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tenderfoot

(8,424 posts)
Wed Feb 25, 2015, 12:21 AM Feb 2015

This Is What Poverty Looks Like

by Dawn Meehan



I recently read an article by Babble blogger Alice Gomstyn about Sonya Romero-Smith, a kindergarten teacher in Albuquerque who helps her students that are living in poverty. The first questions she asks them each morning are: “Did you eat?” and “Are you clean?” It shocked a lot of people — but not me.

I happen to be one of those educators, working in a title 1 middle school in a very high-poverty area. When I say “poverty” here, I’m not talking about a family whose dad has been laid off from his job or a family going through divorce or sickness. I’m not talking about a sudden, temporary, or even long-term shortage of money. I’m talking about families who have lived in poverty for generations. Families who don’t know anything but poverty. Generational poverty is very different from families experiencing hard times — mainly because they often view education as a stressor, and school a place they do not belong, making it extremely difficult to end the cycle.

<snip>

At the beginning of the year, I used to say things to my students like, “At least it’s Friday, right? You’ve got to love the weekend! Do you have any plans?” I said this until one too many students told me, “I’d rather be at school.” I was incredulous at first. What kid would rather be at school instead of at home on the weekend? And then I learned. A kid who doesn’t eat over the weekend. A kid whose dad is back in jail. A kid whose mom will spend the days off somewhere leaving that student to care for his four younger siblings with no food or diapers in the house. A kid whose mom’s drugged-up boyfriend will yell and hit. My students don’t look forward to days off school, they dread them.

<snip>

A couple of years ago, a student had to be transported from school to the hospital via an ambulance. His parents didn’t get to the hospital for seven hours because they had no transportation. For seven hours this student was sick and alone without his family there.

<snip>

When you read that more than half of U.S. Public School students are living in poverty, you think that these kids just don’t have a lot of money. But it goes so far beyond a lack of money. The effects are remarkably pervasive, creeping into every area of a student’s life. It’s hard to learn when basic needs aren’t being met. And it’s hard to care for a child who acts out, swears more than Eminem, disrupts your class, tells you off, and starts fights. The educators who take the time to talk to, listen to, sympathize with, and understand their students’ situations are the ones who make a difference. The ones who remember that the kids who need love the most will ask for it in the most unloving of ways, change lives.

more: http://www.babble.com/parenting/this-is-what-poverty-really-looks-like/?

