Childhood poverty significantly limits potentials and opportunities

Childhood poverty compromises every aspect of the lives of those so affected, as they try to make their way in the world that is very often unforgiving of those who don’t fit the pre-cast mold set up by the ever-elusive ‘they’.  In essence, there’s a failure to thrive.

The label ‘failure to thrive’ was assigned to me when I was an infant. In my late 20s, I learned that it was still applied, as part of my ‘medical condition’; being undeweight, often a function of cerebral palsy and galloping metabolism that sucks up calories faster than I can take them in. 

As to children in poverty, failure to thrive is often impacted by spotty nutrition, with children and families relying on food banks and the like to top up requirements each month when funds get low. Failure to thrive is evidenced in school performance; a hungry child cannot concentrate. A child worried about being laughed at because he’s wearing jeans that are dirty and too short cannot effectively learn. He’s a victim of circumstances out of his control. 

Lessons in empathy need to be part of the daily curriculum so that those children who don’t experience such struggles are made aware of the needs of schoolmates who work and play around them. Across the ages, civility is waning and we need to pull it out of the gutter, dust it off and build lessons around it. Where better than in the classroom, at the beginning of the journey of formal education?

A dilemma for those who want to help is how do we help and who do we help? We tend to  take a broad brush to the issue of poverty, putting Group A over here and Group B over there.  We decide, without benefit of facts or family history, who is deserving of our largesse and who may be less so. Hmm. Here’s the thing — people are people. We all cry. We all laugh. We all live. We all die.

Children living in poverty are at risk on so many levels aside from what the mainstream sees as the obvious - food insecurity, inadequate housing and lapses in effective parenting from adults in their world. Lapses in parenting may well contribute to school absenteeism.

Being forced to live on the fringes during their formative years, during their school years, from K to 12, impacts a child in ways that may leave lifelong scars. That’s the reality of their world but there are so many among us who can help change outcomes by getting involved in our community with attention given to those who need us most. Call your local elementary school and offer to be a reading buddy. Your contribution will help boost literacy scores. Boosting literacy helps take a bite out of poverty. Think about that.

In today’s world, yesterday’s curriculum isn’t doing the job; we need to provide students with a more ‘in the world’ hands-on approach to learning. Certainly, sitting down and listening to instructors impart their knowledge about particular subjects needs to be part of the process but it could be expanded to incorporate exposure to  material beyond the pages of a book, or the information on a chalk board. Is it boredom that’s keeping children out of school? Layered learning might be the solution. Learning that’s designed with input from the students. Learning that is more inclusive of the broader community; inviting them in to teach. To learn themselves.

Young people living in poverty who are of working age, often miss school so they may earn money via part-time jobs to top up the family pot of funds required to just get by. Many families come to depend on their teenagers’ part time jobs to put extra food in the cupboards and cover costs of school supplies or special ‘school recommended’ sneakers or jackets.  Some families simply cannot afford any extras. Most may not even have a savings account that has sufficient funds to cover an unexpected emergency. That’s the reality of poverty for so many.

Making the school curriculum more relevant from the outset, beginning in 1st grade, may well be the best way to ensure a continuity of attendance. Engaging students in activities physically, intellectually and emotionally will ensure the creation of long-term memories with a skill set that will ensure that they are able to get off the poverty wheel going nowhere and establish themselves in careers they love with jobs that will be fulfilling with opportunities for advancement.

Childhood poverty is real. It is a problem. It can be made less so with greater and sustained involvement of those in the community who have the time and resources to make a difference. Could you be such a person?

Carla MacInnis Rockwell is a freelance writer and disability rights advocate living outside Fredericton, NB with her aging Australian silky terrier and a rambunctious Maltese. She can be reached via email at carmacrockwell@xplornet.ca