Assignment 4 A Discussion with a Poverty Professional

During my latest field experience, I spent some time taking to the transition aide in the classroom I am observing.  Out of the three adults in the room during my visit, she has the least amount of early childhood education credits and the least amount of time on the job.  However, our discussion led to an after school meeting that allowed me to gain some amazing insights about how parents in poverty work to provide for their children; a key part of my advocacy paper.

When I arrived in the class, I sat toward the door and watched as parents interacted with the staff.  Elaine (fictitious name) happened to be in early because the lead teacher had to be out of school for the morning to complete some end-of-year meetings so this gave me the opportunity to watch her carefully.  I watched as she got down to each student’s level and then spent time greeting and mingling with the parents.  I could immediately tell that the parents were comfortable with her and that led me to ask her what her secret was.  I was not prepared for the answer.

Elaine stated that she had raised three children on her own after her husband was killed in an automobile accident.  He left her with no life insurance, no savings, and a ton of debt.  As a result, she lost her house, her car, her boat, and all the toys that she once thought were so important.  This experience thrust her into poverty and she worked tirelessly to provide for her family.  She discussed how working two jobs meant needing a babysitter when the kids got home from school.  To pay for that babysitter, she ended up cleaning houses on the weekends.  This is how poverty works she said, you work to work, you work to survive.

This discussion led to two very important insights about my research topic.  One, just like there is no general example for wealth, there is no general example for poverty and two, when talking with parents, it is imperative to do so openly so they do not feel like you are judging them.  Elaine showed me an excellent example of how to treat parents so they feel like I understand their situations.

Observing and Interacting With Professionals, Children and Families in an Early Childhood Setting

                Over the past two weeks of module 2, I interacted with a variety of professionals.  Besides the classroom teacher Kathleen, I also interacted with the building principal, the school social worker, and the director of the NMCAA agency.  I spent time talking to the principal about how the impending budget cuts in Michigan would affect children in poverty.  I had assumed that she would discuss the programs affected by the cuts as the main issue but learned that this was only one side of the issue.  For example, because of budget cuts, the school will have to lay off their full-time social worker and replace her with a part-time social worker shared between three schools.  This means the kids in poverty would lose an advocate at the building level.  This left me wondering how I would help the children in poverty in my class to get the services they needed because I do not have the resources that the social worker has.

                The discussion with the building principal left me questioning my advocacy efforts.  I believed that I had heard the worst of the cuts until I talked with the NMCAA director who oversees the Head Start classes in our area.  She stated that all Head Start classes in our area would be limited to four hours a day instead of the full day programs they are right now.  One of my focus questions for my paper discusses the role of parents in the early childhood experience.  Parents who send their kids to Head Start use their time away from their kids working and/or going to school.  Now they will have to either find daycare for the kids or will have to go to school or work less.  What effect will this have on early childhood education for their child?  Will the parents be able to keep their kids in the program or will they have to find a cheap alternative care that is not as high of a quality? 

                Regardless of a person’s personal views about Head Start and its effectiveness of helping children in poverty, it seems clear to me that the cuts made in my area will have clear negative effects on children in the early childhood setting.  I have spent the past years working in, believing in, and advocating for Head Start and am struggling to make sense of these cuts that will clearly affect the children we serve. 

Journal Entry 2 Observation of Professionals, Children, and Families

               During the two-week period for this journal entry, I observed multiple professionals working with young children in a Head Start classroom at Traverse Heights Elementary School.  Besides the classroom teacher, Kathleen, I also observed as speech therapists, occupational therapists, and school counselors served children.  Each of these people plays an important role in the daily operation of the class and directly influences the success of the children they serve.  While each of these people effectively worked with children, one person stood out as an important liaison for children in poverty, the family service worker.

                I witnessed Misty working with children and I saw her interacting with the children’s parents.  This impressed me because it relates to my research paper topic and how people in poverty get the resources they need to survive.  I understand that survive is a strong word, but that is what families in poverty are doing.  The family service worker links families in poverty to community organizations that can help them as they try to improve their living situations.  For example, on Tuesday I saw Misty give a parent a gas card so she could take her four-year-old daughter to and from school for the week.  This definitely set the mom’s mind at ease.

                This clearly shows the struggle of families in poverty.  What would that mother do to get the money for gas if Misty was not there?  Would her daughter make it to school?  This is a reality for people in poverty and Misty told me that she is not concerned about what would happen, she is concerned with what does happen.  As the link between home and school, Misty works tirelessly to help parents problem solve so their children make it to the classroom each day. 

                I accept that some people will say that the girl’s mom should simply get a job.  But the reality of the situation is that she has a job, in fact she has two jobs, and she is still struggling to get by because her wages are abysmal.  Misty stated that she finds that most of the parents she works with are hard workers who just do not make enough for rent, food, clothing, and utilities.  Most are poorly educated and come from generations of poverty.  I’m with Misty, I do not care about the woman getting a $10 gas card, I care about getting her child to school and allowing her to experience a childhood with a proper education like those who are not in poverty.    

Interview

I interviewed two Head Start employees that work with children in poverty, my area of interest in the field of early childhood education.  Both of the interviewees reinforced my feelings that poverty in education is an important research topic.  The teacher in the room next to mine relayed the idea that she finds that many of the children in her class come from homes where early childhood education is seen as unimportant.  She regularly finds that her children in poverty fail to experience a language rich environment at home.  She was quick to tell me that she did not feel poverty was at fault, but instead the fault lied in the fact that the parents had to work so much to provide for their families.  Therefore, she struggled to get parents to buy into the importance of what she does at school each day.

The other person I interviewed was a family service worker for Head Start.  She informed me of two areas that are especially hard for families in poverty, access to family resources and access to high quality health care.  She told me that both of these issues directly affect how children in poverty perform in school.  While I did not write down her exact figures, she made some comments about the number of children who lack general dental care and the impact that that has on performance in school.  I think that I should include that as part of my research paper. 

After interviewing these two professionals, I think I will focus my paper on how poverty affects access to early childhood education, how poverty affects access to health care, how poverty affects access to family resources, and how all three of these areas affect a child in early childhood education. 

Do you think that these topics are specific yet broad enough to write a paper about?

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