World Hunger and Poverty

Today I want to highlight the relevancy of literacy to poverty. Obviously, illiteracy leads to poverty, because illiterate people cannot get good jobs. In fact, 43% of people with the lowest literacy skills live in poverty.

Unfortunately, illiteracy still plagues society. For example, more than 20% of adults in the United States read at or below a fifth grade level, meaning that they read far below the level needed to earn a living wage. The National Adult Literacy Survey found that over 40 million Americans age 16 and older have significant literacy needs.

Almost nobody would choose to remain illiterate and poor. We need to make sure that everybody has the opportunity to get an education, and thus get a job that pays them enough to survive comfortably. We can do this fairly through student loans.

Individually, we can each help promote literacy in our own community. For example, we can volunteer at libraries, or host youth book clubs.

Pnnonline.org recently reported that parents’ educational values differ depending on the financial poverty of the school:

When it comes to teachers, what do parents value most — high student test scores or the ability to keep students satisfied? The answer depends in part on what kind of school you go to, according to a new study in the summer issue of Education Next.

According to economists Brian A. Jacob of the University of Michigan and Lars Lefgren of Brigham Young University, parents in high-poverty schools strongly value a teacher’s ability to raise student achievement and appear less concerned about student satisfaction. In more-affluent schools the results are reversed: parents most value a teacher’s ability to keep students happy.

“Our findings suggest that what parents want from school is likely to depend on the educational context in which they find themselves,” Jacob and Lefgren write. In low-income schools where academic resources are scarcer, motivated parents are more likely to request teachers based on their perceived ability to improve academic achievement. On the other hand, in higher-income schools parents seem to respond to the relative abundance of academic resources by seeking out teachers who also increase student satisfaction. This may reflect parental preferences for having their children enjoy school, Jacob and Lefgren speculate, or parental preferences for teachers who emphasize academic facets that increase student satisfaction but are not captured by standardized test scores, such as critical thinking and curiosity.

Read entire article on pnnonline.org.

While interesting, I see the findings as unsurprising. Of course, schools with limited resources need teachers that can do the most with the least. In contrast, rich schools have an overabundance of resources, so they concern themselves with pacifying and satisfying their rich students, who have a reputation for pseudo-rebellion and attitude problems (i.e. stuck up and picky).

The Associated Press recently released an article that points out an increase in educated poor. I include an excerpt:

A rise in college attendance coupled with downsizing, outsourcing and a shortage of high-paying jobs is bolstering the ranks of the educated poor – people with college degrees who don’t earn above the national poverty line, economists said.

According to recent U.S. Census estimates, the number of college graduates earning below the poverty line has more than doubled in the past 15 years to almost 6 million people.

Read entire article on theledger.com.

I felt compelled to post this information for two main reasons.

First, I want to show that poverty threatens all of us. It affects our friends, family members, children, and people in our own local communities. It doesn’t just affect some lazy and uneducated strangers from nowhere land. We have to organize our communities to eliminate poverty as a matter of self-preservation.

Second, I post these facts about the educated poor to undermine the myth that a poor person can escape poverty on their own. That myth causes people to put the blame solely on poor individuals rather than our non-meritocratic society. The high and rising rates of educated poor and working poor people show that one cannot simply escape poverty by getting an education and a job.

A recent editorial on jconline.com describes how some schools have overcome the achievement gap. I include an excerpt:

Chenoweth cites schools from coast to coast that have extricated themselves from what she calls the demography myth — the one that implies low-income means low-achieving.

High schools in Worcester, Mass., Elmont, N.Y., and elsewhere where poverty is an issue and most students are minorities are posting consistently high achievement scores, at times outscoring wealthier, less ethnically diverse counterparts across their states.

These students are graduating from high school at higher rates as well.

What is happening in these schools in which children are succeeding, regardless of their cultural background or income levels?

According to Chenoweth, teachers and administrators have placed high expectations on them, have worked hard to bring the kinds of learning experiences that will help them excel and created an environment where learning for learning’s sake is valued.

Teachers and administrators have examined students’ needs, adjusting teaching methods in a way that best fits them.

Read entire editorial on jconline.com.

Finally, some good news! I often refer to education as the most important tool in the fight against hunger. Luckily, the schools above actually use it to give poor kids a quality education, thus stoping the poverty cycle. Unfortunately, those schools only represent a tiny minority of schools. Most schools still have a huge achievement gap, and as a result the economic gap between rich and poor also increases because poor kids never get a fair shot. With the same potential and motivation, a poor kid will live a life of under-education and poverty, whereas a wealthy kid would live a life of success.

Malungelo Booi reports that students in South African schools commit suicide due to hunger:

HUNGER and desperation are driving pupils at a school near Mthatha to commit suicide, according to the principal.

More than a quarter of the pupils at Upper Corana High School, in Misty Mount near Mthatha, may be HIV/Aids orphans, and the high scholar suicide rate has become a matter of concern to provincial authorities.

Suthukazi Lujabe, the school’s principal, said most of the pupils walk long distances on empty stomachs to get to school.

She said every year from 2001 to 2006, one or two pupils killed themselves at the school due to hunger.

Read entire article by Malungelo Booi.

Such suicides demonstrate the terrible agony of which these poor children suffer. Even worse, think of the 18,000 children who involuntarily die from hunger. They suffer in hunger pains that would drive some to suicide, which leads to their slow death.

How can we expect children to learn in a school with such hunger?

The world has more than enough food to feed everyone. Why do we allow hunger to continue?!

What do you think?

In a recent press release the Green Party calls for fresh fruit in all primary schools (of New Zealand).

The Green Party is calling for the Free Fruit in Schools programme to be extended to all primary schools in New Zealand, and for the Government to make available free, healthy breakfasts in all schools, Green Party Health Spokesperson Sue Kedgley says.

Currently only 268 of the 2,662 schools that have children of primary school age on their rolls have access to the Fruit in Schools programme.

“If thousands of children are going to school hungry every day, this will adversely affect their health and well being, as well as their ability to learn. Hungry children won’t be able to concentrate and learn properly, and chronically hungry children inevitably develop nutritional deficiencies and health problems, ” Ms Kedgley says.

“That’s why most developed nations offer free lunches in schools, and it is a tragedy that we don’t have that programme here. The cost would be miniscule, compared to the health and education benefits,” Ms Kedgley says.

Read entire press release.

I find it absurd to expect children to learn while hunger, undernourished, or malnourished. To run a school properly, the children need access to healthy food. Rather than waste time futilely appealing to the government to fix up the under-funded hell-holds that they call schools, we the people need to make our own private schools. We need to ensure that every child has access to education, and that education must come with food, clothes, and shelter. I believe we can best provide this through student loans and boarding schools.

What do you think?