The Wake Up Call, Introductory/Group Lesson

Generational Poverty

Opening Story:

              After teaching elementary school, I began a ten-year stint teaching at the collegiate level. Along with teacher preparation classes, I also taught an entry level college class called Study Strategies 101. This class quickly became my favorite. Not only did we cover study skills, but also college success strategies like homework, tutoring, balancing school, work, and family, and other everyday life skills.

              Our rural county in North Florida is one of the most impoverished in the whole state. Because of this, most people qualify for government assistance for college through the Pell Grant. In my opinion, this meant that no one in our community had an excuse for stopping their education at the high school level. But during this first semester teaching, I learned a big lesson that blew me out of the water.

              The first week of classes, I asked students what their plans for college entailed. Some were planning to pursue certificate degrees in specific fields. Others were headed toward nursing degrees. Some wanted to get a two-year degree, then move on to a four-year university. And I had a few who had no idea, it just seemed like the thing to do.

              This conversation led to another one about first generation college students. Over half of my class were first generation college students and many of them had family members who had never graduated from high school. We discussed what an amazing opportunity they were taking advantage of and I encouraged every person in there to continue working hard in all their classes.

              Four weeks later, six people in my class stopped attending with no explanation. They had not gone through the official drop/add processes or spoken with anyone in the registration office. They simply disappeared. I asked the class if any of them had seen these absent students when someone in the back piped up. “Mrs. Adams, they got their check. They ain’t coming back.”

              I soon learned about the process of the Pell Grant. It paid for their classes and then sent the students back a certain amount that had not been used, usually a couple thousand dollars, intended for books, fees, and living expenses while in college. But for those six students, the only reason they began college in the first place was to get an easy two thousand dollars and then stop coming.

              That same week, I visited a fast-food restaurant in town and saw one of my missing students behind the counter. He smiled at me sheepishly and I followed up quickly with a question. “Why did you stop coming to class? You had one of the highest grades in the course.”

              “I needed that money. I got three kids and I gotta pay child support.”

              “You are working at a fast-food restaurant. Think about what a college degree would do for you.  You could make two to three times as much if you come back to college and finish your degree.”

              “Nah, life don’t work like that for me. I gotta get it now. I’ll be alright.”

              For months I tried to get him back in college. I tried reasoning and explaining. Nothing worked. At the end of the semester, one of my quieter students, dressed in her corrections uniform, approached my desk. She had been raised in our community, so I asked her why people don’t come to college and stick with it.

              “Mrs. Adams, I’m gonna shoot straight with you. My sister asks me all the time why I go to school and work two jobs. She told me she can make more than me and sit around the house doing nothing if she just keeps having kids. She said, ‘Why am I gonna do all that work and make less money than I do right now?’

              “She has a point. But for me, I want to make my children proud and make something of myself. Most people from my neighborhood, though, they ain’t got no reason to try. The government pays all their stuff and they can do whatever they want to do."

              I had no frame of mind for that type of logic, but I quickly realized she was right. Hand to mouth. No pride in their personhood. No work ethic. A generation of people living off the government and teaching their kids to do the same. A completely new type of generational poverty.

Scripture Reading:

Read Psalm 6:6-11 (NIV)

Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise!It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.

How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep?A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest—and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man.

Discussion

1.      What is the teacher in Proverbs 6 trying to convey?

2.      How do you teach someone to care about their work, attitude, appearance, and future when they are surrounded by a culture that teaches them differently?

3.      What is generational poverty?

4.      Have any of you ever come out of a family that lived in generational poverty? What habits were the hardest to break?

Personal Reflection

              Until you understand it, generational poverty is hard to understand. Think about making money and immediately spending it all on items you want instead of saving some for what you need to pay bills. Consider not valuing education and betterment. There’s never any room for growth or betterment; it’s just the same cycle repeated. Who are the students in your class that come from this type of background? How can your voice become louder than the voices in their home?