One thing that I have gained from this website is that children
who are poor today will be poor parents in the future. I knew that we do
whatever it is that our parents do but I figured that today in age children who
are poor see that their parents struggled so they would want to do better. I say
this because there are plenty of people who are poor and parents were poor but
they decided better themselves so that could be better than their parents
instead of being just like them.
Another thing that I have gained about this website is that
malnutrition is the cause of poverty. Since poverty is the cause of
malnutrition children get affected by it in more ways than one. One way that
children get affected is through development which can lead to life-long
difficulties and poor health.
The last thing about this website I have gained is that it is the
CHIP programme to help others with gaining knowledge about the poverty that is
going on in childhoods. Not only is this website helping others gain the knowledge
of childhood poverty internationally but it is also there to help gain it in
other countries that they are partnered with to help fill in the gaps of
poverty.
Hi Kyisha,
ReplyDeleteI am a little confused about your comment regarding the cycle of poverty. I do not think that anyone would chose to be poor or not want better for himself. I think that if children in poor families stay poor when adults, it might be because of external causes and lesser opportunities rather than because they do not want to get out of their condition. As the texts told us this week, when you are living in poverty, it is your number 1 preoccupation and it is hard to focus on schooling, health, nutrition. This might explain the long-term consequences for children.
Kyisha,
ReplyDeleteWhile I do agree and much research supports the notion that children who live in poverty are more likely to live in poverty as adults, however, nothing is written in stone that they "will be poor parents".
In his article, Gorski (2008) cites that the poor work two, three and sometimes four jobs to support their family; putting in more hours in hard work than their wealthy counterparts. This may give the impression that poor parents are disinterested in their children's education, when in reality, taking time off work to attend school conferences will mean they'll be short at the end of the month.
I believe noone -wants- to be poor. They are simply afraid to follow through with that life-changing choice. Perhaps, they do not believe or recognize they have the power to change their circumstance. There is a choice.
"[The] poor people are poor because of their own moral and intellectual deficiencies," (Gorski, 2008, p. 34). They don't believe they deserve better, that they are capable of becoming more than what they are. Society tells them they can't. Some poor children will prove that they can.
Reference:
Gorski, P. (2008). The myth of the "culture of poverty". Educational Leadership, 65(7), 32–36. Retrieved from the Walden Library using the Education Research Complete database.
I agree that no one wants to be poor and that fear is whats holds a lot of us back from making the right decisions. I am not saying people want to be poor because who does and I am not say that people who are poor will most likely be poor when they get older because of the poor lifestyle they were exposed to. What I did mention was that some children want to be better than their parents when they grow up instead of being just like them. For some reason this part of my blog is being left out when I read the comments. I understand what both of you are saying but its not what I am saying. Thanks for taking the time to read my post I appreciate it.
DeleteKyisha,
ReplyDeleteI appreciated your comments. It makes me realize how difficult it can be to break the cycle of poverty. I can't even imagine how hard it would be.
I think that it is good information to know that many don't break this cycle. For me, it tells me that those of us who aren't in poverty need to be supportive and assist those who would like to break that cycle. They need our help. Knowing that it is so difficult for them motivates me to do more on my end to help them. Although some may be able to do it by themselves, I think it would be difficult to do it alone.
Thanks for helping us to realize this issue and trend.
Michelle Gardner
It is true that many children who grow up in poverty will end up living their entire lives in poverty. However, this does not need to be the case. If we can break the cycle of self-depreciation, increase self-confidence, and provide opportunities for people to better their own circumstances we can stop the generational poverty.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure that I agree that malnutrition causes poverty or vise versa, but I do agree that they often go hand in hand. Some families are homeless but they spend what money they do earn on feeding their families. Other families may rely on soup kitchens and other community food drives so that they can spend their money on maintaining their home. Sometimes malnutrition can occur when parents are ill-informed regarding what is healthy to eat. I think these two topics are related, but I do not think one causes the other to occur.
I also learned from this website that education is a great place to start when trying to end the cycle of poverty.
Thanks for sharing what you learned!