New Guidebook Helps Teachers Working With Impoverished Students

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Students with a poverty mind-set often feel powerless and think they have no control over what happens in their lives.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (PRWEB) August 29, 2011

In “The State of America's Children 2011,” a recent report issued by the Children’s Defense Fund, it was found that over 15 million children in the United States live in poverty. Regenia Rawlinson’s new non-fiction guidebook for educators working with impoverished children, A Mind Shaped by Poverty: Ten Things Educators Should Know (published by iUniverse), argues that this rampant poverty is directly related to poor academic performance.

Rawlinson goes on to claim that poor academic performance among impoverished students has stripped them of their ambition and enthusiasm and made them indifferent. She calls this the poverty mind-set. “Students with a poverty mind-set often feel powerless and think they have no control over what happens in their lives,” says Rawlinson. “They blame their circumstances and other people and look to others to work things out for them. They attribute failure to their lack of ability rather than their lack of skills.”

She intends to change this mind-set with A Mind Shaped by Poverty. Offering educators insight and understanding to these children’s lives, Rawlinson hopes to allow educators to connect with their students on an emotional level.

Rawlinson finds that disruptive behaviors in impoverished students struggling with their academics are expressions of their overall feeling of unworthiness, or what she calls the scourge of poverty. Providing insights from her own life growing up with these feelings and her years of experience working with students in this situation, Rawlinson’s advice is genuine, authentic and practical for any educator looking for strategies to help their students overcome the poverty mind-set.

A Mind Shaped by Poverty was selected for inclusion in the iUniverse Star program, which recognizes excellence in writing.

About the Author
Regenia M. Rawlinson has been an educator for more than 30 years, working as a teacher, a school counselor, and district administrator. Regenia Rawlinson is an expert on the topic of poverty and a leader in the areas of culture and school climate. Rawlinson and her husband, David, are the parents of three adult children and live in South Carolina.

iUniverse, an Author Solutions, Inc. self-publishing imprint, is the leading book marketing, editorial services, and supported self-publishing provider. iUniverse has a strategic alliance with Chapters Indigo in Canada, and titles accepted into the iUniverse Rising Star program are featured in a special collection on BarnesandNoble.com. iUniverse recognizes excellence in book publishing through the Star, Reader’s Choice and Editor’s Choice designations—self-publishing’s only such awards program. Headquartered in Bloomington, Indiana, iUniverse also operates offices in Indianapolis. For more information or to publish a book, please visit iuniverse.com or call 1-800-AUTHORS. For the latest, follow @iuniverse on Twitter.

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