81 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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This Is What Poverty Looks Like (Original Post) tenderfoot Feb 2015 OP
K&R. nt Guy Whitey Corngood Feb 2015 #1
K&R nt Mnemosyne Feb 2015 #2
k&r chervilant Feb 2015 #3
Yes, this is what poverty looks like Warpy Feb 2015 #4
The right is working day and night to take away that child's food, take it our of her mouth randys1 Feb 2015 #51
k & r hopemountain Feb 2015 #5
DU Rec. Tuesday Afternoon Feb 2015 #6
K&R for exposure. JEB Feb 2015 #7
I think too many people do not understand, that this is happening, right here, KMOD Feb 2015 #8
And it's been happening for decades and may be getting worse, not better csziggy Feb 2015 #41
Stories like this just break my heart. KMOD Feb 2015 #48
My sister is an amazing woman and an activist liberal csziggy Feb 2015 #49
It is incredibly frustrating. KMOD Feb 2015 #50
+10 Thank God for your dedicated sister & others like her working to help so many in distress. appalachiablue Feb 2015 #54
Correct. Many people in the US don't realize it's real & it's here. The corp Media does little, appalachiablue Feb 2015 #53
K&R ReRe Feb 2015 #9
Actually xchrom posts an article like this every day. And every day they sink riderinthestorm Feb 2015 #20
Yes, he/she does, and I usually rec everything xchrom comes through with... ReRe Feb 2015 #42
Agreed riderinthestorm Feb 2015 #47
Hillary Democrats seem very bored with US poverty. They'd rather send the jobs to Asia were everyone whereisjustice Feb 2015 #10
Generational poverty is not caused by a lack of jobs YarnAddict Feb 2015 #12
Yes, learned behavior. You see it in any area that has perpetual unemployment regardless of color. jwirr Feb 2015 #30
It's learned behavior, learned from living where there are no jobs or no steady, decent-paying ND-Dem Feb 2015 #64
And a lack of role models to help guide them? erronis Feb 2015 #36
It is a lack of role models but it is not their fault. There were not jobs period. White owners in jwirr Feb 2015 #68
A learned expectation that there can't be anything better is more like it. Gormy Cuss Feb 2015 #37
If there are no jobs, and no one you know has a job, that's a material fact, not a learned expec- ND-Dem Feb 2015 #65
In times when jobs are plentiful there are still many people living in poverty in this country. Gormy Cuss Feb 2015 #67
the level people live on isn't the level of the country, it's the level of the neighborhood and city ND-Dem Feb 2015 #70
Ignoring the multiple barriers experienced by those raised in high concentration of poverty areas Gormy Cuss Feb 2015 #73
It's lack of jobs. I know whereof I speak, as I'm from a town that once had near full-employment, ND-Dem Feb 2015 #74
and many other factors. Gormy Cuss Feb 2015 #76
Then there aren't enough JOBS, unless you're suggesting that everyone should be a tech ND-Dem Feb 2015 #78
There are plenty of jobs, just not ones that match with the skill sets of current residents Gormy Cuss Feb 2015 #80
And for those who claim that the key is education they are forgetting that there has to be a job for jwirr Feb 2015 #69
Education is key but it's not a panacea. Gormy Cuss Feb 2015 #71
For most of us that is true but on the rez that did not work for several reasons. Discrimination in jwirr Feb 2015 #72
Not wanting to move is a barrier that's often dismissed. Gormy Cuss Feb 2015 #75
Exactly and I think this is true of many inner city groups as well. Maybe it is community jwirr Feb 2015 #77
It's true of those US IBM workers who don't want to move to India as well. Let's all become ND-Dem Feb 2015 #79
I hadn't thought of your group. And you are right. My extended family decided in the 70s that we jwirr Feb 2015 #81
Which Democratic cohort speaks strongly about poverty? Bluenorthwest Feb 2015 #15
The Hillary Democrat (tm) can exhibit concern about poverty. Used in a sentance: whereisjustice Feb 2015 #18
In general, no one. because the democrats don't want to talk about jobs anymore; that's ND-Dem Feb 2015 #66
Oh Horseshit. trumad Feb 2015 #16
BS. FSogol Feb 2015 #17
yep I concur Thanks :) azurnoir Feb 2015 #28
Well, you eat at a lot better places when you pal around with hifiguy Feb 2015 #38
Maybe we need more Republicans so what little food the child has can be taken away? randys1 Feb 2015 #52
Yes. Hillary democrats don't seem very interested in poverty or economics at all; they're ND-Dem Feb 2015 #63
IF we organized our economy and our government to care about one another instead of ekeing out the PatrickforO Feb 2015 #11
k & r Arkansas Granny Feb 2015 #13
K&R brer cat Feb 2015 #14
poverty is a word that rarely crosses the lips of politcos from either party. KG Feb 2015 #19
Politicians seem to want to not ruin their beautiful minds with the "filth" of poverty. Autumn Feb 2015 #24
A sad K & R Lifelong Protester Feb 2015 #21
Me Niece is a teacher, and she breaks the rules. Autumn Feb 2015 #22
Yup. Kids in NOLA's Lower Ninth Ward loved year-round school. KamaAina Feb 2015 #23
Heartbreaking. closeupready Feb 2015 #25
I Live In Poverty & I Can't Take It Anymore... Corey_Baker08 Feb 2015 #26
This message was self-deleted by its author JimDandy Feb 2015 #27
The teacher in this article is my kind of hero. And by the way we are in real trouble when it is jwirr Feb 2015 #29
LBJ had a war on poverty. WDIM Feb 2015 #31
I used to curse LBJ and the War. bvar22 Feb 2015 #45
We've been assured this will be fixed by getting their test scores up. Starry Messenger Feb 2015 #32
K&R Borchkins Feb 2015 #33
HUGE K & R !!! - THANK YOU !!! WillyT Feb 2015 #34
So goddamned wrong. So wrong-headed. byronius Feb 2015 #35
Kick n/t BronxBoy Feb 2015 #39
kick Liberal_in_LA Feb 2015 #40
Poverty is Trauma. People in poverty have untreated PTSD. When a person has untreated PTSD Dont call me Shirley Feb 2015 #43
And then we test them relentlessly AwakeAtLast Feb 2015 #44
I live in Abq... it is rather horrifying to see the level alittlelark Feb 2015 #46
I know what poverty looks like... handmade34 Feb 2015 #55
I see it daily jopacaco Feb 2015 #56
let's be exceedingly clear about the real problem here.... mike_c Feb 2015 #57
Kick and R. BeanMusical Feb 2015 #58
"the kids who need love the most will ask for it in the most unloving of ways" annabanana Feb 2015 #59
K&R nt stage left Feb 2015 #60
K&R Solly Mack Feb 2015 #61
both my parents taught at schools with such poverty annm4peace Feb 2015 #62

