Eric Jensen Teaching With Poverty In Mind Sparknotes

As mentioned by Ruane and Cerulo in Second Thoughts, harsh realities of poverty affect children’s lives in profound ways. Children lack any power in improving their circumstances and depend on adults to gain access to basic necessities. Access to proper healthcare, education, and basic nutrition continues to be an obstacle for children. Poverty impedes children’s aptitude to learn and contributes to poor overall health and mental health. Perhaps most important, poverty becomes a cyclical nature that is difficult to overcome. Children who experience poverty when they are young tend to experience persistent poverty over the course of their entire lives. According to the Child Welfare League of America, the national poverty rate for children

A child living in poverty will not have the same access to a good education, a balanced diet and opportunities to play as a child with a well-provided background. Their diet and housing may mean that the child becomes ill often because of nutritional issues and living in cold, damp conditions. As a result, the child will lack energy and concentration for development. The deprived child’s chances of a good education appear slim and don’t have the opportunity to use books, equipment or the internet. Lack of encouragement and motivation from parents because of their situation is a factor that can affect child development also; as their opportunities are limited, the child’s holistic development is very likely to be

1.2, There are many factors that could hinder children and young person lives and this includes social, economic and cultural issues. Poverty is an example of social factors, so children who are growing in poverty experience lack of knowledge of how to achieve their ambitions. These children are more likely to experience lack of self-esteem and confidence as they would feel incapable of fulfilling their own needs. This is due to because the outcomes of poverty is often leads of inequalities education attainments and in heath such as poor physical and mental health which associated with growing up in poverty.

Marian Wright Edelman, president and founder of the Children's Defense Fund, notes “More than fifteen million children are poor, and more than one in five will experience poverty during the most crucial year of brain development” (2015, p.1). Some of the long-term negative effects of childhood poverty include health problems, greater high school dropout rates, and increased crime as adults. Not only does it impact the individual person, it also impacts the nation: “Year after year the loss of productivity and extra health and criminal justice costs associated with it add up to roughly half a trillion dollars” (Edelman, 2015, p.1). Three sociological theories that deal with the issues of poverty are structural functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interaction. Structural functionalism focuses on how society institutions are interdependence. Social problems happen when the interactions break down. Conflict theory is when there are conflicts between various social groups. Symbolic interaction is the perception of the situation as a problem. Of these three theories, childhood poverty applies more directly to structural functionalism and conflict

“In the United States, child poverty rates are higher than rates for the adult and elderly populations.” (Katherine Magnuson and Elizabeth Votruba-Drzal 1) As poverty rates increase, more children are involved. Children, uninfluenced by the evils of the world, are pushed by these harsh living conditions and treated unfairly by others. Growing up in poverty can lead to lasting effects, and those effects include education issues, physical health is proven worse, and inadequate behavior. As an adult, these issues can turn into whether or not survival is promised.

Poverty causes most stress within households and has an impact on the healthy development of a child.

When analyzing children growing up in poverty a lot of factors come into play such as their physical, psychological and emotional development. To grow up in poverty can have long term effect on a child. What should be emphasized in analyzing the effects of poverty on children is how it has caused many children around the world to suffer from physical disorders, malnutrition, and even diminishes their capacities to function in society. Poverty has played a major role in the functioning of families and the level of social and emotional competency that children are able to reach. Children in poverty stricken families are exposed to greater and emotional risks and stress level factors. They are even capable of understanding and dealing with

Children are faced with many consequences due to growing up in poverty. Most children who live in poverty go to poor unsuitable schools, live in unexceptable housing, and grow up around more violence and crime than any other parent would wish for their child. As soon as the child is born into poverty, they begin to feel the effects of it. They tend to have low birth weight and contain a higher risk of dying during infancy. We watched a video in class that showed that poverty could take a toll on the child’s learning capabilities, and health status. There were stories of children with hyperactivity problems, chronic ear infections which caused hearing loss, and even children who were not receiving the proper amount of nutrients to be able to grow and function correctly. The first years of a child’s life are the most crucial because most of the development of the brain occurs then.

The lack of effort and performance children from low income families demonstrate is an incontrovertible issue. The effects that environment can have on adolescents can be devastating if the environment is inadequate to promote positive child development and success. Children experiencing poverty and neglect are more susceptible to lower performance in school and delayed development, resulting from “...many aspects of a child’s environment that can adversely affect maximum brain functioning. Two significant and negative environmental factors are poverty and neglect. Research substantiates the negative effects poverty can have on a child’s brain including development, learning and academic performance ”(Loughan,Perna). Loughan and Perna

Poverty can lead to serious effects. Children who grow up in poverty are likely to have frequent health problems than the children who grow in better financial circumstances. For example, infants who are born into poverty have a low birth weight, and they grow up with mental or physical disabilities. Not only are they sick, but they are most likely to die before their first birthday. Children who are raised in poverty might miss school often because of their illnesses, and they have a much higher accident rate than the other children. Nearly a billion of the world’s population can’t read nor write. Poor families experience stress much more than a normal family does. They are more likely to be exposed to negative events such as illness, job loss, death of a family member, and depression. Homelessness is another effect of poverty. Homeless children are less likely to receive proper nutrition, protection and they experience more health problems. Around 1.4 million children die each year from lack of access to safe and clean water and proper nutrition. Homeless women experience a high rate of low birth weight infants as well as miscarriages. Families who do not have homes receive much more stress than other families. They also have disruption in school, work, friendships, and family relationships. There are other effects of poverty such as drug abuse and addiction, child and woman abuse, debts pressure, and increase in crimes.

