“Schools, the institutions traditionally called upon to correct social inequality, are unsuited to the task; without economic opportunity to follow educational opportunity, the myth of equality can never become real. Far more than a hollow promise of future opportunity for their children, parents need jobs, income, and services. And children whose backgrounds have stunted their sense of the future need to be taught by example that they are good for more than they dared dream.” NeedsChildrenRealDreamSchoolJobsOpportunitySocialParentEconomicExampleTaughtPromiseTasksInstitutionsEducationalMythBackgroundsIncomeInequalityHollowSocial Inequality Book:All Our Children: The American Family Under Pressure Source: All Our Children: The American Family Under Pressure
“The myth of self-sufficiency blinds us to the workings of other forces in family life. For families are not now, nor were they ever, the self-sufficient building blocks of society, exclusively responsible, praiseworthy, and blamable for their own destiny. They are deeply influenced by broad social and economic forces over which they have little control.” LittlesSelfForceSocialCommunityDestinyEconomicBuildingResponsibleMythBlockSufficientBroadsFamily LifeSelf SufficiencySufficiencySelf SufficientBuilding BlocksPraiseworthy Book:All Our Children: The American Family Under Pressure Source: All Our Children: The American Family Under Pressure
“Recognizing that family self-sufficiency is a false myth, we also need to acknowledge that all today's families need help in raising children. The problem is not so much to reeducate parents but to make available the help they need and to give them enough power so that they can be effective advocates with and coordinators of the other forces that are bringing up their children.” NeedsGivingChildrenSelfEnoughHelpingProblemTodayForceParentAvailableMythAcknowledgeRecognizingRaising ChildrenNeed HelpSelf SufficiencySufficiencyCoordinator Author:Kenneth Keniston
“The myth of the self-sufficient individual and of the self-sufficient, protected, and protective familytells us that those who need help are ultimately inadequate. And it tells us that for a family to need help--or at least to admit it publicly--is to confess failure. Similarly, to give help, however generously, is to acknowledge the inadequacy of the recipients and indirectly to condemn them, to stigmatize them, and even to weaken what impulse they have toward self-sufficiency.” NeedsGivingSelfHelpingIndividualMythImpulseAcknowledgeSufficientProtectedProtectiveInadequateNeed HelpInadequacySelf SufficiencySufficiencySelf Sufficient Author:Kenneth Keniston
