There has been a lot of talk about how the socio-economic status of a person’s family is the most important determinant in a young person’s life. More often than not, these discussions veer off in the wrong direction and misconstrue why economic opportunity is prevalent in some parts of the country and completely absent in others. It’s a difficult subject, and to be honest, one that’s deeply personal to me. Through my nonprofit, I have dedicated years of my life and most of my personal resources trying to inspire young people to lift themselves out of poverty by starting small businesses. But early on, I discovered a huge roadblock that was simply beyond my capacity to overcome. I only bring it up now so that someone else might also recognize the problem and find the solution that I never could.
There is no doubt that having access to good schools, proper health care, stable homes, and healthy food creates an atmosphere where aspiration is rewarded, and achievement more common. But just because the door of opportunity is closed to many lower middle-class and poor students doesn’t mean it’s locked and can’t ever be opened. In many cases, it’s not the system that keeps the key hidden from kids searching for a way out. It’s family, friends, and communities that teach them hope and aspiration can only lead to heartache and failure. This is the result of learned helplessness.
Learned helplessness is a psychological condition in which a person suffers from a sense of powerlessness that arises from a traumatic event or persistent failure to succeed. In many parts of the country where intergenerational poverty is endemic, there is a cultural acceptance around the idea that it’s better to have next to nothing than nothing at all. Anyone who dares to hope and aspires to improve their circumstances is often treated as an outcast. As the middle class in America has shrunk, and as much as 70% of the working population lives paycheck-to-paycheck, this has led to an absurd situation where aspirational behavior, something that is fundamental to bettering the human condition, is considered an insult to one’s family and neighbors.[ii] Two stories demonstrate this perfectly.
Photo Credit: The Ground Truth Project.
A couple years ago, I was teaching an entrepreneurship course to high school students in a rural county where the poverty rate is twice the national average. On my second day, the school administrator told me about a student who expressed interest in the program but would not be participating. In 2020, this young woman was going to be the first person in her extended family to graduate high school. She was a good student and college scholarships were within the realm of possibility. After starting her senior year, she attended a family gathering over a long weekend and was mocked for having the audacity to finish twelve years of formal education. People she trusted and loved told her she was being uppity and acted like she was better than the rest of them. She told her grandmother that she wanted to open a flower shop someday. Granny told her flat out, “Our people don’t do those kind of things.” The following Monday, the girl went to her principal and dropped out of school. She had just turned eighteen.
In another county a different story played out. On my first day, the teacher I was working with told me about another young lady who had been taking culinary classes at the local career technical center. They believed she would be enthusiastic about learning how to start her own small restaurant. This student came from a heartbreaking environment. She lived with her father in a dilapidated chicken coop. Not a former chicken coop mind you, but one where there were live birds living in the same space. She would often come to school in clothes that were dirty, and her teachers would have to help her get cleaned up and changed into something presentable.
The entrepreneurship course I taught involved field trips and free educational travel opportunities that required a parent or guardian to sign a permission slip. Despite his daughter’s interest and aspiration for a better life, her father refused to sign the slip. He told her that he had grown-up poor and it was wrong of her to think she was any better than him. He was also afraid that she might someday move away from home. After trying to find some workarounds, the bureaucracy got in the way and I ultimately couldn’t get her involved without her father’s permission. Luckily, about four months later child protective services came and removed her from her father’s shack. The last I heard she was in the foster care system.
Though these two examples are extreme cases, they do represent the psychological entrapment that is common in communities where opportunities are few and far between. When the most important people in a person’s life actively discourage aspirational behavior, it’s hard to break out.
It’s worth noting too that learned helplessness exists in nearly every community where intergenerational poverty is present. For every story of a young girl living in a desperate situation in rural America, there are equally heartbreaking stories of other young people living in homeless camps, crack houses, and crime ridden apartment complexes in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, and New York. Poor is poor no matter where you live and the conditions that rob people of hope have more to do with the absence of aspirational role models rather than institutional biases or geography.
By blaming “the system” for our own inability to succeed, we give ourselves a pass for our own failings and condemn our kids to a future where just getting by is good enough. The education system does nothing to mitigate these negative influences. Too often education and mentoring programs that try to mass produce young entrepreneurs in hopes of sparking economic development ignore the reality that a culture of mediocrity and failure trumps all efforts by outsiders to convince young people that hard work will produce a better future. It’s almost impossible to convince anyone to assume all the risks associated with starting a business when they no longer believe that America is a land of opportunity.
This is a problem that begs for a solution, but for now, educators and elected officials with the best of intentions will never be able to trump family influences. There will certainly be young people who overcome extreme poverty and lead incredibly successful lives. But they won’t do it because of something they’ve learned in school or heard in a campaign speech. They’ll do it because they learned how to survive living a hard life.
ZKN – Averagist
[i] https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikaandersen/2013/05/31/21-quotes-from-henry-ford-on-business-leadership-and-life/?sh=6b60761d293c
[ii] https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackfriedman/2022/02/08/shock-poll-7-in-10-americans-live-paycheck-to-paycheck/?sh=5040619155f6
