Hello | Teen Ink

Hello

October 18, 2016
By ProudDemocrat BRONZE, Clarkston, Michigan
ProudDemocrat BRONZE, Clarkston, Michigan
2 articles 0 photos 4 comments

On a cool morning I went on a walk, it was just like any other walk I walked around the house and on the sidewalk. Taking pictures at certain things that sparked my interest including flowers, houses and other "items" in the neighborhood. I walked up to my front door and took a picture of the "hello" sign that is on the front door where most guests enter. I didn't think a lot about it at the time nor did I really think that there was a deeper meaning to this "hello." After my walk I sat down and looked through my pictures and my "hello" photo hit me with a deeper meaning. I realized that the word "hello" isn't available to everyone. Let me explain, across the world many people have the luxury of freely saying "Hello" to their family members or to other people. In some countries or places "hello" is more of an afterthought. Families wake up wondering whether or not they will have enough food to last themselves through the day. They are worried about an airstrike hitting their home or some radical group attacking them. The act of a "Hello"is not uttered by the ones who lost their family in war, who lost their sense of thought in battle or those who who think about whether they will live to the next day. Now, I am sure that turning a word of greeting into an issue may be radical to some or not even rational. The thing is, some children learn the "hello" greeting earlier than others. Why? Because, children that tend to be wealthier or born into a successful country is more likely to learn "hello" sooner than others. This is known as the language gap by some and it even happens here in the United States of America. It's quite amazing that even inequality among families can impact whether you are fluent in a language.
   
Hello is a common word and can literally be translated into every single language in the world. Hello will always stand out as the world continues to globalize and as languages dwindle. As stated earlier in this writing even the word ¨hello¨ can show the growing gap of inequality in the world and the growing influence of the wealthy. Stanford university found that between rich and poor children the poorer children were more than 200 milliseconds later to respond to common words in the English language. Poorer children perform worse on tests and in overall school performance. To claim that every child has the equal chance to succeed is simply a ignorant and idiotic statement to make. Now, you can just look at failing school systems in other communities like Detroit for example. Detroit schools receive about 8,000 dollars of funding per pupil, corruption is rampant and test scores are low. The reason? Because Detroit is a poorer community that has poor schools, a rich community would have rich schools. This is the way the right-wingers want it, schools unequal and based on who lives in those communities. Now, the US is one of the only countries that does this type of system. Putting more money to rich white districts and largely forgetting the poorer school districts. Inequality is really everywhere in American society even impacting who learns a language quicker. The United States needs to start supporting poorer children who have been left behind in society especially in red states. Connecting the word "hello" to all of this may have impacted your view on this issue and I hope that you support the fight to end rampant inequality.



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