Multi-Dimensions of Poverty and Historical Evaluation

✅ Paper Type: Free Essay	✅ Subject: Sociology
✅ Wordcount: 2318 words	✅ Published: 8th Feb 2020

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Abstract

Many individuals face economic issues, and the difference in race, gender, nationality, origin, age, disability, and government restrictions can cause them to miss an opportunity in education. Education is vital for all. It is the level of education that contribute to individuals in earning respect, recognition, and succeed in life. If the socioeconomic status is low, then the opportunities’ available can cause and individual to miss an opportunity without a support system. The observation of economic status and the working class is an individual’s image of who we are and rests within our economic status that is displayed. We as individuals are respected by how many assets we possess. Kay Ann’s Taylor analysis illustrates the many factors that led to poverty.

This research will examine how poverty is seen in a historical aspect as well as multi-dimensionally while focusing on the nature of racism and democracy as well as the relations to the classroom environment and teaching. I will demonstrate a hypothesis by the comparison and contrasting of Kay Ann Taylors and additional authors views on poverty.

Poverty increases the crime rate. Tax-payers have to pay for low-income housing. Needy individuals are living off society because they cannot find a job.

I can relate to being in poverty because I grew up and a single family home because my dad died at 28, when I was 12 years old. As a result, my education suffered to assist my mother in providing for the household. In the beginning, I couldn’t even afford eyeglass to see the blackboard, which caused me not to understand a lot that was going on in the cause. I sacrificed for my two sisters to succeed in school and as a result one of my sisters is an Anesthesiologist traveling Nurse and the other sister owns her own business. As I put poverty in perspective I realize that for my family was not an individual problem but motivated through some support system; Teachers, Mother or Sibling. I have a new respect for individuals in poverty.

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“About 15 million children in the United States – 21% of all children – live in families with incomes below the federal poverty threshold, a measurement that has been shown to misjudge the essentials of families. Research shows that, on average, families need an income of about twice that level to cover necessary expenses”. [NCCP], 2018, para. 1).

Poverty is a social let down that exposes the conflicts of administrative policies and weakness of the economy. A reflection on poverty and the consequences associated with the learning environment will be analyzed along with an association and a conflicting viewpoint that support the research.

History of Poverty

The majority of individuals existed in extreme poverty in the 1820s, and only a small amount of people a higher standard of living. While economic development has progressed in the last 200 years, there are still significant issues to be resolved. The World Bank only started broadcasting data in 1981 for absolute poverty. (Roser & Ortiz-Ospina, 2017).

There are six types of poverty: urban, rural, generational, situational, relative and absolute poverty focus. Some Authors have assumed that poverty as an individuals concern and can lead to health problems such as depression and anxiety which can cascade into by alcoholism, drug use. Additionally, research has shown that poverty can affect how the brain functions in related to memory development. For instance, there is a challenging relationship between memory achievement and the income attainment gap(Evans, Brooks-Gunn, & Klebanov, 2011).

 Absolute poverty is an insufficiency of such necessities as shelter, running water, and food.

 Relative poverty refers to an individual’s economic status whose income is insufficient to meet its society’s average standard of living(Jenson, n.d., Chapter 1).

Contrasting Views

Ben Carson, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development(SHUD), says that “poverty is large “a state of mind,” and take somebody with the wrong mindset; you can give them everything in the world, they will work their way back down to the bottom”(Peck, 2017, para. 2).

In the argument, Carson suggests that if an individual thinks that they are in poverty, they always will be in poverty. The statement can be a yes and no because the majority of poverty stems from a social movement that is discouragingly low. Poverty is the result of an increasingly corrupt government that encourages systemic racism, employee corruption, hereditary tradition and years of ineffective policies.

Kay Ann Taylor articulates that “Deficit essentialist philosophy is as ingrained in the United States as are racism and sexism. The face of poverty has become code for and synonymous with African Americans, urban, people of color in general, poor whites, and women of all types”. (Taylor, 2009, p. 1).

