Running Head: UNDERSTANDING POVERTY IN THE CLASSROOM 1

Understanding Poverty in the Classroom

Marie Dalton & Danielle Hindieh
Long Island University
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People who live in poverty have a much different outlook on life than those of us that do

not struggle with the daily need for basic human resources. The majority of educators

experienced a middle-class upbringing before choosing their career path in education, and there

for it is a widely held understanding that educators tend to see the world through their middle-

class perspective. Because of the effect of this middle-class lens, educators do not understand the

significant and often comprehensive differences between educating middle-class and affluent

students, compared to those living in poverty. These factors cause many educators to

misinterpret the behavior they see from poverty-stricken students in the classroom and cause an

unintentional internalized negative association attached to their students learning behaviors

within the classroom. These assumptions and expectations can affect the quality of both the

teaching and the learning that takes place. Even teachers that have the highest level of passion

and compassion for educating all of their students, face the conflict with how their personal life

experiences can limit how they relate to and accommodate the challenges and struggles some of

their students face on a daily basis. Templeton’s (2011) Understanding Poverty in the Classroom

gives the reader insight into poverty and its effects on student learning. The book challenges its

readers to see the power in the effect of changing one’s perceptions of poverty in order to

promote student success. Templeton (2011) asks educators to consider the importance of:

identifying perceptual differences; learning strategies to address the special needs of children

from poverty; encouraging teachers to learn about the neighborhoods where their students live,

and considering the myths about poverty (Templeton, 2011). She reinforces learning through

thoughtful illustrations and exercises that help the reader deepen their understanding and expand
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their thinking. This resource is interactive experience with exercises that increase the reader's

learning and provides specific tools to improve the educational process for all stakeholders.

Beth Lindsay Templeton, Founder and CEO of Our Eyes Were Opened, Inc. is a

community activist, innovator, ordained minister, consultant, teacher, and writer. She began her

career as a secondary mathematics teacher. For more than twenty-nine years, she worked at

United Ministries, a non-profit in Greenville, South Carolina before becoming the creator and

founder of her own organization. She has spent her career working with people who are poor as

well as with groups and individuals who want to help people with minimal resources. She is the

author of many books; some of her most popular are: Loving Our Neighbor: A Thoughtful

Approach to Helping People in Poverty, Understanding Poverty in the Classroom: Changing

Perceptions for Student Success, Conversations on the Porch: Ancient Voices-Contemporary

Wisdom, and A Coat Named Mr. Spot, and is the poverty expert in a 5-part DVD series titled

Servant or Sucker. Her article, “Why Is That Child So Rude?” appeared in the May 2013 issue of

Educational Leadership. She is a graduate of Presbyterian College and Erskine Theological

Seminary.

Historical Perspective

Historically, there has always been a heightened awareness for the connection between

education and its ability to aide in the reduction and/or possible elimination of poverty.

Templeton looks to highlight the historical results of our concern and understandings from a

social perspective. She discusses the results of the American school system and its shortcomings

in advancing beyond its historical economic status driven system. Historically, Americans

worked to create free public schools with the hopes that they would serve to alleviate poverty by

giving every child the opportunity to receive an education. In Colonial days, education was
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considered essential for the public well-being although only wealthy children had the privilege of

going to school, all parents, including the poor, were required to educate their children to be

God-fearing serviceable citizens of the community. When John Adams drafted the

Massachusetts Constitution in 1780, he included provisions that guaranteed public education to

all citizens. In 1789 Massachusetts was the first state in the nation to pass a comprehensive

education law. If parents neglected or failed their duty, the community had the right to intervene.

Massachusetts passed a Poor Law in 1735 that states: “That where persons bring up their

children in such gross ignorance that they do not know, or are not able to distinguish the

alphabet… in such case the overseers of the poor are hereby empowered and directed to put or

bind out in good families such children, for a decent and Christian education…unless the

children are judged incapable, through some inevitable infirmity” (SerVaas, 2011). If families

were irresponsible and failed to educate their children it was expected that the community would

step in and assume responsibility for their children’s education. According to Jones (year), they

would take the kids away from their neglectful or unable parents and do the job for them.

Templeton urges educators of today to take a more active role in changing and evolving their

understanding as change agents within and beyond the classroom for all students especially those

afflicted by poverty. As America grew and evolved from its colonial roots into a melting pot of

immigration in the second half of the 1800’s, society and its social constructs shifted causing

communities to become fractioned and divided which created instability and fear in our citizens.

There were growing concerns about the levels of crime as a result of diversification and the

population boom created by the rapid influx of immigrants. This created great awareness around

education and its role in helping prevent children from growing up leading a life of crime. There

was a great concern that the growing number of drunks, gamblers, criminals, and prostitutes now
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residing in America would easily tempt children without an education. Families that failed to

educate their children were considered a national threat (SerVaas, 2011). As a result “common

schools” for all children began to take root across America. It was understood that no matter the

socioeconomic status, families play critical roles as educators for their children. Any child that

did not receive and adequate education at home were at serious risk of becoming a detriment to

society. Templeton directly uncovers the hidden misunderstandings educators continue to battle

when working with children of poverty. She uses her work to bring forth the realities that

educators are blind to, by directly calling attention to the fact that class and upbringing mold our

perceptions and create unspoken barriers that exits in education and its effectiveness.

