Poverty

Today is the second of a two day assignment at the same school I described yesterday. You remember, drive-by, scary people, murders. The unfortunate side to all of the violence is the children. Over the past two days I have heard some sad things come out of these very mature 4th graders mouths.
I was in the office before school started and overheard two office staffers discussing the free and reduced lunch program. One lady said that the population at that school that qualified was 98%. That means that 98% of the population that have children who attend that school have an income of no higher than $15,000 per year.
The stress and ignorance of this level of poverty takes its toll on the kids. We were working on the weekly spelling list when it was time to move to another activity. The students had had more than enough time to copy down the words from the board. As I began to erase them several students protested. I told them they could ask me for them later if they had not completed the list.
Next, I assigned the homework: write each spelling word five times each. One of the students yelled out that he needed the spelling list put back up now because he hadn’t finished writing it. He told me that if I didn’t give him that list he would not do his home work. He said his mom told him it was not her job to help him with home work.