Nut,True that there are quite a few living in poverty that didn't choose to live that way. That word "choose' is the word I've been looking for all through this thread. I feel that the vast majority living in or near poverty are there because of choices that they or their parents made somewhere down the line. Had they made the right choices, their life could be better today. Most of us who consider ourselves successful to some degree can look back and see where we could have made better decisions that would have made us more successful. Often, for those in poverty, those decisions have devastating effects.
I have a very intelligent child who saw little need for applying herself in school, still got a fairly good job, quit in a huff, and is now working a "nothing" job. She, her husband , and my granddaughter are barely above the poverty level, and it is all about choices they made!To their credit they are determined that their daughter won't make the same mistake.
I taught in an inner city junior high school for 24 years, so I know a few things about poverty and lack of motivation.For example, I've seen hundreds of kids who found that they didn't have to do anything and the system would just pass them along. When they became aware of this they refused to do any work. Their parents, products of the same environment, offered little or no assistance, and were offended to be asked to do so even tho they knew what was in store for their kids. In the time I taught there I taught children of those I had taught years before, and it just got worse. One of the main reasons for this was the stupid reasoning of those at the higher levels of education promoting "self esteem" saying that failure was not appropriate. Systems all over the country bought into that thinking, and those kids having no parental guidance were doomed.
If I can brag a little, I was known as a real SOB and refused to buckle under to this crap. As a result I got more respect and more results than a majority of teachers there. Some of my fondest memories are of kids coming back and thanking me for being such a hard a$$, saying that it really paid off for them.
At the same time, I had other kids, also in poverty, whose parents refused to let them slide, and as a result they ended up very successful. Others, we coaches stayed on until they dropped their criminal tendencies, succeeded in athletics, and completed college on athletic scholarships with honors.
My point with all this rambling is that most of us are where we are because of choices. While I agree that we must help lift others up who are willing to help themselves, I am very reluctant to support those who refuse to do anything but drain the resources of society. Unfortunatly, in my experience the vast majority of those at the poverty level fall in the last catagory.
