Module 4 Blog Post – Learning Diversity: Poverty & School Achievement
April 5th, 2017
As a future educator, planning to come across many differences among students such as culture, skills, ideas, norm differences are meant to happen. Identifying and planning for individual and cultural differences between students is essential when it comes to effective teaching. The ways in which you can take these differences and plan to incorporate them into your classroom and teaching is up to you as the teacher. However, it is extremely important for you to do so.
Poverty and school achievement today is a major issue in today’s society. Many families are struggling to make ends meet and parents are having hard times giving their children a good education. “About 1 in 5 Americans under the age of 18 lives below the poverty level-$22,050 annual income for a family of four. That is 21% of all children in the United States.” (Woolfolk, pg. 233). With that being said, it is important for future educators to plan in advance that all students in their classroom may not be raised in households that have parents who are able to give their children accurate school supplies or reliable transportation to school, or even a decent breakfast or lunch to take to school with them. It is important for you as the teacher to make sure that you take initiative so therefore your student can receive the up-most respect from you as their teacher and a successful educational career. “Most children learn to learn to compete and succeed in school, outside of the safe confines of their home and family.”(Orthner, pg. 119).
As a future educator, it is important to be aware of each students home life and how it can affect their school achievement. It is your job and duty to be able to plan lessons successful enough for each individual students’ needs.
Below is a Ted Talk by Tony Allen about poverty and education:
References
Woolfolk, A. (2014). Educational psychology: Active learning edition. (12th Ed.). Pearson, Inc.
Orthner, D., Cook, P., Rose, R., & Randolph, K. (2002). Welfare reform, poverty, and children’s performance in school: challenges for the school community. Children & Schools, 24(2), 105-121.
Allen, T. (2015). Fix poverty, fix education or fix nothing. Youtube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zONB5wcMkug
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