Understanding the Condition of Poverty in Children and their Families

This class helps educators and other service providers understand what living in generational poverty means to some of our students and their families. Because poverty often puts our children in a survival mode - you get up in the morning and don't know what you'll have on a daily basis - there are specific hidden rules that need to be followed. Many of these hidden rules are very different or contrary to those that are followed in middle class. The result can be a lack of understanding and confrontation.

Other areas discussed will be language and story structure and how it can affect discipline and achievement; as well as family structure, voices, and mediation. Participants will be provided time to discuss and plan how this information can be implemented into the classroom and service agency.