Blog Action Day: Poverty

Yesterday I spent time in Harmon High School in KCK. The goal of my visit was to expose our students to the resources that are abundant to help them write their business plans and start their businesses to realize their dreams and find a way out of poverty.

It turned out to be more of a challenge than I had anticipated.

The schools in which I have the privilege of working are comprised of mostly impoverished students who qualify for free & reduced lunches. My experience at Harmon was not the first time I have given my mini-seminar on web resources. But, it was the first time I felt like giving up when the students were not responding.

Yes, the class met at 7:25am on a sleepy Tuesday morning mid-fall. Yes, the power blinked about 15 minutes into my lesson knocking out the web servers for the school for approximately 45 minutes. But, I am quick and able to think on my feet. I was able to recognize that I needed to switch gears during the presentation. I could tell that they weren't feeling me and I think that a part of the problem was that I hadn't spent any time in their classroom getting to know them.

It was like they just didn't care. They were so much more interested in chatting up with the other kids, so they had plenty of energy. The ones who were giving me some of their energy wanted to talk more about how making their money by illegal means was better than what I was trying to show them.

What I know about poverty is limited. But, I know from my study and training as an educator that young people, impoverished or privileged, will test you and not respect you until they believe they have tested you and you have passed their tests. So in the midst of this spiraling lesson I reminded myself to not give up. I recommitted myself to my task immediately.

It could be that no one before me had shared this info with these young people. In fact, that's exactly why I wanted to give this time to our classes. For sure, these students are accustomed to being allowed to spend their time doing what they want verses what they need to do to rise out of poverty. Their parents or guardians probably spend most of their time at work and watching tv.

I recommitted myself to being a good example and continuing to share a message of making a commitment to yourself that will bring you success in life. I want to show these students that the key to getting out of poverty is to make every decision as the CEO of your life. This commitment will have lasting affects on your life, your community and the lives of your family for generations to come.