working with poor vs. rich or middle class kids

Home

Chat

Blogs

Collection

Directory

Home : 2002 : December : 7

working with poor vs. rich or middle class kids
By Carolyn

I am a veteran teacher who has worked in several different school settings which have ranged from the poor to the upper middle class. My happiest experiences to date have been in the middle class schools. My most miserable
experiences have been in the schools with a high percentage of poor students. I am not sure if would be the case for everyone, everywhere, but this has been my Own experience.
The middle class kids that I had came from happy, well-adjusted homes with two parents and a decent household income. Both parents worked, but found the time to become involved in their children's schooling.

In the poor kids' schools I have worked in, the parents are often working more than one job just to make ends meet. Their priority is getting enough food and paying the rent. Basic necessities which we don't struggle to obtain are a struggle for these children's families. I work in a Title I school right now, and we have practically no involvement in activities such as PTO. Very few come in for conferences with their children's teachers. I have even had cases where I have sent home report cards and not have had them returned with a parent's signature. Now if it was a the middle class parents I worked with, they would be asking for their children's report cards. It is also rare for a parent to come in to complain about the child's grades.

I have found more behavior problems with these poorer kids, mainly because they don't come from stable homes. In my school, many of the kids don't have a telephone in their house. Mom or Dad is on crack, so the kids live with, and are raised by, Grandma. Grandma is perhaps too indulgent with her grandchildren and perhaps lets them run a little wild at home. For this reason, it is a little tough to tame them when they get to school. They don't seem to learn any manners at home, either.

In the upper middle class school, the kids were spoiled. They were more sophisticated than the kids I have now, and they expected more entertainment and got bored more easily. Parents used to try to bully me for better grades for their kids. They were professionals themselves, so they wanted to be sure that their children got the best grades, even if they weren't deserved. I had one parent who was dissatisfied that I gave his son a C, so he swaggered into my room one day with the principal in tow to embarrass me and try to force me to change the grade.

Each school setting has its own set of challenges.