Simulation project brings poverty to life for students
The Quaker Valley High School gymnasium was a scene of mass chaos on Friday morning, but the frenzy wasn't due to a nail-biting basketball game or a competitive volleyball match.
Students and faculty members participated in a poverty simulation sponsored by Pittsburgh Social Venture Partners and held as part of senior Anne Kaminski's International Baccalaureate project.
Anne, whose parents both work for PSVP, had participated in the simulation before she decided to hold the exercise. She thought her peers should see how some people struggle to get by day to day.
For her IB project, Anne asked her mother, Susan, if she thought PSVP would be willing to sponsor the event. The school's Student Service Learning Center members agreed to help organize the activity.
The poverty simulation was developed by the Community Action Partnership of Missouri and is used around the country to help participants understand the struggles of low-income families.
During the exercise, volunteers, select students and those from PSVP acted as basic service providers while all other students and faculty participants were divided into families and given name tags with the names and ages of the people they will be playing.
The "families" ranged from those with two parents and children to single mothers or fathers, senior citizens or those living on their own. Each had to try to pay their mortgage and utilities, provide for their children if they had any and buy food with limited money and resources.
"Each family gets a packet of expenses and has to do all these things to get by without having a decent income," Anne explained.
The simulation represented a four-week time period in the life of a poverty-stricken family and by the last week, students were visibly frustrated.
More than once, students were seen chasing each other around the gymnasium after one stole the other's cash. As time went on, more and more people fell into desperate measures.
"You see a lot of theft going on at the end because people are very desperate," Susan said.
One student, playing a man named Garth, said after he spent all of his money on his home, he felt like he needed some for himself so he resorted to stealing and was put in jail.
"I would never like to live like that," he said.
At the end of the simulation participants discussed the experience. By a show of hands, only a small percentage got everything done that they needed according to their lists. Almost everyone had done something illegal, most were robbed, and only a few had helped someone else out.
The volunteer working the fictitious Community Action Agency said very few families took the time to visit the agency to get the help they needed including cash, food and transportation cards.
"Very few took advantage of it, but those that did made out well," she said.
- Login or register to post comments
- Printer friendly version
- send to friend
- 921 reads
So a poverty lesson deals with making a mortgage payment? I'll try to contain myself here. How are you in poverty if you have a mortgage payment? Explain this to me. How about teaching our kids how to avoid poverty? Things like getting an education even if Mommy and Daddy can't pay for your college tuition, or learning a trade. Believe it or not there is nothing dishonorable about making a living with your 2 hands and a strong back. Teach them self sufficiency. Teach them that the govt. does not owe you a living, you have to work for it. Teach them that because your parents/family are poor does not mean you have to be. This is The United States of America. Get off your duff and make something of yourself and stop whinning!
DL,
You have a very bad attitude towards the working class and individuals who are having trouble keeping their heads afloat, financially speaking.
How are you in poverty if you have a mortage payment?? I'll tell you how... you own a home and are making every attempt to pay it monthly so your children have a place to lay their heads at night!!!!!!!! That's how you have a mortgage payment and are still in poverty.
And no, I don't mean owning a lavish home in one of Sewickley's many neighborhoods where people don't care if they throw money away.
Why do you assume that "mommy" and "daddy" don't have an education? Maybe they do. Maybe they're having trouble finding a job that will allow them to support a family. Maybe they can't find a reasonably priced daycare service so they both can have a job to support their family. You don't know what the situation is so do not assume that "mommy" and "daddy are lazy.
Look around the region. How many jobs where you use "2 hands and a strong back" offer a decent pay and benefits?????
Ever look in the want ads of the PG on Sundays?? Jobs offer minimum wage or 10 dollars an hour. You can't raise a family on that!!! Have you read where food prices went up 5% last year alone? Have you filled up lately? $3.30 a gallon. Energy prices are up, water bills are up. The basic payments to have a home are up.
And, for those that are forced to rent...yes, even rent is up to offset all of these costs, too.
And those labor jobs that you alluded to...where are they? Not to be had because the government let them move overseas.
So, yes, you can blame the government for the increasing lower income families and the disappearing middle class.
I don't know where you live and I really don't care to know, but maybe in your neighborhood people don't have to deal with this. They drive their SUVs and the moms don't have to work. They can shop at Giant Eagle and not have to worry about saving dollars.
Which world do you live in? The Haves or the Have Nots?
Sewickley Visitor,
I live in the working class world!I am one of the "Haves". Married, 2 kids,mortgage, both of us "have" to work. Neither one of us has a college education. I work 6-7 days a week. Drive a 10 year old vehicle. No money in the bank. No college savings for the kids. Count every nickel and dime. We work for a living. You are a typical whining Yinzer. You live here in western PA and cry about the $10 an hour jobs but won't leave to find a better one and blame everyone and everything else for your situation but yourself. I grew up here. Came of age during the steel collapse. Couldn't find a decent paying job so I left. When my kids are grown they will no doubt have to leave here also. It's about choices and decisions. In this country you either choose to live in poverty or decide not to. Still, explain the "poverty" of owning your own home?