Blog post #4 Poverty

I have never experienced poverty personally. As a young child my family would probably be considered lower-middle class. We had everything we needed, but there wasn't much left for entertainment, vacations, etc... As I grew older both of my parents moved up in their respective careers so that by the time I enrolled in college we were upper-middle class.

As a teacher on the Navajo Reservation I have students of varying levels of poverty. I believe 98% of students receive free or reduced lunch at my high school. Poverty greatly impacts my students and their learning. Students cannot afford necessary school supplies like graphing calculators. When it rains or snows many students cannot get to school because the dirt roads they live on become impassible. Some students do not even have running water or electricity, making studying and completing homework nearly impossible. As a result of poverty and the systemic social injustices my Navajo students face many students go home to very malfunctioning households. There are incredibly high rates of domestic violence, alcoholism, and crime. Very few students come from families where parents or guardians are educated enough to help with homework.

As an educator in an impoverished area I can encourage students that there is hope for them by taking their education seriously. Completing college will open up doors for them to change the trajectory of their lives. I have learned to be very intentional in assigning homework assignments. My students need to do homework in order to practice what was learned in class. However, I cannot just assign #1-35 odd. Students have too many responsibilities once they get home, that assigning more than 20 minutes or so of homework is not beneficial. Lastly, I can open their eyes to the system injustices they face, guided them to think about why it exists and what they can do to fight against it.

I would want others to understand that teaching in an area with high amounts of poverty requires an extra amount of effort in terms of engaging and investing students in their learning. they must be "on a mission", fighting to reach a goal. While students in privileged areas can go through the motions, make a few bad decisions here or there, and still end up with a college degree and a nice job, students that come from backgrounds of poverty must take everyday seriously if they hope to have a chance of getting to college.