The first point I would like to make is "wow" 1 in 5 students under the age of 18 lives in poverty. 16 million young students live in poverty. That is incredible in the worst way possible. Some of the other facts proposed in the beginning of this paper are also shocking. I read that she believes there is segregation in school now a days but I don't believe that to be one hundred percent true. I understand how it may look like segregation with predominantly black and Latino children attending inner city schools but it is not by some outside power or law putting them there. Yes it is their demographic but demographic can change at any point its just about how hard you try at it.
When I got to the sections on myths I will say that I found some of them to be interesting. I do believe that anyone can bring themselves out of poverty that is not a myth and there are so many cases of people coming from nothing and becoming something. I believe that the second myth is actually a myth though because some people in poverty are in no way lazy. Children are much smarter then people give them credit for so the myth about children in poverty being stupid is 100 percent wrong. People in poverty share a common culture is also one hundred percent wrong because every person is different and we all live different lives. Just because some scenarios seem similar doesn't mean that its true.
I realized after reading this article that a lot of this information ties back to all the social work classes that we are taking as part of this degree. Not only does this involve a lot of victim blaming but it also make note of self fulfilling prophecies and negative stereotypes. Personally I thought the chart with all the different issues was very interesting because it put poverties effect on children into perspective for me and I could see many different ways
The one thing I took away from this article is something I have learned a lot through my time in the school of education at RIC. This is that every student is different and they should always be treating as individuals. When you bunch students in poverty together your already failing them as a teacher.
I agree with you 100% this is exactly what we are learning in our social work classes. This is blaming the victim and mostly blaming our youth for the level of poverty they were born into. These children are our future, by helping them in their academics to become successful adults, we can help them get out of this poverty status and help them not be just another statistic.
ReplyDeleteI also I do believe that anyone can bring themselves out of poverty that is not a myth because there are cases where it happens, and its not with just poverty but all kinds of different situations. Just as I agree with you statement "People in poverty share a common culture is also one hundred percent wrong because every person is different and we all live different lives. Just because some scenarios seem similar doesn't mean that its true." I know have friends who grew up in my same socioeconomic background but i chose to continue school and to rise above what I was seeing around me, I wanted to make a difference in my own life and so there will be people who are like that. Every one lives different lives and makes their own choices, our job is to help them and to guide them in whatever they want to do. find the right resources and give them hope that they need to continue.
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