A Lesson in Social Injustice and Economic Inequality
At some point in life, everyone regardless of their social or economic background, will desire to have a decent life. What does vary between children of various economic backgrounds is their perception of what a decent life consists of. The knowledge of economic inequality is typically not taught by educators in classes, but through everyday social interactions. In “The Lesson”, Toni Cade Bambara uses character, setting and point of view to suggest that education is not just obtained in school, but the discomfort felt from life experiences results in knowledge, which promotes positive change. The characters in this story are a group of young inner-city children and their neighbor Miss
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Detailing their life in the inner-city is important in revealing that the children are obviously unaware of the disparity between poor and rich people. It provides a glimpse into their lives at home, in school and on the city streets. Although most of the story takes place in New York’s inner-city, the life altering knowledge is obtained in a downtown Manhattan toy store, F.A.O Schwarz. This location reveals that the children are not accustom to being in places outside of the inner-city, therefore making them naïve to what others would consider a decent lifestyle. After discovering what people are willing to pay for the toys, one of the children, Rosie Giraffe mumbles, “White folks crazy.” (285) The children’s lack of knowledge about the items in the store reveals the level of education being offered in their local schools. When Rosie Giraffe notices a paperweight that costs $480, she resorts to describing the item because she does not know what it is, “My eyes tell me it’s a chunk of glass cracked with something heavy, and different-color inks dripped into the splits, the whole thing put into a oven or something.” …show more content…
It also shows how being outside of ones comfort zone can lead to valuable knowledge. Taking the children outside of their environment helped them realize the extent of economic inequality and social injustice they were facing. The anger felt from this knowledge, provoked Sylvia to want to work harder to achieve what others have. After gaining this knowledge, she could no longer be complacent with her situation and in her environment. She became determined to make positive changes so that she would never feel the way she felt in that toy store again. That was made evident in Sylvia’s last comment, “ain’t nobody gonna beat me at nuthin.”
The children in this book at times seem wise beyond their years. They are exposed to difficult issues that force them to grow up very quickly. Almost all of the struggles that the children face stem from the root problem of intense poverty. In Mott Haven, the typical family yearly income is about $10,000, "trying to sustain" is how the mothers generally express their situation. Kozol reports "All are very poor; statistics tell us that they are the poorest children in New York." (Kozol 4). The symptoms of the kind of poverty described are apparent in elevated crime rates, the absence of health care and the lack of funding for education.
According to the narrator in the introduction for the video, Faces of Poverty: Living on the breaking point in Reading, PA , Reading is ranked as one of the poorest city in any country that houses a population of 65000 people. As per the introduction, the statistics are already stacked against anybody that is trying to make it out of Reading PA. People in Reading face the same challenges as the rest of America, but their challenges seems to not have any solution, which in turn affects a wide population of its residence. The challenges faced by people in Reading include but are not limited to; lack of jobs, poor infrastructure, lack of flowing funds for building a stronger economy, and lastly, most people in Reading are not learned. This paper is going to look at the problems people in Readings face, their strengths as well as an opinion on what can be done for small towns like Reading to enable them to thrive.
Second, in Bambara’s original, we revisit everyday life lessons multiple times. Cartwright summarizes one lesson as follows, “When Big Butt expresses his yearning for the microscope the children see at F.A.O. Schwarz, Miss Moore seizes the occasion to teach science and launched into a lecture on the invisible world around us” (61). He also wants us to consider the monetary lessons Sylvia is learning by keeping the change from the taxi ride as well. He uses her internal debate on the cost of a $35 clown and $1000 sailboat to indicate this additional
Toni Cade Bambara’s "The Lesson" revolves around a young black girl’s struggle to come to terms with the role that economic injustice, and the larger social injustice that it constitutes, plays in her life. Sylvia, the story’s protagonist, initially is reluctant to acknowledge that she is a victim of poverty. Far from being oblivious of the disparity between the rich and the poor, however, one might say that on some subconscious level, she is in fact aware of the inequity that permeates society and which contributes to her inexorably disadvantaged economic situation. That she relates poverty to shame—"But I feel funny, shame. But what I got to be shamed about? Got as much right to go in as anybody" (Bambara 604)—offers an indication as to why she is so hard-pressed to concede her substandard socioeconomic standing in the larger scheme of things. Sylvia is forced to finally address the true state of her place in society, however, when she observes firsthand the stark contrast between the rich and the poor at a fancy toy store in Manhattan. Initially furious about the blinding disparity, her emotionally charged reaction ultimately culminates in her acceptance of the real state of things, and this acceptance in turn cultivates her resolve to take action against the socioeconomic inequality that verily afflicts her, ensuring that "ain’t nobody gonna beat me at nuthin" (606). "The Lesson" posits that far from being insurmountable, economic and social injustice can be risen above, but it is necessary that we first acknowledge the role that it plays in our lives, and then determine to take action against it; indifference, and the inaction that it breeds, can only serve to perpetuate such injustices.
