Rachel Othersen

EDL 318

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Inquiry-to-Curriculum Project

Experience: Living in an unknown poverty
When I think of a typical childhood with a mom, dad, brother and sister, I truly had the whole
package. I believed my childhood was a typical childhood where my mother was a stay home mother,
my father worked to put the bread on the table, and we lived in rural community of Eaton, Ohio. I had
everything I ever wanted, or needed from my family. I had a loving mother who took care of me when I
was sick, I had a father who took me to my softball practices, and I had siblings whom I fought with, but
loved on a daily basis. I never understood that my family was different, but unfortunately everything
that I knew would soon be shattered by one word, Cancer.
My mother was diagnosed with cancer at a very young age. I knew my mother was sick but I had
no idea to what extent, I was very young. She tried her best to be as normal as possible when she was
home from the hospital. My father who was overly stressed, overly worked nearly eighty hours a week,
and overly tired, never was around for much of my childhood. My parents were so in debt we could not
even pay our bills. The hospital bills were so outrageous for my mothers medicine it was trying for my
father to put food on the table. As I think back to this time as an adult, I now understand when my
mother told me no, I could not go to the pool, or when my father told me no, I could not go to Heathers
birthday party because we could not afford a gift. We were very poor. My parents never said these
words to me, ever. We were so grounded in our faith, we went to church three to five times a week and
when we went to church, not only did we believe in God for my mothers healing, but also believed in
God for money to buy our next meal. This is the way we survived, on our faith.
I never understood as a child, why the Smiths brought us food, or why the church ladies would
make us meals. I never understood the pressures of being poor because my parents shielded me from
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it, they believed that to be best for me. To finish my story, my family never caught up on our bills, but
we did lose my mother when I was eleven. Now, not only did my father have to pay our bills, but pay for
a funeral to bury his high school sweetheart. I will never forget that long and dreadful week. People
were in and out of our house, bringing food, presents, and love, but all I could think about was how
could God let me down. I asked my Dad, Why did Jonathan and Bethany (my brother and sister) get
Mom longer than I did? In all honesty, at eleven it was a hard concept to understand. My Father
answered, God knew you did not need her as long, you are strong and we are strong.
Now after all of the chaos in our lives died down, guess what never went away? Hospital bills.
We were still below poverty level, and now my Dad owed the hospital over a million dollars in debt (no
joke). My father was burdened with this my whole entire childhood. We struggled because the hospital
wanted their money for all of my mothers treatments. My father never paid off that bill, but they gave
him loan forgiveness eventually when I was sixteen. He eventually only had to pay ten thousand
dollars and the rest was forgiven, he believes that was God.
As I reflect on this chaotic but very brief moment in my life, this is what has lead me to where I
am today. I want to be a teacher because I want to be able to help students who may be facing the
same situation I was in. Faced with poverty, death, not knowing where your next meal will come from,
and dealing with this at very young age can be very burdensome. Even though, I was not aware of the
complexity of the situation as a child, I heard my mothers cries, I saw my fathers stressed out face, and
saw the kitchen cupboards and even when the lights did not work at times. Although I kind of combined
two stories into one, I want my reader to know that the reason my family was in that predicament was
because of my mothers illness, which she could not help. We were poor because my mother was sick
and my mother stayed sick because we were poor. We could not afford to get her medicine at times, we
could not afford for her to be in the hospital when in reality, she should have been. We could not even
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afford a lot, not even the very few clothes I had in my draw. I was young, and did not realize the reality
of it at the time, but now it is clear as day. In class, we have been learning about being culturally aware
and being that critical witness to a child, which I believe is very important, but I also believe in being
socio-economically aware of different childrens circumstances. Rather my students are poor, middle
class, or very well off, I want to be able to connect with them on a deeper level, a level in which I do not
feel any of my teachers connected with me except for one, Ms. White. It is sad to me that out of all my
kindergarten to sixth grade teachers, only one made a difference in my life, and my thinking that I could
be more no matter where I came from. I want to be that one teacher to my students; I want to put that
something in all my students that tells them no matter what their circumstance, they can achieve. Ms.
White believed in me and now, I want to be that one teacher that believes in my students.
The Challenges as an Educator: Being the critical witness in the students lives
The biggest challenge I will face as an educator is being a critical witness to my students at all
times. In EDT 473, we discuss a lot about how to be a critical witness to our students. A critical witness is
