Session 3

This weeks chapter offered new insight into the theories of poverty. I appreciated the correlation between education and poverty levels. While we learned that Mississippi is one of the states hit hardest with poverty, it is no surprise that their school systems are some of the lowest nationwide. When children are not offered well balanced and intellectually stimulating education, the involvement of the students can decline, grades can drop, and many can fail out or just quit on their own accord. The drive to further an education is already a struggle, and even more so when people are not subjected to a more powerful and substantial educational foundation. A higher education is proven to offer more job opportunities, more money, more benefits, all things that so many people if deprived of, face the risks of not being able to keep their heads above water (as my mother would say,) or never see a break to move up the social ladder. I think that it would be important for more student funding, and to focus more on what the state (and other states struggling) can do to provide and implement programs and curriculum that will encourage and prepare students to advance beyond high school.

The video we watched this week kept saying one thing to me over and over again. We may often hear it takes a village to raise a child, and I really think that this is what George Galster touched upon in this brief piece, made alot of sense. If you take lower income and communities with higher poverty levels, you will see that the difference in education, academic achievements can easily tie in with how these communities will continue at the level that they are at. I've lived in many different neighborhoods in Atlanta...it was very interesting to see the difference among the students in the various areas. When I lived in Buckhead and Grant Park, I saw children being walked to school by their parents, but when I lived in the West End (a lower income neighborhood,) most parents were not seen. Could this be tied to the fact that in the lower income areas parents are working more hours and lower income jobs? Absolutely. But the lack of parental involvement in the lower income areas also made it easier for children to not go to school and wander the streets and people didn't really notice, nor did it seem out of place for large group of children to not be in school when they should be. When an area has this type of problem, the generations just seem to perpetuate the cycle. A close friend of mine works in a youth center located in a government housing complex and she runs a center that caters to children after school hours, offering tutoring, counseling, and some technology unavailable to them at home. Again, while many of the children that come to her center have parents working long hours, receiving minimum wage, a center like this, state funded, gives many children the ability to see additional help and support if needed.

Ive said it in my previous post, and I have a feeling that it will be something that I touch on every time I post...There will always be a neighborhood, a school district, even a state that is struggling more than others. It will always be an issue for those in these school districts and areas of our country that, unfortunately, they have the odds stacked against them. They might not have support at home, or from their community, and it will continue to help these poverty levels remain stagnant as those with a lack of education unfortunately are more vulnerable to be living below the poverty line.

Initial Post

I was more than curious as to what this class would involve for a couple of reasons.First, I was raised by a single mother and at times it was difficult financially and we saw many different pay scales as we grew up. I am also very fortunate that I have had the opportunity to have very close friends that originate from over the world- Asian, West Indian, African...the list goes on....-that have told me real life scenarios and stories from their lives in foreign countries.

(Question 1)When the question asked who did I think was poor domestically and internationally, I have to admit, it kind of scared me, and I have to approach that question delicately, nonetheless to read other peoples responses I have to take into consideration that all of us are raised differently and come from different situations. I think that it is very easy to judge someone from the outside in this country of whether they are poor or not. Someone may have on tattered or dirty clothes, have a dilapidated home, or drive a car that you can hear from a mile away smoking from every crevice. My biggest criteria of who is poor is first and foremost do they have money to eat and to have shelter. When you are below the poverty line or close to it, many things can depend on each other like dominoes...if one falls they all fall. If you are robbing Peter (the water company) to pay Paul (the rent) then at some point you will end up with no running water or no place to live....I think that those same conditions apply globally as well. Do they have a place to sleep, do they have food?

(2 & 3)I think that there are many reasons why people are poor all over the world.Different governments offer different programs (or no programs at all.) It is always interesting to me to hear the different backgrounds of some of my friends. One of my friends shared a 2 bedroom apartment with 11 people, another learned his ABCs in the dirt, and another was a child of two US diplomats and traveled the world living comfortably. Regardless of what country anyone comes from, we all have basic needs that we depend on for physical survival. If we go without food or water, we will die. If you live in Africa and aren't properly sheltered at night, you can be subjected to mosquitoes and malaria. I think that the United States continually strives to offer programs to help keep people from suffering the greatest impacts of poverty: lack of medical care, homelessness, starvation, etc. With that being said, there are many people who abuse the system (whether its selling their food stamps for money, or not getting a primary physician and using the ER for simple, common conditions,) and of course many people fall through the cracks. I think a MAJOR fault of our system is that it neglects to help minimize the crash from middle class to poverty level. So many middle class families struggle to pay everything, and are living check to check. That means within a week's time, if someone misses work, they could easily find themselves homeless, without food, etc. In other parts of the world, I think countries still very much ignore the struggle of those who are without. I was amazed at the level/conditions of the homeless I saw when I traveled to the Caribbean.They had no one. No place. No programs to help them become employed, no soup kitchens, no shelters. Literally building shacks out of feces and grass. Yet when I am in Atlanta/US, I see homeless people making hundreds of dollars a day collecting money off of an exit ramp. (I recall one time ordering a homeless man food and giving him an entire meal...two minutes later he sells it to someone else!)

(4)I think that solving the poverty problem will never end. Someone always has to earn more, someone always will live in a lower income neighborhood. I think that it is important to go into all communities, especially those whose poverty levels are higher, and educate the community on what can be people can done within their power to avoid becoming that statistic. Teach people how to budget, teach the statistics of gaining an education leads to more income, etc. As far as globally, I think that when a country like this is in a good place, we are more than able to help other people through money, support, education. The U.S. just needs to find that place first.