Poverty, Students and Education

Poverty, Students and Education Levi Atkins Indiana State University

Abstract

Poverty, Students and Education

I will be looking at the relationship poverty plays into the educational system in the United States. I will also relate it to my field experience at Vigo County Head Start. I will also dwell into how the students let poverty change how they are in school.

Poverty, Students and Education

Poverty seems to me to be a major factor in how teachers can instruct their students. Schools that are in poor communities are going to lack the most advanced teaching technology that is available at the time. I grew up in a moderately poor community and I can remember having a very old model of computer in the Kindergarten classroom. It was some what of a big deal to get a computer lab when I was in 4th grade, and I bet the computers were cheaply made and donated. Even simple materials such as pencils could be a difficult thing to manage when you have poor students. I recently have been working in a school where students are expected to bring pencils to the classroom, and sometimes there are not enough pencils for all of the students. According to some official reports the number of children living in poverty was above 16 %. Non-White students face worst numbers, as their number is three times the amount of white students (Books, 2004). It seems to me that entire populations of people can be in poverty or changed due to near by poverty. Like I said before my community was poor for the most part. Surrounding towns are cutting programs. Music, chorus, art, and sports are the first things to be taken out of the curriculum. These communities are becoming densely poor and 40% of African American students are living in the poorest neighborhoods (Books, 2004). I can see this for myself in Terre Haute. The Head Start program seems to have a decently high number of African American children compared to the amount of African American students in other 3

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schools. The same could be said about the neighborhood I live in. I have to live in a decently low rent building, and many of the people living around me are African American neighbors. The concentration of poverty must also be more difficult on Children with special needs. Their resources and money will not go as far (Books, 2004). Talking about lacking resources, my school system did not have adequate supplies for my art classes. We did a lot of drawings and not much in painting, ceramics, or graphic art. It is a good thing VSA helps learning teachers such as myself to go to places in a poor community and teach. The Head Start class has some paints, glue, and notebooks, but only had one old set of markers that I could see. It was a good thing that I had the markers and other supplies provided by the VSA. A faculty member of Vigo County Head Start let me know that Vigo County is the poorest county in Indiana. However, students can decide to do well for themselves, and not let the lack of resources hold them back. I grew up being almost poor. My family is a middle-income family, but is right above what is considered to be poor. Nonetheless, I grew up with most of my friends being poor. One of my friends is about a year younger than me, and does just as well or better than I do in school. He simply tries his best and makes the best of what we grew up with. However, I had one friend that was very capable of doing great in school. He was born with a mind

Poverty, Students and Education

that could achieve much higher if he was not against the faculty. I believe his home life of poverty just left him being different than the teachers that tried to teach him. The students that live in poverty could hold onto beliefs that they cannot achieve, or allow them to under appreciate the authority and abilities of their teacher. Perhaps, students that are in poverty feel like a different class than what teachers are and they do not want to listen to someone that does not understands them. ( Ribich, 1968). I feel that this relates to how my friend felt about himself. He once told me about how he is poor and could not be like some of his friends. It is unfortunate that poor children must feel that they are different and thus cannot do as well as other students. It is similar to the reading you gave us about students that are gifted but have a disability and are placed in a room for their disability; they are going to feel inadequate and not do as well because their self-confidence is low. Also it is a bad thing that the poor families feed the fire of their children being in poverty and has a low chance of learning. Grades for Rich families are 60 % higher than low income families; thus implying that the poor student is more at risk of failing. Tests show that socioeconomic status is the greatest factor in determining how a student does (Books, 2004). I feel that students realize this and it suppresses their desire to try harder to do well and succeed. Its more detrimental for students to be in poverty within the preschool years. It seems

that their achievement rates are not as good when they have completed 5

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their schooling (Neuman, 2008). I did not see the students at Head Start being poor. The environment seems rich during the meal times and around the room. The materials we may typically think as being educational in the art field were lacking, but the social environment and good work of the teachers seemed to take the poverty out of it. Math, Science, and the Literacy programs at the Vigo County Head Start really seems to be benefitting the students.

References Books, S., (2004) Poverty and Schooling in the U.S. Contexts and Consequences. Mahwah ,New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers. Neuman, S., B., (2008) Educating the other America. Baltimore , Maryland: Paul H Brooks Publishing Co. Ribich, T., I., (1968) Education and Poverty. Washington D.C. : The Brookings Institution.