Economic Class & Fairness

“…people are poor because they choose to not work and are lazy.”

(Anti-Bias Education Ch. 8, pg. 101)

This stood out to me as I recall hearing this endlessly growing up. This is a great example of what we do NOT want teach our students, rather explore reasoning to why people might struggle, how they can help make a difference for people, the difference between needs and wants, and activities where children may work with money themselves learning financial boundaries and limits. “Children learn about who is important enough to be visible and valued from sources.. (Anti-Bias Ch. 8, pg. 103).” 

– – – – > The National Center for Children in Poverty’s 2008 report said 51% of children under the age of 6 in low income families have at least one part working full-time all year, while the other part works part-time or full-time for part of the year (Douglas-Hall & Chau 2008)

R E F L E C T I O N S  I N  T E X T B O O K

What did you learn as a child or teenager about why some people are "successful"? Where did you get those ideas? 

These ideas came from growing up, watching my parents deal with financial/ personal situations, teachers talking about it, social media, and through play and exploration as a child. 

• • Money management: saving for priorities, spending for only what is needed
  • Work hard for what you want
  • Having the Education: many jobs require a certain level of education. People, like my father, who do not graduate high school will struggle to find decent paying jobs to make a living while also being able to live as they do not have the education majority of jobs want. People with more education have a better likelihood of obtaining a decent paying job due to have the education.

C L A S S R O O M I D E A S

• Monopoly – Board game
• Junior Game of Life – Board game
• Have a dress up centre filled with clothing of various occupations, community work, etc

G R O U P  D I S C U S S I O N

• People are often used when they have more things than another 
  • Example; being friends with one because of the things they have, things they do or get
• In high school there were clicks (popular kids, smart kids, bad kids, etc). The clicks also somewhat shows a state of that click finically.
  • Example; popular kids = rich