Lee Pulaski, lpulaski@wolfrivermedia.com
Leader Photo by Lee Pulaski Shawano School District educators wait to see social workers during a poverty simulation at Shawano Community Middle School. Limited resources and language barriers were some of the main issues employees saw with social services as they went through the simulation.
Leader Photo by Lee Pulaski Steve Stomberg, playing a 17-year-old high school dropout, is arrested on suspicion of dealing drugs by Wendy Esch, a police officer, during a poverty simulation at Shawano Community Middle School on Friday.
Shawano School District educators have heard all the reasons why homework was not finished, permission slips were not signed or students were late to class.
On Friday, they learned the truth behind some of those reasons in a poverty simulation conducted by Barney and Tamara Slowey. The Sloweys, of Rice Lake, have conducted similar simulations in school districts throughout Wisconsin, including Green Bay and Pulaski, over the last 12 years.
The school district held two sessions with the Sloweys, involving teachers, support staff and other employees.
“We’ve never had anything like this, where we’ve had so many people,” Barney Slowey said during the first session in Shawano Community Middle School’s gymnasium. “This is the biggest group we’ve had.”
Staff members were split into family units and given a variety of tasks to do in one month, with the weeks split into 15-minute segments. Some of the families experienced hardship right away, with a parent being laid off from work or a huge, unanticipated expense popping up, while other families had to contend with strife later on, such as a family member being arrested.
One family experienced the worst month of all, with a robbery taking place in the first week, followed by an eviction the second week and ending with the death of a family member.
When a family experiences a hardship, the children are not immune, Slowey pointed out. Many times, the children feel the stress even more so, which leads them to not focus on homework or sometimes experience difficulty in class because they’re going hungry.
“What we want to do is put you in the shoes of people who are in poverty,” said Slowey, a retired school administrator. “You all know what’s going on in your area; that’s going on all over the United States.”
One in four U.S. children live in poverty, Slowey said. Those families aren’t necessarily homeless, he said, but some of them might not be able to afford sports equipment or band instruments.
“The one major discriminator, not only in the United States but in the world, is poverty,” Slowey said. “Where we come from up in Rice Lake and in the rural areas, many of them have over 50 percent (student population) in the free and reduced lunch program. In some places, it’s as high as 60 or 65 percent.”
Once the simulation was over, educators described feeling inhuman and intense anxiety when they had to go to social services or find assistance with a faith-based organization. A couple of teachers said transportation issues had them feeling alone with no one knowing what they were going through.
The staff members who played children said they felt frustration because their parents were dealing with issues, and they were helpless to solve the problem.
Other staff members commented they were angry at the bureaucracy of government systems and the entitlement of some people.
At the end of the simulation, as staff members discussed ways to help those in need, a key component cited by many teachers was the need for flexibility in the classroom. With school funding cut, families have been asked to pay for more school supplies, and many of them cannot afford to spend $100 or more on supplies.
What it comes down to, district staffers agreed, is not putting all students into a one-size-fits-all system.
“We need to value every kid, whether they come from money or not,” said Jill Sousek, who teaches orchestra at Shawano Community High School.