Poverty and Early Childhood

This week, I learned about how poverty affects children living and going to school in Georgia. One  thing I find very interesting about my conversations with my connection overseas is her mention of the similarities between rich and poor children. I believe it is a common misconception that poor children have very different problems than children who come from rich parents. Here is my conversation about the similarities poor and rich children can go through.

I am currently teaching on the other end of the spectrum - extremely high income children in a private school.

Before moving to Morocco, I taught Title 1 in GA and we saw a lot of issues from poverty including malnutrition, gangs and missing parents.  Kids came to school with little to no background knowledge and without basic skills.  (Kindergarteners who didn't know their colors, shapes, how to count to 3 etc.)  This set them in a pattern of being behind for their entire school career.

The biggest issue I knew as a teacher was that I had no idea of whether anyone talked to my kids after they left me.  Often students went home to empty houses and were not talked to, monitored or cared for.  When I first arrived in Morocco, I taught at a different private school with EXTREMELY wealthy children and found that they often had the same problems.  They were being raised by a maid or a nanny, so there was someone there, but no one to talk to them or "care" for them.

For both of these communities, I found that the biggest thing that the kids needed was attention.  They crave your attention and the knowing that someone truly cares for them.

Sometimes this is the case and sometimes it is the opposite case. To add, in some cases, poor children have it better. My stepfather grew up very poor. He always ate the same foods like, casseroles that were easy for mom to stretch and use as leftovers. He remembers wearing the same clothes all the time and being hungry often. His experiences of being poor as a child motivated him to work very hard, go to college and make a 6 figure salary.  He and my mom love in a very nice neighborhood and have no worries of getting the bills payed. In contrast, I know some adults who have had things handed to them their entire life with no lack of food or clothes. They however have grown to be lazy and have no desire to make something of themselves. This, in my opinion, is a failure on the parents part for not installing these types of values in their children. They were not home enough and spent more time working than giving their children what they really needed.