Kimberlee Lankford
Dr. Kit Carson
EDUC 2110
The Issue of Poverty in Schools
What comes to mind when I think of poverty and what is it? When I hear the word poverty, I think about poor. Someone or some family not having enough money and having to get help. The definition of poverty is not having enough money for the basic needs of living. Basic needs of living would be food, shelter, clothes, etc., and it’s hard to think that there are families out in this world that we live in, struggling with money to receive the basic needs of living. Poverty is never a good thing and should be handled. It’s no good for adults and no good for school-aged children.
What are the causes of poverty? The causes of poverty are all over the place, and because there isn’t just one cause of poverty, there isn’t just one solution. Anything could cause poverty, but discrimination happens to be one of the many causes of poverty. Around the world there is inequality. Although poverty and inequality are different, inequality feeds poverty. “Inequalities in income distribution and access to productive resources often causing and exacerbating poverty.” Gender discrimination has been a reason why women and children live in poverty. Another cause of poverty happens to be national debt. Because many poor countries are in a huge amount of debt, it causes to put some families into poverty. Natural disasters is also a cause of poverty. When a natural disaster happens, it forces families to leave their homes and their basic needs of living behind. Without anything, they have to depend on others to help them survive.
What kind of poverty exists in your country? In the United States, there is approximately forty out of fifty states with low income students. In twenty-one states, there are students who are eligible for free or reduced school lunches. Not many may know, but fifty-one percent of children across the country are now living in poverty, and believe it or not, the fifty-one percent appears to still be growing. The majority of school-aged children live in poverty and research says, those who come from poverty, are more than likely going to stay in poverty.
How does poverty affect school-aged children? Many people probably wonder how poverty affects school-aged children. Some affects happen to be nutrition, vocabulary, effort, hope and growth mind-set, cognition, relationships, and distress. Nutrition: Students who live in low-income households, they probably do not get a very nutritional and healthy breakfast, dinner, or supper compared to the students who do not live in the conditions as they do. Without a very proper and nutritional breakfast, students cannot listen, learn, or concentrate as well because they are low on energy. Vocabulary: Research shows that students who come from low-income households, their vocabulary is smaller than the middle-class students. Effort: Teachers may seem to think that their low-income students are “lazy”, but turns out, those students just don’t have the motivation and optimism that their other classmates seem to have towards school. Hope and growth mind-set: Low-income students seem to have a lack of hope for themselves and their future. They feel as if they cannot achieve anything because of where they come from. They give up too easily because of the lack of motivation and hope in themselves to grow. Cognition: Low-income students perform lower on standardized testing than the higher socioeconomic background students, mainly because they tend to have low attention spans, high level of distractibility, difficulty with monitoring their work and creating solutions to problems. Relationships: A low-income family often doesn’t have the best relationship as the middle-class families do because the parents are constantly worried and stressed about money, so they don’t offer their children positive comments as the child should receive from them, and this will affect the student’s academics because the student is insecure and stressed. Distress: A student that comes from a low-income family often experience chronic distress which will affect the child mentally and physically. Because it affects them in such a way, it shows through their actions and their school work.
Do you do anything to help reduce poverty? There might be a solution that could start with something called Title I. Title I is the cornerstone of federal aid for K-12 schools. It provides and helps meet all of the educational needs of the students in high-poverty schools. Throughout the years, the division for Title I has tremendously decreased. The national leaders need to prioritize their funds on educational goals, instead of achievement. Another solution is maximize meal programs. Approximately one-fifth of students living in the U.S. live in homes that are “food insecure”. So, the only nutritional breakfast or lunch they are getting happens to be at the school house, and this should be kept in mind when states are thinking about changing their school lunches. Improving school climate could also be a solution. High-poverty schools are more likely to have trouble in their schools, such as bullying, absenteeism, engagement issues, etc. which will weaken the learning environment. If schools turn their environment into a healthy and positive one, students would be more likely to be engaged and have a positive outlook. Also, students who live in poverty should receive just as much access to challenging coursework as the middle-class students receive. Academic support should also be an option for them.
Poverty seems to be a real problem and seems to be taking over. It affects education, the economy, and even the future, especially school-aged children. Not many people think about how poverty affects our school-aged children and their academics, but it does. It affects them tremendously, from nutrition to distress. It affects them mentally and physically. Poverty needs to be handled, and stopped. The only thing that America needs is willpower and determination to get the job done.
Works Cited
http://borgenproject.org/what-causes-global-poverty/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sean-slade/poverty-affects-education_b_7861778.html
http://www2.gnb.ca/content/gnb/en/departments/esic/overview/content/what_is_poverty.html