Poverty, hunger & intelligence

[Monello]

Public schools track the number of students that receive reduced and free lunches. Often times a relationship exists between the number of students getting assistance and the percentage of students that pass standardized tests.

Based on your life experiences, do you believe there is a correlation between poverty, hunger & intelligence?

 

[vraiblonde]

Where does hunger come into it? Just because you're getting subsidized lunch doesn't mean you're going hungry at home.

 

[GURPS]

I was thinking

Free Lunch = Lazy Parents ....

... lazy child - does poorly on standardized test

 

[migtig]

I have never gotten a free lunch.

However, I will strongly disagree with your premise. I grew up in a rural depressed economy area and many of my classmates were as poor as I, if not poorer. I'm sure we would have all qualified for SSI but nobody was on "the dole". Many in the late 80s/ early 90s didn't even have running water.

And the majority of my classmates were extremely intelligent, graduated and went on to other and more successful careers.

If anything, I think being that poor and that "hungry" made us all work harder and strive to do better than where we came from.

Being poor doesn't make you lazy and it doesn't make you stupid.

Being on the dole and not ever having to work for anything, now that makes you stupid and lazy.

 

[Foxhound]

Poverty doesn't affect ones intelligence level, but it may affect ones motivations and concentration.

 

[vraiblonde]

I was thinking

Free Lunch = Lazy Parents ....

... lazy child - does poorly on standardized test

Free lunch isn't always the result of lazy parents. I think home environment is more of a factor than income level.

 

[GURPS]

Free lunch isn't always the result of lazy parents. I think home environment is more of a factor than income level.

yeah true ... I have seen it both ways

... I know a women, 5 boys [going through NASTY divorce from an abusive husband], all have some sort of 'special' needs / emotionally unbalanced ....

... no job, she could not keep one if she had it .... constantly at this school for this or that, because someone misbehaved / got out of line / needs meds adjusted or having to run one or more a week to the doctors .... the youngest is finally in kindergarten ... she might be able to get a part time JOB now .....


.... living off of state assistance, SSI benefits for the children ..... husband NOT Paying any child support ..

.... of course he is in JAIL for 60 days for smacking her around in a McDonald's, where a cop saw him, and getting mouthy with the same cop
[there is some small justice in the world]


she cares for the boys very much, they take up 90% of her days ... they all take part in the school meal programs

 

[Monello]

I have never gotten a free lunch.

However, I will strongly disagree with your premise. I grew up in a rural depressed economy area and many of my classmates were as poor as I, if not poorer. I'm sure we would have all qualified for SSI but nobody was on "the dole". Many in the late 80s/ early 90s didn't even have running water.

And the majority of my classmates were extremely intelligent, graduated and went on to other and more successful careers.

If anything, I think being that poor and that "hungry" made us all work harder and strive to do better than where we came from.

Being poor doesn't make you lazy and it doesn't make you stupid.

Being on the dole and not ever having to work for anything, now that makes you stupid and lazy.

WOW, lots going on here. First premise wasn't made. The question was thrown out there for a broader, real-world view.

Good on your classmates that now have successful careers.

The reason for the poll was to try and understand why public schools publish the number of students getting meal assistance. You qualify for those programs based on the parent(s) income or lack of it.

The schools also publish test results of certain years, usually in reading and math. They display a percent of the test takers that passed or meet some sort of state requirement in proficiency.

Historically schools with a high percent of meal assistance have USUALLY displayed a reverse correlation in test proficiency. Some schools buck the trend but I haven't noticed many that do.

I'm just trying to get a idea if others feel those criteria are related or if they have nothing to do with each other. I know it is quite broad but I wanted to limit the number of factors involved.

I guess you could list things like number of parents in household, number of siblings, language spoken in the home, etc.

Spending on schools is a large expenditure. I would be all for a tweak in the system that would improve results that were measurable but didn't put an undue burden on the already weary taxpayers.

 

[PsyOps]

Perhaps this ought to be more in the context of poverty, hunger, dependence & intelligence.

If there were a generation that proved that poverty does not beget poor intelligence, it would be the ‘depression’ generation. We like to refer to them as our ‘greatest generation’; and I think this comes from having lived through hard times and WORKED their way out of it; striving to never be there again. Of course having to suffer through a world war probably made them an especially stronger class of people.

The problem we have today is most folks don’t even know what it’s like to suffer hard times and actually have to work their way out of it. They are offered ‘a leg up’ in every shape and form. This destroys every sense of self worth and accomplishment; and intelligence goes down with it.

 

[GURPS]

I think some dependent people are very intelligent

they learn to 'work the system'

 

[PsyOps]

I think some dependent people are very intelligent

they learn to 'work the system'

:trudat:

 

[MMDad]

Intelligence and hunger are not the issues, acheivment and poverty are. Does poverty affect acheivement? Yes. But so do a lot of things.