[The Network] Fwd: Poverty 101 May 19-23 "The Compassion Gap"

-----Original Message-----
From: "Theisen, Anna" <ANNA_THEISEN@dpsk12.org>
To: "Theisen, Anna" <ANNA_THEISEN@dpsk12.org>
Date: Fri, 23 May 2014 19:01:45 +0000
Subject: Poverty 101 May 19-23 "The Compassion Gap"

The Compassion Gap

MARCH 1, 2014

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/02/opinion/sunday/kristof-the-compassion-gap.html?_

SOME readers collectively hissed after I wrote a week ago about the need for early-childhood interventions to broaden opportunity in America. I focused on a 3-year-old boy in West Virginia named Johnny Weethee whose hearing impairment had gone undetected, leading him to suffer speech and development problems that may dog him for the rest of his life.

A photo of Johnny and his mom, Truffles Weethee, accompanied the column and readers honed in on Truffles’ tattoos and weight.

“You show a photograph of a fat woman with tons of tattoos all over that she paid for,” one caller said. “And then we — boohoo — have to worry about the fact that her children aren’t cared for properly?”

On Twitter, Amy was more polite: “My heart breaks for Johnny. I have to wonder if the $$ mom spent on tattoos could have been put to better use.”

“This is typical of the left,” Pancho scolded on my Facebook page. “It’s not anyone’s fault. Responsibility is somebody else’s problem.”

To me, such outrage at a doting mom based on her appearance suggests the myopic tendency in our country to blame poverty on the poor, to confuse economic difficulties with moral failures, to muddle financial lapses with ethical ones.

Photo

Truffles Weethee has her son, Johnny, 3, in a Save the Children reading program. When her photo appeared in a column a week ago, readers saw reasons to criticize her instead of seeing the caring mom that she is. Credit Audrey Hall/Show of Force

There is an income gap in America, but just as important is a compassion gap. Plenty of successful people see a picture of a needy child and their first impulse is not to help but to reproach.

To break cycles of poverty, we have the tools to improve high school graduation rates, reduce teen pregnancies and increase employment. What we lack is the will to do so.

There may be neurological biases at work. A professor at Princeton found that our brains sometimes process images of people who are poor or homeless as if they were not humans but things.

Likewise, psychology experiments suggest that affluence may erode compassion. When research subjects are asked to imagine great wealth, or just look at a computer screen saver with money, they become less inclined to share or help others. That may be why the poorest 20 percent of Americans give away a larger share of their incomes than the wealthiest 20 percent.

The generosity of the poor always impresses me. In West Virginia, I visited a trailer that housed eight people and sometimes many more. A woman in the home, Lynmarie Sargent, 30, was once homeless with a month-old baby, and that discomfort and humiliation seared her so that she lets other needy families camp out in her trailer and eat. Sometimes she houses as many as 17.

Sargent is an unemployed former addict with a criminal record, struggling to stay clean of drugs, get a job and be a good mom. She has plenty to learn from middle-class Americans about financial planning, but wealthy people have plenty to learn from her about compassion.

A Pew survey this year found that a majority of Republicans, and almost one-third of Democrats, believe that if a person is poor the main reason is “lack of effort on his or her part.”

It’s true, of course, that the poor are sometimes lazy and irresponsible. So are the rich, with less consequence.

Critics note that if a person manages to get through high school and avoid drugs, crime and parenting outside of marriage, it’s often possible to escape poverty. Fair enough. But if you’re one of the one-fifth of children in West Virginia born with drugs or alcohol in your system, if you ingest lead from peeling paint as a toddler, if your hearing or vision impairments aren’t detected, if you live in a home with no books in a gang-ridden neighborhood with terrible schools — in all these cases, you’re programmed for failure as surely as children of professionals are programed for success.

So when kids in poverty stumble, it’s not quite right to say that they “failed.” Often, they never had a chance.

Researchers also find that financial stress sometimes impairs cognitive function, leading to bad choices. Indian farmers, for example, test higher for I.Q. after a harvest when they are financially secure. Alleviate financial worry, and you can gain 13 points in measured I.Q.

The tattoos that readers saw on Truffles are mostly old ones, predating Johnny, and she is passionate about helping him. That’s why she enrolled him in a Save the Children program that provides books that she reads to him every day. In that trailer in Appalachia, I don’t see a fat woman with tattoos; I see a loving mom who encapsulates any parent’s dreams for a child.

Johnny shouldn’t be written off at the age of 3 because of the straw he drew in the lottery of birth. To spread opportunity, let’s start by pointing fewer fingers and offering more helping hands.

Have a wonderful Memorial Day!

 

Sincerely,

EOP

 

From: Theisen, Anna
Sent: Friday, May 02, 2014 11:43 AM
Subject: Poverty 101 April 28-May 2 - "Healthy Professional Introspective"

 

Dear Colleagues,

 

We apologize for the gap in our weekly emails! EOP has been very busy since our return from break. We wanted to take a moment to share with you all some updates:

1.       We had over 65 people attend our final Poverty 101 Training for the 13-14 school year on April 7^th . We received great response and feedback from attendees. We will be working on scheduling training dates for next year and will keep you all posted.

2.       We currently have 2,100 students identified for the 13-14 school year. This is a staggering number and our team would like to personally thank each of you for your help in supporting these students. Many of you have gone above and beyond your daily duties to help eliminate barriers these amazing students face each day.

3.       EOP will be moving, restructuring and expanding for the upcoming school year! This is all good and positive change for our program and students. We will share details when they are finalized.

 

Lastly, it is almost the end of a very successful and impactful school year! However, it is also a time when difficult situations and conversations tend to occur or resurface. You may notice a student acting out in class due to fear of not knowing what he may do over the summer when school is not in session, or a mother losing contact with you because she feels like she was unable to support her children’s education due to poverty barriers. You may have had a difficult or explosive interaction with a student previously in the year and may still have unresolved feelings about this. You may have lost contact with a student or family you had a great relationship with or you may have experienced issues surrounding poor communication or a misunderstanding with a colleague. These situations can get in the way of us feeling proud of the work we do each day and remembering our purpose:

Positively Impact Participants, whether it is our students or their families.