Is We Poor?

It was one of those moments. You know, the ones you immediately want back?  I was standing at the front of my classroom, arms folded, right leg curled behind me, foot propped against the wall - frozen.

We were talking about The Hunger Games and how we might draw parallels between that society and ours. I explained that, in the book, the residents of the wealthier districts have been raised to succeed. Their whole lives they've been trained and prepared to win, and while the poorer districts are expected to compete with them, it's unfair because they haven't had the same opportunities. They have had to spend their lives struggling to survive rather than preparing to excel.

I paused for a moment to allow the concept to simmer. I watched their faces to see if any light bulbs turned on. A hand shot up in the air.

"Ms. B..." she seemed afraid to proceed. "Is we poor?"

That's when I froze. My face must have revealed some distress because she immediately corrected herself in an apologetic tone... "Are we poor?" I barely noticed.


Of course you're poor. We're in Northern Mississippi. In fact we're in one of the poorest counties in Northern Mississippi - the poorest state in America. Dammit. How did I not see this coming?

I pursed my lips and pondered how to respond. "Why would you think that?"

"I don't know..." another one chimed in. "We go to public school?"

"I went to a public school. Do you think I'm poor?"

"Psh. We know you ain't poor, Ms. B." Okay, there was my second misstep. 


"So then that can't be an indicator. Why else would you think you're poor?"


No response. I carried on. Carefully but not really taking enough time to consider my words. I was being suffocated by the awkwardness of the moment. My palms began to sweat. I unfolded my arms and stood erect - a definite contrast from my previously relaxed body language.

"Poor looks different to everybody. It's all relative. Someone who lives in a city might look at us and immediately think we're poor because we live in the country. But we can look at Memphis and think the exact opposite. You're all here with clothing on your backs, books in your hands, and houses to go home to. I don't think that's poor."

The truth was that I had already told them they were at a disadvantage. I told them that The Hunger Games districts were just like our states - the poorer ones always have been and always will be at a disadvantage. The truth was that even though I had gone to a public school, I was obviously much better prepared to battle my peers from other states - especially Mississippi. I was contradicting myself and praying they wouldn't notice. How unfair.

I wanted the moment back. I immediately knew what I should have said, but it would now seem disingenuous if I backtracked and rephrased. I should have told them that poor was a state of mind. I should have told them that in so many ways they were so much richer than my own public school classmates. I should have told them that 'rich' and 'poor' have so many meanings, the least of which having anything to do with money. As was later pointed out to me by a coworker, I should have told them about the devastating poverty I saw in India - toddlers crawling on street corners, digging for food in heaps of trash.

I said none of this. I did nothing to enlighten my students. I absolutely and utterly blew a teachable moment. Those are the moments we live for as teachers. The moments when we get to stray from the plan and really connect with our kids. And that's my problem really... I can easily plan another way to recreate that discussion and say what I want to say. But will it seem forced and thus fall on deaf ears? Probably.