...siting F.A.O. Schwarz awakens in Sylvia an internal struggle she has never felt, and through criticizing Miss Moore, Sylvia distances herself from realizing her poverty. In her responses to the toys, their prices, and the unseen people who buy them, it is evident that Sylvia is confronting the truth of Miss Moore's lesson. As Sylvia begins to understand social inequality, the realization of her own disadvantage makes her angry. For Sylvia, achieving class consciousness is a painful enlightenment. For her to accept that she is underprivileged is shameful for her, and Sylvia would rather deny it than admit a wound to her pride: "ain't nobody gonna beat me at nuthin" (312).
“All Kids Should Take Poverty 101” could have been a wonderful piece if the age of those taking Poverty 101 had been older, and if the focus had been more on how those in poverty can end the cycle on their own. However Beegle’s desire to teach children empathy and awareness is a noble
As in the story: "Bodega Dreams" by Ernesto Quinonez, students of Julia de Burgos school were abused psychologically by a bad teacher named Blessington, which belittled and humiliated his telling students that would end in jail or as prostitutes; in the same way, the lack of pedagogy of these so-called teachers, contribute to the impoverishment of our educational system. For decades, it has been supposed that education is related to socioeconomic status determined by the level of income. It is common to hear, if you are rich, so it has can be an excellent education. This thought is deep within us and it could be very difficult to think in another way. With this we can deduce that any financial
At the beginning of the story, the author gives us the feeling that a child is narrating this story. She also shows that the child, Sylvia, is at that age where she feels that adults are silly and she knows everything. “Back in the days when everyone was old and stupid or young and foolish and me and Sugar were the only ones just right, this lady moved on our block with nappy hair and proper speech and no makeup.” (Bambara 470) Sylvia also tells us about her environment while referencing Miss Moore. “And we kidna hated her too, hated the way we did the winos who cluttered up our parks and pissed on our handball walls and stank up our hallways and stairs so you couldn’t halfway play hide-and-seek without a damn gas mask. Miss Moore was her name. The only woman on the block without a first name.” (Bambara 470) This is our introduction to Miss Moore. She is an educated, well groomed person and the children resent her because she is different and their parents force them to spend time with her in the interest of education.
Basic education is mandatory for all kids in the United States. There are laws with minimum and maximum age limits for required free education, but this does not make all education equal. The minimum age varies from four to five to begin kindergarten, while most students graduate high school by age of eighteen or nineteen. However, there are kids that begin their education much earlier. Bell Hooks’ “Seeing and Making Culture: Representing the Poor”, Jonathan Kozol’s “From Still Separate, Still Unequal: America’s Educational Apartheid”, and Barbara Ehrenreich’s “How I Discovered the Truth About Poverty” have a common topic, “poverty”. Moreover, each of these readings has a different perspective with a different agenda attached, but “poverty”
Sylvia’s being poor influences the way in which she sees other people and feels about them. Sylvia lives in the slums of New York; it is the only life she knows and can realistically relate to. She does not see herself as poor or underprivileged. Rather, she is content with her life, and therefore resistant to change. Sylvia always considered herself and her cousin as "the only ones just right" in the neighborhood, and when an educated woman, Miss Moore, moves into the neighborhood, Sylvia feels threatened. Ms. Moore is threatening to her because she wants Sylvia to look at her low social status as being a bad thing, and Sylvia "doesn’t feature that." This resistance to change leads Sylvia to be very defensive and in turn judgmental. Sylvia is quick to find fl...
