Response to Blog Question #1: Poverty

After reading through the articles provided, the one that I found most appropriate to compare to the writings of Paulo Freire would be “Poverty and Teenagers”. While reading that article, numerous sections and quotes from Freire’s writing came to mind. For instance, the article talks about how students in poverty are bound to do as much as two times worse than other students in better financial standings. I believe that this is because the more they are told that they are not as fortunate as other students, the more they feel that they are expected to fail. “The more completely they accept the passive role imposed on them, the more they tend simply to adapt to the world as it is and to the fragmented view of reality deposited in them.” Paulo Freire stated in his writings that he felt for the poor, and I believe that he would support the educational programs to financially help those students in poverty. The plan is to actually halve the poverty of children by 2010. I think that this is a great way to encour
age students in lower financial standings because whatever the reason that they are in poverty, they are still children, and they are still part of our communities. I strongly believe that Freire would stand by this idea, and support it.