Lately, we have been talking about social class and the different ranks people hold in society. Parts of the video really hit me while watching it, especially the story of the mother who worked at Burger King and had to walk 10 1/2 miles everyday to and from work. I know we are all going to have students in our future classrooms who are going to come from very poor homes and who have never been privileged enough to own their own book or be read to by their parents. One of my fears when I become a teacher is not knowing how to handle these kids both socially and emotionally.

If other kids in the class are judging the poorer kids and bringing down their self-esteem, how should we interfere in order to ensure that the lesser-income students are still able to have a positive learning environment? Is it better to have one-on-one lessons with the struggling students? And if their parents are not able to assist them outside of school, how can we be sure they are receiving efficient help when they need it?

I think that the best way that the school could help these kids is to have more academic after school programs. As a teacher, we need to be able to handle situations, in which a kid is bullied. Each child should be treated the same in the classroom. A teacher should not show favor over any student. As a teacher, if you are concerned about the help that a student receives outside of school, then one could even head up one those academic programs.
It is not necessary that a poor student would be a struggling student either. Statistics is not true for everyone. I feel as a class we have made judgments based on social class that does not apply for everyone. When I know people that come from a lower class, like me, yet are not struggling students by any means. I also have upper class friends that have been to the private schools yet are not as smart as an average college student. As teacher we should help our student as much as possible, we should show more attention to those students that are struggling, whether they be rich or poor. Yet do not favor one student over another, there is a difference.

You have a good idea Dustin that I feel would work. The only problem I could foresee would be the fact that most of the students that program would want to help would depend on the bus to get home. Parents of students that have a little bit more may be able to pick their child up after the program, but what about those students who parents have to work double shifts just to make ends meet?

I'm not trying to sound mean with this but it is something that is a really going on in the schools. Students are not getting the benefits of afterschool activites because their parents, or other responsible adult, can not come pick them up once the activity is over. There is a way to make sure every student does well and achieves their full potential. We just have to work hard to find the way that works best.

I have a suggestion about helping low-income students with involvement in after-school activities. I know that children are usually bused into school 45 minutes before school begins. Instead of having only after-school activities, why don't we suggest activities that take place before school? By having activities before school, students will be able to be more involved. And, those students who ride the bus home, won't have to worry about getting a ride after school.

I think another idea for helping lower income students is to make sure they have the resources to complete homework before assigning it. I am a math major so before I assigned a lot of homework that required a graphing calculator, I would make sure all of my students had graphing calculators. I would have a few calculators on hand that I could loan out to the students.

I agree that we should have more before-school and after-school programs to help students, but we need to realize what that means for us as teachers. We will most likely be the ones that are going to have to run these programs, and while you may say that you do not have a problem with it now, once you are out in the real world working and you have a family to take care of, you might not like the idea of having to put in the extra hours at work.

I think all of you have made good points, and I just wanted to add one thing to what Erin said about students bringing down the self esteem of lower income students. I feel really strongly about young adolescent advocacy. And I think as teachers we need to do our best to be hyper aware of things such as bullying. It is our job to make sure kids are not left out, and excluded. I know we are only human and we cannot always know when our students have low self-esteem, but I do know we can give it utmost to try and build our students up.

i think everyone has good points. But they are students just like every other person in the class. what is important is that you treat them like you do everyone else. You could though show them more courtesy on using the school computers before or after school.

I agree that offering programs before school would be a good idea, but it would the require those students already being bused 45 minutes to get up even earlier to participate. I think it would be beneficial for there to be a late shuttle that takes home the students from the after-school program. I realize that it would be very time consuming for teachers to offer both as options, but sometimes that's what needs to be done in order to reach our students, and since we're teachers, it's kind of our job.

We don't always have control of what programs can be offered outside of school, whether before or after. I think one step we can take WITHIN our classes is to not tolerate bullying or denigrating language, whenever we witness. And, as we've said in class, we have to communicate and maintain high expectations for all of our students. While this won't be enough to fix the problem of inequity in our schools, it will make a difference with a manageable level of effort.

I think school should give the low income students every opportunity that all of the other students recieve, especially acadamic programs after school.

I agree with all the comments about having more after school/before school programs and making sure that they have the resources to complete assignments. However, I also feel like we need to treat them the same...as in, they are just as capable of achieving high grades just as the rest. (Assuming we provide the time and tools to help them) But I also think it will be a big head game. We need to get it out of their head that just because they are poor income, they can't achieve great things. If we teach them self confidence, and help them, they will become a great student. Just as long as someone believes in them!