Education & Poverty
Something that I feel is important to note today with educational and social changes are to take into consideration the context students are placed and the backgrounds they come from. Having knowledge is a privilege, not an expectation and the line between these become blurred when looking at students who come from poverty. The main question my classmates and I have been discussing this week is what a good or just education would look like for specifically children living in poverty. We came up with a brief list of eliminating the idea of social stigmas, providing role models they could relate to, considering parents’ needs and access to services, and thinking about practical skills as well as academic skills.
My classmates and I visited a town called Pamplona Alta, which is characterized by extreme poverty and lack of access to basic necessities and social changes. It houses about 20,000 residents who have either moved from the city center because they were displaced or because they were looking for affordable places to live. The houses are tiny and appear stacked on top of one another and look more like colorful rows of sheds rather than livable homes. Stray dogs flocked throughout the streets, many of whom were friendly and came up to us and curiously herded around our group. We had a guide, Luis, who has been working on one of the bigger issues that seems to remain in Pamplona Alta which is access to water. Many residents have jugs which they carry down from long concrete stairwells from their homes, in order to access the watering stations. They even pay more than the residents who live in the wealthy neighborhoods of Peru. In addition, Luis and his group have focused on providing adequate bathroom systems around this area with what he calls “baños secos” (dry toilets) which has been innovative in a way that has changed how the residents use bathrooms and helps the environment at the same time since it doesn’t actually use water. Many families are conscious about helping the environment as well. When we asked one lady if she would still continue using these “baños secos” even if they were given a toilet with a sewage system, she responded yes because she knew this was way more environmentally friendly. Only about 250 families have these bathrooms currently due to the fact that they need to be able to pay for a part of it along with the government’s help, but these families take pride in paying for it and being able to call this their own. Although to the outsider, Pamplona Alta appears to be a deteriorating shantytown, it was apparent that many families took pride since they built the community from absolutely nothing and turned it into their own. They made the most of their living situation by painting their houses bright colors and including landscape and flowers along the front of their houses. There was also a strong sense of community and family, and in contrast to what most would expect, the people here dressed well and had a very clean appearance. It gave a whole new meaning to what it means to call a place home, and reminded me that where you come from doesn’t determine who you are or will be in the future.
Pamplona Alta also has the private school Fe y Alegria (talked about in my previous blog), but it has suffered a lack of teachers since it is located far from the city center and is situated in the hills where the road stops at the bottom. This has caused over half the classrooms to be empty and children left out to be running around the streets. The school is also difficult to get to in general for students and can be dangerous when it gets dark and they have to walk by themselves. This has brought us back to our question again on what constitutes a good education for these students living in poverty. From our discussions, we have talked about providing these children more content not less, because they are still brilliant and come into classrooms bringing in their own kind of knowledge. As teachers, it is important to still hold expectations for these students and build upon their strengths. The readings we have also been going over have talked about addressing “the emotional ego strength to challenge societal views of the competence and worthiness of the children and their families,” (Delpit 224). These students are not just empty vessels to be filled with knowledge by all-knowing teachers, but they also have their own background knowledge that they can bring to the classroom and show their strengths in different ways. This is one of my reasons why I chose to become a teacher, because it is a job where you are continuously discovering new knowledge and learning alongside your own students.
As our world is constantly changing today, I believe that educators are approaching educational changes in various ways. There are programs that try to provide children from low-income families to meet the basic standards of their wellbeing and ways on finding the balance between the inputs and outputs of education. It is still a topic for debate though, as these programs have not shown much progress, so we as educators must work together to improve and build upon these types of programs, continue to set high expectations for all students, and provide more equal/accessible education especially for students living in poverty.
