In exploring the topic of socioeconomic class in the classroom, I have determined that I have a different socioeconomic class than that of my students, however, it is not as drastic of a difference as my students may perceive. Throughout my life, including now, I have been in the lower middle class. My father dropped out of the Navy, but worked in the construction field, often supplementing his daily job with side jobs. My mother went to community college and earned her associate degree in finance. My parents worked hard but went through periods of layoffs and lack of work that strained my economic situation growing up. However, my parents somehow managed to provide us with a stable home, that they still have today, and always had food on the table. I am the youngest child, and my brother is four years older than me. This meant that I had a lot of responsibility growing up that my peers did not relate to. Every day, from about 10-years-old I would come home from school, get an after-school snack, do homework, do chores, and start dinner for my mom before I got to my own studies. I always had a desire to learn, and loved reading, and did naturally well in school so my parents rarely concerned themselves with my education. This wasn’t because they didn’t care, but rather they had other concerns that took priority because they knew I was going to push myself to do well. While I never went hungry or evicted from my home, there were times in my life that I could have been. Thankfully my parents were always able to find a way to prevent this, but we struggled to stay afloat. I started working at a corner store at 15, so that I could reduce my parents’ economic stress. Almost all my friends either didn’t have jobs or would work so that they had money for themselves, so it was difficult for me to keep those less understanding friends. When it came time to choose a college my parents were so proud of me but were unable to help financially, which impacted my decision, as I knew I would be taking out loans and paying the difference myself. Even now in my current situation, I live on my own and can usually get food to the table without too much trouble. However, I could not do it on my own, my wife who is disable from a stroke and I must struggle to sustain our lives, I work two jobs and can just pay for our necessities and a little extra. While my life and economic situation is far less stressful than the students, it did not come without its difficulties. I have had most people look at me and judge that I must have had an easy life due to my appearance. Students often ask why I have another job because they assume, I must be “rich”. I use that moment to tell my students a little about my life and my struggles and state that I am getting my master’s degree to further my education in the hopes that I can better my life.
The students and I have a lot more similarities than they often think. Many students have parents that work multiple jobs, like myself and my parents, must, to stay financially afloat. Additionally, many of my students must care for younger siblings. Most also have a parent or parents that did not graduate from high school or earn a GED that sometimes do not place a large emphasis on education. I even have some students working small jobs to help support their families like I had to. In sharing my life with the students, it helps them to respect me a little more than they did originally, knowing that I had to work to get where I am today. Also knowing that I too had difficulties in my life and still have a professional career that I have multiple degrees for is inspiring to some of the students. I also remind them that I am still in school, pursuing another degree to help me further my career and financial stability. While this insight can help some of the students understand my background and how it is like their own, most of the students have a much more strenuous financial situation that I cannot relate to. The socioeconomic status of most of the students are much lower than myself and my family growing up. I was fortunate enough to have both of my parents who provided a stable, loving home and access to food throughout my life. Many of the students do not have even these basic needs met daily. They wonder where their next meal is coming from, when they will see their parent, or even where they will be staying that night.
I think the differences between my own socioeconomic status and that of the students hinders my teaching because while I understand their home lives severely impact their success in school, I often do not think about this in the moment. It is when I reflect on my day that I realize some of the difficulties they had, including their behavior, work ethic, and overall performance can be attributed to factors from their home lives. I give my best attempt to treat all students equally in terms of attention and access, but I may be providing examples and situations in my lessons that the students do not have the background knowledge for due to their socioeconomic status. If an outsider were to visit the school, I think they would be able to identify the students’ and my own socioeconomic statuses, due to our appearances and behaviors.
Throughout my “learning walk” in school, I noticed that there was a great variety of the levels of integration of student’s background into the school and curriculum. Some areas had little to no integration of student background, while others seemed centrally focused on reflecting on student experiences. It made me realize how disconnected a school is and how our students’ perceptions of this must be confusing. I think this disjointed integration of the student body’s experiences can affect how parents and their students see us as teachers and as a school. The teachers that are making efforts to integrate relevant student experiences may be perceived as “trying too hard” or as being “insincere” in their attempt because it is not being threaded through the entire school culture.
Based on the information from Chapter 5: Empowering Students and Teachers Through Performance-Based Assessment of Excellence Through Equity: Five Principles of Courageous Leadership to Guide Achievement for Every Student (Blankstein, Noguera, & Kelly, 2016), Overcoming the Silence of Generational Poverty (Beegle, 2003), and Back to School (This American Life, 2012) the review of non-cognitive skills has changed my understanding of students who come from poverty. Poverty itself does not hold children back in their education, but the associated stress from trauma does. These poverty-stricken students are constantly fighting a battle of fight or flight in their daily lives that Nadine Burke Harris in the podcast Back to School equates to facing a bear. She states that this state of emergency “shuts off the thinking portion of your brain… and it turns on the real primal aggression”, this state of emergency is perpetually turned on in my students and is a huge factor in their inability to concentrate in school (This American Life, 2012). While positive attachment with parental figures can reduce these stress effects, many of my students do not have access to stable parental figures. The cognitive skills are not the ones that determine future success, however, it is the character skills including self- regulation, grit, and conscientiousness that determine the likelihood of higher income and lower the chances of ending up in prison or on welfare (This American Life, 2012). I often get frustrated with students that are acting out or never bring a pencil to class, if I took the time to learn where these issues are stemming from, I might be able to help them build these character skills. We often assume that students already know how to control their emotions, persevere, and do the right thing but these are skills that need to be emphasized and taught explicitly to improve their chances of success.
While I do attempt to introduce these non-cognitive skills into the classroom, it is usually deemphasized and not done as frequently as it should be. At the beginning of the semester, we talk about failure and how it is essential to success, especially in science. The bulletin board in the front of the school displays FAIL (First Attempt In Learning), and we often refer to it throughout the year when students get discouraged. I would like to introduce some of the recommendations from Beegle’s text, Overcoming the Silence of Generational Poverty, including: “creating opportunities for small educational successes”, making “extra efforts to ensure understanding”, “ensur[ing] that the school and the classroom are safe”, and “connect[ing] students with a mentor” (Beegle, 2003). To some extent I am already doing the first three of these recommendations, I just need to make sure I am doing so more consciously and with more purpose and meaning for my students. The final recommendation of providing a mentor for students is something I have always wanted to do but have never put into effect. Beegle cites that the “research is clear that a mentor is essential for breaking the cycle of generational poverty”, by providing students’ positive mentors I can help build these skills that will help them succeed in their future. These schools require “high standards through a performance-based system that emphasizes curriculum and instruction that challenges students to build on the skills they have to improve and by encouraging them to grapple with difficult questions” (Blankstein, Noguera, & Kelly, 2016, p. 102). Allowing the students, the choice and guidance to research topics that are meaningful to them, and requiring high standards, I can equitably serve all the students and push them toward success.