chervilant

(8,267 posts)
3. k&r
Wed Feb 25, 2015, 01:37 AM
Feb 2015

I used to get sausage biscuits for the students who came to my tutoring sessions. I had so many students who grew up in poverty.

Warpy

(110,913 posts)
4. Yes, this is what poverty looks like
Wed Feb 25, 2015, 01:38 AM
Feb 2015

and men at the top won't be happy until we are all living like this.

randys1

(16,286 posts)
51. The right is working day and night to take away that child's food, take it our of her mouth
Wed Feb 25, 2015, 08:05 PM
Feb 2015

To me it is a war....

hopemountain

(3,919 posts)
5. k & r
Wed Feb 25, 2015, 02:02 AM
Feb 2015


i know of a teacher who lobbied to have a couple of showers installed and available for kids who had no hot water at home. there was clean, donated clothing for them to change into, as well.
 

KMOD

(7,906 posts)
8. I think too many people do not understand, that this is happening, right here,
Wed Feb 25, 2015, 02:11 AM
Feb 2015

in our country.

Kick and rec

csziggy

(34,120 posts)
41. And it's been happening for decades and may be getting worse, not better
Wed Feb 25, 2015, 05:39 PM
Feb 2015

Starting in the 1970s my sister was a counselor at an elementary school in Pasco County, Florida, where many of the students were from poor families. Some but not all were from migrant families living there during the winter harvest season. The school back then experimented with a quarter system rather than two terms so the children of the migrant workers got to finish a section of their lesson plans before their parents had to pack up and go to somewhere they could get jobs for the next season. Not all the students who needed help were from migrant families - a lot were from the long time resident poor of the area.

She had students who didn't have sufficient clothes, students whose only meals were what they got at school, not just on school days, but all week, kids from families who had to take turns coming to school because they only had one pair of shoes for three children. Since she shopped at thrift shops for her own clothes, she began buying children's clothes and shoes to give to children in need. Much of her work became social work - trying to help families get food aid and other assistance.

For a while in the 1990s things got a little better in that area, but beginning around 1999 assistance programs got tighter and kept getting worse and worse until she finally retired a few years ago. What happened in Florida in 1999? Jeb Bush was sworn into office as governor of Florida.

 

KMOD

(7,906 posts)
48. Stories like this just break my heart.
Wed Feb 25, 2015, 07:36 PM
Feb 2015

Your sister is an absolute angel. We can certainly use more people like her.

Our school district in New York State has some nice safeguards. They not only offer free and reduced cost lunches, but breakfast as well. In elementary school, the school supply lists sent to parents list more supplies than one student could use. I believe it's done to save the children from embarrassment when their parents can't afford supplies. They also do a coats for kids drive every year, where you can donate coats. The local police have a program at the junior high, where they bring in bicycles that have been discarded, and the students repair them and give them out to children who can't afford them.

