The first article I would like to go over is an article by Paul Gorski titled "The Myth of the culture of Poverty" (http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/apr08/vol65/num07/The-Myth-of-the-Culture-of-Poverty.aspx). In this article Paul goes over myths that are believed to be part of the culture of poverty. The first myth he goes over is the myth that poor people are supposedly unmotivated and have weak work ethics. Then he ties to state how this myth is false because there is 83 percent of low income children have at least one parent who woks and out of those 60 percent they have at least one parent working full time and year round. I also believe that this myth is false because as a minority I know many people who work full time, but still cannot manage to get out of poverty. As a Latino in Chicago most people I know work in restaurants as servers, bartenders, and cooks. This is a low paying job in which they are not guaranteed a salary so they are not able to know how much money they will actually make due to them just depending heavily on tips. This is how I can see why they stay under the poverty line. They work 10 plus hour shifts so this shows me that they are not lazy. It really depends on the education you have in order to better yourself which turns into something this people could only dream about as they might not be able to afford an education in turn leaving them to stick to these types of jobs that have inconsistent pay.
The second myth that Paul mentioned was that poor people are not involved in their children's education because they do not value education. I agree with everything he had to say about this myth. He says that some parents do not have time to participate in PTA meetings due to most lower income parents having to work multiple jobs. I have seen this myself within my own family. My dad and mom used to work while I was in school, but they still forced me to participate inn school activities and they always wanted to know what was going on in the school that they should know about. They also always talked to me about going to college in order to have a good career. And once my dad got a promotion my mom was able to stop working and now she attends all of my younger siblings school meetings and she also attends a community college as she is trying to get her associates degree in hospitality. I also see this in the Little Village neighborhood where i used to live as most of my friends are now attending school instead of just accepting that they cannot better their lives.
The second article I want to go over that speak about poverty is how poverty is really a cause of capitalism. This article was written by Christine Horner and it is titled "Why Capitalism Is The #1 Cause Of Poverty" (http://www.collective-evolution.com/2014/06/09/why-capitalism-is-the-1-cause-of-poverty/). This article shows us how capitalism has three central elements: capital accumulation, competition and price system. She mentions how the most flawed component is competition. She says that capitalism always has to have a winner and a loser. And yes the loser will most likely always end up being those whom earn lower wages and the winners end up being the owners and those in higher positions such as CEOs, managers, etc... I have seen this many times in previous jobs where my manager makes the employees do something and if they end up doing something that does not benefit the company they may get suspended or even fired while the manage who told the person to do such task does not get any form of discipline. Overall capitalism has created great things, but at the costs of those who have a lower education or getting paid less as they always end up being the scapegoat of those that are better off.
This blog was great to begin with. I like the way you explained your articles, and how your articles tied into the lecture. I agree with you about the poverty theory. I believe people don’t want to live in poverty because they are sometimes born in poverty; but there is also two groups of people. One group is the people that work to get out of poverty and the other group may be the people that don’t want to live in poverty but they aren’t doing anything about it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the second myth completely. I know that parents are too busy trying to provide a roof over their children’s head, food on the table and clothes on their back. Everyday people have to break their backs to survive but barely surviving because they only get paid so much money. On the other hand you agreed with the second myth but it seems like you were contradicting what you were agreeing with because you started to talk about how your parents were involved with your education; but it was a very good blog and very interesting to read.