What Kind Of Youth Am I Going To Serve?

Pathologizing the Poor: Implications for Preparing Teachers to Work in High-Poverty Schools
By: Kerri Ullucci

This article is extremely interesting and makes valid points. Ullucci tries to get across the impact of poverty on youth. "1 in 5 children below the age of 18 live in poverty". This can impact how a child experiences life. Children in poverty are less likely to have things others take for granted. Ways poverty impacts children include environmental issues, health issues, child labor, community, violence, mobility, child care, transportation issues, mental health issues, and shelter issues. "These circumstances undoubtedly influence school performance and academic outcomes". These children are extremely disadvantaged but another factors goes into play on how teachers can deal with it. There are four myths about poverty that teachers should rid their students of. They are:

1. Anyone can pull themselves out of poverty ( The Bootstraps Myth)
2. Those who are in poverty are lazy, welfare queens, and/or irresponsible (The Individual Faults Myth)
3. Poor children are not particularly smart or school-ready (The Educability Myth)
4. People in poverty share a common "culture" (The Culture of Poverty Myth)

In order to help these students Ullucci promotes educators to grasps a better understanding of poverty and how it impacts students. In return they can then anchor questions that can guide conversations and activities to update perspectives on poverty. " We assert that any framework for understanding poverty and learning be based on a comprehensive and critical set of ideas that do not blame students in poverty for being poor and cast them as inferior, but that recognize the social, political, and economic conditions, which have profound influences on the day to day lives of students in these communities".


After reading this article I thought about a project I did over the summer for Social Work 325. For this project I acquired a better understanding of poverty itself. Like the author suggested many people including myself belief the myths of poverty. People think that it is so easy to get out when in reality it is not. The project I did focused on Olneyville and I spent a lot of time researching and observing this community. What I realized was there are a lot of organizations trying to help rebuild Olneyville and help the community out of poverty. However, it still remains to be in poverty and many of the people will remain in poverty their whole lives.

Olneyville Housing Corporation is a great organization that does a lot for this community. Here's the link to their website (THEY HAVE INTERNSHIPS ) ttp://www.olneyville.org/our-mission

Thinking of where I want to work and what kind of youth I am going to serve I am honestly not 100 percent sure. I do know that I want to make a difference in a lot of children's lives. I tutored in an overcrowded providence school and knowing that my students started getting 100s on their tests in the subject they were struggling with made me feel good. I like helping children in need and knowing I made a difference in their life. Looking at the statistics of all the children in poverty makes me sad because it isn't fair. If I've learned anything in life it would that it is extremely unfair! However, my thought about children is that every child deserves an equal opportunity to succeed and be happy in this world. Bad things happen everyday and are going to happen everyday. I want to be that voice of reason that gets through and changes their mind.