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For Hollis, many of the adults around her view her situation as the result of personal deficits in her mindset and behavior. One of the many foster parents throughout her life continually complains about having Hollis around, calling her a “mountain of trouble” (Giff, 2002, p. 13). This name sticks with Hollis as she alludes to it in several instances throughout the story. It even sticks with her whiles she spends time at the mountain with the Regan’s and compares the size of herself, “a mountain of trouble”, to the literal mountain (Giff, 2002, p. 38).

Her case worker also has this view, as we see when she drops Hollis off with Josie at the beginning of the book. She pleads with Hollis to behave and act responsibly as if that’s the reason other adults and society have failed to adequately care for her (Giff, 2002, p. 5-6).

These are great examples of people demonstrating a deficit view of poverty rather than a structural view. If her foster parents or case worker had adopted a structural view, they wouldn’t see a “mountain of trouble” that screws up every chance she gets, but a young girl who has experienced hardship and disadvantages for the entirety of her life and needs genuine support, love, and stability.

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Although there are people in the book that practice a deficit view of poverty in the way they view Hollis, I do not believe that the book itself frames Hollis or poverty in a deficit view. I think this book actually supports a structural view of poverty. Hollis is depicted as witty, kind, determined, thoughtful, and an extremely talented artist. Her characterization is in opposition to the feelings her foster parents and case worker have expressed about her, which begins to build this structural lens.

In addition, there are adults in her life, like Josie and the Regan’s, that practice a structural view of poverty when caring for Hollis. Though forgetful, and experiencing poverty herself, Josie recognizes the structural obstacles that Hollis faces. That is why she works hard to encourage and support Hollis in her art skills and overall self-image. The Regan’s also exhibit a structural view of poverty which is seen in their simple everyday actions with Hollis as well as their willingness and excitement about adopting her as a permanent member of their family. They know that her situation has nothing to do with who she is as a person, but the circumstances she's found herself in.

As the book closes and we experience a snapshot of Hollis’s new life with the Regan’s, we can see that it was never her, but her circumstances which influenced the view her foster parents and case worker had of her. Hollis is the same witty, kind, determined, thoughtful, and extremely talented artist that we saw throughout the book. In the end, she just finally is provided the structural advantages that empower her to flourish in her full capacity. I think Hollis puts it best when she says that being with the Regan's, people who took the time to assess her needs and tend to them, made her feel as though "the angry Hollis were seeping right out of [her] bones, leaving chocolate as soft as that sticky Hershey bar" (Giff, 2002, p. 40).

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Poverty is also represented as an intersectional condition within this book, specifically focusing on the intersection of sexism and classism. Hollis is a twelve-year-old who is likely experiencing the discomfort and emotional pain of puberty as a young girl in our world. Girls are expected, from a very young age, to be beautiful. It effects how they are able to navigate the white supremacist patriarchy that we live in. To women, beauty can very well be a survival strategy. This produces immense feelings of anxiety and shame in young women and girls as they scramble to find where they fit in the hierarchy of beauty (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997, p. 181-182).

This stress is only compounded by Hollis’s already low self-esteem and poor self-image from years of enduring a deficit view from the adults in her life and having no stable family unit. Hollis even brags that she is good at keeping her head down and eyes to the ground (Giff, 2002, p. 6-7). There is also a moment in the book where Josie puts one of her fancy hats on Hollis, stands her in front of the mirror, and tells her that she is beautiful (Giff, 2002, p. 32). Hollis expresses that for the first time she felt pretty. She wanted to leave that hat on forever (Giff, 2002, p. 32). I think the way Hollis places so much weight on this moment really highlights the interesting intersection of being a pubescent girl experiencing poverty and an unstable home life. Being beautiful can be a shred of hope for a better future. Perhaps that is why Hollis wanted to keep the hat on forever.

