Essay on the Culture of Poverty and Education

Poverty is one problem that has not been able to be destroyed in society, in essence, the growth of poverty is yet again increasing with the gap between the haves and the have-nots are increasing. Poverty can be described as a lack of basic needs and amenities, the major cause of this state of lack is the shortage of money. Education usually goes hand in hand with poverty, the higher level of education one attains, the higher his/her chances of getting a well-paying job that would save them from poverty. It is impractical to say that poor people are lazy and unmotivated to work hence their destitute living conditions. Education access and poverty are very much inter-related, the life lived by the poor can be attributed to their lack of access to quality education. In this paper we are going to look at quotes from the journal; Barbara Ehrenreich How I discovered the truth about poverty and Jonathan Kozol Still Separate, Still Unequal.

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In this context of how I discovered the truth about poverty, we will use Harringtons quote, There is a language of the poor, a psychology of the poor, and a worldview of the poor. To be impoverished is to be an internal alien, to grow up in a culture that is radically different from the one that dominates the society (Kozol, 15). This quote resonates much with the situation that goes hand in hand with the Kozols Still Separate quote on the segregations going on between the affluent and the impoverished people living in the same neighborhood. It is a letter from a grade 2 girl complaining about the conditions within which they study in school. "It is not fair that other kids have a garden and new things. But we don't have that," said Elizabeth. "I wish that this school was the most beautiful school in the whole why the world. Elizabeth among many other students have been segregated on the ideology that they are poor hence the government and education boards do not have any concern over the affairs of the kids learning in this environment. In a way, it depicts an overview of how the world or the affluent think about the poor in America. In essence, it indicates the level of neglect of the poor in society despite their pleas for better learning environments. This affirms to the point that education offered in poor neighborhoods is of low quality as schools do not have enough facilities to help students get more exposure to academics and sports. In essence, the poor receive poor education hence locking them down to short term way of thinking and seeing life. If one does not attain proper education, this would mean low-paying jobs and the cycle of poverty continues and on.

On another quote from Barbara Ehrenreichs article, she mentions the sentiments of Edward C. Benfield who says The lower-class individual lives from moment to moment... Impulse governs his behavior... He is therefore radically improvident: whatever he cannot consume immediately he considers valueless [He] has a feeble, attenuated sense of self (Ehrenreich, 11). These statements imply that the lower class individuals do not plan for tomorrow, the live one day at a time, this is a very chauvinistic statement to point out to the poor individuals. Despite having said such statement, it should be laid out clearly that the poor people of America have jobs and are not as lazy as they are portrayed to be the rich and affluent, the problem is that many of rich have no idea about the struggles that the poor go through. Looking into the salaries paid by teachers within the neighborhood of poor individuals, one would actually be surprised. Quote from Still separate goes, There are expensive children, and there are cheap children," writes Marina Warner, an essayist and novelist who has written many books for children, "just as there are expensive women and cheap women (Ehrenreich, 17). This quote talks more about the average pay for teachers in different neighborhoods in New York City, teachers from poor neighborhoods received $53,000 per year while those in upper-middle-class areas were paid close to $95,000. This indicates that not only are the poor treated unfairly, but they are also retained in their position of poverty with no hope of salvation. Discrimination based on financial capabilities and the geographical background is a killer to the development and access of quality education among the poor people. Lowly paid teachers have little incentive to teach kids as their counterparts are paid a much better wage than themselves. The aspect of paying teachers low income creates a conundrum on the eradication of poverty and the so-called poor mans mentality.

Another major issue was raised by Kozol is whether you can really buy your way to better education for the children of the poor. On Barbaras conclusion, she talks about the working poor. And if we look closely enough, well have to conclude that poverty is not, after all, a cultural aberration or a character flaw. Poverty is a shortage of money. The poor can only buy education if they have the money, this can be done through taking their kids to better schools as the government could be said to be aiming at making education access within the poor neighborhoods a rare thing. In order to avoid raising children in an environment where education access is meager, the poor can sum up enough cash and escape the system escaping the system would mean cutting their children off public education and adopting private education which would help their children success in their future endeavors hence cutting out poverty.

Education within the poor neighborhoods is fully suppressed from all angles; firstly the teachers are poorly paid as compared to other teachers from middle-class environments. Secondly, the schools are not well maintained, the lack of basic amenities such as clean and enough lavatories, playing grounds and study facilities like books. The other aspect is the lack of enough schools within these neighborhoods; students are always in excess as compared to the recommended number of students in a given school. In any case, the irrationalities based on pay for teachers, lack of facilities, lack of diversity and low budget allocation to schools have contributed to low interest in education among the poor. Once individuals lack education, it means that they lack a livelihood, in any case, they would feel obligated to provide through other mechanisms such as theft, drugs, and burglary. The poor are poor due to poor education which is why one would say that they have discovered the reason why the poor remain poor and the richer remain rich.

Work Cited

Ehrenreich, Barbara. "Barbara Ehrenreich: How I Discovered The Truth About Poverty". Alternet. N.p., 2012. Web. 5 Feb. 2017.

Kozol, Jonathan. "Still Separate, Still Unequal a Child Gauge 2012". South African Journal of Child Health 6.4 (2005): n. pag. Web.