A Sheltered Life: Education for Migrant Children

 

KENNY SITU JAYLEEN LAM Staff Writers

In the 1900’s, the Compulsory Education Act was amended to improve child welfare and discourage child labor practices for immigrants. Today, this benefit is not being applied to the same immigrants that the Compulsory Education Act is protecting. Not only does this violate the Compulsory Education Act, it violates America’s values and the future of immigrants. After an outburst of public outrage, President Trump revoked his own “no tolerance policy,” which separated thousands of families crossing the United States border. The Compulsory Education Act dictates that it is against the law to restrict education on the basis of citizenship. Only two Texas school districts have been allowed to send teachers to local shelters. However, more schools should be allowed to send help because the children are emotionally distressed and placing them in a larger setting could cause them to hurt themselves and others. In April 2018, Colleen Kraft, the president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, visited one of these shelters to evaluate the children’s’ mental health. What she saw was disturbing. Traumatized toddlers silently watched on as a single girl screamed and cried for her mother. Kraft explained to the Atlantic that normal children develop skills related to playing, learning and socializing. If young children are under too much traumatic stress, they will have a harder time learning to bond with others and reject them in the future. Supplying more teachers to guide them through their trauma is important if they are to develop their minds and learn to connect and enjoy their time with others. Supplying resources to educate these migrants would impact their future as adults. There are stories of parents unable to reunite with their children because they could not understand the forms they were signing. What they thought were forms that would bring their children back to them were in truth forms that took away their rights to be together with their children. They were often told by officials that these papers were helping them find their children. Teaching migrant children will help them avoid similar instances like these, especially when they enter the job market. If a child is treated like a criminal before they have done anything, it affects them emotionally and impairs their development. People should make a concentrated effort to make children feel welcomed. Migrant children should be given every opportunity to learn and grow.