Educational Policy Perspective

No Child Left Behind (NCLB), 2002 was a pivotal moment in education policy regarding

educating children that were affected by poverty or determined economically disadvantaged.

NCLB committed policy around the idea that students living in poverty or affected by being

disadvantaged, would be held to rigorous academic growth standards. Although the making of

the category of children of poverty and identifying the people within the group as the problems

for the education system was not new as we saw in the language of Title I funding policy created

in the 1960’s the direct and overt tying of their test scores and academic achievement to schools

success and good standing was in fact a new concept. The language of NCLB for the first time

would define and create a subcategory of student population whose test scores and achievement

data would contribute to a school’s overall rating in grading their “adequate yearly progress.”

The US Congress made a bold move in this education policy and put into law a claim about the

realities that we are facing in education when it created this category of children of poverty.
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The language of NCLB solidified its views that children of poverty are a legitimate

category of students to consider and Templeton works to shed light on the features they share

related to school experience and achievement impacted by their economic status. As a result of

education policy Templeton looks at this category of student that has now been directly created

and offers schools, leaders, teachers and communities the help they are looking for. She

recognizes how fiscally draining servicing children of poverty is. She brings to light some of the

easiest and least expensive efforts schools can implement for help. She clearly articulates the

importance of understanding that the first step in successfully educating students of poverty is to

identify the prejudices created by our upbringing and perceptions. Templeton makes

recommendations about how teachers and schools can better educate children from poverty by

taking the time to develop a comprehensive understanding of what it means to live in poverty by

peeling back the layers of misunderstanding created by our own perceptions developed from our

own life experiences.

Socioeconomic Status Perspective

Templeton’s work allows the reader to focus on understanding poverty and its effects on

students’ achievement from taking a deep look at the connection between socioeconomic status

and how it correlates with certain experiences in a child’s upbringing. Being raised in a middle-

class or affluent socioeconomic status has been found to improve academic achievement due to

its correlation with good parenting skills. Researchers have also found that the converse

relationship is also true when considering socioeconomic status. Students and parents living in a

life of poverty experience chronic stress as a result of their life circumstances. These stressors

have been found to impact and impair parenting skills, which results in disengaged and

underperforming students. Parents who are living in poverty and struggling to climb up from
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their status tend to work extra hours, multiple jobs, and night shifts. These factors make them

less able to provide the necessary parental attention, energy, and resources to their children in

order to promote academic success as a priority for their children (Pettigrew, 2009). Templeton

discusses that children who live below the poverty level are also subject to living a transient

lifestyle, lack educational resources, and fail to receive academic support and encouragement

from their less educated family members as compared to students living in a higher

socioeconomic status. Children living in low socioeconomic status are not limited to one specific

race, gender, religion, state, or region. Poverty targets all races, all ages, and all areas of the

United States. Templeton highlights that although the issue of poverty is a problem for our

country, children living in areas with the highest level of poverty are often unable to get the

support and help they so desperately need in order to combat the deficits related to their

socioeconomic status and their academic achievement (Templeton, 2011).

Pros and Cons of . . .

Templeton writes an interesting book. She highlights the need for educators to be more

aware of the struggles their low-income students face. Templeton uses quizzes, anecdotes, and

long held beliefs to show how little middle income teachers really know about the lives their

students lead. While Templeton’s book is very interesting, and the stories within captivating, it

is full of conjecture and not supported by empirical data. She makes claims on what should be

done to best benefit these students, but these claim are not based on research. This book would

be even more compelling if she had studies to back up some of suggestions made in the book. I

would suggest Templeton follow-up this first book with a second book that contains research

studies based on the claims contained in her first book.

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References

About Beth Lindsay Templeton. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://www.newyorkstateascd.org/cms/lib/NY07000986/Centricity/Domain/58/Beth%20Lindsa
y%20Templeton%20Bio.pdf

Beth Lindsay Templeton Founder & CEO of Our Eyes Were Opened. (n.d.). Beth Lindsay
Templeton. Retrieved July 16, 2017, from http://oewo.org/about-me/

Pettigrew, Eydie J., "A Study of the Impact of Socioeconomic Status on Student Achievement in
a Rural East Tennessee School System." (2009). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper
1844. http://dc.etsu.edu/etd/1844
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Society, T. S. (n.d.). How Can We Fix Our Broken Schools? A Historical Perspective. Retrieved
July 16, 2017, from http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2011/09/11/in-the-
magazine/letters/from-the-publisher/poverty-educational-reform.html

Templeton, B. L. (2011). Understanding poverty in the classroom: changing perceptions for

student success. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Education.