To begin with, the reader gets a sense of Sylvia's personality in the beginning of the story as she talks about Miss Moore. Miss Moore is not the typical black woman in the neighborhood. She is well educated and speaks well. She has climbed up against the odds in a time where it was almost unheard of for a black woman to go to college. She is a role model for the children who encourages them to get more out of life. Sylvia's opinion of her is not one of fondness. She says that she hates Miss Moore as much as the "winos who pissed on our handball walls and stand up on our hallways and stairs so you couldn't halfway play hide and seek without a god damn mask”(357). By comparing the hatred with something she enjoys, we get to see what a child does in the slums for amusement. Sylvia feels t...
...merica. When Sylvia arrives at F.A.O Schwartz she is surprised by the high prices of the toys. After she sees the prices of the $35 clown and $1195 sailboat she ask Miss Moore, “Who are these people that spend that much for performing clowns and $1000 for toy sailboats? What kinda work they do and how they live and how come we ain’t in on it?”(319). Sylvia comes face to face with poverty and realizes that she is not privileged to buy those toys based on her low economic status. After Sylvia leaves the toy store she realizes Miss Moore’s lesson and has a better understanding of social inequality. The last sentence of the story states “But ain’t nobody gonna beat me at nuthin”(320). Sylvia realizes that she has a disadvantage in society and doesn’t want to accept the fact that she is in the lower-class. She’s in control of her life and can choose her place in society.
What does it mean for someone to be on the lines of poverty or living in poverty? What is this word that is falsely used and missed analyzed? Poverty is the state of being extremely poor or being inferior in quality or insufficient in amount. In 2010, 16.4 million children, or 22.0 percent, were poor in the United States alone. (Tanner, 2014) The poverty rate for children also varies substantially by race and origin. If the rate of poverty continues to rise, will there be any hope left in humanity? The real question is not what is poverty but why is there so many people living in it. The ideal job of the government (federal and state) is to create a better/safer environment for the people. The model the “government” campaign is that everything they do is for the “benefit” of the people. When does the word “benefit” come into play when twenty-two percent of the population cannot supply a place for their children to sleep, put food on the table, and get a job that pays well enough to support their family. Are there any real benefits knowing families living in poverty have only one percent of a chance of getting out? Who is to blame? Where and how did this problem all start? What is this so called “government” doing to help stop the increasing rate of poverty? As you read this essay, it will explain what it means to be truly poor and why the government does so little to help. Include real stories from people living in poverty, what the government is doing to help (and if it’s enough), and is the problem of poverty becoming worst or slowly rising to become better.
In today 's society, there is 1 in 7 people living in poverty which is costing Canadian citizens’ money as they are paying for taxes. There are many standpoints in which people examine the ways poverty affect society such as Marx’s conflict theory. Marx’s conflict theory goes over how social stratification being inevitable and how there is a class consciousness within people in the working class. Another way that poverty is scrutinized is by feminization. Feminization is the theory that will be explored throughout this essay. Poverty will be analyzed in this essay to determine the significance of poverty on the society and the implications that are produced.
“Malnourished children are 20% less literate than those with a healthier diet, says UK charity Save the Children” (The Information Daily). When parents become victims of poverty it can have some very unpleasing long and short term effects to their children. Parents in poverty have a lot on their plate and buying the best quality food or affording enough food can be a tumultuous task. Quality nutrition is essential for the development of the brain. At a young age, poor nutrition or not enough nutrition can seriously hinder “the brain 's development, a child’s ability to learn and has a devastating impact on a child’s future”(The Information Daily). “Malnutrition in the early developmental stages of the brain, by restricting the children’s cognitive growth, can lower a child 's IQ has much has 20 points”(The Information Daily). Long term effects of malnutrition leave permanent damage to the brain, however, malnutrition has short term effects as well. Malnourishment can greatly compromise a child’s immune system, making them more susceptible to infectious diseases. “Low counts of zinc, iron and vitamin A are commonly associated with weakened immune function” (Orphan Nutrition). A deadly infection can have a huge impact on a poverty stricken family leading to less affordability. Malnutrition negatively affects a student throughout their educational