Income Inequality in Adolescence by Jose A. Garcia

            Income inequality plays a big factor in an adolescent’s life. There are many different families and each family has a different source of income. There are families that have higher income and there are families with lower income. No matter what, each family is going to have an effect in school. One factor that comes with income inequality is bullying. Usually bully’s come from families that have a lower income. Another factor that comes with income inequality is teacher expectation and how they can play a role with family income.

            The first factor that comes with income inequality is location of schools. Lower income areas tend to have schools that are older and smaller than others. Those are the schools that are public because they will accept all students who apply. Some of those schools are considered to be community schools because the students who attend those schools live within the community. They are easier to for students to travel to because it is close. The schools in higher income areas tend to look newer and are bigger than other schools. They tend to have their own fields such as football fields, baseball fields and also swimming pools.

            Another factor that comes with income inequality is bullying. Bullying usually comes from families that have lower income especially if they are in elementary school. Families that have lower income only have the money to send their kids to public schools and usually those kids have more difficulty with dealing with schoolwork and since they have problems to deal with at home. Those are the kids that get frustrated and angry because they don’t do well in school and they tend to take it out on other students in school. Kids from lower income families don’t know how to control their anger because they don’t have the parental guidance to deal with anger in the proper way. Kids from high income families are bullies too just in different ways. For example, students from higher income areas tend to cyber-bully other students so that they are less likely of getting caught within school. This usually happens to females more than males. One way those male students are bullied in higher income areas are from sports teams. Higher income students, who are bullies, tend to not make scenes in school because they don’t want to get in trouble.

            Also, the kids who are bullies in school usually have aggression that starts at home. Parents who earn low income usually don’t have time to be with their kids because they are too busy working and that is why the kids end up becoming bullies because they don’t have no adult figure to guide them between right and wrong. Kids who become bullies tend to not care much about school and grades. They would go to school and pick on other students and become problems for teachers. In result to not caring about school, kids who are bullies tend to not show up to school at all. They feel that they can’t get good grades so they don’t show up and bullying can lead to low attendance rates for schools. Bullies that are from higher income areas are the ones who tend to stay in schools but the students that they bully around tend to skip school and have low attendance rates.

            Another factor that comes with income inequality is a teacher’s role with the students. Sometimes teachers go above and beyond when it comes to helping students who are bullies and those who are being bullied. Schools in lower income areas have teachers who are more willing to help students because they know that the students need more help than others and that the students don’t have the best resources. Parents who earn low income tend to hold teachers accountable for their kids and parents expect the teachers to guide them to do well in school. Teachers can only do so much for their students when it comes to personal problems such as problems at home. Teachers want to help as many students as they can with anything they need. Parents in higher income areas have higher expectations for teachers and they just want teachers to do their jobs. If a student is struggling in a higher income area, the parents will put the blame on the teacher and staff. Sometimes teachers can’t handle having their expectations so high because it puts too much pressure on them and it can cost them their jobs.