Brzozowski

Nicole Brzozowski
Dr. Lesley Raisor-Becker and Dr. Nancy Creaghead
Early Language Literature
Debate Paper
1 November 2016
Can we really fight poverty with just education?
Poverty is defined as, the extent to which an individual does without resources (Payne,
2005). Poverty is carried on through generations of families as it succumbs whole neighborhoods
and then spreads to the rest community. President Barack Obama compares poverty to a disease
as he states that it, infects an entire community in the form of unemployment and violence,
failing schools and broken homes, then we cant just treat those symptoms in isolation. We have
to heal that entire community (U.S. White House, 2011). In order to combat the further
spread of poverty, multiple interventions are essential. Education for one is an important factor in
the fight against poverty, but wont win the battle alone. Along with education, community
resources can have a positive impact on students. Community programs have the opportunity to
shape, impact, and equip children with the necessary resources to support their success in school.
This can be seen by understanding a communitys role in childhood development, by
acknowledging the amount of time students spend outside of the classroom, and by recognizing
that blanket solutions are irrational for all communities.
The environment in which you are surrounded by and the people who comprise it have
arguably the biggest influence on a human being. This should be taken into greatest
consideration, especially with developing youth individuals. According to the article Beyond the
Village Rhetoric: Creating Healthy Communities for Children and Adolescents it explains,
Neighborhoods and communities can provide additional or compensatory nurturance to youth,
specific expectations and norms for youth behavior, opportunities for young people to feel
valued and valuable, and vehicles for youth to occupy their time with high-yield leisure

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activities, (Benson, Leffert, Scales, Blyth, 1998). A persons community further more has the
ability to shape childrens beliefs, values, and personal goals through the exposure to different
leader figures and role models. Positive community programs could help model healthy
behaviors such as leadership, productiveness, and ambition for students to bring to the
classroom. How young people understand what it means and what it takes to be productive and
civically engaged citizens, as well as their belief in themselves as people who can achieve those
goals, depends to a large extent on the cumulative influences of all the adult role models and
connections they have, (Benson, Leffert, Scales, Blyth, 1998). Community programs
furthermore can help students appreciate a variety of different role models outside of those seen
in schools.
According to the National Center for Educational Statistics the average amount of hours
in the school day is 6.64 and the average number of days in a school year is 180. Meaning that in
a 24 hour day that leaves 17.36 hours spent outside of school. This statistic also shows that in a
365-day year 185 days are then spent outside of school as well. These findings demonstrate that
students spend more time and days in environments and communities outside of their school.
This extra time should be utilized to expose students to positive things such as community
programs. After the school day is over, children go home to their families, which do not exist in
isolation but are also apart of neighborhoods and communities. Neighborhoods in Bloom, for
example, is a community resource which works on specific blocks within neighborhoods by
improving the living conditions within them. It works to increase police patrols and sets the stage
for house development and revitalization. (U.S. White House, 2011). This is helpful for a student
because if their environment is safe then they can only properly do their homework in a
comfortable setting. A student also needs a reliable house to be able to achieve the necessary

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sleep in order to prepare him/her for a beneficial full school day of learning. To highlight an
aspect of another community program, Strive Cincinnati, which works to construct new grocery
stores. (U.S. White House, 2011). This not only creates more job opportunities in the community
but also is a way for community members to have access to fresh food. This is beneficial for
students in helping promote healthy diets at home and in turn properly fueling students with the
energy needed to work in school.
Those who argue that education alone can fight poverty believe, There is solid evidence
that policies aimed directly at education-related social and economic disadvantages can improve
school performance and student achievement, (Whitehurst, Croft, 2010). This thinking
disregards that fact that each neighborhood and community are made up of different cultures,
races, genders, ages, and religions. This means that no community is like another. So unique
resources are then required to meet the specific needs of each community. The first, most
intellectually liberating insight is that low-income areas are not all the same. Early initiatives
treated poor neighborhoods ahomogenous, drawing on the experience of inner city sums and
assuming that strategies that worked in slums could achieve comparable results in all poor
communities, (Hopkins, 2014). It would be irrational to blanket education as the sole strategy to
fight poverty because it would not do all these different communities justice. The United States
history is rooted on the idea of being a melting pot of unique people from all backgrounds. In
order to meet the needs of such a diverse country, it is impossible to assume that one solution
will meet the needs of everyone.
The reality is that poverty has the potential to be stopped with the power of education but
in order to prepare the youth to be effective students community programs are absolutely
necessary. Whats important is that neighborhoods play a role in helping the people who live

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there access opportunities, (Hopkins, 2014). Community programs are opportunities that help
students develop and grow, they enforce positive experiences for students, and finally are unique
for every individuals needs. Going back to our original definition, if being in poverty is living
without resources then living with resources, provided by communities, would turn this thinking.
Ultimately, with the necessary resources in place this can help students succeed in school, which
in turn would combat poverty.

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Work Cited
Average number of hours in the school day and average number of days in the school year for
public schools, by state: 200708. (2008). Retrieved October 29, 2016, from
https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/sass/tables/sass0708_035_s1s.asp
Benson, P., Leffert, N., Scales, P., & Blyth, D. (1998). Beyond the "Village" Rhetoric: Creating
Healthy Communities for Children and Adolescents. Applied Developmental Science,
2(3), 138-159, 1-22. Retrieved October 29, 2016, from https://kennisnetjeugd.nl/?
file=186&m=1370597248&action=file.download.
Hopkins, E. (2014, December 4). A Strategy for Alleviating Poverty (SSIR). Retrieved October
29, 2016, from https://ssir.org/articles/entry/a_strategy_for_alleviating_poverty
Payne, R. K. (2005). A Framework for Understanding Poverty. Highlands, TX: Aha! Process.
U.S. White House. (2011, July). BUILDING NEIGHBORHOODS OF OPPORTUNITY.
Retrieved October 29, 2016, from
https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/uploads/nri_report.pdf
Whitehurst, G. J., & Croft, M. (2010, July 20). The Harlem Childrens Zone, Promise
Neighborhoods, and the Broader, Bolder Approach to Education. Retrieved October 29,
2016, from https://www.brookings.edu/research/the-harlem-childrens-zone-promiseneighborhoods-and-the-broader-bolder-approach-to-education/