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Many of those societal observations about children growing up in trauma or in homes where helplessness and hopelessness are pervasive, resonated with me as I continue to work with educators. The stories I hear again and again are about students who just don't care, who can't make connections between what they're learning in school and preparing for "adulting" someday, and a lack of parent support for education. Vance states, "There is no group of Americans more pessimistic than working-class whites. . . . 42% of working-class whites . . . report that their lives are less economically successful than those of their parents'." This percentage closely mirrors (or even falls short of) the number of children who qualify for free or reduced lunch in my area of Wisconsin. Another of Vance's statements jumped out at me--"Boys who got good grades were 'sissies' or 'faggots.' . . . [S]tudies now show that working-class boys like me do much worse in school because they view schoolwork as a feminine endeavor." I absolutely experienced this sentiment over and over again from many of my male students.
So what conclusions did I draw from Hillbilly Elegy? I already know what I didn't know when I was teaching--that many of my students came from much more challenging lives than I could have imagined. In the end, as much as the "powers that be" debate and discuss and disparage education today, until the REAL needs--societal reform that impacts poverty and trauma--are addressed and all children receive the support they need at home, nothing is going to improve. And the J.D. Vance's in our classes will be the exception, not the rule.
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