Understanding Rural Poverty with Sherry Slankard

The United States has been at war on poverty since 1964. However, with the Economic Opportunity Act was signed, it was primarily addressing the lack of financial means. Fast forward to today—we are still talking about how we can best address poverty. Only poverty today goes well beyond the lack of money. Poverty can be the lack of resources which does include financial, but also includes language, emotional, mental, spiritual, physical, support systems, relationships, and the knowledge of hidden rules. So to help us out, our guest today is Sherry Slankard. Sherry is a school counselor, currently working in a rural elementary school. Prior to this she was in a middle school setting for 15 years. More importantly, as we hear from Sherry, she grew up in rural, generational poverty. She uses her incredible personal story and her formal training to help educators all over better understand where their students may be coming from and how best to reach them. After listening to this week's Anchored in Education episode, head over to www.escottengland.com to find the show notes and to read more about Sherry.