This week I read that Senator Gillibrand is introducing a Summer Meals Act.

http://www.twcnews.com/nys/binghamton/news/2015/02/23/gillibrand-summer-meals-act-binghamton.html

We need to do so much more though. No person, but especially no child, should ever have to go without food and clothing.

csziggy

(34,120 posts)
49. My sister is an amazing woman and an activist liberal
Wed Feb 25, 2015, 07:42 PM
Feb 2015

I couldn't have stuck it out for one year, much less the decades she poured her heart into her job. Since she retired, she's gone back to protesting the way she did in college. She is very dedicated to trying to change the world!

Every child should have three good meals a day, decent clothing, medical care, and a free education. But this country would rather give tax breaks to billionaires and spend money on foreign wars.

appalachiablue

(41,056 posts)
53. Correct. Many people in the US don't realize it's real & it's here. The corp Media does little,
Wed Feb 25, 2015, 08:42 PM
Feb 2015

it's a crying shame- so many distressed Americans in burned out post-industrial cities, rural areas & even suburbs. Yet other folks, esp. ones I know on the west coast are very aware & sympathetic to global deep poverty in Africa, Haiti & elsewhere because of more recent, needed attention.

 

riderinthestorm

(23,272 posts)
20. Actually xchrom posts an article like this every day. And every day they sink
Wed Feb 25, 2015, 11:41 AM
Feb 2015

i know because I look for them now to be sure to kick them back up at least once.





ReRe

(10,597 posts)
42. Yes, he/she does, and I usually rec everything xchrom comes through with...
Wed Feb 25, 2015, 06:08 PM
Feb 2015

... my comment was more of a lash at the frustrating bickering that goes back and forth so much of the time here lately.

whereisjustice

(2,941 posts)
10. Hillary Democrats seem very bored with US poverty. They'd rather send the jobs to Asia were everyone
Wed Feb 25, 2015, 02:59 AM
Feb 2015

is smart and so much more deserving.

 

YarnAddict

(1,850 posts)
12. Generational poverty is not caused by a lack of jobs
Wed Feb 25, 2015, 07:05 AM
Feb 2015

It is caused by a lack of expectations that there could be anything else.

jwirr

(39,215 posts)
30. Yes, learned behavior. You see it in any area that has perpetual unemployment regardless of color.
Wed Feb 25, 2015, 03:44 PM
Feb 2015

It effects every aspect of life.

I saw this on the rez. When I first moved out here almost no one had jobs. and my son-in-law was the first to graduate and go on for hirer education. Even though the tribe hires a lot of their people at that time it was at the most part time low paying jobs.

Then they got permission to build the casino and only those of us know that remember what it was like understand that having jobs may not fix this but it did allow for a good start. Yes we still have some families that are still caught in the rut but we also have families that are going to work every day and children talking about what they want to be when they grow up and parents who are giving their children more support in education. Things are much better and it never would have been without the jobs.

It is a vicious cycle and making a really big impact on the cycle is what it takes to break it.

In black communities something that will employ parents for a long time is the only way IMO to counter this.

 

ND-Dem

(4,571 posts)
64. It's learned behavior, learned from living where there are no jobs or no steady, decent-paying
Thu Feb 26, 2015, 01:55 AM
Feb 2015

jobs.

IOW, if you live where there are few jobs, it's quite likely you'll behave like someone who doesn't have a job, whose parents don't have a job, whose friends don't have one, etc.

Revelation.

erronis

(14,955 posts)
36. And a lack of role models to help guide them?
Wed Feb 25, 2015, 05:11 PM
Feb 2015

My thanks to the teachers in these environments. Especially since funding for supplies and sufficient resources is so lacking.

jwirr

(39,215 posts)
68. It is a lack of role models but it is not their fault. There were not jobs period. White owners in
Thu Feb 26, 2015, 10:10 AM
Feb 2015

the community were not hiring. Once the casino started hiring and they saw that their stereotype of Natives was wrong that also changed.

