There are so many pieces to the poverty puzzle because there are so many reasons why all of us become who we become. The culture we identify with tends to influence what we believe about ourselves. The impact of culture begins to take shape in the family. For most of us, our perceptions about ourselves and the world, starts to take shape in that first group we belong to. These perceptions, and the decisions we make around them, tend to reflect our family experiences long after we leave home. From the start, family monitors a mental, intellectual and sometimes spiritual, drawbridge that extends out into the culture, and that culture’s belief systems. This drawbridge regulates the ideas coming into the household. We learn how to make choices, mostly, by watching how the people around us make choices. If there’s any kind of defect in that lesson then the student walks away confused and often ill-equipped to deal with the challenges of life. I don’t believe anyone makes a decision to be poor, but I believe, absolutely, they do have the power to put an end to a family legacy of poverty. Some kids grow up in an environment where the results of good decision making are all around them. Where there’s a lack of decision-making skill, bad decision making will ride the generational tide, and can make it impossible to break a miserable cycle. Negative belief systems of a family, or of a community, won’t change until adult members make the decision to do something different. The something different that will have the most meaningful impact involves responsibility to the children in their care.
Of course, decision-making affects everything from how we spend our time and money, our relationships, and even the politicians we vote for. The CDF report makes it clear that who we vote for, and not just in the presidential election, but also in our district and our state, can impact the quality of housing, employment, and access to daycare available for every neighborhood and community. CDF proposes that these are the policies we, as voters, need to hold our politicians accountable for in this war on poverty. If they don’t support these policies we need to confront them and ask “why not”? If they don’t know why these issues are important (and don’t be surprised if some of them don’t) offer to email them the CDF report to make your point. It’s a free download.
For a family living in poverty, for generations, education can be a good first step up from poverty, and this is where literacy comes into play. No one can argue anymore that the poor are sitting at home collecting welfare. The recession pretty much put that argument to sleep. More working people, including a large chunk of the former middle class, are being added to the poverty numbers. Working and being poor adds a lot of stress on an entire family. There seems to be little or no time for poor children to be read to. Poor children are also found to hear fewer words, or be spoken to less by adults. A lot of the issues poor children face can actually rewire their brains during the most crucial time of brain development. It’s hard to imagine that any parent looks at their child for the first time with hope for a life of poverty and prison. In my mind, that blows up everything we understand about being human. I believe we look at a baby, for the first time, and we all see the highest of possibilities for that child. According to the CDF, one study found that by the time a child living in a family that earns a high income turns 4 they’ve already heard 30 million more words than a poor child. I find this upsetting, mostly, because we are talking about WORDS. Language is free and it’s all around us in print. Words can be written down on a flash card, a piece of paper, a box, a sidewalk, practically anywhere. I’m not upset with those who don’t know this, but with those of us who know, who’ve been educated, and have lived by this, yet we are not doing enough to make it known to the parents and families of the 14.7 million poor children in this country. The grassroots are growing around our feet. One of the most important messages for parents in poverty is that a child’s relationship to reading, and language, is what counts, not what’s in the family bank account.
It may shock you to know that out of 35 industrialized countries America ranks at 34 for its efforts to cure child poverty. The most powerful country on the planet, with the largest economy, and the largest military budget by far, is only ahead of Romania in fighting poverty, and Romania has an economy that’s 99% smaller than ours. Discussing and debating whether or not it’s their fault they’re poor isn’t going to change anything. It’s a waste of energy. If we all don’t get into the fight to cure poverty then it’s everybody’s fault. The fault lies on each of who are not using what we have to help. If each one will take the time to reach one then we can get it done. Doing our part to help the poor out of poverty lifts us up as a nation; whether it be calling out our elected officials on the issue, or donating to the cause by whatever means personally available to us. We can all do something. Judging from how slow the process moves, and we often seem to not be moving at all, waiting for organizations or institutions, some unfortunately bloated by bureaucracy, to come up with the solutions all by themselves is a disservice to the children. Let’s face it, if they could do it without us, the foot soldiers, it would already be done. There’s a grassroots movement growing around your feet.
For every one of us rich or poor our course in life starts with a decision. I believe parents, and members of the community at large, do actually have the power to win the war on poverty. We can win with good decision making for when we vote, and making the importance of it known to others, especially the children. We can do our part to infuse literacy into poor communities. Even if you don’t, regularly, come in contact with someone living in poverty, you can still be proactive by making a donation to organizations on the front lines like the Children’s Defense Fund or United Way (check). Volunteer and reads books to children and encourage a love for reading, or just give them books to read on their own. Ask a young person why they’ve chosen the goals they have. Challenge them to articulate, enunciate and learn to express their ideas. Give away your used children’s books. I prefer to put books, directly, into the hands of children. Of course, that’s not an option for everybody. I can tell you that the grateful responses I get from the kids, and their parents, are amazing and a lot of the books aren’t anywhere near new. Of course, good decision-making isn’t all it will take to win the war on poverty, but it can be a good start. It’s my hope that, maybe from the trenches might come one child, at least if not many, taught to think critically enough, that he or she can take us all to the next level.
To download the Children’s Defense Fund free report go to childrensdefense.org.
Looking for Love: How to Avoid Relationships that Might Mess up Your Life and Decisions Are Destiny: Short Lessons on Decision Making and Life Wisdom for Teens and Young Adults are both available now on Amazon Kindle.
