The future: There is more need to address family issues than you think

There is an article in today’s edition of The News-Argus that everyone who cares about fixing what’s wrong — or at least what’s not perfect — about Goldsboro should read.

It does not involve economic development — although ultimately it affects it.

It does not involve politicians or votes — even though they could be a part of supporting it.

It is all about one of the area’s most important resources now and in the future — its children.

In our health section today, Dr. David Tayloe discusses the need to help educate young people and families about the need to provide better environments and better opportunities for children.

He emphasizes that by reducing the teen pregnancy rate and by training some young parents who already have children how to raise them in a safe and healthy environment, we can increase the chances that children grow into healthy, happy and productive adults.

And he is dead on.

Many of the problems that plague cities like Goldsboro and more rural areas center around the fact that there are still too many people who are not financially or emotionally ready to have children bringing babies into the world. Without proper prenatal care, without options for providing for their families and without hope themselves, many of these young parents are unable to provide homes that allow their young children to thrive.

It is from there that other problems spring — children who cannot read, who are not cared for properly and who do not see any way out of the poverty and poor conditions in which they live other than crime and drugs.

By offering support programs for families and opportunities for children to get a good start in life, we can change this tide — and increase the possibility that some of these young people grow up to become something special someday and to raise healthy and happy families of their own.

There is a need for this community to look at parenting classes, early childhood education and health care and assistance programs that set these young families — and teens — on the right course.

This is the kind of problem is much more easily solved when it is caught early. The resulting, more serious consequences are much more expensive and difficult to treat.

Published in Editorials on July 13, 2006 11:11 AM