Socio-Economic Issues In Magnet Schools

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

When people hear the words “child poverty” some assume that this term may refer to homeless children who are living on the streets. This isn’t necessarily true, in fact some children who go to bed every night with a roof above their head still suffer from some form poverty. According to National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP), 21% of children throughout the United States live in families who are considered poor. It is crucial for society to be more aware of this issue and to take part in contributing to help reduce child poverty within our country.

Kozol says that magnet schools (special public schools built for the most talented students) seem like a good idea, but are also unfair. The inner city disadvantaged non-white students usually don’t provide head start programs or educated parents who can help them push for admittance. Students of magnet schools are mostly white. Disadvantaged students watch television and know they are being treated like something less than human. This is savagely cruel.

A Framework for Understanding Poverty is a valuable tool to the helping profession. It has a lot of good information about the cultural differences between classes. It offers practical solutions to many problems commonly encountered when educators have problems with their students who live in poverty. The book helps educators to assist students who live in poverty survive in the middle-class world. Payne 's work has been eye opening in

The mission of Robert A. Cross Middle Magnet School is to educate students in a safe and active learning environment where all students will become responsible, achieving citizens. The faculty and staff of Robert A. Cross believe that educating students for responsible citizenship is necessary for preserving democracy. We believe that in a democratic society, a person must value his country and what it stands for, understand what it means to be a responsible citizen, and have the fundamental skills necessary to participate in the society. We also believe that all students are capable of learning what is needed to be productive United States citizens. We recognize that students have individual differences and unique needs which must be

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

Unfortunately, the school's lack of appropriate education results directly from poor government funding. So even with hard work, the lower-class student is still held down by his socio-economic status. Poverty-stricken parents are unable to offer their children the same attention and motivation as parents of a higher-class can, therefore never providing these children with the mindset that they are able to accomplish the American dream. According to Mantsios, 40 million Americans live in poverty, and the mental and physical affects the low standard of living has on them is undeniable (Mantsios 328). Citizens who live in poverty work long hours for little pay, yet return to a household that in no way symbolizes the hard work put forth. Within this environment, very few people have the positive outlook to mentor children successfully.

I was surprised to believe that as a whole, a significant portion of students came from low-income families, experienced homelessness at some point, were hungry, or suffered from trauma. For one student to experience any of these problems requires a number of resources for a school, but when the majority of students are facing these issues, schools need to be particularly well equipped. Adding to this the fact that Chicago public schools are seriously underfunded, this is a tragedy. Schools are forced to cut social workers, psychologists, and clinicians from their services and ultimately, students are left without help. In my Introduction to Poverty Studies class, we learned that in order to alleviate systemic poverty, part of the solution lies in focusing on children and providing them all the resources so that can be as well equipped for life as possible. Much of this responsibility falls on public schools, but without funds, this task is

Poverty is on the rise all around the world especially across the United States. This is a problem that is affecting many aspects of life for both the victim and the people around them. Students living in poverty have to tolerate many unfortunate circumstances on a daily basis which can have a significant effect on their growth, development, and educational experience. Students from low socioeconomic backgrounds can still have the same success as the average student, but it takes a little extra effort and a leap of faith. Although it may be challenging for students from low socioeconomic backgrounds to achieve success in school and the real world, it is not impossible.

These schools attract students who possess gifted abilities in areas such as academics and fine arts. Most of the time magnet schools require high test scores or another form of testing to obtain admission. (Nicholas and Sinclair, 2015). Parents are attracted to these schools because one may attend a magnet school through school choice outside of his or her respective school zone. With magnet schools typically located in urban areas, the student population most of the time is very culturally and racially diverse. Student diversity is generally an incentive to attend a school. “The presumption of magnet schools is that they will attract a cross section of students across all racial, socioeconomic, and ethnic backgrounds” (Parrillo, 2015). As stated earlier, magnet schools were created for this very reason. Students who attend magnet schools usually have an exceptional ability in one subject matter. Different magnet schools specialize is different areas of education “Magnet schools usually have programmatic differences or unique themes opposed to neighborhood schools revolving around the creative and performing arts, open structured classes, and career options” (Parrillo, 2015). Magnet schools are also attractive to parents whose children attend inner city schools because inner city schools usually have low graduation rates and low average yearly progress.

Hunger and poverty are global issues that American is not an exception to. As of 2012, statistical data provided by the government reported that "46.5 million people were in poverty, including 16.1 million children under the age of 18" and households with children are hit disproportionately with hunger (Feeding America, Hunger). This disproportion results in an equally startling deficit in the quality of education for our children. These alarming statistics attest to the fact that poverty has become an epidemic. Educating all students to ensure they become productive and successful citizens cannot just be a desire, but a need. The required reformation to fix this epidemic requires government and community assistance with teacher involvement.

The stereotypes of people living in poverty in America are so deeply imbedded in our society. We as educators may need to examine our beliefs and open our mind to new interpretations of the behavior of those struggling without basic needs. Doing so, however, is the first step to improving our success and effectiveness with educating students in poverty and helping end the cycle of suffering. Educator’s attitudes and beliefs shape you tone of voice, your body posture, your facial expressions and your actions towards students. Working daily with students who are classified as living in poverty. I believe it is our duty as educators to work with student’s effect by generational poverty. One thing I do not see a lot of is help

There is one thing that a lot of public schools do very well is make them magnet schools for arts, drama and science but they never come

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

Teaching children of poverty can be very challenging. These children are more likely than their peers to experience poor nutrition, parents with low educational attainment and underemployment, broken families, child abuse and neglect, drug abuse, teen-age pregnancies and high rates of dropping out (Holt & Garcia, 2016). It has been my experience that these students are a little rough around the edges which may cause an educator the inability to see beyond the exterior of the child thus treating them more harshly than their peers. Being employed in a Title 1 school, I have had the pleasure of working with students and families whose major source of income is welfare. They often came from a single-parent household and arrived at school improperly dressed and usually hungry. I found that meeting the child’s basic needs helped them focus on school and took some of the stress off of their parents as they knew their child was in a safe, caring place. One thing that was vital in our classroom was firmness and consistency. Unfortunately, many teachers and schools do not possess the knowledge and experience required for success in these more challenging schools. Impoverished students often do not care about their education nor did their parents seem to care how their children perform in school (Holt & Garcia, 2016). I feel this can be attributed to distraction from just trying to survive. In order to have greater success in the classroom of impoverished students, teachers need to