Not Enough to Live On

As teachers we need to be patient, tolerant and self aware of both what we believe and of what we say and do as well. Reflecting on our group activity, it helped me gain a better insight to all that we, as future teachers, need to be aware of when it comes to understanding our students. Our work as teachers is so important because we play such a big role in the lives of our students, not only socially but psychologically as well. We as teachers will encounter many different students; students from all walks of life. In one class we could encounter students coming from different economic backgrounds. We most certainly will encounter students from different ethnicities and religions. We could have students who may be working a part time job to help provide for their families or students are responsible for taking care of their siblings while their parents are at work. This can have a great impact on a student’s grades and ability to do well in school. Furthermore, in situations such as these, the students might not be eating a healthy, nutritious diet at home, which in turn can cause them to have a lack of energy or be hungry when at school. These are things we need to be aware of as teachers. Self-sufficiency takes many things into account; geography, age of children, number of family members, and disabilities. Furthermore, this week’s reading assignment on “Not Enough to Live On” stresses the importance of education to help reduce income inadequacy. Part of the reason this pattern continues is because for people who fall below the Self Sufficiency Standard, it may be hard for them to afford college. Something that caught me by surprise was the table with the top 10 occupations below the self-sufficiency standard broken down by race and ethnicity. What bothered me was that, “jobs within the same category and held by people from different race or ethnic group vary considerable from low wage to higher wage.”