Essay on Growing Up Poor

Nelson Mandela once said, "Overcoming poverty is not a task of charity, it is an act of justice. Like Slavery and Apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings. Sometimes it falls on a generation to be great. YOU can be that great generation. Let your greatness blossom” (Make Poverty History, 2005). Gwinnett county is third in the country when it comes to a high poverty rate, with 14% of the population living below poverty (Family Promise of Gwinnet County, 2013). As an educator it is important to familiarize with the county of which one is to teach in, and poverty is an issue in Gwinnett county. One must understand the affects of poverty on

Who are America’s poor children? How many children in America are poor? What are some of the hardships that face poor children in America? These are only a few questions that we can ask ourselves when considering children who live in poverty in America. Children face monumental hardships in our country because of poverty or the condition of not possessing the means to afford basic human needs. The economic crisis that we find ourselves in today threatens to cause a dramatic increase in the number of America’s poor children; however poverty in America has long been a crisis that has faced the children of our nation. This essay will investigate the previous asked questions and research

Many kids in the United States have been affected by poverty at some point in their lives. In fact, one in five children have been affected by poverty. A survey was done within the last year by the Scholastic company that interviewed a group of the State Teachers of the Year and asked them what they thought were some of the effects of poverty. Some popular answers were that it affects the way you perform in school greatly and that we need more anti-poverty programs to help out with these children. Poverty affects the success of students in many ways. These include not having the academic achievement that more advantaged kids did, not having experiences other kids did, and not having the early development they needed.

Whoever could share pencils and afford them was better liked than kids who couldn’t. Even then, I knew that my financial status wasn’t a just reason that other kids were shunned or even laughed at for buying value school supplies. Yet, the teachers weren’t any better: those who could afford tissues and hand sanitizer were praised for “caring about their classmates,” while those who could not were scolded for not following the rules or specific list of what to buy. After school, I had everything I could want to eat, had all the clothes I wanted—my closet was overflowing—and never understood buying not-brand name anything. I never was hungry at night or didn’t have warm clothes in winter. Even now, I’m able to buy art supplies, go after my goals, and have the financial security to know that I’ll still come home to food I can eat and not worry about going hungry. It’s unfair, and I’ve always known that, which is why I often go out of my way to pay for other people who show signs of low income. As a kid, this meant buying pencils just for others to use, as an adult, it means sliding someone twenty dollars so they can eat lunch

In the book Money and Class in America written by Lewis Lapham, the way Americans look at money is exposed. It compares other nations view on monetary value against that of the Americans. It is a fact that we place more value on money than anything else. This book illustrates the corruptness of the “American Dream” as it focuses money as the “currency of the soul” and through the dream, men remain free to rise or fall. Their life is the product of the effort and the decisions put forth by them.

The poverty cycle was introduced in such a way so that a message of how the significance of the quality of education affects the fate of an individual. An example of how a lack of quality education perpetuates the poverty takes place when Moore narrates “My grandparents agreed…My grandparents took the money they had in the home in the Bronx, decades of savings and mortgage payments, and gave it to my mother so that she could pay for my first year of military school.” (Moore 95-96). The distress for an education of higher quality is present in this passage because Moore’s mother and his grandparents were willing to sacrifice large sums of money in order to change Wes Moore’s fate through a better education. Wes Moore uses this passage in order to convey the message that an individual’s environment plays a significant role in determining one’s fate. In contrast the other Wes Moore was not able to pursue a higher education because of a dearth of the opportunity to do

The Working Poor travels into the forgotten America. It is a book about people and places that most us have never thought about. We have our debates about these people, their lifestyles, how they raise their children and where they work but we don't really know them and for the most part don't care. How many of us notice "the man who washes cars but does not own one, the clerk who files cancelled checks at the bank but has $2.02 in her own account or the woman who copyedits medical textbooks but hasn't been to a dentist in a decade?"(Shipler,3) With this book, Shipler takes you into their lives, it allows you to understand some of their choices and their lack of options. The Working Poor makes you understand what it is like to work hard,

