Swim, cycle, skate, play an instrument… These are all things people generally learn to do as a kid and require parents buying the equipment and/or access for you. A lot of poorer people can’t swim because they have no place to learn how, and you can’t do the others in you don’t have equipment.
Because its not just time. Kids have a lot of time, and sometimes poor adults have a lot of time too when they can’t find a job or they are disabled. The things OP mentioned require money for equipment or access. Can’t learn to swim when nobody around you has a pool and there’s no public pool around. You can’t learn to ride a bike if you don’t have one.
My town/school district takes the second grade to the YMCA for swim lessons as part of their gym curriculum.
I’d never heard of such a thing until we got the permission slip, but I thought it was pretty damn awesome.
Both my kids are way better swimmers than me.
We also have universal school lunches (and breakfast), and during the summer they give out free lunch to kids at the town pools, every day, no means-testing. And the town pool isn’t that expensive to begin with (and also really nice), but they do have a sliding scale for that as well.
It’s nice you live someplace that demonstrates so much care for those in need. Easy to argue it’s not even the bare minimum but it’s still much, much more than other communities. Do mind sharing the area you live?
As a kid I wanted to go to music school but we couldn’t afford it because my single mother had two jobs and other three children to take care of.
I did free lessons at the community center, borrowed my first instrument and got library books. No one encouraged me to do it, I just did it because music was something I wanted in my life.
Now OK, that was me and I was just a kid with a lot of spare time right? What about adults?
Well, if I graduated while working full-time (and I’m not exactly “Good Will Hunting” level of smart) everyone can do something as trivial as learning basic Spanish if they want.
You were fortunate to grow up with such a helpful community center and people willing to donate an instrument to you, and a library you had access to. That’s more than many.
How are ppl supposed to pay for bikes, skates, vacations, backpacking or instruments to learn?
Maybe learning languages is pretty cheap, but that’s about it.
Depends on how you define “poor” though. I’d say if you live paycheck to paycheck to just cover the basic survival-costs with nothing left to save, you’re already fucking poor.
I don’t think money is an entry barrier for most of those things. It is if you want to make any of those things a full time job.
The entry barrier is time.
Poor people must make money all the time so they don’t have time to do those things.
That what op is talking about.
Swim, cycle, skate, play an instrument… These are all things people generally learn to do as a kid and require parents buying the equipment and/or access for you. A lot of poorer people can’t swim because they have no place to learn how, and you can’t do the others in you don’t have equipment.
Why do you reply this to my comment?
Because its not just time. Kids have a lot of time, and sometimes poor adults have a lot of time too when they can’t find a job or they are disabled. The things OP mentioned require money for equipment or access. Can’t learn to swim when nobody around you has a pool and there’s no public pool around. You can’t learn to ride a bike if you don’t have one.
Swim lessons are expensive too.
My town/school district takes the second grade to the YMCA for swim lessons as part of their gym curriculum.
I’d never heard of such a thing until we got the permission slip, but I thought it was pretty damn awesome.
Both my kids are way better swimmers than me.
We also have universal school lunches (and breakfast), and during the summer they give out free lunch to kids at the town pools, every day, no means-testing. And the town pool isn’t that expensive to begin with (and also really nice), but they do have a sliding scale for that as well.
It’s nice you live someplace that demonstrates so much care for those in need. Easy to argue it’s not even the bare minimum but it’s still much, much more than other communities. Do mind sharing the area you live?
Massachusetts.
I don’t know about other towns but I think school lunch is universal state wide.
As a kid I wanted to go to music school but we couldn’t afford it because my single mother had two jobs and other three children to take care of.
I did free lessons at the community center, borrowed my first instrument and got library books. No one encouraged me to do it, I just did it because music was something I wanted in my life.
Now OK, that was me and I was just a kid with a lot of spare time right? What about adults?
Well, if I graduated while working full-time (and I’m not exactly “Good Will Hunting” level of smart) everyone can do something as trivial as learning basic Spanish if they want.
You were fortunate to grow up with such a helpful community center and people willing to donate an instrument to you, and a library you had access to. That’s more than many.
Fair enough
How are ppl supposed to pay for bikes, skates, vacations, backpacking or instruments to learn? Maybe learning languages is pretty cheap, but that’s about it.
Depends on how you define “poor” though. I’d say if you live paycheck to paycheck to just cover the basic survival-costs with nothing left to save, you’re already fucking poor.
um. gap year. can’t do that. you get enough gap years called unemployment.
I said “most”
I would say some and maybe. some may be able to figure out how to do some of it maybe.