The Importance Of Poverty In Education

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.

Issues of poverty relate to multicultural education because they are both obstacles to overcome as a teacher. In addition, these two might even come hand in hand. In some cases, a child might have to deal with both of these in his/her education, as well as their own learning. To teach a multicultural classroom, one much teach the diverse groups of students in a way that all cultures, ethnicities, and national heritages can learn. Incorporating poverty, including white poverty, into a multicultural classroom means that the teacher must also teach according to their backgrounds and home life. I am passionate about reaching out to those students, so that each and every one of them feel comfortable, excited, and enthusiastic about their learning and education.

A Framework for Understanding Poverty is a book, written by Ruby K. Payne for the purpose of helping educators impact their students in poverty through opportunities. This book examines experiences from all economic classes in order to evaluate the differences in education among each class. Payne talks about the different types of poverty and the resources needed to be a stable and educated person. Poverty is “the extent to which an individual does without resources”.

A large amount of research exists pertaining to how schools and teachers can address the issue that come with teaching students living in poverty. In Texas, educational policy needs to reflect a commitment to helping our most vulnerable students and supporting the teaching who work with these students. Schools

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

(Wagstaff 2002, p.97). Students may be socio-economically disadvantaged and the teachers must remember that poverty is in no way a deficit; merely that they may not have the same level of resources or exposure to educational experiences as more advantaged students (Groundwater-Smith,S., Le Cornu, R. & Ewing, R

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

In this time and age the United States contains a high number of students in the public schools who are under the poverty line. Poverty is defined as the state of being really poor financially. Poverty in the United States has become a complicated problem that causes a variety of diverse challenges for children and their families. Although the economy of the United States is showing great signs of improvement, poverty remains a serious issue. While examining poverty and children education in several articles all authors seem to agree with the fact that poverty does have an affect in the academic development of a child. However, there are several disagreements in other areas. The authors that this essay will be

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.

This article highlights the importance of recognizing that those living in poverty are against the system that we have created. People living in poverty are the ones who typically attend underfunded, under-resourced, and understaffed schools and the current system reflects the idea that those who are poor are most likely to stay poor. This is an important issue to discuss and tackle because the number of people living in poverty is increasing. According to the Southern Education Foundation, the majority of public school children come from poverty, around 51% (Slade). The article refers to President Johnson’s 1964 State of the Union Address where he declared poverty as a “national problem” and urged Americans to get active and take action. Poverty

According to Feeding America (n.d.), 46.7 million American people live in poverty including 15.5 million children. The status of living in poverty often makes families experience food-insecurity, or the inability to provide substantial, nutritious food to their children (World Hunger Education Services, 2015). Unemployment and job uncertainty often lead to food insecurity and both have become a growing problem in America. As a teacher in a cyber- charter school who severs a cross section of children throughout the state of Pennsylvania, I have taught many children from various socioeconomic backgrounds. This wide range of students has allowed me to expand upon my own knowledge of poverty in America and witness the impacts to a child’s education.

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.

In “How Poverty Affects Classroom Engagement,” Eric Jensen shows how poverty affects many students, and some of these effects can be seen in the classroom.  With of the effects of poverty, teachers need to make sure they are teaching to needs of each student. A teacher cannot teach the same for students in middle class or in poverty and expect the same result. Therefore, it is important for teachers to understand the effects of poverty on 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