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Through narrative accounts from rural Arkansas and Mississippi, it highlights how inequities shape early learning, self-esteem, and social development. The discussion also emphasizes the need to define rurality accurately and count rural children to address persistent resource and policy gaps across public school systems.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/growing-up-rural-inequity-for-young-children-and-child-care-providers/585807/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/growing-up-rural-inequity-for-young-children-and-child-care-providers/585807.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Riley West","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-29","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":39},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What challenges do rural children face according to the document?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"The document highlights isolationism, poverty, limited transportation, difficulties accessing healthcare, and resource gaps that affect learning opportunities.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"How does transportation access influence health care and services?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"When transit systems are lacking, families rely on anyone with transportation to reach doctors and obtain vaccines, making access uneven across children.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"Why does the document stress defining rurality and counting rural children?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"Accurate definitions and counting are needed to identify and address inequities tied to isolation, the digital divide, and gaps in educational resources and support.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},585807,1792073290,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":39,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":34,"language":139,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":143,"read_time":144,"preview_page_count":4},1099523885074,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_9964176cb1d06d4a9deccf72a44ae3dc","For a text version of this document please visit: [https://maec.org/resource/growing-up-rural/](https://maec.org/resource/growing-up-rural/)  \nRural Equity Series  \nGrowing Up Rural: Inequity for Young Children and Child Care Providers  \nBeverly Boals Gilbert, Ed.D. and Cathy Grace, Ed.D. September 2020  \nGrowing up in rural Arkansas and Mississippi, we did not know what we did not know. We knew about dirt roads, walking the railroad tracks, church socials, Dick and Jane basal readers, and how to shell peas. We didn’t know how isolated we were, what a public transportation system looked like, and what a rigorous curriculum required. One of the things about being a young child who lives in a rural community where everyone has the same life as you, or worse, is that you don’t know you’re being left behind or left out.  \nCathy’s Story  \nMy family was fortunate. Even if I did bathe in a tin tub until I was 3, my family had a television with three channels from Memphis, and we had a truck. My mother, as I got older, was determined I was to participate in activities held 12 miles away in a town of about 5,000 people. I was not totally isolated.  \nNot everyone was so fortunate. You could see this in simple ways, like when someone needed to visit the doctor in town. When my brother or I needed our tetanus booster or polio vaccine, my daddy would take us. Other children without transportation also depended on my daddy and his truck to take them to town for doctor visits and other  \nThis was taken 45 years ago at my Daddy’s store. I amon the left, a parent is in the middle, and the county librarian is on the right. This was my first ”kindergarten.”The children would walk to Daddy’s store and we would read and learn basic skills like ABC’s. They would all receive a complimentary ice cream at the end of the weekly “class.” The librarian would leave a shelf of books for the children to check out and return during the week.  \n5272 River Road, Suite 340, Bethesda, [MD 20816 | 301-657-7741 | maec.org](MD 20816 | 301-657-7741 | maec.org)  1  \n“serious” errands. If we needed health care, we would all come to depend on anyone with transportation since there was no such thing as a transit system. It is the same way today in many areas, even with telemedicine.  \nI attended the school for the “country kids” from the first through sixth grades. Most of us rode a school bus, and on my 45-minute daily ride to school, I discovered how unfair the world was, and how mean children could be to those who were different. The “back of the bus” kids knew their place because they were shamed by comments made by others regarding hygiene and outward appearance. In the 1950s, schools in Arkansas were not racially integrated, so my first encounter with inequity was a close-up view of race-driven poverty and the crippling effect it had on the self-esteem and social development of many of my peers.  \nI made good grades in elementary school, and my third grade teacher rewarded me by giving me extra jobs like starting a school library and serving as a substitute teacher for my peers for two weeks. My good grades came to a screeching halt when I entered junior highschool, when children from all over the district converged at one “city” school. The rigor of the curriculum and expectations of my previous small-town teachers were less than those in the city school, and it showed in the learning gaps I had to overcome. These learning gaps are still plaguing rural school children today as a result of myriad funding issues and federal, state, and local policies within public school systems.  \nDuring my third grade experience as a two-week substitute teacher, I realized I was destined to become a teacher. After a detour, I graduated college and returned home in the early 1970s as a first grade teacher in a rural school about 5 miles from my childhood home. In the middle of a cotton field, with no air conditioning in the classroom or trees for shade, where 100% of the children ","cbCaintcal1slt1t","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaintcal1slt1t","pdf",393792,"English","# Cathy’s Story\n## The Importance of Defining Rurality and Counting Rural Kids","[{\"question\":\"What challenges do rural children face according to the document?\",\"answer\":\"The document highlights isolationism, poverty, limited transportation, difficulties accessing healthcare, and resource gaps that affect learning opportunities.\"},{\"question\":\"How does transportation access influence health care and services?\",\"answer\":\"When transit systems are lacking, families rely on anyone with transportation to reach doctors and obtain vaccines, making access uneven across children.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does the document stress defining rurality and counting rural children?\",\"answer\":\"Accurate definitions and counting are needed to identify and address inequities tied to isolation, the digital divide, and gaps in educational resources and support.\"}]","Growing Up Rural: Inequity for Young Children and Child Care Providers | PDF",1792055983,18]