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.