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Hollis’s story rarely involves school. In the opening of the book, we are shown one of Hollis’s early educational experiences in which a teacher asks the students to find images of things that start with the letter “W” in a magazine and cut them out. Hollis cuts out a picture of a family for “wish.” Her teacher, without even inquiring about her thinking, rebukes her for being wrong (Giff, 2002, p. 1). This impacts Hollis in deeply negative way. We see this as she uses it as a through line for her story, continually bringing up this “W” picture, until she brings it to attention for the last time as she is settled with the Regans (Giff, 2002, p. 165). We also see this in the way she tries to prove that teacher wrong in her head, for example, “A mother, I thought. M. B, belong. G, girl. S, sister. W for want, W for wish, W for wouldn’t it be loverly?” (Giff, 2002, p. 70). It’s almost as if she is saying to that teacher, “I am smart, but you never would’ve known.” If her teacher had adopted a structural view of Hollis’s situation, as well as acknowledged funds of knowledge different than their own, Hollis may have continued going to school.

If teachers do not investigate and work against their bias, it can show itself in their actions, and in turn, make students feel distrustful of school. We see that when Hollis is living with Josie, she avoids going to school whenever she can, which is often, because Josie is getting old and forgetful. This avoidance seems clearly linked to her prior experiences at school. Sometimes it is schools and educators that prevent students experiencing poverty from having equitable opportunities to learn.  Paul Gorski stresses that "our choices of solutions determine the extent to which the strategies and initiatives we adopt threaten the existence of inequity or threaten the possibility of equity" (2018, p. 58). From Hollis' lack of school experiences, it is clear that the educators in her life were not threatening the existence of inequity in their work.

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This book depicts teachers and their power to maximize students’ equitable opportunities to learn by providing an example of what not to do in Hollis’s teacher. It also illuminates the struggles that children experiencing poverty, specifically in the foster care system, are facing outside of school. By taking a step back and adopting a structural view, educators can examine these obstacles and problem solve to create equitable opportunities for the student to learn and grow. If they don’t take the time to practice this simple habit of mind, students experiencing poverty will never receive the equitable opportunities they deserve. It just perpetuates the opportunity gap that begets an achievement gap between the majority and minority groups in society. Gorski agrees, “As long as [these structural obstacles] exist, educational outcome disparities will exist” (2018, p. 63).

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I wouldn’t say that this book explicitly suggests any social or structural interventions to minimize poverty in the United States, but I do think it shines a light on how we absolutely need to pick up the slack and start adequately supporting some of our most economically vulnerable citizens: children in foster care.

I think it also illuminates the obstacles that children who are experiencing poverty and/or the foster care system face in receiving equitable opportunities to learn. The specific obstacles highlighted in this text are traumatic school experiences, funds of knowledge unknown to and unrecognized by the classroom teacher, access to food and basic necessities, and neglect.

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In this text, there are certainly characters who view poverty as a result of personal deficits in mindset. For example, at the school book fair, there is a “phoenix from the ashes” type book about a young, impoverished black boy who, with determination and a positive attitude, escapes his rough neighborhood to make something of himself. There is a teacher who recommends it to every black boy who is experiencing poverty that she sees (two of them), and no one else (Craft, 2019, p. 129). It is almost as if she is saying, “Here read this! This can fix you!” There are other micro-aggressions like this throughout the book that reveal some of Jordans new teachers and peers view poverty as a result of the person, not the larger structures in place.

However, I do not believe that this text promotes a deficit view of poverty. There is a point in the story where it is revealed that Jordan’s father was offered a high paying corporate job, but he chose to work at the neighborhood community center instead. He comments that he’d rather do work that makes a difference in people’s lives (Craft, 2019, p. 97).  Even though his career choice effects where they live, the food they eat, the clothes they wear, their transportation, and the entertainment that their family gets to enjoy, Jordan’s father chose his morals over money. This moment in the story suggests that people experiencing poverty don’t have deficits in their mindset, but stronger and more compassionate mindsets than wealthy people who chose their careers for the money.

