Sunday, October 13, 2013

My name is Darla and I am majoring in Child Development and Family Relations, Family Life.  I am married and live in Lewiston where I worked full time for 15 years as a Child Care Consultant with the IdahoSTARS Child Care Resource and Referral office.  My husband and I have 2 children, a son age 25 and daughter age 16. I have been a Girl Scout Leader for the past 11 years.  I am proud to have grown up in a family that has been active within the community and community service is a valued part of who we are and my husband and I are very happy to have passed that on to our children.  I am a non-traditional student after having stopped attending UI over 25 years ago.  For the past 2 years I have been taking 1 online class each semester to finish my degree and will graduate next May.  I am proud to be finishing and showing my children it is never too late to follow through on your dreams!
There are many social problems affecting everyone in the world.  The problems that I chose to research for this blog are poverty, problems in education and texting.  These are three topics that will impact everyone in some capacity within their lifetime.  Although we may or may not go through these things on our own we will know someone with at least one of these issues or be affected by these social problems.  This blog is a way for me to share resources and information I have found that may be helpful to many people. 
Through my research I have found that there are many social aspects that are impacted by these topics.  Included are relationships with families, housing, finances, stress and self-esteem, just to name a few.  My hope is that with additional education and some of the resources you might find here that working on issues with poverty, education and texting can be a bit easier to work through and find solutions for.

The Social Problems of Poverty

Over 14 million Americans are unemployed.  Imagine you are one of them.  You’re savings are gone.  You've lost your house.  You’re a single parent....and you’re down to your last $1000.  Can you make it through the month?  Try this online poverty simulation and see what choices you will have to make and how you will do!  I encourage everyone to use this poverty simulation to help understand the real issues of poverty.



In the LC Valley there is a program called Circles and Bridges to Work through Community Action Partnership.  Here is a video on a program created in our area that helps people get out of poverty and obtain employment.

An article looking how researchers over the years have looked into how culture and poverty and related and why it should be studied and to help foster a productive dialogue among poverty researchers.



Anything that you can become obsessed with, and you do so much that you don't do the things you need to do with family, friends, school, job - that can be an addiction. And texting absolutely can qualify.
Dale Archer

Here is a great informative video on the hazards of texting while walking.

Article on texting and social media and how it is linked to poor academic performance in college students
The Social Problems of Education

"The formulation of the problem is often more essential than the solution." Albert Einstein




Students speak out on the biggest issues in education



Works cited:

Understanding Social Problems;  8th Edition; Linda A. Mooney, David Knox, Caroline Schacht

McKinney and Urban Ministries of Durham, February 2011

Community Action Partnership, 124 New 6th St., Lewiston, ID , Bridges to Work, August 2013

Health Education Research; Vol.25 no.2 2010, Pages 368–379,
Advance Access publication 17 September 2009; Physical Activity, emotional and Behavioral Problems, Maternal Education and Self Reported Educational Performance of Adolescents; Kantomaa, Tammelin, Demakakos, Ebeling and Taanila

ANNALS, AAPSS, 629, May 2010; Reconsidering Culture and Poverty; Small, Harding and Lamont