Kids On The Farm

July 9, 2019 11:03 AM

“This pattern means that some of Yuma’s migrant students miss a few months of each academic year, spending the early fall and late spring in other school districts or studying independently. Increasingly, however, couples split up to allow their children to complete the academic year in a single location.“. For Children of Migrant Farmworkers, High School Graduation Takes a Village (Civil Eats) “The work requires human hands. It's hard, monotonous labor that supports an industry worth approximately $990 billion—and feeds the nation. Many Americans, maybe most, don't think about that, Anciso says. "You go and have your salad but don't realize someone's breaking their back to harvest that." Most shocking of all, hundreds of thousands of these workers are minors—and it's perfectly legal.” The Young Hands That Feed Us (Pacific Standard) The Future Of Food Is Cooperatives (Food Tank)
posted by The Whelk (1 comment total)

As a US educator, I don't know if there are similar programs in other countries to what YUHSD is doing, and I'd be very curious to hear what they're like.

I can only say that, cases like this aside, my experience is that migrant students are very, very poorly served by the fragmented US school systems--near me, even moving a single town over can completely change what educational options, courses, programs, and requirements apply to you. In many cases, a student will be completely on track to graduate, but switches towns (and thus districts) and then need to complete additional courses (summer or an extra year) to meet the local graduation requirements.

State to state can definitely be even harder that way. We as a country need to do better.
posted by thegears at 2:58 PM on July 9, 2019 [2 favorites]