Blog Post #5
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The issues revolving around poverty and homelessness are unfortunately still extremely prevalent in our country, and are even prevalent within the younger demographic as well. Even just reading the title of the article from the New York Times really surprised me, and made me recognize how big this issue still is today, as the article says "114,000 Students in N.Y.C. are homeless"(Shapiro, 2019). Watching the documentary and reading the articles really opened my eyes to the different problems revolving around poverty and homelessness that not only adults face, but children across the country. |
There were several different themes I picked up on while watching the documentary and reading the articles, but one that stuck out to me the most was the idea of school being one of the only stable things in the life of children who live in poverty or are homeless. Throughout the documentary, Kasey, Anthony and Roque face many different issues including never having a stable place to stay and sleep, but the one stable thing in their life was the school they attended. This was also shown in the articles as well, as the author describes that at night, these children sometimes sleep in unsafe rooms, and move around every few months as "school is the only stable place they know"(Shapiro, 2019). Another main theme I noticed was how long and enduring the days were for each student. Every single kid in both the documentary, and the articles had these long, drawn out days doing things we take for granted but in a more difficult way as they really had to search and fight for every day things such as eating and sleeping. The quote at the end of the New York Times article "They will be up before the sun rises to do it all again"(Shapiro, 2019), put an emphasis on the days being very long, repetitive, and a struggle for each child.
One book that I thought of right away while reading through the article and watching the documentary was A Long Walk To Water by Linda Sue Park. We read this novel in 7th grade, and the struggles that two of the main characters named Salva and Nya have to go through reminds me of the problems that kids that live in poverty go through including the struggle to find food, water and not having a stable place to sleep every night. One song that I thought of that relates to the topic of poverty and homelessness is Tragic by a new up-and-coming artist named The Kid Laroi. He raps in the song "I remember times when I ain't have s--t, no food in my crib now I live lavish". These lyrics are attributed to him living in a very low income area as a kid in Australia, and often faced the same problems as many other homeless children.
Poverty and homelessness is clearly still a huge problem for our youth today, and as a future educator I will make sure to raise awareness on child poverty just as they did in the Westran School District. Bringing attention to the poverty and low-income situations by making sure these kids can feel comfortable at school will be one of my main priorities, as all I care about is the future success of my students.
Nick Incalcaterra
References
De Mare, A., Kelly, K., & Taber, K. (Producers), & De Mare, A., & Kelly, K. (Directors). (2014). The homestretch [Streaming video]. United States: Bullfrog Films.
Cliburn. E. (2019). Westran teachers, staff participate in poverty simulation. Moberly Monitor Index.
Shapiro, E (2019, November). 114,000 students in N.Y.C. are homeless. These two let us into their lives. New York Times.
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