Gormy Cuss

(30,884 posts)
37. A learned expectation that there can't be anything better is more like it.
Wed Feb 25, 2015, 05:23 PM
Feb 2015

When everyone you know is in poverty, when everyone your parents knew were also in poverty, it's damn hard to figure out how to make a better life for yourself. Most poor kids hope for a better life, they just are lacking in the tools to accomplish it.

 

ND-Dem

(4,571 posts)
65. If there are no jobs, and no one you know has a job, that's a material fact, not a learned expec-
Thu Feb 26, 2015, 01:57 AM
Feb 2015

tation.

There's no jobs. Whether you grew up when jobs were plentiful, or you grew up when they were scarce, if there's a job shortage, it's likely you won't have a job. How difficult is that to understand?

Gormy Cuss

(30,884 posts)
67. In times when jobs are plentiful there are still many people living in poverty in this country.
Thu Feb 26, 2015, 05:20 AM
Feb 2015

Why? Because it's more complex than simply a lack of jobs. It's a lack of reliable transportation, a lack of education, a lack of child care options, a lack of jobs with stability, pay, and benefits that would allow one to live in self-sufficiency. When everyone around you has similar struggles, when your parents and the parents of your peers have tried for 30 or more years to get ahead and never have, there is a pretty strong message that you shouldn't expect or even try to get ahead --unless there are supportive programs, persons, or agencies to help you navigate out of poverty.

 

ND-Dem

(4,571 posts)
70. the level people live on isn't the level of the country, it's the level of the neighborhood and city
Thu Feb 26, 2015, 12:37 PM
Feb 2015

I don't think we're saying anything too different.

where there are few to no jobs, people don't have jobs. not a big surprise, and you don't have to invoke some special 'culture of poverty' or mindset to explain it.

Gormy Cuss

(30,884 posts)
73. Ignoring the multiple barriers experienced by those raised in high concentration of poverty areas
Thu Feb 26, 2015, 12:54 PM
Feb 2015

is not helpful in terms of ending poverty. It goes way beyond a lack of jobs. It's a lack of skills because of poor primary and secondary education. It's a lack of resources needed for getting and keeping employment (reliable transportation being a big one as is child care.) It's the lack of even basic access to dentists, optometrists, and other health care. It's the lack of safe, affordable housing.

 

ND-Dem

(4,571 posts)
74. It's lack of jobs. I know whereof I speak, as I'm from a town that once had near full-employment,
Thu Feb 26, 2015, 12:57 PM
Feb 2015

despite low education levels and most of the other hindrances you mention. People had jobs and worked hard and basically led decent lives with the average level of amenities for the time.

Today unemployment is over 10% despite people having more education, more access to health care, more access to public transport, etc. But people's lives are worse -- drugs, depression, obesity, etc.

Because they don't have JOBS.

Gormy Cuss

(30,884 posts)
76. and many other factors.
Thu Feb 26, 2015, 01:02 PM
Feb 2015

For example. high tech companies are squeezing out historic low to moderate income residents of some neighborhoods in San Francisco. There are plenty of jobs -- just not many for the current residents.

Gormy Cuss

(30,884 posts)
80. There are plenty of jobs, just not ones that match with the skill sets of current residents
Thu Feb 26, 2015, 01:34 PM
Feb 2015

and that's why saying "it's a lack of jobs" is too simple as an explanation of poverty.

jwirr

(39,215 posts)
69. And for those who claim that the key is education they are forgetting that there has to be a job for
Thu Feb 26, 2015, 10:11 AM
Feb 2015

education to change anything.

Gormy Cuss

(30,884 posts)
71. Education is key but it's not a panacea.
Thu Feb 26, 2015, 12:40 PM
Feb 2015

A good education provides the skills to be flexible in an ever changing workplace. It doesn't guarantee a job, let alone a good job and certainly doesn't guarantee the ability to succeed. It just changes the odds.

jwirr

(39,215 posts)
72. For most of us that is true but on the rez that did not work for several reasons. Discrimination in
Thu Feb 26, 2015, 12:53 PM
Feb 2015

hiring and the fact that most Natives wanted to return to the rez not move around chasing jobs. As I said once they had jobs in the casino it became evident that if they wanted to run their own business they need to educate themselves and their children. The outcome has been fantastic. With profits from the casino they have been able to start many other small businesses and many more jobs.

