Essay on The Effects of Poverty on Teaching and Learning

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

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.

African American students account for the larger majority of minorities in public schools in the United States. Most areas in the northern part of the United states and coastal areas are ethnically diverse. However, down south this is not the case. Students of color will experience a harder time in the education system. African American students meet the obstacle of educators who will not want them to succeed based on a preconceived thought. In fact, Caucasian teachers make up for 85% of all

A Framework for Understanding Poverty by Ruby K. Payne builds a model for combating poverty by tackling it at the earliest level of perpetuation-in schools. Schools, Payne advocates, should be the first line of defense against encroaching poverty and also the most effective weapon to beat it back. Unlike most economic tools, schools should be fine-tuned and deployed according to strict frameworks. Payne identifies two types of poverty and list eight resources which makes one a candidate. The thrust is thus primarily on how to deal with poverty in schools and how to equip the students with tools and education

As Connell, White and Johnston (1990,p.9) state, 'There is not a “culture of poverty”, nor any key “deficit” that makes poor people different from everybody else and therefore and educational problem'. Teachers and Education Assistants need to adapt into the culture of poverty and be sensitive and understandable to the extensive bar of needs that children of poverty bring to the classroom and they need to consider the cultural values of these children as they arrange their learning. The basis of Groundwater-Smith, Ewing and Le Cornu's opinions in the article is they position readers to view that the teachers dispositions low income students and that rarely the educators offer the same level or enough aid and attention than the other students and they are less likely to succeed in school when compared with the more advantaged children. According to Groundwater-Smith, Ewing and Le Cornu's and Geoffrey D. Borman and Laura T. Rachuba they both state that students from lower income families may not have as high expectations from their parents, teachers or their peers within the school. The students may also not be confident in their own abilities and

Since teachers’ expertise and teaching qualities are integral to the educational process, the impact teachers have on students is tremendous. However, how can teachers be impactful if they do not have the materials to do so? In general teachers need more supplies and training in order to address the needs of African American students. It is important for teachers to understand the students they teach in order for students to develop academic enthusiasm. Teachers have not been trained in ways to reach minority groups in order to better encourage those from a different backgrounds to learn and perform the needed tasks. Most schools, according to an article from the Atlantic, take the silver bullet route by just throwing money at this problem. (Summarizing this source is a way to shorten effective evidence) Others, however, don't even do

This is due to several factors. Engle and Black explain, “children growing up in poverty experience “double jeopardy.” Not only are they directly exposed to risks in their homes and communities, including illnesses, crowding and family stress, lack of psychosocial stimulation, and limited resources, but they often experience more serious consequences to risks than children from higher income families” (3). Children in poverty tend to live in low income areas which have high rates of crime and very few academic opportunities. Schools in these low income areas as well are underfunded, poorly staffed, and do not have the resources to provide a good quality education. Engle and Black note a solution that has worked, which are programs that sponsor poor families that live in low income areas, and move them to higher income areas. Children who move to higher income areas made significant progress on their academics, and became more confident in their ability to succeed. Karl Marx’s conflict theory argues that individuals of different social classes have an unequal amount of resources, and those that have more resources, the upper class, exploit those who have less (Krogen 16). Conflict theory can explain the educational and lifestyle disparity

Fifty years after the declaration of war on poverty, an increasing number of children still grow up in poverty in this country. Poverty is now more determinative than race as a predictor of student educational success (Reardon, 2013). The achievement gap between the poor and the more economically advantaged child has actually widened over the last three decades (Reardon, 2013). If we are to provide all children with equal and excellent educational opportunities, it is imperative that we utilize the most effective strategies and enhancements to overcome the educational disadvantages that poor children experience.

Not only are impoverished children suffering from a late start in education, it is known that the neediest schools are the schools who's students are below the poverty line. The students with the greatest needs receive the least funding and resources. In New York the average poor student will receive about $1,000 year in resources at public school; whereas the school's with the least amount of poor children receive around $3,000 per student in public schools. Not necessarily the same number wise but this is the case in at least 37 of our 50 states (Schemo). Inadequate education for impoverished children only worsens their chances of making it out of poverty.

With poverty comes a certain attitude, in higher up communities the children and parents are more respectful towards their teacher, education itself is respected; however, in poverty stricken areas the children are at home alone, or running the streets, the parents are usually too busy working to worry about how their child is doing in school. Districts also have the same attitude, schools in upper class neighborhoods have the essentials; such as, running hot water in the gymnasium, and showers that actually work, new books and just the overall approach to the education, of its students is superior. Compared to that of lower class, neighborhoods the essentials are overlooked for instance, classrooms are in need of repair, as well as the bathrooms and gymnasiums. Their books are torn, and outdated, and their approach to education has been to just make it through the

color were just 18% of the teaching profession (Boser, 2014). That is a 1-percentage point increase from 2011 to 2014. The significant diversity gap between students and teachers is a problem for students, schools, and the public at large.

Payne’s (2008) poverty contends that management of low-income families tends to focus on the natural development of their children with little of no regard to cognitive intervention. The poverty theory developed by Payne (1998) focuses on remediation of the economically disadvantaged to remediate their deficits. A latent effect of such miseducation of teachers and school leaders is that students will internalize the views of educational leadership within their schools, consequently resulting ion additional negative outcomes. It is arguable that individuals living in impoverished settings may hold mainstream values and ideas, but lack the resources to enact the values into their lives.

In today’s classroom, teachers do much more than just teach. They are counselors, nurses, role models and more. Landsman found that very seldom will you find a classroom in which the basic needs of children are met. It is very important for teachers to focus on ways to enrich the education given to disadvantaged students.

In today’s world people need to compete globally for jobs and one of the most important factors in getting a good paying job is education. However, even the best schools cannot overcome some of the obstacles placed in front of the students that walk through their doors. Poverty, chaotic home environments, discrepancies in exposure to technology, and lack of funding for schools all negatively impact the effort to educate children.

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