Poverty and Teaching - Day 5

The obstacles that children living in poverty have to deal with in their communities and/or homes are significant. For that matter, children who come from more affluent homes must also deal with a whole set of issues, not unlike the impoverished, but on a far lesser scale. But for those coming from poverty the challenges entering school are burdensome to say the least.

All the issues I've talked about over the past few days for those students who live in poverty will play out in school. And it's very likely that the students who are affected don't have the skill set to deal with their very own issues.

A child coming to school who has seen or been involved with violence is surely going to bring those issues to the classroom. A student poorly clothed or nourished is not going to perform as well as we would hope. One coming from a broken home is more likely to be confronted with his/her own challenges when it comes to schoolwork. Why wouldn't we suspect some acting-out behavior? Why would a teacher expect that a student coming from abject poverty would be able to function at their very best?

Let me say this as I conclude for the week. Teachers need to understand the above and should act not out of sympathy but empathy. Understanding the challenges of students living in poverty is a must and can't allow our nation's teachers to throw up our hands and say 'there's nothing I can do about it.'

Have a good weekend,
Dick