Gormy Cuss

(30,884 posts)
75. Not wanting to move is a barrier that's often dismissed.
Thu Feb 26, 2015, 12:59 PM
Feb 2015

People don't want to leave the only safety net they have, namely their community or culture. Some say that the solution is just to move to where the jobs are but that ignores the soft and concrete benefits of staying where there is a strong attachment.

jwirr

(39,215 posts)
77. Exactly and I think this is true of many inner city groups as well. Maybe it is community
Thu Feb 26, 2015, 01:04 PM
Feb 2015

development that is need in these situations.

 

ND-Dem

(4,571 posts)
79. It's true of those US IBM workers who don't want to move to India as well. Let's all become
Thu Feb 26, 2015, 01:09 PM
Feb 2015

homeless, rootless slaves to the machine. That's the solution!

Or we could all have local jobs.

"Inner city groups" my ass. I don't live in the inner city, and I still don't want to move. I have family and responsibilities here, I'm old, etc.

jwirr

(39,215 posts)
81. I hadn't thought of your group. And you are right. My extended family decided in the 70s that we
Thu Feb 26, 2015, 01:40 PM
Feb 2015

we not going to follow the jobs. We chose to live close enough to each other to have family support.

As to inner city I was thinking about Ferguson MO. - places that are more or less isolated from the rest of the city.

 

Bluenorthwest

(45,319 posts)
15. Which Democratic cohort speaks strongly about poverty?
Wed Feb 25, 2015, 10:54 AM
Feb 2015

I'm trying to bring one to mind. There's Bernie, but not really a Democrat. Some of them talk of big banks and high finance as millionaires are prone to do, a few even mention the alleged 'middle class' upon occasion but the poor? You suggest that there is a group of Democrats with a leader that are energized around poverty issues and I do not think that is anything close to accurate.

whereisjustice

(2,941 posts)
18. The Hillary Democrat (tm) can exhibit concern about poverty. Used in a sentance:
Wed Feb 25, 2015, 11:26 AM
Feb 2015

"You have no reason to remember, but we came out of the White House not only dead broke, but in debt," Clinton said.






 

ND-Dem

(4,571 posts)
66. In general, no one. because the democrats don't want to talk about jobs anymore; that's
Thu Feb 26, 2015, 02:01 AM
Feb 2015

not part of the master plan, which is more about bringing cheap labor to the states and sending American labor to the third world, all to rachet down the global cost of labor while racheting up the cost of life support to further empower global elites.

democrats would much rather talk bullshit about women's rights and gay rights, even though without money and work you have no rights, gay, straight, male or female.

but dividing people into little 'rights' categories keeps them from making common cause while they're being screwed.

which seems to be what all the aggressiveness on DU is about; participants attacking others for not being politically correct enough.

 

hifiguy

(33,688 posts)
38. Well, you eat at a lot better places when you pal around with
Wed Feb 25, 2015, 05:26 PM
Feb 2015

the likes of Blankfein and Kissinger. Her Majesty doesn't soil her shoes walking where the "little people" live.

 

ND-Dem

(4,571 posts)
63. Yes. Hillary democrats don't seem very interested in poverty or economics at all; they're
Thu Feb 26, 2015, 01:52 AM
Feb 2015

more interested in monitoring whether you criticize the Clintons -- especially if you criticize the Clintons' economic record, or their own personal money-grubbing.

PatrickforO

(14,516 posts)
11. IF we organized our economy and our government to care about one another instead of ekeing out the
Wed Feb 25, 2015, 03:28 AM
Feb 2015

last uttermost farthing of PROFIT, then we'd all be better off.

I was at the supermarket the other day and looked at a jar of peanut butter. It felt light, so I turned it over to find that the bottom of the jar had a heavy concavity. I got to thinking about this, and came to the conclusion that capitalism is like...

A GIANT TAPEWORM...

