Poverty Hurts Children

Poverty Hurts Children

In the Article "A Ghetto Mom Talks Back," author Caroline Ruhle challenges New York Times author James Traub on his views of the average poor family. According to Ruhle, Traub is saying, children in inner-city public schools are guaranteed to failure because of bad influences from their families and neighborhoods. His belief is viewed with much skepticism by Ruhle. On the contrary it is the classification of poverty, not the way a child is raised that holds kids back. Children living in poverty lack the connections and money necessary to get them to the highest levels of success.

In 1964 a study was conducted by James Coleman, a sociologist, from the University of Chicago, on the attempts to improve schools. Coleman concluded that: "...the inequalities imposed on children by their home, neighborhood and peer environment are carried along to become inequalities with which they confront adult life at the end of school." Everyday there are complaints that the government is not paying enough attention to education; that may be true, but a contradicting fact is that money is being spent on schools but not on the social problems that are the cause of poverty.

Society believes that once a person is born into a social class it is impossible for one to excel and be successful. Many of today's famous icons, Hollywood stars, and musicians were born and grew up in the inner city. Just to name a few, Oprah Winfery suffered and was abused as a child, and has excelled to be one of the world's richest women, as well as J.K. Rowling famous for her line of Harry Potter books and movies. Rapper Jay-z has transcended from the most dangerous streets of Brooklyn, New York to become a major example for kids living in those neighborhoods. There's a famous saying, "They have made it from rags to riches. This is just a small example of the amount of people who have realized what it takes to make it out of this situation and have continued to give their support.

Children with social capital have the connections to get the right opportunities, which are generally already acquired through the parents. The kids without this privilege may possibly have the knowledge through basic education, but lack the self-confidence to know what to do with it. Unfortunately, these kids are blinded by their lack of finances. Few ever get the opportunity to travel and see beyond the suffering and violence. Therefore, all they know about the world is what goes on in their neighborhood. They are not able to experience the things that middle-class children do, like being involved in extra-curricular activities or going to work with their fathers on "take your kid to work day."

Evidently, living in poverty hurts children; the solution is getting them out of poverty. The only logical way of doing this, is to provide for the economic needs of their parents,