ENDING CHILD POVERTY: ONE STUDENT AT A TIME

ANT366H1: ANTHROPOLOGY OF ACTIVISM & SOCIAL JUSTICE

Professor Jesook Song | TA George Mantzios

University of Toronto Final Web-Publication Project

Due: April 11, 2023

This is a goal, a mission and a statement. Anti-poverty movements for child poverty create headlines supporting those who cannot afford to live with the basic needs of survival. Poverty and income inequality leave children without reliable access to nutritious food, education, healthy home environments and other resources to support their healthy development and later success. Denying children of the basic necessities of survival can have devastating and lasting consequences emotionally, cognitively and physically. Intersections of race, immigration status, ethnicity and environmental threats create structural racism adding disparities for child poverty. Child poverty creates gaps in cognitive skills for young children, jeopardizes children’s health and ability to learn, and fuels a potential inter-generational cycle of poverty. 

"979,000 children and their families – almost 1 child out of every 7– still live in poverty. It is important to note that these statistics do not fully reflect the shameful situation in Inuit communities and in First Nations communities where 1 in every 4 children is growing up in poverty." (Rothman 2013, 2)

There is a lack of knowledge and action regarding the social injustice of child poverty. Education is a VITAL component to ending this social injustice of children. Throughout this web publication project, I am attempting to visually story-tell to students, ranging from Grades 5 to 8, the impact of poverty on children in inner-city borders of the Greater Toronto Area. As a future educator, I will consult local Toronto and Ontario programming to aid my activism in teaching students through fundraising efforts, meaningful lessons and collaboration with organizations to create a culturally-responsive pedagogy and lesson plan. This will bring awareness at community levels to make a difference as well as raise future generations to activate social justice, involvement and empathy.

I call this piece the "Outsider." This artwork shows the gap. Child poverty creates gaps in cognitive skills for young children, jeopardizes children’s health and ability to learn, and fuels a potential intergenerational cycle of poverty. There is a "fence" in this artwork acting as a barrier in many children's lives. Children lack social supports, which is critical for promoting good health, as well as managing and treating health conditions. Children from low-income families also have fewer financial resources to draw upon in times of need, crisis, development and social opportunities. Additional barriers on top of poverty include disability, discrimination and intersections of race and ethnicity acting as structural barriers and disparities to child poverty. The reflection within the child's eye presents a perspective we cannot see. This reflection is up for interpretation - is the child in the photo looking at what could be or what there is out there? Is this the child suffering from poverty behind the fence? or is this child seeing what is going on outside of their own bubble? From my perspective, I drew this picture showing a child who is suffering from poverty. The fence, as stated above, represents all of the barriers in that child's life. This illustration expresses the principle of solidarity, an ANT366 course concept, developing responsibility and duty for the well-being of others. Every child has a right to a safe, decent and developmentally friendly life where they have equal opportunities as every other individual. This artistic representation forces society to understand the duty to provide solidarity for all children and impoverished individuals.

The Canada Child Tax Benefit (CCTB) and National Child Benefit Supplement (NCBS) for low and modest-income families, a joint federal, provincial and territorial initiative launched in 1998, has "played an important role in preventing, reducing and lowering the depth of child and family poverty" (Rothman 2013, 4). The Campaign 2000 is a non-partisan, cross-Canada network of over 120 national, provincial, territorial and community organizations. This 2013 campaign takes a "bottom-up" approach to decreasing inequality. They urge that federal taxation, transfer and program expenditure measures focus on those individuals, families and communities who are vulnerable and feel the greatest impact of ongoing economic disruption (Rothman 2013, 2). This is one of many organizations fighting for social justice through anti-poverty movements.

National organizations like UNICEF, Child First Canada and the United Nations advocate for more significant national investments in social protection to track and monitor progress on poverty reduction. This will bring awareness at national levels to create a difference as well as raise future generations to activate social justice, involvement and empathy.

Internationalism helps us understand the non-domination of socio-economic and political efforts. It develops the collective organization for impoverishment. Provincial, National and International organizations are resources for the anti-poverty of children movement. As understood throughout our course, Third World Internationalism is a kind of socialization and commoning on the world scale in that nations under imperial and colonial tyranny (even after political independence) were united (Song, 2023). In the twentieth century, commons in relation to the concept of enclosure and internationalism vis-à-vis the varied forms of nationalism coincided with the decolonial and anti-imperial struggles of Third World/Fourth World movements (Song, 2023). Ethnographies are situated in lived, ongoing experiences of commoning within “post”-colonial, settler-colonial, and/or ableist contexts that help us connect to impoverished experiences. Imaginaries of commons and internationalism take shape through and, in turn, shape situated forms of activism. Activism often seeks to compel public mobilization around alternative conceptions of the world. One way it does this is through creative engagements, like artwork, poetry and meaningful lessons, with socially influential media informed by multiple modes of storytelling.

