Teachers: The Front Line in the War on Poverty
One of the many intangibles that holds back poverty victims is the loss of dignity brought on by put-downs and low expectations.
Achieving small successes, one milestone at a time, requires a lot of patience.
The challenge is to bring harmony and consistency in the child’s daily routine in a way that makes progress visible. This cannot be accomplished without the assistance of mentors. For me, those mentors were Job Corps’ teachers.
Language is one of those discriminators that isolates poverty victims from the middle class. A person can use clothes to disguise their poverty background, and they can use money to give the visual impression they have never known poverty, but the moment they open their mouths, the jig is up.
The middle class language and behaviors are designed by parents to prepare their children for college and a successful career. This is training and education that middle class kids take for granted.
The same cannot be said about children born into generational poverty. Our parents are unlikely to have a high school education. One or both is an alcoholic or drug addict. It is a fact that most chidren born into poverty lack the language skills necessary to achieve upward social mobility.
But, the middle class language involves more issues than just grammar–it involves body language. collaborative skills, consensus building, and goal setting. Children born into poverty are dealing with completely different priorities. They live from day to day, reacting to the crisis of the moment.
Teachers today are beginning to focus upon language skills in a way that is changing the culture of poverty, albeit slowly.
To fully understand society, in the context of the classroom setting, students need to delve into the who, what, where, why, when and how questions of the many different languages and behaviors of the various socio-economic classes. Students need to be able to ask questions which lend themselves to answers that the students can relate to from the viewpoint of a fellow classmate.
Instead of simply being compilers of information, students are using classroom discussions, role playing and simulated interviews in way that helps them become originators of information.
They learn other things as well about the culture of their classmates. They learn how each of the socio-economic classes read body cues. They also learn when to speak formally and when to speak informally. Tone becomes second nature to one social class, but critical to another.
Acceptable behavior differs from one socio-economic class to another. Winning the war on poverty, if it is to be won, will involve battles at the local classroom level. For most children born into poverty, the teacher is the first role model they will encounter.
For that reason, America’s investment in the war on poverty has to begin at the classroom level. The teacher is the front line soldier in the war on poverty.
The poorest of our society are dependent upon teachers for a better future. I believe most of our teachers are trying to take on that challenge. What they need is more financial support from the local, state and federal governments.
