The biggest takeaway for me while reading Teaching With
Poverty in Mind was reading about the cognitive ability in children and how complex
it is and the ways it can be measured. The research that shows the cognitive
lags in children living in low income homes was alarming to me and it causes
me to be even more concerned about certain children that we have enrolled in
our school system.
I felt I was already quite familiar with the other characteristics of adults and children living in poverty due to past and current job experiences (school and my own home daycare) but the impact and contrast of low SES children on brain areas that are responsible for working memory, impulse regulation, visuospatial skills, language skills, and cognitive skills gave me a sense of urgency that we need to help these children anyway we can in school.
I appreciated the action steps that schools can take to improve the cognitive abilities of students who are living in poverty. It gives me hope that by being proactive: assessing students to find where they're at, building basic/core skills, providing hope and support, and improving our own professional abilities, these students can benefit and improve their cognitive abilities to be successful in school and in their future.
