DeNishia's Beat: Foster Care

I spent most of today and yesterday thinking about ways I could start blogging about my K-12 education and foster care system beat. Both topics are very important to me, and I wanted to make sure I presented them in a way that would make you understand why. I concluded that I wanted to make this blog different than any other blog I will write and you will read. I want to start with a short story of my personal experiences that I have never shared with anyone online. You are getting the exclusive, deep down 411 on me and why I value these topics. Prepare yourself because some information may shock you. You ready?

Today I googled my name and a new listing was available that wasn’t there the night before. I immediately clicked on “Starting Early for a Lifetime of Success”, a PDF written by the Director of Illinois Department of Children and Family Services Bryan Samuels. I scanned the document for my name and found it in the third column entitled “Importance of Early Childhood Centers.” I had a flashback after reading a section that quoted, “I can still remember in first grade, kids calling me stupid and saying things like, ‘We learned that in preschool!" That was my quote that recalled what my peers said to me. I felt dumb going to school for the first time at eight-years-old, in the first grade. I questioned my intelligence because I didn’t know how to spell my name or count up to or past 10.

I was already being stereotyped as a ghetto black girl from the south side of Chicago. I was told I didn’t have the “it” factor to make it in a north Chicago suburb. I had a lot of negative emotion built up. It was just enough to encourage me to take action against words that tried to tear me down.

I refused to let “stupid” remain a word people used to jokingly describe me, so I stayed in during recess and got intensive academic attention. I am proud to say I rose from no education, to completing honors courses in high school and now I'm entering my fourth year of college.

Most people would call my rise to educational success luck, but I call it grace. I write, advocate and live my life as a living testament that all things are possible when you put your mind to it.

Director Bryan Samuels said it best when he said, "Most students who start behind stay behind, and most children in the foster care system start behind."

I don’t know why that is, and during my time with Rock the Trail I will do my best to find the answer. I do know that no one should lose hope. Starting ahead can increase your cognitive, social, behavioral and physical development, but it’s OK to start behind as long as you start. Remember the Tortoise and the Hare? The Tortoise may have started slow and steady, but he won the race!