New York : First Vintage Contemporaries

Had Jeannette never experienced poverty, had she never had to make do with what she had, she would never have thought to create her own braces. Hence, because poverty forces her to manage with the little she has throughout all of her childhood, Jeannette gains resourcefulness. Poverty’s final gift to Jeannette and her siblings is the desire to survive. Throughout her childhood, Jeannette is forced to survive. She must survive burns from a freak accident and cuts from falling out of a car. She must survive constant moving around and repeated incidents with sexual predators. All of these incidents instill in Jeannette a desire to survive. As a junior in high school, Jeannette flees to New York City where she finishes high school and begins college. Jeannette works hard to support herself but eventually runs out of money. Instead of quitting and falling through the cracks, Jeannette works harder; she refuses to give up and continues to live her life in the face of difficult circumstances. Thus, the Jeannette Walls’ memoir The Glass Castle changed my views about poverty by revealing that poverty can produce more than negative outcomes; it can foster resiliency, ingenuity, and a desire to succeed.

The issues in this case study involve Melinda Smith, a veteran special education teacher, Derrick Yate, a student with behavioral disorder, Greg, the school principal, Barba Cole, the school social worker, Mrs. Yates, Derrick’s mom and Mr. Douglas, a general education teacher. Besides being a student with behavioral disorder, Derrick was low achieving and had developed a notorious reputation around school. According to Karen, one of the fifth-grade teachers, “Derrick has terrorized everyone”. Despites all the putdowns on Derrick, Mrs. Smith decides to take on the challenge to straighten his behavior.

Often when people decide to have children, they think of their circumstances whether they are fit for it or capable of raising a child. For some people they have no control and in this case Jeanette Walls’ memoir, “The Glass Castle,” is a crucial example of the struggle she faces growing up in poverty. Jeanette Walls was not only faced with living under the conditions of poverty, she also had to deal with the chaos and neglect from her parent’s lifestyle. Although Jeanette Walls parents were irresponsible and selfish one thing Jeanette’s Walls parents managed to do right was instilling good qualities and well-raised independent adults. Not only did Jeanette Wall’s suffer drastically from poverty, she had to deal with the constant battle of

Toni Cade Bambara addresses how knowledge is the means by which one can escape out of poverty in her story The Lesson. In her story she identifies with race, economic inequality, and literary epiphany during the early 1970’s. In this story children of African American progeny come face to face with their own poverty and reality. This realism of society’s social standard was made known to them on a sunny afternoon field trip to a toy store on Fifth Avenue. Through the use of an African American protagonist Miss Moore and antagonist Sylvia who later becomes the sub protagonist and White society the antagonist “the lesson” was ironically taught. Sylvia belong to a lower economic class, which affects her views of herself within highlights the

"The Lesson" by Toni Cade Bambara is a short story set in the inner part of New York City that gives the reader an opportunity to briefly see into the lives of children living devoid of wealth and education. It takes place in the early seventies, following the civil rights movement and during a time when the imbalance of wealth in terms of race was immense. Bamabara, through the use of narrative point of tone, symbols, setting and characterization, brings out and develops what I believe to be the two main themes of the story: materialism and social inequality.

Often times tragic events and circumstances are overlooked due to the withdrawn and unemotional telling of events. While statistics are important, they lack the emotional pull to generate change. In order to make a change, there must be a call for action to the public. A call for action can come in many ways. In regards to poverty in Harlem, New York, Muriel Rukeyser, a famous twentieth century poet from New York, called for action through her poetry. Rukeyser used imagery and symbolism in her poem, “Ballad of Orange and Grape,” to tell a story of poverty-stricken Harlem in order to advocate for education to combat poverty. Specifically, her vivid description of the setting and its glimpses of hope allows readers to empathize with the citizens of the city and crave change. In response to her poem, I felt moved to find a legitimate solution to mend a broken system. Research shows that revamping the public school system can create a domino effect, leading to higher quality of life and a way out of poverty for the people in the United States.

In the movie Precious, a 16-year old girl named Claireece Jones also known as Precious is physically, sexually, and verbally abused by her parents. Precious has one child and is now pregnant with her second child which causes her to be kicked out of school. She transfers to an alternative school. Precious is illiterate; however, she learns to read, write, and to gain self-respect from her teacher at the alternative school. In the end, she becomes a woman, learning to stand up for herself and she raises two healthy children. There are three different types of abuse Precious faced from her parents. An example of how Precious mother physically abused would be when her mother would get out the chair and beat her daughter by throwing things at her, because she did something minor or nothing at all. Precious mother verbally abused her daughter by calling her “stupid, fat, and she will amount to nothing”. An example of how Precious father sexually abused her would be he raped ever since she was three years old, impregnated her with two children, and he also gave her HIV. The movie faced several biological and environmental issues in the family. One example of a biological issue faced in the movie would be when Precious was hungry, needed water, and sleep. She needed to have this because she was pregnant with her second child. In the movie, it shows Precious goes into a restaurant, to order some food, and runs out without paying. She stole the food because she was starving and her mom did not give her any money. An environmental issue would be Precious was from Harlem, New York. During that time, Harlem was a city in poverty, so she grew up with hardly any money. The income her mother got from her welfare check, she did not give Precious anything.

