What is my cause??

Day 25 of BTL's blogging challenge. The prompt says: Blogging activists, what is your cause? I don't know if I will say I'm an activist, but I'm extremely passionate about something. Read on to find out. You probably know if you've read my blog much or you are my social media friend (facebook.... I don't have the hang of twitter yet).

Do you know what I am going to talk to you about? Poverty. The effects of poverty are far reaching and if you are white and live in suburbia, you probably don't think about it much. There are many pieces that I don't think about much. But I am learning to be mindful. There are some things about the poverty mindset that I've never been aware of, but that affect me, as I live below the poverty line and am a product of poverty. Education is key in overcoming poverty. Not just education for those in poverty, but in order to help us overcome poverty, we need to educate the educators and the mentors. The people will shape the future. That is all of us. As a teacher, I feel especially close to this. As a woman who is working like crazy to dig out of poverty and teach her kids how to live the American Dream and pursue a middle class life, I feel especially close to this issue.

There are many articles circulating on the effects of poverty on the ability to learn and on behavior in the classroom and if you have a chance to read reputable sources, do it. Just think about this for a minute.... if a child is afraid that they might lose their home, or sleeps with 2 other people in a little bed, or maybe doesn't get to eat when they are not at school, they might have a hard focusing at school. Did you know that more children than we care to admit, only eat the meals that they get at school? They come to school hungry and leave knowing they won't eat again until the breakfast served to them at school the next morning. Many students may or may not have running water. As teachers, we find it easier to love those clean kids and we want to say to parents: "Send your kid to school clean for crying out loud!" But the truth is, we don't know what situations they might have been in recently. I've never been in dire straits like this, but I know my kids pick up my stress when I haven't been able to pay our utilities in a timely manner and I'm worried about whether or not the lights will on when we get home. Then we all worry.

New research shows what chronic or constant stress does to brain development. It changes the way we look at the world and it changes a child's ability to learn. I am passionate about taking care of these kids~ physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Their little spirits are already bankrupt and they already have a strike against them when they start school. My prayer is that my class will be safe place to be.