The piece we were assigned to read made me really appreciate what I have, and what I had growing up. My family is not rich, never were but we certainly were no where near as poor as some of the people I read about in the piece. It made me think about how things outside of the school or classroom can affect some one's learning just as much as factors inside the room.
The statistics were utterly bone chilling. The mere fact that there are 4,000 heroin injectors, AIDS infections, the parts about the horrible cold and hellish heat painted a heavy picture. If this is what these children are dealing with in their personal lives, then you must know how to approach them so they can actually learn and get out of these black holes.
The aforementioned thought is probably what I gathered most from the reading, and what I expect to learn from this class. When I was in school, I knew free and reduced lunches existed, but I never truly knew what laid beyond that. That it wasn't just free lunch because they didn't feel like paying, it was because the kid was a part of a struggling family in a struggling neighborhood.
