Poverty

Poverty

According to dictionary.com poverty is:

pov·er·ty   [pov-er-tee]  noun

1.   the state or condition of having little or no money, goods, ormeans of support; condition of being poor. Synonyms:privation, neediness, destitution, indigence, pauperism,penury. Antonyms: riches, wealth, plenty.

Communicating with the international colleagues this week was enlightening in some areas.  It’s very intriguing being able to understand our professional field in these different areas of the world through the eyes of those that are teaching it.  The below information is conversation back and forth put into context.

Questions that began our discussions:

Does your school and/or community see a high number of families with economic struggles?  Poverty?  Low income that places parents in hardships when it comes to the education of their child?

Does your school assist these families with tuition or any form of assistance?  Does the government assist if the school isn’t able to?

·         Kathryn Wonnacott – Belfast, Ireland, Nursery Asst. in a preschool of 3’s – 4’s with 52 children within the school.

o   Application priority is given to families who receive state benefit ie those who are out of work because they can't find work or are too ill to work. These children usually make up about half of our nursery. (Reminder, nursery is what this region refers to as preschool ages 3 – 4).  These children are also entitled to free school meals at nursery while other pay £10.50 a week. Everyone pays a voluntary £4 a week for school funds and other than that we are government funded. However the more free school meals children we have forms a base for our funding the following year.  Each year the school must supply documentation of families in need for both school lunches and children in need of additional specialists coming within the building for assistance.

·         Lina Vasquez – Pre School teacher in Colombia

o    Help is offered to the families of economic struggles, women are of high “strata” and go through this process, and the Government does not help.  Medellin (the town from where she is from) there are many households with nuclear families, but these families are not from homes of adults, young households are those who live this problem.  (an easier translation of this is that younger couples that have children tend to have a lot of disagreements within the home)  The majority of couples are married because there is already a child, few are planned they plan the same.  Couples live together and have no children because they are unsure if they want them or of their relationship, these couples (partners) offer major stability to the children when children do come as they are wanted and wished for instead of happening then the couple ends up having to marry.

·         Melanie Buckley – Germany Dodds school system (Department of Defense schools usual locations are on military bases both state side and overseas)

o   I haven't seen a dramatic change in our demographics, however they fluctuate pretty frequently because we're a transient community - being a Dodds school - our families are generally only stationed here for 3 years so the population is constantly changing. 

There is a good deal of diversity in our classrooms, both ethnically and racially. Again, this directly reflects the military community in general. We have a number of ESL students - where one parent or the other comes from a Hispanic, Asian or German background. I don't think that this diversity affects our school community in a negative way - on the contrary, I think that it lends itself to a sense of open-mindedness and a lack of cliques that I've observed in stateside public/civilian schools. 

As far as low-income students - we do see a difference in students who come from very young families (which would also mean from lower ranking soldiers = less pay). I'm not sure if their finances make the difference in their child rearing skills, or if it's just a lack of maturity. The military has an excellent support system to ensure that children/families are provided the very basic needs. They also offer many services (for free) that would not be as readily available in the civilian world - i.e. financial classes for parents, parenting classes, child care services (low or no cost), low cost extra-curricular activities for students including sports, dance & artistic classes, etc. There is a free/reduced lunch program that anyone E-4 and below qualifies for, and we have WIC available for the same demographic. With all of that provided, however, we still see students coming to school under dressed, without proper lunches, lacking sleep/structure/supervision...so it's hard to say if it's a reflection on finances or their experience. I will say that if we have a consistent problem with a family - once we contact their Command there is usually a swift solution.

·         Crystal Trigaux – Incheon, South Korea,2^nd level teacher (In American terms equivalent to 2^nd grade)

o   The cost of tuition is just the way of life/ cost of things in Korea. All Korean education is expensive... no scholarships/ no poverty... I am in Korea to make money to go work within impoverished situations... The school year ends in September... No poverty at my school, of course...I dont mean that about all schools.. I am not sure about others, only my own. I have been told our school is well known and sort of has the creme de la creme so to speak. I wasn’t aware of that going in, but I am glad at least that I am at a school where I am getting paid etc. We do get paid well, but the salary is about the same as in US for a teacher. I don’t have a teaching degree of course/ only missions and economics...so it’s a better job for me here, in that I am not working some 10 to 15 dollar and hour job like in the U.S. and I don’t have a teaching certificate. 

§  Crystal described the pay to me as the school paid for her to fly to the country (Korea) and they will pay for one return trip home for “holiday” while also paying for her return flight at the end of contract.  School is over in September and she was offered to re-sign on for another year.  Most teachers within her school are moving on to another region of the world as with the company she is with you must begin teaching in a “less desirable” area in order to transfer to a different more desirable location.  On top of being paid a salary equivalent to a US teaching salary, the school supplies housing.  Her only bills are food.

·         Katie Meyler – Monrovia, Liberia (founder of “More than me foundation”, an organization that assists girls in West Africa to get off of the streets and gain an education)

Upon posting this, unable to reach Katie.  If communication is opened, I will update promptly.