Economics
Mary Cowhey (2006), a 1st and 2nd grade teacher, discusses and criticizes the typical model of the school food drive where classrooms compete to collect the largest number of canned food. In some schools, the classroom that manages to collect the largest number is rewarded with a pizza party. Cowehy criticizes the mixed messages sent to children as she finds that they oversimplify the problem and the solution and reinforce stereotypes about poor people.
When kids collect canned goods for "poor people," it makes "poor people" seem like a predestined, anonymous group. It makes poverty seems like a permanent, almost genetic condition. The children have no idea where the food goes after they drop the cans their mothers bought into the box. If we have it at that, it is a child's imitation of an adult's token gesture of charity: tossing a coin in a beggar's cup. Does the tossed coin absolve the adult of responsibility for addressing the societal contradictions that create such poverty even here, in the richest country in the world? (p. 26)
When kids collect canned goods for "poor people," it makes "poor people" seem like a predestined, anonymous group. It makes poverty seems like a permanent, almost genetic condition. The children have no idea where the food goes after they drop the cans their mothers bought into the box. If we have it at that, it is a child's imitation of an adult's token gesture of charity: tossing a coin in a beggar's cup. Does the tossed coin absolve the adult of responsibility for addressing the societal contradictions that create such poverty even here, in the richest country in the world? (p. 26)
Kicking People When They Are Down
Barbara Ehrenreich - MP3 |
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A Place at the Table see the documentary
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Canned Food? Adam ruins everything!
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Poverty in America
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Greg MichieIf a Parent Who Reads to Her Child is "Good," is One Who Doesn't "Bad?"
Has the article changed your mind? Is the parent who does not read to her child bad? Where do we get the stereotypes from? Can you make a connection with the bio-ecological model? |
Income Inequality
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In 2014, our country spent 3% of its federal budget on education, but allocated 22% to defense (Chantrill, 2014). This means we have spent on defense 7 times more that what we have spent on educating people.
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Investing in education reduces: crime, expenditure on health, and most likely will reduce the negative impact of humanity on the environment. The question is: what would our children experience and how would the the world look like if the expenditure on education and defense were flipped? Access
PBS - People's Perceptions of the Distribution of Wealth
Watch Land of the Free Home of the Poor.
How much do we pay for health services in the United States and how long do we live compared to other nations? Examine this graph.
How much do we pay for health services in the United States and how long do we live compared to other nations? Examine this graph.
Robert Reich
Robert Bernard Reich is an American political economist, professor, author, and political Commentator. Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley, was Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration. |
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Tucson Food Bank Helps The Needy Grow Their Own Food
by PAM FESSLER
July 27, 2013 6:38 AM
Listen to the Story (~4 min) Weekend Edition Saturday
Food banks around the country face growing demand, despite improvements in the economy. Many families are still underemployed and struggling. So some food banks are looking for more permanent ways to address hunger, beyond handing out food.
One of them is the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona, based in Tucson. Among the many programs it runs is Las Milpitas de Cottonwood, a community farm located in one of the city's lower-income neighborhoods. More than 50 families have garden plots there. Most are regular clients at the food bank.
by PAM FESSLER
July 27, 2013 6:38 AM
Listen to the Story (~4 min) Weekend Edition Saturday
Food banks around the country face growing demand, despite improvements in the economy. Many families are still underemployed and struggling. So some food banks are looking for more permanent ways to address hunger, beyond handing out food.
One of them is the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona, based in Tucson. Among the many programs it runs is Las Milpitas de Cottonwood, a community farm located in one of the city's lower-income neighborhoods. More than 50 families have garden plots there. Most are regular clients at the food bank.
National Committee on Pay Gap
Courtesy of Sox First - Wall Street Women & Pay Gap
The next Equal Pay Day is Tuesday, April 14, 2015. This date symbolizes how far into 2014 women must work to earn what men earned in 2013.
Directly from the website:
Directly from the website:
- "Women's earnings were 77.4 percent of men's in 2010, compared to 77.0 percent in 2009, according to Census statistics released September 13, 2011 "
- "Both men's and women's earnings showed slight increases from 2009 to 2010 with men's at $47,715 and women's at $36,931, a difference of $10,784. "
- "In 2010, the earnings of African American women were $32,290, 67.7 percent of all men's earnings (from 67.5 percent in 2009), and Latinas' earnings were $27,992, 58.7 percent of all men's earnings (up from 57.7 percent in 2009). Asian American women's earnings at $41,309 dropped from 90 percent of all men's earnings in 2009 to 86.6 percent in 2010. "
Democracy Now! "One Fair Wage" to Help End Sexual Harassment for Tipped Restaurant Workers
Democracy Now! Monday, Oct. 13, 2014
- Campaigners Call for "One Fair Wage" to Help End Sexual Harassment for Tipped Restaurant Workers
A new report finds up to 90 percent of women working restaurant jobs that depend on tips have experienced workplace sexual harassment. More than 70 percent of tipped workers are women, and female restaurant workers are especially vulnerable to harassment in states where tipped workers earn a federal minimum wage of $2.13 per hour. Today, just seven states require employers pay a regular minimum wage before tips. We speak with Saru Jayaraman, co-director and co-founder of Restaurant Opportunities Center United, which has released a new report, "The Glass Floor: Sexual Harassment in the Restaurant Industry." Jayaraman is director of the Food Labor Research Center at University of California, Berkeley, and is the author of "Behind the Kitchen Door." We also speak with restaurant worker, Ashley Ogogor, and with former waitress, Eve Ensler, the award-winning playwright and author of The Vagina Monologues. She helped create V-Day, a global movement to stop violence against women and girls, and the One Billion Rising campaign, which is now in its third year.
Can Marriage Save Single Mothers From Poverty?
Courtesy of iStockphoto.com -
Directly from NPR, morning edition: September 13, 2012
"Newly released census figures show a long-standing and glaring contrast: A third of families headed by single mothers are in poverty, and they are four times more likely than married-couple families to be poor. The disparity is on the rise, and as the number of single mothers grows, analysts are debating if more marriages could mean less poverty.
For many conservatives, the answer is simple: Promote marriages as a balm for poverty. Last week, the Heritage Foundation issued a report called "Marriage: America's Greatest Weapon Against Child Poverty." In his run for the Republican presidential ticket, Rick Santorum proclaimed three simple steps to stay out of poverty: "Work. Graduate from high school. And get married before you have children."
"Newly released census figures show a long-standing and glaring contrast: A third of families headed by single mothers are in poverty, and they are four times more likely than married-couple families to be poor. The disparity is on the rise, and as the number of single mothers grows, analysts are debating if more marriages could mean less poverty.
For many conservatives, the answer is simple: Promote marriages as a balm for poverty. Last week, the Heritage Foundation issued a report called "Marriage: America's Greatest Weapon Against Child Poverty." In his run for the Republican presidential ticket, Rick Santorum proclaimed three simple steps to stay out of poverty: "Work. Graduate from high school. And get married before you have children."
Poverty and Homelessness - website by Liz Hebert, Shannon Peterson, Kristen Kamman
Poverty and Homelessness - Bre, Marek, and Garret
Families in poverty - 2012
Poverty and Homelessness - Bre, Marek, and Garret
Families in poverty - 2012