Youth, Education, and Marginality: Local and Global Expressions

Chapter 8: On Being Poor in School

156 156 chapter 8 culminations of severely flawed educational and youth policies. While Canada is often viewed as a civil and well-adjusted society relative to others, these divisive processes undermine the lives of youth and continue to incite marginalization in the face of some courageous attempts to build equitable public education. ThreenewR’sofschoolinghavecongealedthroughtwodecadesofteaching, research, parenting, and in conversation with thousands of young people and those closest to them. These three R’s reverberate into the current critique of public education: reflection, reproduction, and resistance. They continue to be of use in the analysis of the experience of being poor at school. Young people from impoverished families are poor in social and economic terms relative to their classmates, and too many enter a spiral of decline based on the human relationship and structures they encounter in school. They therefore become poor in supports and academic outcomes. We all have stories to tell about the double jeopardy of being poor at/in school, and invoking reflection and narrative and biography is an important way to see social class and its reproductive and resistence process at school. The stories speak to what is unique but similar for youth as they negotiate positions of marginality at school (VanGalen, 2004). In this chapter, I present three stories against the backdrop of growing income inequality. By way of introduction, meet Ryan, Emily, and Kristen; each shares experiences of being poor at school as the chapter unfolds. Ryan’s experience in school was disheartening. Harsh economic conditions , substance abuse, and an overwhelmed, uncaring school counsellor reinforced his depression and lack of hope for the future. When many of Ryan’s friends left school, he did as well. However, despite his discouragement and the challenges that still lay ahead, he hopes to return to school. He feels that education is the only way that he can escape poverty. Unfortunately, finding the financial and emotional support to return seems unlikely in the present system. Kristen now lives on her own with her 2-year-old son. Her life has involved a series of moves and instabilities related to living in poverty. She finally has her own little apartment and receives slightly more assistance than she would on welfare, due to the fact that she has been a ward of the state for the majority of her life. Kristen has never known any semblance of financial security, nor any other type of security, for that matter. In the past 12 years, Kristen has moved over 50 times, which gives her an average of 2.8 months at each address. If she remains where she is now for another two weeks, the duration of three months will already have exceeded her average length of time at one On Being Poor in School 157 residence. Furthermore, this is the first time in the last 12 years that she has not lived in a foster or group home. Yet this desperate situation is the best one she has been in since early childhood. Emily dealt with a multitude of challenges each day that forced her out of school. Poverty was an integral part of her life and a main feature of these many challenges she faced. Other students were classist and created a violent and vicious ethos for Emily at school due to her “poorness ” and her difference in appearance. She found it difficult to get a job to ease the financial strain, and there was no one inside or outside of the school available to help her. The principal was unsupportive and critical, and requests for tutorial help were not readily available. Constant familial moves added to the lack of stability and chaos of Emily’s life. Each of these strains culminated in pushing Emily from school before she had a chance to attain a diploma. Growing Divisions Recently, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD, 2009) published its first report on the well-being of children in Doing Better for Children: Country Highlights. The country-by-country analyses detail the trouble spots for policy consideration. They demonstrate that incomes at every level have risen over the past two decades, while the income gap between the richest 10% and the poorest 10% of the population has also grown. The country note for Canada shows that “both inequality and poverty rates have increased rapidly in the past 10 years, now reaching levels above the OECD average” (OECD, 2009...