This Is What Poverty Looks Like

[CC27]

Star Member tenderfoot (638 posts)

This Is What Poverty Looks Like


by Dawn Meehan




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/?

Explain something to me DUmmies? Why is anyone in poverty since we been pumping trillions of dollars to people since LBJ? Why is anyone still poor? Come over and explain this to me.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026275561

[HawkHogan]

The liberal solution is always more money.  We waged a war on poverty and lost. 
And if you mention the lack of two-parents home, you are called a racist. 

[obumazombie]

The libs want us to believe it's an economics thing and scrap capitalism.
It's a cultural and sometimes geographic thing.
We were created for success, then programmed for failure.

[thundley4]

I’m talking about families who have lived in poverty for generations. Families who don’t know anything but poverty.

And democratic policies are designed to keep them there.

Still some of the worst poverty doesn't affect blacks, it is the poor white people living in backwoods rural areas where the government teat doesn't drip, because they aren't a huge voting bloc.

[franksolich]

<<<suggests Ms. Vanderbilt-Astor, the NJCher primitive, read this.

[Bad Dog]

That's not poverty that's neglect and all the money in the world (Oh wait, we already spent that) is going to solve that child's problem.

[jukin]

Poverty rates and children in poverty has skyrocketed under Chicago Jesus. It is the religion of socialism that causes more poverty than anything else. Well at least we haven't had runs on toilet paper like the socialist heaven of Venezuela.

[Carl]

You will always have poverty for several reasons.
Sometimes it is just rotten luck,yes it happens.
Often it is poor decision making,or habits and nothing will ever eradicate that from reality.
Both of these are unfortunate but what is worse is that much poverty has been inflicted by removing the notion that there is a better life to strive for along with the satisfaction you can make your own way.

We are accused of being hateful because we don`t want a permanent underclass established based on a subsistence handout.
What is truly evil is happily celebrating making people suffer for the political benefit of dependency.

[JohnnyReb]

Someone 2,000 years ago said, "Lo the poor are always with you.".... dang if it wasn't right.

[obumazombie]

You will always have poverty for several reasons.
Sometimes it is just rotten luck,yes it happens.
Often it is poor decision making,or habits and nothing will ever eradicate that from reality.
Both of these are unfortunate but what is worse is that much poverty has been inflicted by removing the notion that there is a better life to strive for along with the satisfaction you can make your own way.

We are accused of being hateful because we don`t want a permanent underclass established based on a subsistence handout.
What is truly evil is happily celebrating making people suffer for the political benefit of dependency.

Rotten luck can be overcome with a lot of hard work.
Poor decision making, poor habits, poor thinking, those need to be eradicated before you can overcome poverty caused by them.

[Delmar]

Response to tenderfoot (Original post)Wed Feb 25, 2015, 02:07 PM
Corey_Baker08 (1,549 posts)
26. I Live In Poverty & I Can't Take It Anymore...

Sounds like this primitive is considering getting a job.

I kid.

[JohnnyReb]

Sounds like this primitive is considering getting a job.

I kid.

At first I thought you were serious....I'm getting slow on the uptake in my old age.

[98ZJUSMC]

The liberal solution is always more money.  We waged a war on poverty and lost.

50 years and 22 trillion.  The "poverty rate", that specious figure that gets adjusted per progressive political whims, was nosediving in the years leading up to the Big Swindle enacted by Big Chief Vote Buyer.  It had dropped from around 23-24% in the late 50's, to about 15-16%.  A few factors involved, not the least of which was a KENNEDY!!!111!!!!!tAxcUTeLebiNTY!!!!11

And if you mention the lack of two-parents home, you are called a racist.

...and if you mention the flatlined and declining educational system ....rayciss.

...and the minority unemployment rate under (D)Marxist administrations.....rayciss.

...and the increased cradle to grave welfare mentality......rayciss.

[98ZJUSMC]

Someone 2,000 years ago said, "Lo the poor are always with you.".... dang if it wasn't right.

Oh, yeah?!?!?!?  ...and then all the cHriStiANS!!!!111 went on a crusade against the mExiCaNS!111!!!!11111 led by sCotTwaLker!!!111
[/DUmmie]

[Chris_]

Sounds like this primitive is considering getting a job.

I kid.

He can certainly afford an excess of capital letters.

[diesel driver]

This Is What Poverty Looks Like

No, this is what 50+ years of dimrat/progressive/liberal/socialist policies look like.

Don't believe me, look at Detroit...

[GOBUCKS]

In America, some people have smaller TV screens and fewer Apple devices than others, and that's defined as poverty.

Anyone who has experienced the third world knows that the true poverty rate in America is zero.

[Ptarmigan]

It is more poverty of morality.

[SVPete]

Rotten luck can be overcome with a lot of hard work.
Poor decision making, poor habits, poor thinking, those need to be eradicated before you can overcome poverty caused by them.

H-5! Well and succinctly put!

There is no single face of "poverty" in America. This is another face of American "poverty":

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpAOwJvTOio[/youtube]

As to my use of "scare quotes", there are probably millions of people in Asia, Africa, and Central & South America who would love a chance to live in US "poverty", and would work their tails off to better themselves!

[obumazombie]

^The owebumaphone lady and Peggy Joseph should be neighbors.
Peggy has come to her senses, but she still deserves the owebumaphone lady as her next door neighbor.