610 #1

Describe the impact family, culture, poverty and nutrition can have on a student.

Tammie Zentgraf

The impacts of family, culture, poverty and nutrition has on students are both singular issues as

well as interconnected issues. While difficulties in any one of these areas would bring challenges

to students, the students are often impacted by multiple factors simultaneously, compounding the

effects. Looking briefly at each of these areas will relay some of the obstacles affecting students

before even walking into the doors of an educational system.

Family, if only that could be a warm fuzzy thought for everyone, unfortunately it is not. The

definition and picture of what constitutes family has broadened and evolved throughout history.

Who makes up your family of origin is not as straight-forward as it has been in the past. The

dynamics within the family regardless of its makeup, plays an important role for students. If

there is instability at home due to mental health issues, financial issues, addiction, abuse or

neglect, the impact to students extends into all facets of their lives.

Culturally, there are some factors that make a child more at risk. Statistically speaking, students

who are African American or Hispanic are much more likely to be affected by poverty. If a

student is born into a ethnic group whose home language is other than English, there is a

challenge for students entering the schools who may not have any English in their vocabulary.

This provides challenges for the incoming student and often means the parents have no or limited

English language skills, making regular communication between parent and school challenging.
Poverty is prevalent to at least some degree in every culture but has greater presence among

African American and Hispanic cultures, although at a significantly lower rate, poverty is still

present among the Anglo American as well. The below graphs represent children in poverty

identified by ethnicity by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services . Additionally

the second graph reflects that the overall prevalence of poverty for children is a higher than for

adults. The information inserted below is taken from:

http://aspe.hhs.gov/basic-report/information-poverty-and-income-statistics-summary-2012-curre

nt-population-survey-data.

CHILD POVERTY

Children in Married-Couple Families and Female-Headed Families

In 2011, the poverty rate for children in married-couple families was 10.9 percent, up

from a recent low of 8.1 percent in 2006.

The poverty rate among children in female-headed families with no spouse present was

47.6 percent in 2011, up from a recent low of 42.0 percent in 2006.

Children living in female-headed families with no spouse present had a poverty rate over

four times that of children in married-couple families in 2011 (47.6 percent compared to

10.9 percent).
 Poverty Rates of All Persons by Race and Ethnicity 1979-2011

Note: Hispanic includes persons of all races. White, not Hispanic does not include any Hispanic

persons. Black or African-American includes Hispanic persons and starting in 2002 includes

Black or African-American persons reporting multiple race categories

CHILD POVERTY ALL CHILDREN

For calendar year 2011 the percentage of children (persons under 18) in poverty was 21.9

percent.

This rate is not statistically different from 22.0 percent in 2010.

The total number of children in poverty in 2011 was 16.1 million, not statistically

different from 2010.

The child poverty rate in 2011 was 5.7 percentage points higher than in 2000.
 All Persons and Children below 50% of Poverty 2000-2011

The links between nutrition and learning are being identified more strongly all the time. In an

article found online, one of many resources available, link the importance of good nutrition with

stronger academic performance as well as improved classroom behavior and focus. In 3 Ways

Nutrition Influences Student Learning Potential and School Performance found at

http://articles.extension.org/pages/68774/3-ways-nutrition-influences-student-learning-potential-

and-school-performance. The main ideas of this article are the increased brain function with

good nutrition, good nutrition promotes better behavior creating an improved learning

environment. Also touted in this article is more on task behavior and higher test scores when

students had access to a variety of foods so that a balance of protein, fat, complex carbohydrates

and fiber was integrated as a regular part of students nutritional intake.

You put the picture of one or more of these things together and it generates a difficult situation

for students to thrive in. When children are tired, hungry and worried about crazy stuff that is

going on at home, how do you really expect them to be attentive at school? It is one of the first

obstacles teachers have to help students as they are able to get as many of those needs met at

school so school can be a safe, stable, nutritious haven. We can not control what happens when

our students leave but we can create an environment where students thrive in spite of the

obstacles they face outside the school. For many students, school becomes the only stable part of

their life at different times. An example of this was so evident to me my second week as a

teacher in Roma, Texas ( a U.S./Mexico border community). I had a student, Luis, show up with

a tear-stained face and red eyes. He was walking into my classroom with an administrator by his

side. The difficult news was that this boys father had been killed in a battle in Mexico between

two of the drug cartels. Luis family had just received pictures of their loved ones mangled

body. When given the choice of where Luis wanted to be, he chose school because it was

Monday, he hadnt eaten all weekend and he knew he would be safe there at school that day.

Now, thankfully, his situation was more extreme than many, but it supports the idea that school

becomes a safe haven for many of our students who have struggles outside the classroom.