The first Journal that was read was Debt-Poor Kids by Robert Scott and Steven Pressman. Thus, in this article it focuses upon the “years 1980 and how being in a poor family has long term effects on the children” (Scott & Pressman, 2013, p. 358). While reading this article some key points that stood out regarding information people should know is that “poor children were more likely to die at an early age and did worse in school” (Scott & Pressman, 2013, p.358). When seeing this statement, we as teachers must do the best we can to help the students with handling everything. When seeing that students did worse it made me think what as teachers are we doing wrong for those students to be doing bad. One solution to that problem is that we need

Currently, my socioeconomic status (SES) is the lower middle class. I hold privilege in my SES status because I do not experience classism. “Classism is system of advantages for the middle and upper class as a group. It means governmental, institutional, and organizational policies, laws and rules are written to favor the middle class, the upper middle class, and the upper class and unfairly discriminate against people in al lower socioeconomic class. (Jun, 2010, p. 177). I benefit from my SES status because I am able to afford my basic need and buy material things I want. I am able to attend undergrad and graduate school and have a good paying job. I can admit that I take advantage of my privileges as a lower middle class status at work. According to Smith & Brewster (2016), people in the middle class SES at work have“ the freedom to make phone calls and take bathroom breaks during the workday, and so forth” (p. 3). There are times that I call out of work because I needed more hours of sleep, add an additional five minutes to my lunch break and taking bathroom breaks. People in lower SES status than mine do not have these opportunities due to a fear of losing their job. “Working-class people often do not participate in workplace policy making, do not

Throughout the United States, homelessness and poverty have become an overwhelming issue. From people losing their jobs to others having to give up their homes, nearly 14.5 percent of Americans experience some type of poverty. This could look like a small percentage to some but in reality, it's more than 45 million people. While this number may be decreasing, the stereotype of those who are in poverty still remains. It is often thought that those in poverty are non-educated addicts and are generally criminal people. This, however, fails to be proven true. In my personal experiences, it was believed that the homeless and impoverished were of a lower social level and it was easy to assume the poor were in their walk of life for more reasons than simply not having money. Drugs, crime, and poverty all seemed to have the same definition.

American factories can comprise of about up to 1000 workers. If American factories are shut down and moved to other countries, this takes many American people out of work. Companies are now also importing jobs. This is where employers hire people such as immigrants to work less than minimum wage. For that reason, many Americans are stuck with the other minimum wage, and low-paying jobs that barely get them through life. Because of this, many Americans are working full time jobs that are below the Federal poverty line. These types of people are often called the “working poor”. Due to this the working poor have to run to welfare. This affects all Americans because taxpayers are the ones paying for welfare. The more jobs that are taken

Poverty and inequality exist in every developed culture and often are only patched in order for society to continue upwardly. Poverty and inequality in the United States exists for many reasons; reasons that very from the prospective lens. Interpretive theories in particular ask us to question our reality and its constructs. Interpretive theories require us to looks at the world as a social realm, one that we created and constantly change. Interpretive theories study the relationship between power and the construction of social roles as well as the invisible collection of patterns and habits that make up domination, (Delgado & Stefanic, 2001). Susan Kemp argues that the view of the world is dominated by the experiences of white western

Remember when we were young and all we could think of was growing up and getting to do ‘grownup’ things? We spent our whole childhood thinking of what we would do when we finally ‘grew up’, and here we are, almost completely grown up and we still haven’t made up our mind of what it is we will do when we grow up. We’ve painted this pretty little picture in our head of what it’ll be like when we eventually do grow up, and when it finally comes for the picture to be taken off the wall and put into action, it’s not nearly as fun as creating the painting.

Usually when a person thinks of the poor and the homeless, they think about those that are living and sleeping on park benches or under bridges. They think of those who are dirty, with ragged clothing, worn out shoes, and those begging or panhandling for food. The truth of the matter is that poverty and homelessness can affect people of any age, race or gender. More Americans are at the risk of poverty and homelessness today. There are many circumstances that can cause a person to live in poverty and become homeless. The lack of affordable housing, low paying jobs or lack of employment, and insufficient federal aid all contribute to poverty and homelessness.

​ A man’s economic status is based solely on his wealth and his material possessions, or lack thereof to define him as being “rich” or “poor.” Similarly, these two words, “rich” or “poor,” should also describe a man’s character.