Reaching and Teaching Students in Poverty by Paul C. Gorski, Ch. 3-5

Gorski, Paul. (2013). Reaching and Teaching Students in Poverty. Teacher's College Press, NY, NY.

Notes

In chapter 3, Gorski provides the reader with multipe statistics related to poverty. He notes "poverty does not happen in a vacuum" (p. 44) and it is connected to gender, race, and other forms of discrimination. He notes the problem of the "invisibility of low-income people" (p. 49), in urban and rural areas.

Chapter 4 addresses stereotypes and the problem with the idea of a culture of poverty. Gorski explains that William Ryan (1971) coined the phrase "blaming the victim" in response to the culture of poverty mindset. He asserts that due to our lack of contextual knowledge, we stereotype. This is especially true for groups that we do not belong. As we make generalizations about other groups, we risk bias and inequity. As educators, Gorski believes we should understand ourselves, know what we believe, and then we can explore other ways of thinking about those with low-incomes. He debunks the following stereotypes:

1) Poor people do not value education.

2) Poor people are lazy.

3) Poor people are substance abusers.

4) Poor people are linguistically deficient and poor communicators; Here he notes the lack of access to high quality early childcare programs. How do we change this?

5) Poor people are ineffective and inattentive parents.

Believing these stereotypes leads to blamng students or parents, although not intentionally, and also low-expectations for students. We must look beyond stereotypes to understand larger contextual factors.

Inequities outside of school are the focus of Chapter 5. Gorski discusses the options that wealth provides, as well as unequal access to healthcare, healthy living and working environments, recreation, community/social services, childcare, enrichment, and a validating society (p. 74).

Access and opportunitiy were two words that kept repeating in the text.

Reflection:

In thinking about these chapteres, I had to face some of my own biases. Along with these biases,I wonder about solutions. Where do we begin? How do we provide opportunities and access to quality early childcare? How can we make the schools in low-income neighborhoods places where children and families feel welcomed, and not burdened or blamed? How can I share this information with my pre-service teachers?