It is true that teaching children to be “winners” falls on parents and lot of it has to do with what we teach children( As cited by Peck, 2017, para. 6). However, with poverty, no matter what an individual does, they are compressed between the multi-dimensions of poverty: health problems, lack of education, substandard living arrangements, inadequate income and reduced quality of life (Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative [OPHI], n.d.).

Poverty Multi-dimension Characteristics

According, to Kathy Ann Taylor’s historical research; “numerous factors led to poverty, including laws and acts, white and male privilege, scientific racism and social welfare.” She also argues that poverty in the United States (U.S.) is an organizational, entrenched, longstanding, and systemic requirement to maintain capitalism’s effectiveness and its ongoing outcome of supremacy, patriarchy, and a capitalistic economic structure”(Taylor, 2009, p. 1).

Poverty is the absence of basic needs to live, which includes food, housing, clothing, and housing services. The living is typically vital to maintaining a certain level of physical, social, and emotional needs. Individuals that live in poverty have a tough time to succeed in the society that they live.

Classroom Poverty

Taylor submits (Taylor, (2009) that Families in urban communities have been dislodged and separated through the wealthy investing in the urban property the, which moves the unfortunate individual is out and the wealthy and middle class living in luxury as fast as the New York High Line.

The views about the education reform have been discussed politically in detail in past years and have continued previous methods of testing as well as teacher and school assessments’.

When the quantity of students in poverty increases, it will make the classrooms more diverse. As a result, education and learning become more challenging because some teachers do not know how to articulate effective communication with students in poverty. Poverty issues can remain a challenge for educators, as opposing to becoming an issue. For example, focusing on student learning as opposed to teaching.

NCLB Act is robotic-like because many of the peers that teach in K-12 settings had to reevaluate their moral principle because; were they preparing the students for success? If a teachers job is on the line; perverse incentives are created when development is based solely on test scores, which can hurt teaching. Additionally, the NCLB Act did not give an accurate synopsis of diversity in student background, which can give a false result on Annual Yearly Progress(AYP).

While NCLB had some good points, such as the combination of diverse student’s incorporated in the classroom so that every student has an unbiased learning environment and could learn about different cultures other than their own. On the other hand teachers suffered because they could receive a negative review and it could affect the salaries or job.

The NCLB Act exempted private schools, which increased the education system’s prejudices since usually families of the influential and wealthy have the chance for private education, which is biased for the less fortunate students(Taylor, 2009). Taylor explains, “the directive of the act that allowed military recruitment in low-achieving, and typically low-income schools target the poor and exempt the wealthy and elite”(Taylor, 2009, p. 13).

The term ‘White Privaledge was discussed, in the context and of not being racist, by how it exists because of historical, enduring racism and biases. Kay Ann Taylor describes that “white privilege is an unwarranted asset and benefit in American society by having white skin that provides social and cultural capital while placing people of color at a disadvantage and subject to oppression”(Taylor, 2009, p. 4).

Conclusion

In summary, individuals living in poverty have limited access to education in any aspect, which makes it difficult for them to locate employment with salaries that permit them to have access to a quality education. The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) can influence outcomes by demanding schools to improve the test scores, which separates the low-income families who do not have the resources to keep up with the other student’s progressions. Furthermore, the teacher has to improve standards that cater to all students and meet the problem head-on so that all students succeed. Historically, the economy is improving. However, the poverty-stricken individuals are getting left behind or being forced to relocate due to the wealthy on political decisions. Many poor individuals are motivated to succeed but are victims of class divide.

There is an existing political pattern that cannot be justified. Poverty must be engaged because it is not just the absence of income to meet basic needs. It is also the various consequences of this absence that is simultaneously experienced by people in poverty. Others interpret poverty as an unavoidable consequence of economic failure or, even, as a just an individual irresponsibility or responsibility. In actuality, there is a discussion about poverty; how politics can lay the foundation for sustainment. There is a need for policy reform, instead of producing policies on steroids that keep poor individuals …Well, poor.

Kay Ann Taylor said it best: People devastated by poverty are not deficient, lessthan, or subhuman. They are not broken. However, the system in which they are embroiled very well may be(Taylor, 2009, p. 18).

References