Think about it. The company that makes the peanut butter put that big concavity in the bottom of its jars so we consumers could be charged the same price for LESS peanut butter. And, believe me, the workers in the factory aren't seeing any of that extra profit. Nope. It's all going to the almighty shareholders.

So that peanut butter I didn't get to eat because the space inside the jar is smaller might as well have been eaten by an intestinal parasite, which is exactly what capitalism is...a PARASITE in the intestines of the world.

But, I know that I'm VERY lucky, and so are you if you have eaten today, have a roof over your head and a job that allows ends to at least meet. The poor little girl...the little AMERICAN girl in this picture does not have that. There is no excuse.

And yet, we the people swept dozens of Republicans into office so they could continue their destructive policies. In one post on here I suggested we have the government we deserve because we're so stupid, ignorant and apathetic, but this little girl and hundreds of thousands like her do NOT deserve to live like this. It is an affront to our very humanity.

KG

(28,749 posts)
19. poverty is a word that rarely crosses the lips of politcos from either party.
Wed Feb 25, 2015, 11:39 AM
Feb 2015

best to pretend it doesn't exists while bemoaning the travails of the middle class.

Autumn

(44,762 posts)
24. Politicians seem to want to not ruin their beautiful minds with the "filth" of poverty.
Wed Feb 25, 2015, 03:05 PM
Feb 2015

It doesn't bother them one bit to create that poverty but they go to great length to pretend that class of people doesn't exist. I can't remember when Obama last mentioned the suffering of the poor in one of his major speeches. Bernie's all over it.

Autumn

(44,762 posts)
22. Me Niece is a teacher, and she breaks the rules.
Wed Feb 25, 2015, 02:52 PM
Feb 2015

She teaches in a high poverty area. She saves some of the breakfast foods sent to her classroom to feed the kids. What isn't used is to be sent back to the cafeteria. She sends it home with some of her grade schoolers so that they have something to eat on the weekends or when they get home in the evening.
I buy school supplies all year long and send them to her before school starts so her kids can have supplies. When did it happen that our children don't matter to the people we elect to office and why do we put up with it?

A sad rec for your OP

 

KamaAina

(78,249 posts)
23. Yup. Kids in NOLA's Lower Ninth Ward loved year-round school.
Wed Feb 25, 2015, 02:58 PM
Feb 2015

Because school was all they had to look forward to.

Response to Corey_Baker08 (Reply #26)

jwirr

(39,215 posts)
29. The teacher in this article is my kind of hero. And by the way we are in real trouble when it is
Wed Feb 25, 2015, 03:25 PM
Feb 2015

kids from families that have jobs (low income ones) fit this description. I know a lot of kids in my once middle class community that rely on free breakfasts and lunches at school for their food for the day, wear hand me down or rummage sale clothing and do not get to participate in extracurricular sports because no one can afford them. It is becoming the rule rather than the exception.

WDIM

(1,662 posts)
31. LBJ had a war on poverty.
Wed Feb 25, 2015, 04:06 PM
Feb 2015

Then Nixon came with his war on drugs which caused more poverty and law enforcement attacks on the poor drug users while the rich drug users go untouched.

Its not in corporate america's best interest to end poverty. They need employees willing to work for low wages and doing menial jobs.

There would be no super rich if there was no super poor for the rich to take advantage of.

Then the right wingnuts say oh you are only poor because you havent tried hard enough havent worked hard enough. Which is laughable because the people that work the hardest in this country get paid the least and the mega rich have never worked hard a day in their life they owe all their money to an interest rate.

We as a people need to demand that we are valuable. Our time is valuable. Our life we give to our jobs is valuable. We all have value and we need to demand that we are paid what we are worth. Nobody who works full time should be worried about having a place to live food to eat clothes for their kids the basic necessities tha make life possible. Yet more and more the working poor grow and the middle class crumbles and the ones at the top act like its all theirs and they deserve it all.

bvar22

(39,909 posts)
45. I used to curse LBJ and the War.
Wed Feb 25, 2015, 06:59 PM
Feb 2015

Little did I realize that 50 years later, I would be looking back at the last Liberal Democratic President.

byronius

(7,369 posts)
35. So goddamned wrong. So wrong-headed.
Wed Feb 25, 2015, 05:00 PM
Feb 2015

Stories like this make me a Leveler. Take every penny from every wealthy conservative and turn this sinking ship around.

