Amazing Grace - Kozol

This article was such a heart touching, well thought out message to appreciate the very little you may have, for someone else always has it worse. Kozol creates a perfect picture in the reader's head by the way he writes about his experience in the Bronx and with his young tour guide. The way some children are forced to grow up so fast and early is an amazement to me because I myself at nineteen years old am still learning how to grow up and take care of myself, let alone myself and others. While receiving his tour, the young guide points out many things that amazed me trying to remember how young he was. He pointed out street gangs, where to receive drugs, and where multiple people were murdered. It astonishes me that the child's mother even let him go off around this type of neighborhood alone with a complete stranger. When I was a child, I was not aloud to leave my street, and I grew up in a suburban area filled with children my age. My elementary school was in my neighborhood and I was not allowed to walk the two blocks home, in fear something bad would happen to me. Instead, I would either take the bus or have my grandfather pick me up. Then A family member would watch my sister and I until my parents came home, I was never left alone. I guess you could say this makes me "privileged". To not be forced to go home and take care of my sister, get  myself to and from school, and feed myself. These children may not know what they were having for dinner that night and would have to do all these things listed above by themselves until their parents got home at nine, ten o'clock. I remember my bed time was whenever the sun set, and that rule lasted until I was 14. I used to be so angry at my parents for enforcing all of the rules for myself and my sister but as I have grown up, I have realized the reasons behind these rules and have become grateful for having the in place. I was always taught to do things on my own including dishes, laundry, cleaning and getting ready, but with the supervision of my parents alongside me, I am very grateful for this because it taught me structure, but did not consume my entire childhood like it does for these children in neighborhoods and families such as the Bronx. Having bars on their windows, being exposed to violence, having to give up privileges children should be enjoying is not a way to live and it makes me heartbroken to know that these are just  the beginning of many children's everyday occurrences. Hopefully there are more children than not that beat the odds of growing up with these conditions and repeating the cycle.