It also showcases a structural view of poverty as it illuminates the fact that some occupations which are vital to the health, prosperity, and comfort of our society are often paid poverty wages (Brookings, 2019). It reveals colossal structural issues when hardworking, compassionate people who do integral jobs, are paid so poorly. Of course, no one in the United States should be experiencing poverty or receiving poverty wages. It just speaks to how broken our economic and social structures are that occupations such as paramedics, child care workers, community workers like Jordan’s father, and others, are paid so poorly.

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The book sustains this structural view through Jordan’s narration of the things he is experiencing with his new environment and peers. Jordan, through his humorous narration, reveals the uncomfortable truth that although they attend the same school, he and his peers have drastically different home lives. For example, there are few parks or green spaces where he lives (Craft, 2019, p. 190), he rides the city bus alone to school (Craft, 2019, p. 56), and he doesn’t have anything to share when asked where he went for spring break (Craft, 2019, p. 169). This is something that Jordan struggles with throughout the text, as well as the fact that his neighborhood friends still attend his old school with less funding and opportunities at their disposal.

Through Jordans rumination on this internal conflict, it makes the reader ask themselves how and why schools in the United States, in 2022, can be drastically different in terms of the quality of academics and opportunities. He highlights this opportunity gap, and in doing so, supports a structural view of poverty. Education is supposed to be the great equalizer. People insist that everyone has the same chances of success in the United States because we have free public education. However, Jordan’s detailing of the differences between his two school experiences completely negates this assertion. It embraces a structural view of poverty, showing that where you go to school greatly influences your chances of future success, and that some students don’t have a choice in where they attend school.

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This book also depicts an intersectional view of poverty in the United States. Jordan is black, male, and experiencing poverty. The intersection of these identities effects the way he moves through the world and is perceived by others. For example, there is a moment at the beginning of the story when Jordan is being pick up for his first day of school. One of his new classmates, assigned to Jordan as a guide, and his father, pick Jordan up for school that first day. They are both white and the father wears big black sunglasses that resemble the kind a law enforcement officer would wear. Jordans father, as he shuts the car door for Jordan, reassures their neighbor that “He’s not being arrested, Mashea” (Craft, 2019, p. 14). This shows the intersectionality of being a black male experiencing poverty as it reflects the dark reality of black boys, regardless of their socioeconomic status, being targeted by police (Edwards et al., 2019). Intersectionality is also explored in the way that Jordan and Drew joke about their role as black people experiencing poverty in a wealthy and majority white school (Craft, 2019, p. 89).

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This book depicts teachers and their power to maximize students’ equitable opportunities to learn by providing some examples of how teachers minimized students equitable opportunities with their power. A moment that illustrates this is the teacher at the book fair that I mentioned previously. That teachers’ actions, projecting her deficit view of poverty and blackness on two young boys, hurts not only their feelings, but the relationship between student and teacher. Teachers need to not assume things about their students but learn from them so that they can more appropriately approach their learning and development.

There is another instance in the text where a teacher singles out students who receive financial aid when speaking about an upcoming field trip (Craft, 2019, p. 59). This sends those students into a stress fueled panic as they worry about what others will think of them. It is known that negative feelings like stress are not conducive to learning. As Bell Hooks says, "to teach in a manner that respects and cares for the souls of our students is essential if we are to provide the necessary conditions where learning can most deeply and intimately begin" (1994, p. 13). Teachers need to do their best to minimize students stress, not add to it, so that students are in the right headspace to learn.

The book provides another example of how teachers minimize students’ equitable opportunities to learn by not teaching about poverty, economic injustice, or class/racial bias. There are multiple students in this school from marginalized groups who are experiencing the realities of their identity with no outlet or reassurance from their teachers or other school officials. It is important for students to learn information and have discussions that are relevant to their real lives, yet the teachers in this text do not seem to recognize this. It is not only important, but students want it. Hooks reflects on her experiences with students, saying that "they do want an education that is healing to the uninformed, unknowing spirit. They do want knowledge that is meaningful. They rightfully expect that my colleagues and I will not offer them information without addressing the connection between what they are learning and their overall life experiences" (1994, p. 19).