Kochs first.

Dont call me Shirley

(10,998 posts)
43. Poverty is Trauma. People in poverty have untreated PTSD. When a person has untreated PTSD
Wed Feb 25, 2015, 06:09 PM
Feb 2015

they cannot get out of the trauma. Thus poverty becomes cyclical. There will need to be a massive effort to treat people in poverty trauma, while at the same time educating, teaching job and parenting skills, improving housing and transportation, providing healthier food.

AwakeAtLast

(14,112 posts)
44. And then we test them relentlessly
Wed Feb 25, 2015, 06:43 PM
Feb 2015

and make them feel stupid when they fail. They are winners for making it to school, in some cases.

alittlelark

(18,886 posts)
46. I live in Abq... it is rather horrifying to see the level
Wed Feb 25, 2015, 07:08 PM
Feb 2015

of poverty so many live in... w/ our R governor it is only getting worse and worse. These children are the generation that will take care of us - how can we allow them to become so scarred? WTF is wrong w/us?

handmade34

(22,755 posts)
55. I know what poverty looks like...
Wed Feb 25, 2015, 09:14 PM
Feb 2015

I know what poverty feels like... I was fortunate, other family members, not so much...

"...kids who need love the most will ask for it in the most unloving of ways..." one reason it is so hard to eradicate... another is collective apathy, no matter what people say... until we walk the talk, it continues

jopacaco

(133 posts)
56. I see it daily
Wed Feb 25, 2015, 09:19 PM
Feb 2015

I teach in Central Maine. We have 90% free and reduced hot lunch, a poverty indicator. The nurse is always collecting food for backpacks for weekends and vacations so kids have some food.
When I first moved to Maine, this was a fairly affluent town. When the shoe shops left, so did those with money. We have mostly minimum wage jobs for those left behind. Drug abuse is a growing problem.
With our current governor, any positive change is impossible and further deterioration is extremely likely. It is very depressing - and now we get to spend March through May testing grades 3-8 with a battery of online tests that, I believe, very few have a prayer of doing well on.
Ruby Payne has written some really enlightening books on the culture of poverty and how it relates to education. Her work helped me better understand my students and their families.

mike_c

(36,214 posts)
57. let's be exceedingly clear about the real problem here....
Wed Feb 25, 2015, 10:16 PM
Feb 2015

This level of poverty exists in one of the wealthiest nations on Earth. I does not exist because of any material deficiency of any kind-- it exists solely because a few are exceedingly greedy, and they insist not only on hoarding wealth for their personal benefit, but also upon creating social systems that feed back and further concentrate wealth into the hands of the greedy few.

In fact, I don't believe much of the conventional wisdom about our having a poverty problem in the developed world, and certainly not in the U.S. Most of our poverty problem is actually a wealth problem. We allow wealth to concentrate beyond all decency. Poverty is just another side effect of greed.

annabanana

(52,791 posts)
59. "the kids who need love the most will ask for it in the most unloving of ways"
Wed Feb 25, 2015, 11:13 PM
Feb 2015

there is a world of truth and sadness in that line...

annm4peace

(6,119 posts)
62. both my parents taught at schools with such poverty
Thu Feb 26, 2015, 01:40 AM
Feb 2015

the elementary school I went too has such poverty.
my two good friends teach at such schools, one in the city and one in the country.

my uncle was a principal at a barrio school in Los Angeles and his wife taught in a outlying city of L.A.

my cousins now teach at such schools.


what I read is what I would hear from them. My friend once said to me.. the one thing she can control is that when the student is in her class room.. they will be feed, they will know they are important, they are safe, and they are loved.

Next weekend I am meeting this same friend in Montgomery, AL and we are going to Selma the next morning to participate (listen to others) in the 50th anniversary of the march from Selma.

I will go back home to do my day job and be an activist in my free time. She will go back to her classroom.

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