Poverty

A few weeks ago I was a member of a group of people who examined poverty and how it affects children within schools. As a child who experienced poverty first hand I can say that it completely changes the way you view school. Some children are caught up with things that are going on at home. This can hinder their participation in school and their learning. How could it not? All the unknowns are extremely frightening. Where is my next meal going to come from? Will I have a roof over my head when I get home? Will we have power or water? With all those questions going through a child’s mind no wonder they cannot focus on reading for fun.

With that said I feel like I was a slight anomaly. Yes I was homeless at one point, but I had a little sister and we always made the best of the situation. Yes we went hungry, but that made us appreciate every meal we received. I felt the same way about school. Every opportunity I had to go to school I was there. My sister and I use to walk to school so we never had to rely on my mom to take us. We never had a bus we could miss and if we woke up late we still went to school. Early on school because my safe place and I knew it was the answer to not ending up like my mother. Now don’t get me wrong I have a wonderful mother who did the best she could with what she had. To be honest I would not change a signal thing about my childhood. Not only did we climb our way out of poverty, but I have exceeded everyone’s hopes for me. Let’s face when your poor people’s hope for you are pretty low.

 Ultimately, every child deserves to feel safe at school whether they are poor or not. Every child deserves to learn without added pressure. As a future educator I hope to change the way poor children are seen in schools. Every child has value.

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