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Overcoming Silence Of Generational Poverty By Donna M. Beegle

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In the article “Overcoming the Silence of Generational Poverty” by Donna M. Beegle, various examples are given on the impact of generational poverty in student’s lives. Beegle starts by providing a brief narration of her life in poverty and the effects it had on her education. She also provides suggestions to educators on how to improve learning experience for those living in generational poverty. Beegle conducted a study using twenty-four college graduates of different cultural background but with one thing in common, they all grew up in poverty. It is important to high light four examples of the commonality this article portrays; appearance, expectation for jobs, inadequate housing, food, and health care and lastly, lack of control of …show more content…

As mentioned in the article, many students weren’t even aware that people went to the dentist and the doctor’s office for annual check-ups. 97% of the students interviewed stated that they never went to the doctor and in fact, one of students mentions that he didn’t know that there were doctors outside of the emergency room(). Many witnessed sickness, and early deaths due to lack of medical attention and the few that were able to go the emergency room, had difficulty affording medication. Some students stated that prescriptions like antibiotics were often shared by family members due to the lack of resources to buy their own medication (). Likewise, students described they did not have control over their lives due to the lack of money. Most students agreed that money provides security, stability and the ability to choose, therefore without money their lives were out of their control. The majority of students admitted to feeling ashamed, humiliated and blamed themselves for being poor. One student associated the fact that without money, there is no planning and he must simply react to a situation rather than preventing a situation from happening (). In Essence, Beegle’s article encompasses all concepts of human diversity and differential treatment as described in our textbook (Kirst-Ashman, 2016). Based on this Beegle’s study, children and youth raised in poverty suffered discrimination, they were treated differently because of their appearance, and economic

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