Poverty brings several things with it that increase the infant’s risk to physical, emotional, and cognitive harm. The infants and children raised in poverty are less likely to receive basic medical treatment. Untreated illnesses can have lifelong effect on a child. Poverty is a generational issue and often times the mothers has not been taught basic play and interaction skills with their newborn from their mother. It is rare that one moves beyond their scope of life experience. Poverty is one of the risk factors that have additional consequences that accompany it. The families are more likely to live in substandard conditions that expose the infant to environmental risks such as contaminated drinking water and lead. Additional stressors during this stage are financial stressors and depression among the infant’s caregiver. These issues can lead to ignoring of the infant’s emotional needs and the infant misses the opportunity to create a lifelong bond with another and trust in another being able to meet their needs. Inadequate parenting can occur over a child’s entire life span with different and yet still devastating results. As stated in by Hutchinson in her book Dimensions of Human Behavior, Changing the Life Course (2008):

Children in poverty is a typical social issue occurring in society today. “More than 16 million children in the United States – 22% of all children – live in families with incomes below the federal poverty level” (“National Center For Children In Poverty,” n.d.). The federal poverty level measures the amount of income a family takes in per year. It varies depending on the number of people in a family. For a nuclear family (two parents and two children) the federal poverty level is around twenty-four thousand dollars in a year (“Health Care.gov,” n.d.). The average American makes around forty-six thousand dollars a year. The parents of the children in poverty make at least twenty-two thousand dollars below the average. Their families are extremely poor. Also, not just one child is facing this hardship, sixteen million children are part of families below the federal poverty line, just in America. “About 22% of children in the U.S. lived below the poverty line in 2013, compared with 18% in 2008” (Calfas, 2015). Unfortunately, the rate of poverty affecting children has gone up through the years. More and more children will face poverty during day to day life. Children can be affected by poverty in many ways. “Poverty can impede children’s ability to learn and contribute to social, emotional, and behavioral problems. Poverty also can contribute to poor

Socio-economic factors are widely acknowledged as important determinants of poverty. If an individual experiences adverse living conditions in childhood, majority of them will have inadequate income and result in low socio-economic status as adults (Carroll et al, 2011). Children born in poor households have difficulty in accessing the basic needs (e.g. food, clothing, and good living environment) and this can affect their learning ability at school, unable to focus. In other words, they have a higher chance of dropping out of school or lower education attainment, unable to provide appropriate qualifications when they move onto adulthood, seeking for job opportunities. These children are finding day-to-day life tough, they are living in cold, damp houses, do not have warm or rain-proof clothing, their shoes are worn, and many days they go hungry (Children's Commissioner, 2012). Often this has taken place over a long period of time, impacting on their development, behaviour and physical health furthermore limiting their potential as they grow into adults.

Families besides providing for the basic necessities such as food, shelter, and clothes for their children, they also pass on cultural and educational values onto their children. According to the American Psychological Association, an important factor in poverty is a family’s socioeconomic status (SES) is often measured as a combination of education, income, and occupation. It is commonly thought of as the social position or class of an individual or group. Socioeconomic status in families is a key factor that influences quality of life for young children and their families. Low socioeconomic status is linked with lower education, poverty, and poor health. Proven studies show that low socioeconomic status is connected with higher levels of emotional, behavioral difficulties, and hostility. Socioeconomic status is proven to create achievement differences among children from low income families from those who come from well off families (Children, Youth and Families & Socioeconomic Status).

Poverty is a considerable social problem; with a significant impact on those who suffer within. Growing up in poverty “reduces a child’s chance of growing up to be a healthy, well-adjusted, and contributing adult in our society” (Crosson-Tower, 2014, p. 59). Poverty is families having to struggle to afford necessities. Poverty does not know where your next meal is coming from or having to choose between paying rent and seeing a health care provider. The impact of poverty affects one’s ability through physical, social, emotional, and educational health. Even though individual overcome poverty it still extends across cultural, racial, ethnic, and geographical borders. Children represent the largest group of poverty in the United States. “Growing up in poverty places a child at a profound disadvantage and substantially lowers the chances that the child will mature into a well-adjusted, productive, and contributing