Poverty and Schools

Thu May 29 10:49:46 EDT 2003

Message 1:
From: VLEE at wcpss.net

Information shared with us here in Raleigh at a meeting of educators 
indicated that if you simply allow students to attend their neighborhood 
school AND if the neighborhood is one of high poverty, the students are 
eight times more likely to be unsuccessful than a school with diversity. I 
thought I'd pass this along.

Vi Lee

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Message 2:
From: "Susan Rice" <brena92 at usadatanet.net>

An interesting  concept is the one Ruby Payne and Rita Pearson have 
hypothesized ...on bridging the poverty gap... school learning evolves 
with acceptance of school rules based on objects, things that money can 
buy...health insurance, homes, security, etc. not on the value of 
relationships...I don't agree that should be the primary value system, but 
there is substance to their arguement that non performing families don't 
encourage education but survival...maybe we can learn from each other...
Sue Rice

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Message 3:
From: PHogan9503 at aol.com

I agree.

Peggy Hogan

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Message 4:
From: "Jackie Ziglar" <jziglar at garfieldchildsfund.org>

I certainly agree with what you are saying about the schools. 
Unfortunately those in administrative positions that can do something 
about this aren't doing as much as they could.  It would be great if 
funders would grab whole to the fact that organizations like ours are 
needed in the communities to fill in th gaps that the schools aren't 
filling and have more of a willingness to fund the programs.

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Message 5:
From: "Crowell, Carol A." <ccrowell at enterprisefoundation.org>

To all:

You may want to purchase a book called,"Understanding the Framework  of 
Poverty" by Ruby Powell. I found it to be excellent:)) Let me know, 
please. Thank you

Carol Crowell
Program Director-Employment
ccrowell at enterprisefoundation.org <mailto:ccrowell at enterprisefoundation.org>

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Message 6:
From: paul <paul at bronxarts.org>

There can be no doubt of the impact of poverty on our children and the 
direct and indirect effects of the lack of financial and human resources 
in their schools on the quality of their education.  If we use that at the 
starting point, we can then develop strategies on how to solve the 
problems using whatever resources we can bring to bear.  My work is that 
of an education advocate who uses the arts as a tool of academic 
engagement, but I am also a parent and believe that it is up to the 
parents or guardians of an individual student to supervise their child's 
education, period.  That is as surely their job as it is to go to work so 
they can pay the rent and buy food.  We all know the stories of previous 
generations struggling along working 2 or 3 jobs to provide for the family 
so the children could go to school to make a better life than they had. 
This is the story of every immigrant group to enter this country and is 
especially true in the African-American community where Brown vs. the 
Board of Education was a seminal moment in US history.  This continues to 
be the model that ultimately works.  If America is to be YOUR land of 
opportunity, then a quality education is your deed to that piece of real 
estate.

We CANNOT use poverty as an excuse for our failing schools even if there 
are not enough resources to get the job done properly.  It is not 
expensive to read with your child for 20 minutes every night, nor is it 
costly to sit with them to do their homework.  It takes TIME, and it you 
are not willing to make that investment in your children, you cannot 
expect the schools who have NO VESTED INTEREST in your progeny to do the 
job for you.  Good schools don't just happen, their principals set the 
tone and create an atmosphere conducive to learning, the teachers work 
hard with the children, and most critically, the parents, including the 
many single ones, are involved and hold EVERYONE accountable and stay on 
the case.  If a given child is on the 5-year plan in middle school 
(getting left back twice), and is reading on a 3rd grade level, where was 
the adult supervision in the grades 4, 5, 6, and 7?  Being poor 
complicates the matter, and being in a poor school certainly contributes 
to the problem but it does NOT absolve the adult in the situation of THEIR 
responsibility.  Yes, protest cuts in Education funding, and get into your 
child's school if it does not live up to YOUR STANDARDS-don't wait until 
your son, daughter, niece, nephew or neighbor's child comes home from the 
school with nothing more in their head than what they picked up on the 
street or in the latest music video.  The Bush Administration has made it 
clear through the No Child Left Behind Act, which does NOT have adequate 
funding to help states meet the mandated standards, that it expects 
everyone in education to do more with less.  If you complain, you will be 
labeled as unpatriotic or worse, naïve to believe that money will solve 
the problem-as if these people would cut the funding in the schools their 
own children attend.  Okay...I'll calm down now.

Our job collectively is to help our young people understand that learning 
to read and write well, speak properly (no slang in business situations), 
understand math well enough to manage their own finances, is a means to an 
end.  If they acquire these basic skills they improve they chance for 
success in WHATEVER they choose to do in their lives.  The economy in this 
country is based on innovation, business services, entertainment and media 
holdings, and the military industrial complex.  Manufacturing and the 
management of natural resources are NOT going to help the next generation 
to achieve, nor will they allow the current generation of adults to 
maintain the standard of living for long without a well-educated workforce 
to keep it all going.  We cannot afford to allow our children to 
continually be miseducated, misguided, and manipulated into believing that 
ignorance is not only bliss, but a fine way of life, even if it has done 
well for the President.  Ooooh, that might have been a cheap shot, but 
somebody had to take it.

Thank you all for your efforts and lets get out there and engage some 
young people in critical thinking exercises.

Paul Mondesire
Bronx Council on the Arts & BEA ENLACE
paul at bronxarts.org

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Message 7:
From: "Andrea Johnston" <ajohnston at girlsms.org>

I've traveled to seventeen states and worked in a variety of venues from 
Cabrini Green in Chicago to YWs in South Carolina and private schools in 
NY and California. I'm the cofounder and ED of Girls Speak Out, a book and 
an international program. Currently, I also raise money for poor girls and 
girls of color to attend a private middle school in Silicon Valley. I was 
also a teacher in NY and California for thirty years. I have no doubt that 
poverty affects performance. It affects nutrition, housing, how a child 
spends free time and safety among other things. These are not left outside 
the classroom. The media makes the disparity between classes startlingly 
obvious. How is a child supposed to feel when she or he cannot read the 
books they like or cruise the web or be free to dream and survive in a 
class-based, racist and gender-biased system? School is one of many places 
all children can find hope. Too often educators are isolated in schools 
all their lives. Maybe we need exchange programs in ghettos and 
inner-city, poor rural areas for some educators. It's time the issue of 
whether poverty affects school performance is settled and we move on to 
addressing the basic issues these children need to have resolved so they 
too can be valued for performance that reflects their innate spirits and 
intelligence rather than a system's lack of awareness.

Andrea Johnston, J.D.
Development Director

The Girls Middle School
180 North Rengstorff Avenue
Mountain View, CA 94043 USA
www.girlsms.org
650 968 8338 x 107
F 650 968 4775
Author, Advocate, Cofounder Girls Speak Out®

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