I call my next piece of art "Tear Drop," exemplifying the children who are suffering in silence. Children go to bed hungry, lack access to their basic needs and live in unsafe environments. Although many consider Canada to be a wealthy nation, child poverty sadly exists within our borders. In Canada, we still have work to do in the fight against child poverty. The teardrop expresses the true sadness and emotional tyranny of child poverty.

The single teardrop represents the heartbreak and despair of the children who are battling the effects of child poverty, including:

• poor physical health
• lack of physical safety & security
• possible mental health problems
• a low sense of well-being
• a lack of self-efficacy
• underachieving at school
• social deprivation and stigma
  • (Canadian Feed the Children, 2023)

This art piece I created called “Eye-dentify” symbolizes how every student has a different perspective. As outsiders looking in, we all see classrooms differently. Everyone must open their eyes to see the clear picture. Inclusion of all students means adjusting to meet their academic, social and spiritual needs. Classrooms that are equitable have a transparent and multidimensional outlook.

This art piece was published for Victoria College's “Hey Teach!” Magazine last spring. “The Diverse Classroom” edition connects with the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion framework by looking at social dialogue, theories, accessibility, ability and equality. Looking at barriers to education and student perspective creates a new worldview and social action response. 

It is important to note that child poverty does not look the same everywhere - what does child poverty actually look like? Artwork is subjective, and poverty can sometimes not be seen. These artistic representations of children are what I believe poverty to look like. There is no universal idea of what poverty is or how I can recreate it. I am not trying to feed into the stereotype of what a child who is impoverished looks like, as there are no criteria for what poverty visually is, but you can see physical signs of what it is.

Children's eyes are innocent and are known as the "windows to the soul." I decided to make use of the eyes as they are often associated with focus, truth, clarity, light, vision, prophecy, awareness, and observation — and so are a perfect symbol for artists striving to evoke imagery that surfaces these concepts to the conscious mind. Children have an unbiased innocence and absorb information and perspectives like a sponge. The subject's eyes are what make the viewer feel something. The gaze in portraiture has been studied and discussed extensively. The way that the artist chooses to capture the gaze can dramatically change how a viewer perceives the work and the person depicted in the portrait.

The use of black and white colouring creates an emotional portrayal. The black and white painting represents opposites. In most cases, white represents pure light, and black represents darkness. I created a darker setting to present a type of sadness and overall attract my audience's emotional appeal. Monochrome creates a theme of indifference.

How do children perceive art?

To look at life through the eyes of a child. With distortions, imaginations, creativity, inquiry, fresh perspective, misunderstandings and misconceptions. Through research and teaching experience, I can note that children see the spirit and imagination in the artwork. Taking an innocent experience into a beautiful representation and perspective of artistic meaning.

The poem that I created expresses a deep, emotional and influential statement. This poem is a powerful combination of words and metaphors to help better express the impact of child poverty and try to make sense of the world and our place in it. I decided to choose a poem as it has the ability to provide comfort during periods of stress, trauma and grief. It can reach all audiences, creating a different meaning in every word for each individual. Unique language presents a new perspective and intersection. Poetry can be a source of inspiration, comfort, and understanding and can help people to process and make sense of their own experiences. One of the key ways in which poetry has a powerful impact is its ability to inspire social and political change.

Poverty denies children of the basic necessities of survival and can have devastating and lasting consequences emotionally, cognitively and physically. The world, governments, communities, and schools must also consider the intersections of race and ethnicity, as structural racism creates added disparities for child poverty. My Lesson Plan below highlights lesson goals and four different activities to promote social activism within a classroom setting. I will make sure to show the intersection between poverty, race, ethnicity, ableism and income inequality that leaves children without reliable access to nutritious food, education, healthy home environments and other resources to support their healthy development and later success.

Education can be viewed from many different perspectives; through a culturally responsive, social, political and knowledgeable lens. Culturally responsive pedagogy teaches through the students’ strengths using equity, inclusion and diversity (Ministry of Education, 2013, p. 1). Through social and political consciousness, the desire to make a difference, setting expectations, and using a constructivist approach allows for an inclusive teaching environment, society and active student voices.

