After working at a public school in Dallas for 8 years, I wonder about the many faces of poverty. At my school, it does not appear in the shape of hungry kids or dirty uniforms. Less than one third of my students ask for breakfast in the classroom. They all bring clean clothes and enough supplies for the year.
Poverty is only evident when children talk about their living conditions. Here and there, I hear about ill parents, multiple families living together, violent neighbors, and run down houses shared by rodents and insects.
In preparation for Thanksgiving, our students shared the canned goods they have at home. In return, some of them received a colorful box with a frozen turkey and, possibly, some of the cans they gave. It is a nice gesture, but I wonder... are we really fulfilling a need, or are we missing the real face of our students' poverty?
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