Poverty

1. Poverty • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnf_zs4gy8s

2. Educational Responses to Poverty Philca, Stephanie, Mandi, Chloe

3. Introduction to ERP • Who is poor in Canada? • Why is it important to address this issue? • Educational responses to poverty • Negative effect of poverty.

4. Who’s poor in Canada? • Definitions • Absolute poverty • Relative poverty • Statistics Canada: LICO (Low-income cut-off) • 1994, 1995 • 2009, 2010 • How Canada’s Child Poverty Rate Compares to Other Countries • Single Mothers • Higher risk • More effected than the rest of the population

5. Absolute Poverty- • describes a scarcity of basic necessity such as shelter, running water, and food. (Uncommon in Canada) • Relative Poverty- • a more subjective concept referring to an income insufficient to reach the average standard of living in a given society. (The majority of poor families struggle with relative poverty) • *Statistics Canada applies a relative measure known as the low-income cut-off (LICO), whereby families must spend 20 percent more of their income than the average family on food, shelter, and clothing in order to be recognized as living in poverty. In 2007, 11 percent of the Canadian school-aged population (5 to 24 years old) lived in such circumstances.

8. How Canada’s Child Poverty Rate Compares to Other Countries • http://www.conferenceboard.ca/hcp/details/society/child-poverty.aspx • Report card (Canada has a ‘C’ grade since the 1980s) Canada ranks 13th out of 17 • peer countries. • More than one in seven children in Canada lives in poverty • Canada’s child poverty rate increased between the mid-1990s and the mid-2000s.

9. Single Mothers In Canada • More At Risk for Poverty • Child poverty is not evenly distributed across Canada as seen in the previous slides. It varies from province to province as well as between rural and urban areas. One common trend, however, is that in all provinces more than 50% of single-parent mothers live in poverty. • The majority of poor children are living in two-parent families with a head who has less than high school education but has been employed full time for the year. The risk of being poor, however, is greatest for a child six years old or younger who is supported by a single mother with less than a high school education working part time or not at all. • Those who grow up poor have a higher likelihood of being poor in adulthood

10. Single Mothers in Canada Continued… • Reasons For Being At Higher Risk • There is an increasing proportion of part-time, short-term, no-benefit jobs in Canada • Minimum wage rates in Canada have fallen steadily in real terms over the past decade • 1975- two wage earners at minimum wage would have earned enough income to put them about 10% above the poverty line • By 1985 the same couple would have been more than 15% below the poverty line • Our estimates for 2010. Single mother working minimum wage ($9.40/hr x 40 hours per week x 50 weeks per year= $18,800 before taxes- federal taxes= $15, 980. Already below the LICO without even subtracting provincial taxes.

11. Reasons For Being At Higher Risk Continued... • Marriage breakdown separation or divorce • The Economic Council of Canada estimated that divorce resulted in an average 40% decrease in annual income for women, and that the decrease remained severe for several years, whereas male incomes increased in the year after divorce • Social assistance rates across Canada are too low to lift recipients out of poverty. Moreover, almost half of the working poor receive no benefits from unemployment insurance or social assistance. • Government payments to the poor do reduce the impact of poverty, though many of these payments (Eg. 80% of unemployment payouts) go to families or individuals who are not poor. • Canada spends a relatively small proportion of its wealth on income support for the poor

12. Chart of Percentage of the school-age population (ages 5 to 24) in low income, by type of living arrangement, Canada and provinces, 2007 • http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/81-599-x/2009004/c-g/c-g1-eng.htm

13. Why is it important to address this issue? • Affection (to the kids and school) • Poverty = fail to succeed? • Lack of attention • Maynes (1990, 1993) • recognition of child poverty’s effect BUT…

14. Negative Effects of poverty • Key barrier to educational attainment and educational improvement in Canada • Negative influence on students’ behavior, achievement, and retention in school • “Individuals who are poor…are confronted with an unremitting succession of negative life events (eviction, physical illness, criminal assault) in the context of chronically stressful, ongoing life conditions such as inadequate housing and dangerous neighborhoods” • Neuroscience of poverty: implications for teaching (article from EDUC 402) Chronic stress in children’s lives…makes emotional memories more salient and easily attained than factual knowledge and learning obtained in school • Coherence Theory: Neurophenomenology Importance of being well nourished for brain –based learning • Peer influences can affect self esteem and willingness to interact with others

15. Freedom Writers • Low SES, gang violence,racial and ethnic diversity • Working through these issues as a teacher and overcoming the additionalstresses related to poverty • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYlVrL1FYro

16. Educational Responses to Poverty • Improve instruction: Vygotsky approach to learning • Educate the public: Create awareness • Community involvement • Alison Redford: A step in the right direction • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WX20xQ9JvbY

17. Dicussion • Who’s responsibility do you think it is? • Many schools agree that this is an issue but they do nothing about it. What steps do you think should be taken to yield results? Do you think a higher GDP of the country would help? • What connections can the school make with the community to generate funding for these children in poverty?