Poor Kids Essay

Poor Kids Essay

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Poor Kids Essay

In the documentary ‘Poor Kids’, it has been shown via a process study that how the availability or unavailability of resources locate people in different classes. These resources can vary among financial, cultural, human and social capital. The financial capital has a wide range as it influences other domains of life too. It includes the availability of enough money to provide for a person’s education and all other things that are needed for the studies, such as personal room, computer or a board at college. These factors then eventually effect an individual’s career and promotion. It defined a complete set of principles of a lifestyle. In this video, the children who were part of this study faced issues related to financial capital one way or another. While some complained about not having their own rooms while others complained about not having a house of their own and living in the homeless shelters. They faced bullying at their school due to their financial situation. Some feared being ending up just like parents where they cannot provide enough for their family. While some children even dropped out and others could not continue after high school. The financial conditions affect the chances of an individual to have a brighter future or having a stable job due to lack of confidence and disbelief in themselves.

The cultural capital helps in gaining experiences and skills at educational institutes that eventually promote the desired future outcomes. It includes having a family actively involved in meeting with the teachers in order to ensure the child is doing fine. In this video, all these kids belonged to a poor or middle class and some of their parents showed concerns related to the education of their kids. They kept themselves engaged in conversations that motivate them to do better and share information with each other to maintain a healthy family environment. The human capital is an important aspect of schooling and family grooming. It offers children with a set of abilities to prosper in their professional careers. In the video, it could be seen that how majority of the children and their families ensured that their kids completed their studies. They realize the importance of education and skills as they have been the victim of the system for so long themselves. However, some kids astray from the right track as their parents are extremely busy in making both ends meet anyhow. In such cases of neglect, kids lose important part of their educational lives. The social capital is primarily dependent on the social networks and groups that assist in the future prospects. These links with the strong and influential people can also improve an individual’s financial culture or political culture. In the video, those kids and their families lacked the presence of strong links to help them out of their social conditions except for one family where their grandma provides them means to continue a normal life. These all kinds of capitals are interrelated with one another.

Sociologists have long argued that each social class has their own distinct set of values and resources which are called habitus. It influences children’s lives such as their daily life activities, vacations, leisure activities and education. Their activities and ideas are shaped strongly by their habitus. However, the born rich children come with a number of privileges for all aspects of their lives. In the documentary ‘Born Rich’, it is evident that children who come from rich families have different attitude towards life. They are secure yet some think that they have to maintain the hard work in order to keep up the family name. Others feel proud of where they come from and like the attention they receive for their last name. The American perspective of achieving upward mobility through hard work is in shambles for people with privileges get it all but the under deserving take a toil for being who they are or where they come from. The current system seems to only support those who already have some kind of help while the poor remain in a state of wonder if the state even cares for them.