Poverty and It's Effects

As an edcuator in an income based program, I can see first hand how stressful living in poverty can be. Life is tough but when you don't have the means to put food on the table or find reliable childcare so you can hold a job, it seems unbearable at times. Although I have never experienced true povery for myself, I do work with families who live their daily lives with the bare, bare minimum. The children sometimes suffer simply because of the stress that being poor brings. I will never, ever forget my first true dealing with a child who lived in poverty. I was teaching a unit in my classroom on Community Helpers and I arranged a trip to see several places in town. The stops included the veterinarian's office, the post office, the fire station, the hospital, and a stop at the greocery store that included a tour of a truck being unloaded and the bakery. The second stop was the grocery store. A little boy in my class was absolutly amazed at the grocery store......you see, at 5 years old, he had never been there before. His parents lived in poverty. They had no vehicle. Mommy had to hitch a ride to "town" to go shop and since she was riding with someone else, there was no room to bring children. I will never forget how I felt when I realized the whole story about his lack of this experience. It was the first time I had ever thought about anything like that. In 2008, we "chose" a daughter who had been in foster care and living in extreme poverty with her biological family. When she came to live with us, there were so many experiences she had never had. She had never been inside of a mall, a Pizza Hut, a clothing specialty store, or ordered any food item EVER from a menu. She was 13 years old. The instances of how poverty affected her life are still part of our lives today. We deal with situations and instances where she is not clear on how things work because of the lack of exposure simply due to the lack of adequate financial means. Poverty affects school life, home life, social life, and all other aspects of life. Self esteem for the family as a whole suffers and the lack of self worth is most often evident in children at a very young age. Poverty causes stress that affects the whole family as well.  I truly am not sure what the answer is to combat this horrible social crisis but we must comtinue to try to break the cycle of poverty and save the children.