This poverty simulation is critical for educating teachers. We include our teacher education preservice and inservice teachers, social work students, and nursing students. This combination of students provides a rich experience for everyone.
– Susan Catapano | University of North Carolina Wilmington
When we have done the poverty simulation, the part of the debrief that always stands out is when we ask the question of how many parents actually spoke to their kids about school. Many of their parents did not. Thus we have a conversation around how teachers can help support our children who live in poverty. It’s an eye opener.
– David Marquez | Fulton County School – Office of Student Discipline, Prevention and Intervention | Atlanta
I use the Poverty Simulation kit mainly with students in the 8th and 12th grade as an opener to a financial literacy class. I find that it opens their eyes to the expenses that comes with life. Many don’t have any idea how much food actually costs, or how much utilities are. They have been receptive to the fact that poverty can really happen to anyone, and that it’s not just because people “need to get a job.”
– Melissa Hardenberger | Southeast Nebraska Community Action Partnership | Falls City, NE
As we incorporated this training into the Induction Seminars we provide to our New Teachers, it became clear that it was a complete “eye-opener” for many of them! Some of them came from “privileged” backgrounds and had not ever considered the plight of the child living in poverty or the consequences for the families trying to survive in their circumstances. It made an emotional impact on them and they expressed their emotional and often guttural responses to their experience long into their first year in the classroom.
– Dr. Donna Smith | Beaufort County School District | Beaufort, SC
– Allison Buzard | Metro Nashville Public School – Family Engagement University | Nashville, TN