Growing+Up+Theme+Research

Introduction: Growing up is one thing everyone on this Earth has, or is, going through. What differ are the goals, influences and struggles we have that create the pages in our life’s story. In Harper Lee’s __To Kill a Mockingbird__ Scout and Jem are growing up facing struggles of learning about how to think like other people to see how they feel, influences of their father and people and events in the community, their goals of trying to please their father, and so on. These are what create their story. The goals, influences and struggles we have are different from country to country. Israel, America, Sudan and China all have their own goals, influences and struggles of growing up, many of them concerning food, money, education, and violence that change everyone’s story.
 * __Growing Up__**

Israel:

Children growing up in the crossfire of the Palestinians and Israelis are mainly faced with daily struggles. Struggles that range from a bad economy, no money for necessities or solid-waste management, are what children living in this area of the Middle East are faced with. Children are living in poverty because their parents are out of work; in other cases it’s the child keeping the family out of poverty. In some families it’s a teenager who has to go to work and earn an unstable income to support their families. Medicine, like jobs, is hard to come by. Many families with ill members just don’t know what to do. One mother has a young ill child and, “the problem is that she has no way to know if the child must have a doctor or not, and if she takes him then she will be unable to feed her children that day, or if he does need it, where will the money come?” is the question posed by Sara Roy. There is no money for medicine, food, not even for solid-waste management. One struggle that influences children in this area is education. In school children are taught to hate, due to horrible education systems. This influences them because they aren’t taught what they are supposed to be taught, they are deprived of common knowledge. Small efforts have tried to be made to improve this situation but there is little to nothing to show for it. Another more severe struggle is that children are being hurt due to the violence going on in that region. Some examples are that children are dying, or having major limbs amputated due to outrageous attacks. Growing up in this region of the Middle East is a hard place to grow up in due to many struggles and bad influences. No money for food or medicine, a bad education system, poverty, and violence are just some of the daily struggles going on for the children growing up between the crossfire of the Palestinians and the Israelis.

Globe, Boston. "Violence, misery, suffering flare in the Mideast." __Boston Globe__. 04 Jan 2009. C10. __eLibrary__. Proquest CSA. CHAPARRAL HIGH SCHOOL. 12 Apr 2009. . Roy, Sara. "Ending the Palestinian economy." __Middle East Policy__. 4 2002. 122. __eLibrary__. Proquest CSA. CHAPARRAL HIGH SCHOOL. 12 Apr 2009. . Sofaer, Abraham D. "The U.S. and Israel: The road ahead." __Commentary__. 01 May 2003. 21. __eLibrary__. Proquest CSA. CHAPARRAL HIGH SCHOOL. 12 Apr 2009. [|http://elibrary.bigchalk.com]. Picture "An impoverished Palestinian woman cooks on fire outside her shack..." MAHMUD HAMS. 12 Nov 2008. Getty Images. __eLibrary__. Proquest CSA. CHAPARRAL HIGH SCHOOL. 12 Apr 2009. .

America: Unlike most countries in the world, the U.S’s economy and overall life here as we all know is something considered luxury. Children here live what we see as an ordinary life but to foreigners this may seem amazing. Our lives everyday is filled with things kids in other countries would never dream of. Countries like Sudan and Israel live in poverty while we sit in mansions and eat fast food. In the United States our education is something we hold very serious, provided by our government we have public schools such as HR and universities providing a college education. Thing like The No Child left Behind Act, passed on Jan. 8, 2002 by George W. Bush make an education a primary accomplishment in all generations. This and many other laws make it so no child goes without an education. In other countries this is something never heard of. Without a doubt we are the richest country in the world with China close behind us, so of course we have a plethora of food and daily necessities. Unfortunately some other countries aren’t as blessed, with struggles to simply live malnourished free. Finally our country is at war, but the last time a conflict took place on American soil was likely Pearl Harbor. Children here are blessed with a good life compared to most places on this earth, so next time your eating mc Donald’s and drinking an extra large coke just think of how many kids in Sudan would die for such a taste. Image: , . "Us Education". Education. . . 26 April, 2009.

