Philogging Assignment #8

After completing this week's readings, my opinions and beliefs surrounding poverty tend to side with Gorski. Because race and poverty are so closely tied together, I think it can be easy to fall into stereotypical, deficit perspective line of thinking (as Gorski pointed out in the teacher he was observing). I think that a stereotype is a stereotype. Whether it is concerning race, gender, socioeconomic status, stereotypes tend to be damaging in all cases. I can understand the appeal of Payne's work because she seems to boil it down and "explain" why impoverished students and their families face the challenges they do when it comes to schooling. However, I think it is important to remember that, as teachers, we are educating individuals, who face unique challenges that may not necessarily fit into the theories suggested by Payne or the culture of poverty theory. With that in mind, I'm not sure I believe there is an answer or a one size fits all way to approach working with children who are struggling with poverty. One belief I do hold, which may or may not apply to impoverished students, is that when it is a struggle to have their basic needs met (e.g. food, stable housing, etc.) it can be difficult to focus on more complex things, like their education. I think we saw a lot of this in Brown's experience. While he definitely had some students with less than loving parents, a number of his students' attendance and effort in school seemed to be negatively affected by either frequently moving around or the lack of time spent with their parents at home. That is not to say that I believe all children who are struggling with poverty come from homes where they are unloved by their parents. It seems that often times, as Gorski mentioned, parents are struggling to make ends meet by working multiple jobs, long hours, and possibly working far from home. These factors make it difficult for parents to be available to their children to provide the support they need emotionally and also towards things like their education. This is not to say that they don't love and want the best for them, or even that they don't value their education, they are simply stretched too far in providing basic needs to be able to focus on the "extras" (i.e. school). It seems to me, in this case, the most effective approach we can take as teachers is to meet these students where they are at and remember that each one of them, as well as their family, has something to contribute to our classrooms. Because we will spend such a huge chunk of they day with all of our students, we have the opportunity to provide a level of support to every student, impoverished or not, which they may be lacking at home. I've been thinking a lot about what Catron said two class sessions ago about our circle of influence. I think it is important to remember that with regards to our students' effort and work, we can control what goes on inside our classroom and little else. We can encourage our students and parents to continue the work we begin in the classroom at home but if they can't or don't, what control over that do we have? That's not to say I don't believe in high expectations (i.e. every student is expected to complete their work/homework) but I think that focusing on the perceived lack of effort of students and their parents can be a contributing factor to burning out as a teacher. Instead, I think it is important to focus my efforts on achieving the highest amount of meaningful work within my circle of influence, which will be my classroom.