Wednesday, 6 March 2013

Introduction

The social issue I have chosen is child poverty within Aotearoa/New Zealand. The reason I chose child poverty is due to watching a documentary on television. I remember feeling very naïve after watching this, as I had not realised child poverty is so prominent within our country. After seeing this, I have had several conversations with others regarding this matter.


 One conversation surprised me as not all people seem sympathetic to those considered on the poverty line.  A comment that really stood out was “There is no excuse for not feeding your children, back in my day our children never went hungry”.

This made me question, is it simply bad choices that keep people in the poverty line? How do families find themselves in this situation? What affect and impact does poverty have on our children? And when these children become adults is it just a given that they will remain in the poverty line?  I expect the more I read the more questions will be raised, but at this point these questions will guide where I will look next regarding children living in poverty within Aotearoa/ New Zealand.




4 comments:

  1. I look foward to reading what you find out about this to lou! I have never even thought about child poverty and how much of an issue it really is in New Zealand. I look forward ot reading more about what you find out! :)

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  2. Lou, a very interesting topic you have chosen. Here is a site to a child poverty report which may help you with some of your questions. http://www.occ.org.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/10150/Child_Poverty_Report_Web.pdf

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  3. wow, Lou this was a very insightful blog! I had no idea we had such a great amount of poverty within New Zealand. I felt your blog was very well written and has made me reflect on my own teaching practice. I most definitely will be bringing up this social issue in our next staff meeting at the centre and hope to do professional development course on this
    Thank you

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