Completely an Understatement

Have you ever read something, or listened to someone and thought....wow...that's so true? Have you thought, that's exactly how I feel but have never put my feelings into words?
I have been reading two books simultaneously. One, Poverty is Not a Disability; and the other Teaching with Poverty in Mind. The first book is for my Diverse Learners class. I don't know what the required reading was for Poverty is Not a Learning Disability...because once I started reading it I couldn't put it down. I heard about the other book, in a staff development training and since this topic is a passion of mine...I bought it and started reading it...so it's like Zanadu!
I heard, in college, about Mazlow's Hierarchy of Needs. http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/topics/regsys/maslow.html

The premise is that the most basic of needs are paramount. These needs are our physical needs; hunger, thirst, comfort, bodily comfort etc. That hit me in the most deepest place. As a child, I didn't have to worry about the physical needs...my parents provided them. However, when I became an educator...I noticed something...even though some might say I was raised in Pleasantville...and everything was la la all of the time ( of course it wasn't) I realized that not EVERYONE had the privilege of being able to have the most basic needs met. So therefore, if a child comes to school hungry; tired; uncomfortable...then the LAST thing they would be worried about was...learning...the first thing they would be worried about was meeting these basic needs. So this fact drove all of my instruction. I made sure that every day we had a snack with our math instruction...I called it Snack Math - just as when my husband and I had four kids and we were broke as a joke and all we had money for was hot dogs...( I made a big deal out of them and called them Holly Dogs...oh you are so lucky tonight! We are having Holly Dogs!) I made sure that our math instruction included a healthy snack of some sort...I used the snack as a math manipulative...because what I realized was that even though someone might be on free and reduced breakfast...if their parent doesn't get them to school on time...or to the bus on time...they don't eat breakfast. I also realized that the meals they get at school are sometimes all they get to eat...so shouldn't those meals be the most wonderful thing you could ever imagine?

Anyway, although this thinking might not fit into everyone's world of reality...it's reality. We are losing many of our kids because of their life circumstances. We are trying to use the same old tried and true methods that we've always used and we can't do it...we have to think!
Mazlow - physical needs first
Second- safety needs - wow doesn't that hit home?
Third - Love and belonging
Finally - Esteem issues...

I know it's a very difficult task to meet a child's needs...all of them...but if they come to us broken...and needing these needs met - then that needs to be Job 1....then we can get down to the business of learning...if we don't change our thinking...well what did Einstein say? The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results?