by Lisa Mcelroy Hunter

Created on: June 18, 2009   Last Updated: September 10, 2009

Childhood poverty is perhaps one of the most decisive factors in a student's success or failure in the education system. Its impact can be felt from the moment that the child enters school, and continues to have repercussions throughout the child's entire educational career. Poverty affects the child's ability to focus and learn, the priority the student places on completing schoolwork, and the importance the student places on success.

Childhood poverty begins to impact a child from the moment the child enters the school system. A child raised in poverty comes into the system often already behind his or her peers. This has its roots in Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs - a child can't focus on learning when their whole energy is directed toward the first two levels of the hierarchy. If a child doesn't have safety and security, a place to live and food to eat on a consistent basis, they are less able to focus on the business of learning. As well, if the child doesn't feel loved or cherished, valued in and of themselves - which can be the case in a poor household - they spend their energies seeking that love and belonging, which can manifest itself in a variety of ways. As well, the child raised in poverty often has not had the benefits of preschool, as have their peers. They may have been raised by parents or grandparents whose educational background hasn't provided them with the tools to enrich the child's life with books and experiences. The ability to read is key to any education - and growing up in a family with parents who may only be marginally literate themselves stacks the odds against the child.

Poverty also affects the student's ability to prioritize and complete homework. There is what is termed the "culture of poverty", which is most often seen in families where the poverty is generational. These families have an outlook on life that is contrary to that of the middle class family. Middle class families focus on acquisition of wealth, attainment of goals, and similar objectives; the family below the poverty line often places a higher priority on family, on entertainment, on enjoyment of the social aspects of life, because they have been conditioned throughout life to believe that there is no hope for them to leave this environment - so why bother? Consequently, a child living in the culture of poverty will often be unable to complete their homework because the home environment was not conducive to studying: the parent received a welfare

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