I have a hard time hearing about any child going without what we as Americans consider the necessities of life. But I’ll be honest, the idea of abject poverty is something I relate to third world countries or areas of severe economic depression. The fact that children are living under those conditions right here in Chenango County is something I have a hard time wrapping my head around. And I’m afraid to say it, but, until just a couple of days ago, I was blissfully unaware of just how much poverty touches our community.
At Tuesday night’s school board meeting in Norwich, Stanford Gibson Elementary School Principal Dara Lewis spoke about the challenges her school faces in both the current year and looking forward. We expect to hear that schools are focusing on continuing to raise test scores, academic achievement, literacy and math proficiency rates, so I wasn’t surprised when Dara listed this as one of Gibson’s challenges.
Her second, however, threw me for a loop and brought tears to my eyes.
Explaining first that this wasn’t a building or a district challenge, but one for the entire community, she said, “Right now poverty is affecting the health, behavior and social and emotional growth of our students.”
Her description of her students coming to school with no lunch money, dental health issues so extreme that they are in physical pain, no proper clothing or shoes, was difficult for me to hear. I will remind you that Gibson is home to the districts pre-Kindergarteners through second graders.
Given these conditions, is it no wonder that these same children are also the ones who are sometimes struggling to learn? But Dara warned against making assumptions or accusations about the homelife of these students.
“Judgment doesn’t help,” she said. “We need compassion.”
These are the issues she and her staff face, as they go about their daily tasks of teaching the youth of the Norwich district how to read, how to write and how to add. They try to tackle all of these challenges, and give each child as many opportunities as they can.