Travel back to New York city during the 1920s, a melting pot of culture, a place where new ideas, technology and business mix and mingle into a metropolitan jungle, where dreams are made and stars are born. During this era, in a small neighborhood on the island of Manhattan, an explosion occurs that would forever change the course of history. The explosion would liberate an entire race that had been ignored for centuries into a new era! The explosion was known as the Harlem Renaissance. It was during this time black culture was freely expressed and openly excepted by the mainstream white culture. Today, the culture is still openly expressed but there is a sense of segregation. It affects our culture to this day! Television programs are

There were many diverse aspects to this book. Most of this book is a recall from either the main character, or one of his students. This book is intended to open people’s eyes to see that in order to change the world we must first change ourselves. Being able to go through this story and see the mistakes, and the good decisions, teachers in Michie’s life have made, has taught me that the best way to teach is through love, justice, cultural empathy and imagination. Some of the points brought up in this book include the positive and negative sides of physical contact with a student, classification/stereotyping, race, gangs, police brutality/lack of justice, and children not being able to escape peer pressure.

The education system in Bayonne was also far from ideal, and Gaines shows the injustices Black children face versus their white peers. The students are forced to get down on their knees to use the benches as desks or do their work in their laps (36). The students are so incredibly disadvantaged that they do not even have desks to write on to do their work, whereas the White children presumably have a well furnished school. This clear distinction between children’s’ learning environments shows just how bad the racism in Bayonne truly was. They are merely innocent children and they are already treated differently from their white peers. Gaines describes Grant’s class to show readers the circumstances of the Black community in comparison to the White school district. Additionally, the school year, according to Grant is only,” five months, and when the children are not needed in the field” (36). Even though slavery had been abolished almost a century prior, the Black children were still deprived of a proper education due to the field work that they were forced to complete. Grant also has to attempt to ration his supplies, because the school board does not give him an adequate amount for the year and at one point tells a

Another example of this part of the model can be demonstrated through the educators and teachers of Dave’s elementary school when Dave’s mother comes to meet with the professionals of the school to talk about Dave’s wounds and bruises. Dave’s Mother explains to them that Dave had made up these stories with his imagination and was hurting himself because he was trying to gain his parents attention after Dave’s Mother gave birth to her most recent child, making Dave no longer the “baby” of the family. Instead of sending Dave’s Mother for further questioning, the education

As stated above, section one is about how to fail and how to prevent failing. In this section it introduced us to a teacher, named Elizabeth Dozier, who became a principal in some of the poorest schools in Chicago. The book also introduced us to Nadine Burke Harris, who is a pediatrician and opened a clinic in the poorest part of San Francisco. Each of these women took an interest in the children and families that are affected by poverty. Dozier became the principal of Fenger High School, and the first thing she did when she arrived was removing almost all the teachers. She brought in young and ambitious teachers, who she thought would make a difference in the school. One of the best decisions she made while she was at Fenger was to enforce a zero tolerance policy for violence, because gangs were a huge problem in the community and the school. Dozier sent twenty five of her most troubled students to an intensive mentoring program. The book then goes on

Toni Cade Bambara addresses how knowledge is the means by which one can escape out of poverty in her story The Lesson. In her story she identifies with race, economic inequality, and literary epiphany during the early 1970’s. In this story children of African American progeny come face to face with their own poverty and reality. This realism of society’s social standard was made known to them on a sunny afternoon field trip to a toy store on Fifth Avenue. Through the use of an African American protagonist Miss Moore and antagonist Sylvia who later becomes the sub protagonist and White society the antagonist “the lesson” was ironically taught.

The impoverished conditions in which the residents of this community live are difficult based on the surrounding violence and discrimination they face. Tre, Ricky’s best friend, is able to survive the surrounding violence and discrimination through his father’s sensational leadership; he therefore knows what to do in situations he faces among his friends. However, his friends are not so lucky. For example, Dough doesn’t have great leadership or a father figure, but is raised by a single mother who is determined to get her children to succeed; nevertheless, her main focus is Ricky because he has the most potential; he is an athlete who has trouble in school, but obtains All-American in football, looking to get a scholarship to USC. The mother’s lack of leadership over

Irl Solomon, a teacher, at the age 54 described with reddish hair and graduate of Brandeis University and has taught at urban schools for approximately 30 years. Irl Solomon had experience with law school for a semester but then decided to challenge himself by teaching in urban schools and felt that he belonged there, he belonged teaching students enrolled at a ghetto high school. In Solomon’s senior class, there are four pregnant teens and he questions them of being pregnant with an honest response from his students of having “no reason not to have a baby.” Solomon’s reaction seemed as if he understood where his students are coming. Solomon understood that his students felt hopeless to graduate with a diploma from a ghetto high school where