The Case for Studying Poverty
By Harlan Beckley, founder and director of
the Shepherd Program on Poverty and Human Capability,
Washington and Lee University, and Stacy McLoughlin
Taylor, participant in and former acting director of
the Shepherd Program and MA student in European studies
in Istanbul, Turkey
The U.S. Census Bureau reported a poverty rate of 12.7
percent in 2004. More shockingly, one in five American
children today live in official poverty. Measurements
of poverty by health, literacy, or family stability
are even more embarrassing. Our infant mortality rate
stands above that of all other developed nations and
the percentage of U.S. citizens expected to live past
sixty-five is lower than in costa rica.
Undergraduate education addresses other significant
social problems: the environment, national security
and peace, women’s issues, and race and ethnic
relations. Why are there not more interdisciplinary
programs for the sustained study of poverty? Rigorous
and sustained interdisciplinary study deepens commitments,
generates new ideas, and inspires new approaches and
practices that engage many citizens.
Washington and Lee’s Shepherd Program for the
Interdisciplinary Study of Poverty and Human Capability
integrates academic study and learning through service
and reflection. It endeavors to inform students about
poverty and what can be done to foster human capabilities
for communities and individuals who have been left behind
in domestic and international development. It promotes
a structure for student leadership and volunteer service
in the local community through the Bonner Leader Program,
as well as eight-week summer internships in which students
work with disadvantaged persons and communities across
the nation. This effort helps our graduates develop
a stronger sense of vocation. They become knowledgeable
about how their conduct as professionals and citizens
will affect the opportunities of disadvantaged persons
to contribute to a better life for themselves, their
families, and their communities.
Graduates knowledgeable about poverty will introduce
new ideas into the political and civic discourse, initiate
innovative community programs, and introduce new professional
practices into business, education, law, ministry, healthcare,
and social work.
Through organizations like the Bonner Foundation, a
new generation of college students is involved in serving
society. Undergraduate studies of poverty can prepare
these students to unite with their less fortunate (sometimes
victimized) fellow citizens. Together, they could demand
that civic and political leaders on the right and the
left think and act differently to diminish persistent
poverty in the United States. Over time, we could then
alter these shameful statistics.
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