Priorities of the poor effect the quality of education

In poor neighborhoods, the main priority is to live under their economic circumstance. These students dream about going to college and becoming successful professionals who can provide for a comfortable lifestyle, but their reality makes this impossible. Students that live under these conditions are constantly worrying about paying this month’s bill, buying groceries, or even surviving under these conditions. When such stress is imposed on a student their quality of learning is strongly effected. One of the kids in the book Savage Inequalities by Jonathan Kozol, calmly talks about the raping and killing of his 11 year old sister and Dr. Lillian parks later states, “The language that our children speak may not be standard English but there still is wisdom here. Our children have become wise by necessity”(Kozol 41). These children think it is normal to live under their terrible circumstances. They are forced by these traumatizing incidents and living conditions to become wise. They lack intellectual knowledge but they are extremely wise and experienced at surviving. Children who struggle economically should not be blindly judged, they never wanted to stop going to school, they where forced to do so because they need to provide for themselves and their families.