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This book doesn’t explicitly suggest ways of minimizing poverty in the United States, but it certainly points indirectly to one. Jordan’s parents main reasoning for sending him to a new school was that he could get a better education and achieve a better life (Craft, 2019, p. 97). Drews grandmother shares this same sentiment about sending Drew to that school (Craft, 2019, p. 88). Reality reflects what these parents are feeling, the school you go to matters. This suggests that in order to address poverty, we must address the structures that are producing it. In this case, that structure is the education system. Providing an equitable education to every student in the United States is a great start to minimizing poverty in the United States.

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Based on my assessment of these texts, I think that they both teach about poverty in an accurate and ethical way, and I would include them both in my classroom library. The only issue I take with either of the texts is that Pictures of Hollis Woods has a fairytale ending while many children in foster care do not receive the same (U.S. Department, 2022). For this text, I would want to dig into the realities of the foster care system with my students to discuss a more accurate ending to this book so that we can understand the realities of others’ lives.

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For both Pictures of Hollis Woods and New Kid, I would make it a point to discuss with students the contrast in how people perceive (deficit or structural view) the protagonists in the texts. I think this is important because it will force students to reflect on their own views of and biases against marginalized groups. I would also want to teach students about the opportunity gap and relate that knowledge to what we read in these texts.

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In general, I would teach students to read critically by pairing literature with lessons on real social issues. From there, I would facilitate discussions connecting concepts to what they are reading and/or evaluating texts with the concepts we’ve learned. I deeply believe in the power of interdisciplinary learning, and to me, there is no better pair than English and social studies. I cannot wait to help my students hone their view of the world through the combination of literature, history, economics, civics, and the other social studies.

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- Students must understand figurative language (metaphors, similes, hyperbole, personification) and why authors use it.

- Students must understand italics and the different reasons they are used.

- Students must understand the varying of a story timeline (skipping from present to past) and why authors use this strategy.

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- Students must understand the layouts of graphic novels and how to navigate them.

- Students must understand that when reading graphic novels it is important to not just read the text, but also read the underlying messages in the illustrations.

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(Adapted)

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(Original)

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(OG doc) Education & The Fourteenth Amendment

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Brookings. (2019). Meet the Low-Wage Workforce.  https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/201911_Brookings-Metro_low-wage-workforce_Ross-Bateman.pdf.

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Craft, Jerry. (2019). New Kid. HarperCollins.

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Edwards, F., Lee, H., & Esposito, M. (2019). Risk of being killed by police use of force in the United States by age, race-ethnicity, and sex. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 116(34), 16793-16798. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1821204116.

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Fredrickson, B. L., & Roberts, T.A. (1997). Objectification Theory. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 21(2), 173. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-6402.1997.tb00108.x.

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Giff, Patricia R. (2002). Pictures of Hollis Woods. Random House Children’s Books.

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Gorski, Paul. (2018). Reaching and Teaching Students in Poverty: Strategies for Erasing the Opportunity Gap. Teachers College Press.

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Hooks, Bell. (1994). Teaching to Transgress. Routledge.

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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2022). The AFCARS Report. https://s3.amazonaws.com/ccai-website/AFCARS_Report__29_(2021_data_released_in_2022).pdf.

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Pictures of Hollis Woods is a young adult novel by Patricia Reilly Giff. It centers around a twelve year old girl, Hollis, and her experiences being in the foster care system from the time she was a baby. At twelve, she ends up in the care of an artistic and forgetful old woman, Josie, who changes the course of her life. By the end of the book, Hollis has something that she has yearned for forever: a family.

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New Kid is a young adult graphic novel by Jerry Craft. The books protagonist, Jordan, is a seventh grader who loves to draw. As the title suggests, he is the new kid at the prestigious Riverdale Academy Day School, a private school on the opposite of town from his apartment in Washington Heights. The book revolves around Jordan’s experiences and struggles in this foreign environment. The back cover of the book leaves us with a question: “Can Jordan learn to navigate his new school culture while keeping his neighborhood friends and staying true to himself?”