Sudan:

According to World Vision, unlike North America and the U.S, Africa is the poorest continent in the world and also contains the poorest countries. Unlike most of the world, most people in Africa “live in wood and mud huts with little water and no electricity, and little reprieve from the burning desert sun and torrential seasonal rain.” Reports IRI News. The largest country in Africa is Sudan, and it is coincidentally one of the poorest. Education costs money, so school isn’t always possible. Sudan’s school system calls for less than “two years of preschool and eight years of elementary education… But only half of the country’s children attend elementary school. Secondary school lasts three years, but only about a third of the original half children attend...” a reporter from IRI News says, “Many people wear little clothing because of expense and heat.” These facts listed above, like it would be in any country, affect the journey of growing up. Children help their parents from a young age farming, “using old fashioned tools and methods, and they struggle to grow enough food for their families.” Reports IRI News. LIB However, like struggles are not always won, neither is this primary goal. According to Elisabeth Byrs, in Sudan “1 million people will be without food, 1,500-million will be without health care, and more than one million without drinking water.” These statistics don’t even include the millions of children who are dying in Sudan alone from starvation. “While world attention is gripped by major crisis’s such as Darfur and Kenya, malnutrition threatens the lives of hundreds and thousands of children...” AFP. There is not much of an economy in Sudan, so money is scarce but at the same time not needed on a daily basis. War and violence in Sudan also affects children’s journey. The governor of Sudan, on March 24th 2009, said, “Nearly 700 people have lost their lives because of these attacks, in one month. UNICEF also says “Children and especially teen girls are also affected by the constant worry of “…rape, torture, pillaging, and the forcible transfer of civilians.” According to World Vision, Kids still find a way to be kids, by paying soccer just like children do all over the world. , . (2009). Africa, the World's poorest continent:. World Vision. 7 April, 2009 from []. , . "Crisis." __Reuters__. 20008. . 7 April, 2009. < http://www.reuters.com/hopepageCrisis/idUSL13908694._CH_.2400

Jok, Jok Madut. “Sudan.” 2009. (Place of access.) 7 April 7009. [].

“SUDAN: violence scaring of returnees in Jonglei.” 7 April 2009 []? Report 1d=83658. Images: , . "African Baby". Africa. .  . 7 April, 2009. , . "Sudan". Kids Zone. .  . 7 April, 2009.

China:

Unlike many parts of the world, China isn’t after raising their kids to be the wealthiest generation in the world, or to have the best military, nor do they have to be raised to scavenge for food daily. The main goal that China has in mind while raising their children is to be completely focused of education. Practically every outlet that the kids have while growing up is related to their enrichment of their education. A Chinese custom is to start a child’s education at age three when they attend preschool for three years. During this time they are taught fundamentals about morality and social values. From there the kids hit the ground running into mandatory grade school for nine years which is structured very similarly to a boarding school. They are only released from school to return home on holidays and weekends, but during the weekdays they are kept at school to focus entirely on their schooling. Today, because of China’s intense emphasis on education of their youthful generations, eighty percent of China’s total population is now literate in one of the world’s most difficult languages. In China, the importance that is stressed to their young generations about wealth, warfare, and the availability of food comes in subsequent to education. While China does have the largest military in the world, they have no need to emphasize the idea of warfare and violence to their maturing teens and kids. Their nation’s economy is running as a strong, well clock-worked system that holds much global leverage when it comes to manufacturing products and trade. Many nations such as the United States of America have too much dependence on the Chinese trade and commodities to risk loosing their largest importers products by declaring war on China. Since China has so many exports shipped world wide to other first world countries, they have no reason to worry about the consistency of their sales income and stress its importance to their kids. Since their consistency of the cash flow is not an issue, the majority of China’s population has a constant food supply available to them and never have to fret about where their next meal will come from. China has a very unique way of raising their children and what they emphasize on them. It is definitely unique the way they go about raising and teaching them from the rest of the world.
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Conclusion:

We all grow up. We also, all have a different story behind our process of growing up. In Harper Lee’s __To Kill a Mockingbird__ Scout and Jem’s story of growing up is different from everyone else’s because of the goals and influences they have, and the struggles they face. The stories of children in other countries also differ. The stories of kids in Israel, America, and Sudan are different because of, again, the goals, influences, and struggles they are challenged with. Many of the concerns of these four regions are food, money, education and violence. These are some of the challenges that make up the pages of all the stories of the people grown, and growing on this Earth.