Students are taught fundamentals that inspire them to succeed in society. Schools should concentrate on activities, exercises, and courses of study that expand one’s mind or intellectual ability as well as create a balance of critical thinking, independence, collaboration and responsibility. Schooling is a guide, not a direct path; it is to expose you to economic, social, cultural and academic perspectives. Education should aim to leave people better off in a more general and wide-ranging sense. Education has its own intrinsic values. This wide-ranging sense shows the learner's diverse, multicultural and equitable perspectives. Using this educational foundation, students can apply the skills they learn in school to life outside of the classroom. I find myself connecting skills that I discover in my placement to classroom theory and personal experiences. Building a foundation of multiple perspectives opens clear and creative opportunities and ideas.

“Children who live in economically advantaged and stable neighbourhoods tend to perform better academically and are less likely to have behavioural and emotional problems”

Educational outcomes are one of the key areas influenced by family incomes. In Canada, only 31% of youth from the bottom income quartile attended post-secondary education compared with 50.2% in the top income quartile (Frenette, 2007). Children from low-income families begin their educational journey behind their peers who come from more affluent/higher-income families, as shown in measures of school readiness. Ferguson (2007) states, "The incidence, depth, duration and timing of poverty all influence a child’s educational attainment, along with community characteristics and social networks." However, both Canadian and international interventions have shown that the effects of poverty can be reduced using sustainable interventions. Once again, the evidence indicates that students from low-income families are disadvantaged right through the education system to post-secondary training (Ferguson, 2007).

The Lesson Plan below is for students in Grades 5-8 which properly and cautiously introduces poverty to students. This lesson plan includes activities that discuss what poverty may look like and build awareness around the topic. There is an important activism component that can design a school-wide Anti-Poverty fundraiser - reaching outside of a classroom setting and actually making an imprint on this pressing cause. Students' minds are shaped most at young ages. Adapting and acknowledging important topics through creative approaches can create a culturally responsive classroom.

The scale of activism I have focused on will be neighbourhood level, Greater Toronto Area's, but extend to the nation-state and global relations.As a future educator, I will consult local Toronto and Ontario programming (as seen below) to aid my activism in teaching students through fundraising efforts and collaboration with organizations to create a culturally responsive pedagogy and lesson plan. This will bring awareness at community levels to make a difference as well as raise future generations to activate social justice, involvement and empathy.

"According to the census brief, 19.7% of children in Toronto live in low-income households." (OACA 2023)

Note for Educators: there might be children in the class who might live in a homeless shelter or consider themselves poor. These children might be embarrassed by the discussion. It is important to ensure that the classroom discussion is respectful and non-discriminatory.

Commoning will play a significant role in the underlying message and fundraising efforts. I feel that the fundraiser will promote commoning. Commoning consists of ongoing practices of communities through which particular kinds of relations are established between people and the resources being treated as commons. Resources are managed and used in common for the common good. The role of solidarity in poverty combines economic gains with the empowerment of the community. The commoning of space, land and resources expands solidarity economies’ collective and social action capacity. Commoning and the politics of solidarity create a transformational response to childhood poverty. Commoning is a socialization of wealth and resources for all without impoverishment/annihilation of marginalized people and societies.

As discussed in the lecture, daily social relations are reflections of how subsistence is provided and how such systems mediate interactions (Song, 2023). Social relations can be a commodity market, and they are not just about individualized interactions. They are about building community, foundation and open communication. In our last lecture, we discussed Nakamura's (2013) text which further developed the concept of daily social relation as the "crux of commoning and sovereignty" (Song, 2023). Sovereignty is the supreme authority, entailing hierarchy and external autonomy. The Bethel and Acorn community and their group efforts make for "non-ablest social relations" in our daily lives. Statements like "feelings of persecution," "trust in the power of place," and "intentional communities." In Bethel’s story, it is important to note the consciousness-raising in the 1970s, noting each person's self-directed research is very much focused on individual experience and not linked to the broader political awareness of discrimination against people with psychiatric disabilities as a whole (Nakamura 2013). This relates to impoverished communities and their efforts facing inequities and being discriminated from society.

Poverty can create familial and social stress, which can contribute to conflict. Social relations are not individual agencies but affirmations of a transformative process with a wholesome outcome (Song, 2023). In lecture 2, we were introduced to "Urban Commoning," which reflects the wave of "privatizations, enclosures, spatial control and salience upon the qualities of urban life and the potentiality of building new forms of social relations (a new commons) within an urban process" (Harvey 2012, 73). Relating to poverty, Harvey (2012) states that commoning is "a malleable social relation between self-defined social groups and environment for non-commodified collective livelihood" (73). Harvey (2012) explains that commons are malleable, ongoing, scale-dependant, often requiring social action and reinforcement" (79) (Song, 2023). Commons can be a site for solving the problem of hunger and poverty in anti-colonial/decolonial contexts. My web publication project is a practice of knowledge commons which fights against commodified knowledge and equitable opportunity.

