The school year has begun, and slowly we are getting to know the children that pass us in the hallways. We are starting to notice the children that are tired, malnourished, scared, mad, and with low self-esteems. According to the Center for Public Policy Priorities, a website that tracts children’s statuses in each state, states that 23% of our children here in Texas are living in poverty. (http://www.cppp.org/category.php?cid=10)
Poverty, according to the U.S. Census Bureau is if a family’s total income is less than the family’s threshold. The family threshold is based on the actual family unit. This number is dependent on the number of people in a family and their ages. In 2008, the census shows 13.2% of Americans, which works out to be 39.8 million people, were living in poverty.
While researching poverty and education, I came across a website called Open Education. On this website they had a video that talks about a little boy named Tiberius, who attends public school in Green Bay. If you get a chance, you should really visit this website and view this video. You can see what one school is doing to help the children and their families through this hard time. (http://www.openeducation.net/2009/04/01/poverty-and-education-the-challenge-of-improving-schools/) The United States is facing a time of change. Shouldn’t we be helping our children through this?
In January, the Houston Chronicle did a story titled “Poverty Growing in Public Schools.” You can read this article at: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6795211.html. The article talks about the advantages of securing more money into early education and trying to close the gap in learning. With such high numbers of poverty in schools, we definitely need to do something for these children.
Dr. Eric Jensen, will be talking about “Teaching with Poverty in Mind,” at the 2010 Texas ASCD Annual Conference. Join us as he discusses how kids who come from poverty families are different, and what we can do to help them succeed.
Please feel free to answer the following questions:
What percentage of the children in your district/school/classroom living in poverty?
What are you doing to help them succeed?
1 comment:
I have found that since the recession has hit, more children in our country as a whole have been listed as living in poverty. For many school districts, this will pose a whole new set of challenges. Poverty is a real problem in our nation and schools need to develop systems to understand the unique challenges faced by impoverished youth. An elementary I know of recently had all of the school staff walk within a 2 mile radius of the school. In doing this, teachers and staff witnessed alcoholics walking the streets, syringes, and whole host of community challenges. This exercise increased the educators compassion for the students. They, for the first time, realized what their children deal with daily. This activity is truly a "whole child" exercise.
Darrell "Coach D" Andrews
Education Consultant
www.coachdspeaks.com
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