My reflection for Chapter 8, Poverty and Socioeconomic Class, will be written from the point of view of a 17-year-old male student living in poverty.
According to the World Bank, I live in poverty because I go without food a couple times a week. Because my mom can't afford medical bills, so I don't go to the doctor when I'm sick. Because my next-door neighbor, who is 8, can read better than I can.
My dad is out of the picture, so my mom has to support me and my three little sisters with her part-time job at the local gas station. I don't know how much she makes, but it can't be that much because we get money from the government each month and we have to use a Link card at Walmart. We live in the big apartment complex in town, but let's be honest: we live in the projects. It's cold in the winter, hot in the summer, and it's impossible to chill because I share a room with my sisters.
If the dimensions of poverty are material, psychological, political, and social, I fit the bill. There's never enough to eat, I wear clothes we get at free church events, I don't trust or respect adults because they can't be counted on, I don't have any say in my future, and I'm a failure at school.
According to Ruby Payne, I have a lot to offer the other kids at school. I can show the rich and normal kids how to have street smarts, how to protect themselves, and how to survive without getting everything handed to them by their rich parents. Apparently they can show me how to make good decisions, be thrifty, and how to use my education to better myself. I don't see this happening, though.
As part of the hidden rules of poverty, the odds are stacked dramatically against my high school graduation. Let's not even talk about the odds of me going to junior college or university. Six percent chance of me graduating college ... I don't see this happening, either.
My question for the class is: how can you, as my teacher, make me care about school? Why should I bother? How can you give me hope for a better life than the one I'm living now?
Michelle I deal with this now in my class. My students believe there is no hope, even when their parents have descent jobs. They feel this way for two reason one their disabilities and two their home life. In regards to the first part I share with students my story of how in the face of a learning disability I am a teacher working on my masters. I explain and share with them all the struggles I had and the hard work I chose to put forth to succeed. I also share with them others who in the face of disabilities have been successful. Regarding their home life I share with them people who have made a success of life(legally)and not through athletics when they came from poverty or minority families. I also let them know that they are the one that need to choose success or failure. The problem I have seen is that by the time the kids get to me the teachers before me that had my students just gave them grades and let them play in order to avoid dealing with their behaviors. Talking about their future is not going to happen because they have no future, my students tell me the teacher says that. Kind of makes me sick to know that someone in this profession feels that way. By the way most of the students I have had have gone on to do well in later grades.
ReplyDeleteDan, good point about the anecdotes about successful people who fought though poverty. Are you able to have these conversations one-on-one with your kids, or do you incorporate them into a group discussion format?
ReplyDelete