How Poverty Affects Classroom Engagement

It is difficult seeing children who go to school suffer through poverty, especially at a young age. Children who go through these struggles, not only suffer at home, but they severely suffer in their academic portion of their lives as well. Another issue involving poverty is bullying because they do not have the same clothes as everyone else, meaning “high end” brands (Nike, Pacsun, Adidas, Hollister, etc.), if the child gets low test scores it could lead to being teased, and much more. Lastly, living in poverty leads to multiple absences in the classroom. Possibly from not having a ride to school because their parents may be or still be at work, the children might have to go to work instead of school to help the family retrieve money, etc. …show more content…
Those who live in a low socioeconomic class, do tend to have lower vocabulary knowledge which can raise the risk of academic failure. (How Poverty Affects Classroom Engagement). Another concept that is hard to grasp is the child’s health and nutrition can also affect classroom engagement because it is harder to get the proper medicine needed or proper medical attention needed because it might be too expensive for the parents to pay. Research shows that, “the poor have more untreated ear infections and hearing loss issues, greater exposure to lead, and a higher incidence of asthma” (How Poverty Affects Classroom Engagement), these “health-related factors can affect attention, reasoning, learning, and memory” (How Poverty Affects Classroom Engagement). Those who live in poverty also do not get the nutritional necessities needed. Because the family is poor, it causes them to resolve to fast food for dinner, and most importantly possibly skipping breakfast. “Skipping breakfast is highly prevalent among urban minority youth, and it negatively affects students’ academic achievement by adversely affecting cognition and raising absenteeism” (How Poverty Affects Classroom Engagement), it is commonly said that breakfast is the most important meal of the day because it helps give the body the nutrition it needs to help start the day. If the child skips a meal, it leads to low energy, then the …show more content…
In this generation, your appearance is very important, even at a young age. The reason as to why it is like this is because television shows, movies, and social media, if you do not have any, “high end” clothing such as Pacsun, Nike, Brandy Melville, Converse, etc. In elementary school, bullying over appearance can be hard because children at that age do not have a filter, yet as they get older the filter develops. Children who do not have enough money sometimes cannot afford to eat lunch, and when some students see that, there can be a negative outcome but also some positive outcomes as well. Although, if the school is large enough, the school gives out free lunch for those whose parents do not make enough money yearly. Sometimes in a classroom environment, the teacher gives the tests back, and a peer could easily look over his or hers desk and peek at the student’s score and may give a chuckle or bust out laughing because of how bad the score and grade was. Some comments that can be given is, “It’s like all you knew on the test was your name!” and everyone will laugh. “Typically, the wear or anxious attachments formed by infants in poverty become the basis for full-blown insecurity during the early childhood” (How Poverty Affects Behavior and Academic Performance); this explains that those who experiences tormenting at a young age, can develop anxiety and