Feeling Alone As the Opportunity Gap Widens for Kids

Source: Mindshift

Author: Holly Korbey

Date: 3-15-15

Link to Article

Key Points: This article touches on how poverty is affecting children in their schooling.  The author talks about a teacher who is a High School english teacher who has 185 students.  Most of these students live in impoverished situations.  She has no textbooks to give these students yet they are expected to still pass state tests.  She mentions a student who wanted to make up work she had missed because she moved out of her house and has been sleeping on a friends couch.  A common story for the children she teaches.  The article suggests that today, children who grow up poor have a smaller chance at success because they don't have the built in supports that children who come from richer families have.  No one is there to cushion the blows of life for them. Although these kids are on social media and "well connected" they really don't have "connections" that matter.  Schools need to have adequate supplies for all students.  They need to look into and support early childhood education initiatives and community school partnerships.  Mostly we need to look around and realize that this gap occurs and do what we can to close it.


Intended Audience: Educators, adults, administration

Relevance: This article is especially relevant because a lot of us will be teaching in schools with a significant population of students living in poverty.  If we can understand and know where our students come from we will better be able to understand and have compassion.  It will ultimately help us as educators to understand our own and our student's positionality.