Austin S.
Mrs. Zurkowski
Honors English 1: Purples
9/14/2010
Book: Can’t Get There From Here by Todd Strasser
Topic: Homeless Teens
Search Terms:
1. “Homelessness”
2. “Teen Drug Use”
3. “Teen Panhandling”
4. “Teen Prostitution”
5. “Shelters”
6. “Outreach Programs”
7. “Broken Families”
Homeless Teens
There were many social issues in Strasser’s book “Can’t Get There From Here”, but one stood out in particular to me. The issue of homeless teens living on the streets, and their lack of outside help, is very disturbing to me. Almost every person in that novel was a homeless teen who didn’t want outside help. According to a Stanford study, out of 50 homeless teens, only 48% had used a shelter before (http://www.stanford.edu/dept/news/pr/91/911118Arc1054.html). The other 52% were afraid to use a shelter because they might be forced to go home or use foster care (http://www.stanford.edu/dept/news/pr/91/911118Arc1054.html). It was also found that 92% of the teens had come from “Broken Families” (http://www.stanford.edu/dept/news/pr/91/911118Arc1054.html). These families had alcoholism, drug abuse, physical abuse, or sexual abuse (http://www.stanford.edu/dept/news/pr/91/911118Arc1054.html). These problems affect me directly mostly because if my generation is going to inherit the world, we might as well start improving ourselves first. Now I wouldn’t say I’m happy with this issue. I am actually kind of upset that humanity could do such terrible things to people, and then not care one bit what happens to the people they hurt.
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