someone who hears, when others are not listening, or someone who hears even if the information is
very brief and quickly given. Children tell you the most random things at the most random times. They
do this because they do not understand why it is happening to them, and they are hoping someone
hears them in their time of confusion and hurt. When thinking about my challenges as a child with
poverty and cancer, only one teacher heard me, only one teacher was my critical witness, and listened
deeply into what was going on in my life. With all the demands that teachers face, I can see how this
would be a problem to not always be in witness mode.
Teachers are busy individuals, they have to maintain a classroom, deal with parents concerns, be
on task when the administration is breathing down their neck, and juggle many different acts at many
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different time. To now include the critical witnessing ball, or the socio-economic competency ball into
the mix, isnt that too much to ask?
As I am writing this paper, this is what bothers me the most, how can I be an effective teacher
every single day I walk into that room, and be aware of all these issues? As I look back at my situation,
and think about how I felt as that child, I deserved care, I deserved love, I deserved someone to help my
family in hard times, and I deserved a caring teacher who was looking into my life. In the book, Teacher
Leadership by Thomas S. Poetter, he mentions how as teacher leaders we need to be aware of our
students culture, poverty, and what they face on day to day basis. In his book he says, Reflective
teachersknow there are many ways to teach well. Reflective teachers always believe they are capable
of reaching their students; they look for new ways to approach them. (Poetter 2014) A reflective
teacher is one who looks into every advantage in connecting with the child in poverty, the child who is
from India, or the child who is homeless and has only flip flops in the winters cold. The biggest challenge
I believe for me as an educator will be to put the standards to the side for five minutes, and listen deeply
and hear that childs inner cry. In education we need to find the help for the families living in poverty,
we need to find a program that can support multicultural efforts, and we need to truly and deeply be
involved in these programs to show our students and parents, we care about you.
Questions that are burning inside of me as an educator:
1.) How can I manage being a critical witness to my students, as well take care of all the other pressures
of classroom teacher?
2.) How can I help students who live in poverty like I did?
3.) How can I relate to students of different cultures effectively and professionally?
4.) What can I do to be more competent in my teaching practices and lessons with my class?
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As you can see, I do not just have one question. I have many questions of how I can become a better
teacher for my students and a strong leader in my community, all I need to know is, how do I get there?
Method of investigation: How I plan to answer my own questions
I have already started my investigation in field by talking to the classroom teacher. The teacher
and I have discussed the demographics of the area that surrounds my school of Miller Ridge Elementary.
The school itself is not in a poor neighborhood. The houses that surround the school cost as much as
one hundred and seventy thousand dollars. I really did not believe I would be getting an urban
experience at this school, but my first impression was wrong. I have also discussed many of the
students backgrounds with the teacher in the class, and for the most part the students come from
lower to middle class families. The school itself qualifies for free breakfast for every student as well as
free and reduced lunches for almost all students in the school. Middletown City Schools qualified for this
program because most families in the city are at or below poverty level.
Another way I have been researching in my classroom is by observation. I grew up in a rural area
were there was not a lot of cultural differences between myself and those who surrounded me. As I
stood in the classroom on the first day, it was as if every color of child walked into that room. I LOVED IT.
There were White Americans, African American, Indian American, Asian Americans and several bi-racial
American students. Up until college, I have never been around people who were not like me, as in white.
This is why being culturally competent is important to me; I want to know everything about that student
to get a clearer understanding of who they are, and what they can bring to our classroom environment. I
want to learn about their culture, values and beliefs, this is important to me as a future educator.
As I continue this journey of trying to be a critical witness in the lives of my students, I will
continue to ask questions of the teacher, ask the students questions when they bring it up, be aware of
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my surroundings in field, and ask questions of the staff of the school of what kind of services are
available for children in this location. I will continue as we have discussed in class, to build my platform
of who I want to be as a teacher, and how I am going to get there. This is how I will build my method of
investigation.

Resources
Poetter, T. S. (2014). Teacher Leadership for the twenty-first century (2nd ed.). Cincinnati, Ohio: Van-
Griner Publishing. Pg. 21
(I know this is supposed to be separate, but I wanted to save a piece of paper )