Lack of Opportunities

Generational Poverty, Day 3

This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. Psalm 34:6 (ESV)

              During my third-year teaching elementary school, I had complaints from parents when I’d assign homework. The students brought home their books and the parents had trouble understanding the steps and content. Even I had some issues with the instructions in the book.

So I began offering a quarterly parent workshop. I invited all my parents and we walked through every concept I planned to cover over the next nine weeks. I let them ask questions, complete problems, and work out examples from the book with their child. This was a game changer for the parents who attended.

              I offered classroom incentives for the students who brought a parents or guardian with them and then I left the parents with an open-door policy if they had questions about math homework. Many took me up on it and we had math conversations over the phone regularly.

              But there were some parents who never came. They didn’t help their kids with homework. And they saw no purpose in them learning how to help their kids. Their children weren’t going to college anyway, so why did it matter?

              Sadly, this is a common attitude among modern day members of generational poverty. Their jobs bring in lower wages because of lower levels of education. Rural areas make transportation to and from places more of a challenge, especially if families cannot afford a vehicle.

              Some kids grow up affiliated with gangs. These groups offer protection and provision if they perform like expected. From the outside, these affiliations seem pointless. But for the child raised in a high crime area, gang life is the only option if they want to save face and stay alive.

              In these high crime areas, kids are also introduced to drugs and sex at an early age. They learn how to make money as distributors or being pimped out. College isn’t on their mind. School isn’t important. All that matters is learning how to make it in their world.

              These are just a few of the limiting factors of generational poverty. Parents are preoccupied with other issues and don’t know how or take the time to access the resources that those from the middle class quickly act on. Lack of access or understanding the need to access these resources is a huge separation factor for these kids.

              Think about the families who came to the math workshop in my classroom. They were invested in the success of their children. So many of these kids don’t have parents who are willing to do anything extra for their academic success, therefore limiting the access of the children.

Do the Heart Work

1.      What are some ways to bridge the resource gap for those families in generational poverty?

2.      How could you help a parent understand the importance of school in their child’s life?

3.      In what ways can God use you to bridge the resource gap?

Digging Deeper

Read Matthew 12:1-8 (NIV)

At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.”

He answered, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. Or haven’t you read in the Law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are innocent? I tell you that something greater than the temple is here. If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”            

Jesus knew where to find food and he led his disciples through the grain field. He didn’t care what day it was, he knew they were hungry and he could help them. Just like Jesus, we have knowledge of resources that could change lives forever. Are we sharing them with the people that need it most?

If You Get Spare Time

              Just because we send notes home to parents doesn’t mean they read them. My kids get notes all the time and I forget to check their bags. Think about other ways you could help these resources get into the hands of your impoverished families. To what lengths could you go? How could God use you as a bridgebuilder?