Every
day, I wake up to a beautiful home, a well-stocked fridge and pantry, clean
clothes ready to go, and no fear of having to skip a meal. Then I go to work and see children come in
with broken shoes and no coats regardless of the cold, and pocketing breakfast
leftovers because the things they serve at cafeteria breakfast are like a rare
privilege to them, or because they know they may not have a dinner meal
available to them later. It may not be obvious to the world, but the
children in poverty know. They know they
have different lives than I do. For my project
challenge topic, I chose to learn more about the feat of authentically educating
children in families of extreme poverty.
Activating their background experiences to keep them engaged is a
challenge at times, and I am curious as to what I may learn by choosing this
topic. Who am I to claim that I know
exactly how these children feel? What
magnitude of learning can come from my decision to delve into this topic?
The questions go further than just
wondering what I can do as a teacher. It
absolutely must be an issue for administrative staff to build rapport with
families of extreme poverty. The ways
that my life differs from lives of those in poverty must be even more apparent
for the lives of administrative staff, simply due to their stature and
salary. How do they keep families in
poverty motivated or even interested in communicating with them with confidence
and continued interest in public school education?
I may not be able to provide meals
for all of my students each day, but I can at least provide them with a
plethora of food for thought.
