race; or maybe it's because of the economical disadvantages. While others may argue, I believe that it isn't just one of these reasons; it's all of them all together.

Many people have different passions, some might share the same ones while others might have some that no one has heard of before. Mine would have to be anything that had to do with working with kids. I love teaching them, babysitting them, and even playing with them, it's a new and different experience every time. I find it amazing that you could learn more than you think from someone who is 10+ years younger than you. They can teach you the smallest things that you never realized they could. For example how they treat everyday like a new one, they don't focus on the past events from the previous day they always have a fresh look on things; which can be hard to do as you grow older. Children have this energy to them that can’t be found in adults

Two kids with the same name, similar experiences, and circumstances grow up to become two different people. Why did one end up in jail for rest of his life; while the other became a man of many accomplishments? What factors were involved in the success and failure of these two boys that caused a perfect storm of bad circumstances? As the author puts it, “Our stories are obviously specific to our two lives, but I hope they will illuminate the crucial inflection points in every life, the sudden moments of decision where our paths diverge and our fates are sealed. It’s unsettling to know how little separates us from another life altogether” (Moore xi). I aim to dissect the problems and elements that played a role in changing these boy’s lives.

     Alex Kotlowitz’s book, There are No Children Here, is a story about two boys, Pharoah and Lafeyette Rivers growing in the late 1980’s in Henry Horner, a housing project in Chicago. The boys try to retain their youth while they see constant gang violence, death of close friends, their brother in jail and their dad struggling with a drug addiction.

“The Other Wes Moore” is a story that follows two boys with the exact same name who start off living very similar lives in Baltimore, Maryland. One of the boys live on to be an extremely successful man and the other one is living the rest of his life behind bars. The two men wondered how their strikingly similar path diverged into two completely different fates and then an argument formed. Are people products of their choices or their environment and expectations thrown upon them? The book proves that people are products of their choices. Both Wes Moores were raised by a single mom in the tough streets of Baltimore and they both were rebellious children who got arrested at a young age. Their similarities lessened as their choices and their mom’s choices contrasted. The more fortunate Wes was sent to Military school and he chose to make the most of it and become the best version of himself. His determination and hard work trumped his previous hooligan mindset, therefore his future was bright and fulfilling. The other Wes chose to follow his brother,

My virtual child’s name is Dominic. He is a white male of average height and weight with blonde hair, green eyes and pale skin. Cognitively he seems younger than his chronological age up until sixth grade. Physically Dominic has always seemed older than his chronological age. The first few months of Dominic’s life were rough at times. I decided from the beginning to feed with formula, and I would respond to different types of cries. At three months he would cry after each bottle and have frequent diarrhea, we then decided to switch to a different formula rather than introducing food (My Virtual Child).

As a child Dave Pelzer was brutally beaten and starved by his emotionally unstable, alcoholic mother; a mother who played tortuous, unpredictable games that left one of her sons nearly dead. She no longer considered him a son, but a slave; no longer a boy, but an 'it'. His bed was an old army cot in the basement, his clothes were torn and smelly, and when he was allowed the luxury of food it was scraps from the dogs' bowl. The outside world knew nothing of the nightmare played out behind closed doors. Dave dreamed of finding a family to love him and call him their son. It took years of struggle, deprivation and despair to find his dreams and make something of himself. A Child Called 'It' covers the early years of

The Toronto Star published an article reporting that Toronto currently has the highest rate of children living in households that are considered low income in Canada (Monsebraaten, 2015). The article reports that in Toronto the child poverty rate is higher than the poverty rate of any other age group. This paper will discuss child poverty, how this is a challenge to public health practices and policies, and finally, discuss potential solutions for public policy that address this issue.