Sunday, March 27, 2016

Kayla Goodwin: Book Blog 2


Book Blog 2
1.     Abramsky (2013), points out that in 2010, 14,000 children in Chicago were consisted to be homeless and unfortunately that number would continue to rise. By 2011, the number had increased to 16,000 (p.101). As a teacher, I know how important it is for children to have a stable living environment in order for them to be successful at school. If they are homeless, how can we expect them to have a desire to learn, when they have other things on their mind? If we are going to break the chain and decrease poverty, our government can’t forget about the children.
2.     Martin Luther King Jr. stated the following “The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people” (Abramsky, 2013, p. 126). This quote provides a great example as to how individuals that are not living in poverty are not helping individuals who are living in poverty. We may think there is nothing we can do to help others, however like King stated, being silent is just as deadly as actually committing a cruel act.
3.     James Kuzman, the principal of Rancho High School in North Las Vegas states the following “At school there’s only so much kids can learn. What you learn from most are your experiences” (Abramsky, 2013, p. 148). With this statement, Kuzman brought up an excellent point, in that if we expect children to learn, we need to provide them with different experiences. If as a child, the only experience they have is living in poverty, how can we expect them to want to live differently? It is our government’s job, to provide children with the opportunity to live above the poverty line, and by providing children with that experience, they will then have a stronger desire to live above the poverty line as an adult.


Reference

    Abramsky, S. (2013). The American way of poverty: How the other half still lives. New York, NY:        Nation Books

1 comment:

  1. Good post. I agree that all of these are things that stuck out to me. It is sad that amount of parents who do not teach their kids at home as you discussed in #3, if the parents expect to learn they have to teach them and they have to live by example. IF they want their kids to succeed, they need to have the desire and drive to prosper with them around so they can see that you can do anything if you pout your mind to it.

    ReplyDelete