Why They Can't Write: Killing the Five-Paragraph Essay and Other Necessities

by John Warner

Thirteen million children experience food insecurity—lack of access to nutritious food on a regular basis—and programs such as free lunch and breakfast only partially close these gaps.2 Hungry students are less likely to retain information, they have a more difficult time regulating their moods, they can’t concentrate, and they are more likely to experience stress. Food insecurity and homelessness does not disappear when students enter college. Twenty-two percent of college students experience “very low levels of food security” according to a 2016 report from the National Student Campaign against Hunger and Homelessness.3 Those same students have an increased likelihood of homelessness. As reported in a paper from Sara Goldrick-Rab and Katharine Broton, sociologists who study systemic barriers preventing students from achieving their higher education goals, over half of students who report experiencing homelessness were working at least thirty hours per week.4 It is hard to consider education a meritocracy when you can be working essentially full-time while still going to school and experiencing homelessness.