The "Gaps" in Childhood
**This is not exactly great writing...just my heart. Thanks for reading!** As I was browsing Facebook I saw some pictures posted by a family I know. Looking at their happy faces, it made me think of the children I serve that live in poverty. I know that may seem strange, but education is a passion for me. My mind drifted to the thirty-million word gap the majority of children in poverty bring with them to kindergarten. Here's a good place to start if you are interested: https://www.aft.org/sites/default/files/periodicals/TheEarlyCatastrophe.pdf I then began to think of all the other gaps with children in poverty, and the reality is that these gaps add up and end up more of an ocean. There is an experience gap. Many children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds never leave their county. Put those children next to the ones who have been to the Grand Canyon and Disney and museums and various other places. One child may have been to Europe last summer, and the other watched