"Poverty penetrates deeper into the body, brain, and soul than many of us realize," this quote comes from Eric Jensen's book Teaching with Poverty in Mind. Jensen truly understands children from poverty and understands the negative effects poverty has on children. Poverty is in numerous amounts of schools and many teachers do not even realize it. So many children nowadays just try and stay under the radar if they are living in poverty because they feel embarrassed and they do not want the extra help. Teachers need to look past the poverty and do what they can to help these children.
Eric Jensen mentions the different types of poverty that exist today. On page 6 of his book, he talks about situational poverty, which is when poverty is caused by a sudden crisis or loss. He also talks about generational poverty, which is when at least two generations have been born into poverty; absolute poverty, which is when there is a scarce necessity of needs such as food, water, and shelter. This type of poverty is very rare in the United States. There is also relative poverty, which is when the income of a family is insufficient to meet its society's average standard of living. Urban poverty normally occurs in metropolitan areas with populations of at least 50,000 people. The last type of poverty is rural poverty. This type of poverty occurs in nonmetropolitan areas with populations less than 50,000. In these types of situations, there are more single-family households and these families normally have less access to services and support for disabilities. Rural poverty is the type of poverty that is most affluent in my school. In my classroom, there are many students that have single family home, are part of the back pack program, or live with their grandparents. One can only imagine what these students home lives are like and these students need to see school as a safe reliable place. That is where teachers need to come in and have the classroom be that safe haven.
"Emotional and social challenges, acute and chronic stressors, cognitive lags, and health and safety issues," are all the four primary risk factors that Jensen mentions that families living in poverty face. When you have been in the classroom for some time, as a teacher, these factors start to become more and more prevalent to you. Being the teacher, I am able to notice the students that struggle with some or even all of the given risk factors. I also know the family background of these students and I know that they are suffering with types of poverty. Probably half of my class is living in single family homes or living with a grandparent. It would be easier for me to name the students that I know are living with both parents. Some of the kids in my class have a parent in jail or in the military. One students' dad is in jail and his mom is in the military. Many students live with grandparents or other types of guardians. There are also some students in my class that will just sit in their seat all day completely zoned out staring at his or her desk. As teachers, we know that their mind is somewhere else. We know that they are focusing on their home life or food because they are hungry. Anything could be going through that child's mind that, at the time, is more important then what we are trying to teach them. In my class, students that are suffering from poverty, normally are very quite and keep to themselves, or they are disruptive and cause issues in the class and act as a distraction to the others.
Knowing what we know, as teachers, there are absolutely some strategies we can try and do to help these students that are struggling with poverty. "They often lack warmth and sensitivity and fail to form solid, healthy relationships with their children," (Jensen 2009.) These students need that stable place where they can interact with their peers and have solid, open relationships with the teacher and peers. Christine Lynch, who is the principal at John Shaw Middle School in Spokane, Washington, states, "we create a caring, nurturing environment, where we know about poverty, but we're pushing our kids with high expectations, creating a college ready atmosphere, working with our entire neighborhood." Having a school be a caring and nurturing environment is crucial for these students. Many of these students do not have that type of environment at home, and in order to develop and grow properly, they need it; school must be that place for them. Having high expectations for your students is absolutely critical. If you do not believe in your students, why should they believe in themselves. Teachers need to push these students to do better so they have goals to achieve and get to that next level. These students want to do well, they just need that push and we need to set the bar high for them and help them get to that bar. Ms. Lynch also talks about having a predictable environment. She states that students do not normally have a predictable environment so it is important for school to be that "safe sanctuary of learning" for them. They know what behavior is expected and they know the outcomes if they are learning and having the behavior they are expected to have.
Eric Jensen talks about more direct steps to take when helping students in poverty. He states the first things to do is recognize the signs. Teachers need to do their research and know what the signs may be of a student living in poverty. They cannot just get mad and frustrated or yell back when a student is talking out of line, they need to ask themselves "WHY is this students behaving like this?" Jensen also suggests to alter the environment. This could mitigate stress and resolve potential compliance issues. Jensen suggests instead of using bells as class transitions, try using a song. Also, allow some time at the end of the day for students to work on their homework. That way, if they have other priorities at home, they can get to that without the stress of homework. The last suggestions he makes is to use cooperative structures, where the teacher and student are working together and not as one is better than the other, and also to incorporate hands-on activities in your lessons. If students are engaged in their learning they will be less likely to act out or behavior poorly. The last strategy Jensen mentions is to empower the students. Instead of just telling the students how to behave and act, we, as teachers, need to model and teach them how to behave; that is the only way they are going to learn, because they are not learning it at home. Help the students with conflict resolution skills. Teach them what they can do if they are having an issue with someone. Teach them how to deal with frustration and anger, try counting to ten and taking deep breaths. Give the students responsibilities, if they misbehave or disrupt the class, they need to do something to "make it right." Jensen has an extensive list of strategies that teachers can use in the class to diminish the challenges students face we poverty. Teachers need to have an enriched classroom with a balanced, sustained, positive, and contrasting learning environment, which will change the students' lives over the long haul.
REFERENCES
Jensen, E. (2009). Teaching with poverty in mind. Alexandria, Virginia: ASCD.
NASSPtv. (Producer). (2009). Principal christine lynch on educating students from poverty. [Web Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_vfvbEoYGc&feature=player_embedded
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