Following a faculty presentation on a recent book, The Broken Ladder: How Inequality Affects the Way We Think, Live and Die by Keith Payne, 8th-grade Reading Resource teacher Daniel Dogood decided to follow up with his students.
Mr.Dogood relayed the poignant moment in the book where the author first realized that he was poor when the cafeteria worker who usually served his free school lunch happened to be absent, and Payne was unexpectedly charged for his meal. The 8th-grade students, all of whom but one qualify for free lunch, laughed.
One student recounted realizing he was poor for the first time when it dawned on him that his kindergarten teacher only brought in extra clothes for him. Another student realized he was poor when he figured out that on Fridays his teacher only brought in food for the weekend for some of the students. Several students said they realized they were poor when they heard other students complaining about the cafeteria food they looked forward to as their only daily meal.
A girl said she realized she was poor when her third-grade teacher called the police on her when she had a diabetic seizure. Class Clown Jeff Spicolli suggested that was when the girl should have realized she was black. A boy said he realized he was poor when he went to a birthday party at the huge house of the one rich kid in the class. The rich kid replied that he realized he was rich when his mother had to drive that student home to his run-down apartment building.
Jeff Spicoli pointed out that since everyone seemed to have learned they were poor at school, the point of education was to realize you have been given a raw deal or are a disenfranchised minority. The one rich kid, in the class because of his dyslexia, was scheduled to transfer to Richard E Rich Academy next year, said for him the point of school was to realize he is better than everyone else.