Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/parents-rights-from-a-former-head-start-parents-perspective/5021232/
Note: This article is based on an interview between Susan Budde, mentor and Columbia College Chicago faculty member, and Sharon Knowles, who has been a Head Start parent and current teacher.Sharon lived in Cabrini Green, a Chicago public housing project, during the 1970s and 1980s. Located on Chicago’s Near North Side, just west of the ‘Magnificent Mile’ of Michigan Avenue, Cabrini was home to over 15,000 people, living in mid- and high-rise apartment buildings totaling 3,607 units. Over the years, gang violence and neglect created terrible living conditions for the residents, and the name Cabrini Green became synonymous with the problems associated with public housing in the United States.
Sharon attended high school and college while living with her parents and brothers at Cabrini. As she tells it, she lived a very sheltered life:
“When I was in high school, I just went to high school. My mother didn’t let me hang out. You can live in an area and not really know it, especially if your parents shelter you. I often heard, ‘Don’t go over there. Don’t do that. Those are terrible people.’ But my curiosity and my thinking was, ‘Why not?’ So I had to shake my parents’ words ...