In our last lecture, we discussed Nakamura's (2013) text which further developed the concept of daily social relation as the "crux of commoning and sovereignty" (Song, 2023). Sovereignty is the supreme authority, entailing hierarchy and external autonomy. The Bethel and Acorn community and their group efforts make for "non-ablest social relations" in our daily lives. Statements like "feelings of persecution," "trust in the power of place," and "intentional communities." In Bethel’s story, it is important to note the consciousness-raising in the 1970s, noting each person's self-directed research is very much focused on individual experience and not linked to the broader political awareness of discrimination against people with psychiatric disabilities as a whole (Nakamura 2013). This relates to impoverished communities and their efforts facing inequities and being discriminated from society.

Ending Child Poverty - this is an attainable goal, mission and statement.

Websites:

Child First Canada  https://childrenfirstcanada.org/blog/child-poverty 

UNICEF  https://www.unicef.org/social-policy/child-poverty  

United Nations  https://www.un.org/en/global-issues/ending-poverty  

Campaign 2000  https://www.ourcommons.ca//Campaign2000E.pdf  

Government of Canada  https://www.canada.ca/social-developmentpoverty-reduction 

National Center for Homeless Education  http://www.serve.org/nche/  

Stand up for Kids  http://www.standupforkids.org/  

Family Housing Fund  http://www.fhfund.org/  

Homes for the Homeless  http://www.homesforthehomeless.com/  

Human Rights Watch: Children's Rights  http://www.hrw.org/children/street.htm 

Books:

It's a No-Money Day. Written and illustrated by Kate Milner

Last Stop on Market Street: Written by Matt de la Peña, illustrated by Christian Robinson

A Place To Stay: A Shelter Story: Written by Erin Gunti, illustrated by Estelí Meza

The One with the Scraggly Bears: Written by Elizabeth Withey, illustrated by Lynn Scurfield

Jimmy the Greatest!: Written by Jairo Buitrago, illustrated by Rafael Yockteng

Those Shoes: Written by Maribeth Boelts, illustrated by Noah Z. Jones

Street Children: The Tragedy and Challenge of the World's Millions of Modern-Day Oliver Twists by Andy Butcher

Children of the Streets by Harlan Ellison

No Place to Be: Voices of Homeless Children by Judith Berck

Ferguson HB., Bovaird S., Mueller MP. 2007. The Impact of Poverty on Educational Outcomes for Children.  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2528798/ 

Frenette M. 2007. Why is Youth from Lower-Income Families Less Likely to Attend University? Evidence from academic abilities, parental influences, and financial constraints. http://www.statcan.ca/english/research/11F0019MIE/11F0019MIE2007295.pdf

Harvey, David. 2012. “CHAPTER 3: THE CREATION OF URBAN COMMONS” in Rebel cities: from the right tp the city to the urban revolution. London: Verso. pP. 67-88, 173-175.

Kozlowski, Julia. 2022. "Eye-dentify." University of Toronto.

Kozlowski, Julia. 2023. "Outsider." University of Toronto.

Kozlowski, Julia. 2023. "Tear-drop." University of Toronto.

Leverich, Kathleen. 1980. The Child Eye and the Sign. The Christian Science Monitor Publications.

McKay, A. (2002).  Defining and measuring inequality  (Inequality Briefing: Briefing Paper No 1). Economists’ Resource Centre.

Nakamura, Karen. 2013. “Chapter 4: The Founding of Bethel” “UFO and Other Mass Delusions: Kohei’s Story” in A Disability of the Soul: An Ethnography of Schizophrenia and Mental Illness in Contemporary Japan. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Pp. 101-131, and notes.

OACA. 2023. Child Poverty in Ontario.  https://oacas.libguides.com/c.php?g=702168&p=4990140 

Rothman, Laurel. 2013. Campaign 2000: Income Inequality through the Lens of Families with Children in Canada.  https://www.ourcommons.ca/Content/Committee/411/FINA/WebDoc/WD6079428/411_FINA_IIC_Briefs/Campaign2000E.pdf 

Song, Jesook. 2023. Lecture 2: Enclosure and Commons. University of Toronto.

Song, Jesook. 2023. Lecture 3: Revisiting “Failure” of Third World Movement. University of Toronto.

Song, Jesook. 2023. Lecture 9: Art/Literary Internationalism. University of Toronto.

Song, Jesook. 2023. Lecture 12: Ethnography of Non-Ableist Commons. University of Toronto.