How Culture and Educational Background Influence Poverty

This article by Stephen Vaisey helps to integrate the old view that culture and education play a role in the social and economic status of people with the current views that people have over this subject (Vaisey, 2010). New research studies argue that culture and education play a role in impacting the poverty levels of the society. Leaders often blame culture for the poverty levels to evade their irresponsible nature to improve the living standards of the community. Poor children are said to have less educational ambitions than those who come from well- off backgrounds. Stephen Vaisey argues that understanding culture will help people understand poverty (Vaisey, 2010). Sociologists no longer pay attention to explain motivation as they either regard it as unimportant or ignore it. Youths from poor families do not have education aspirations as youths from rich families. If a person does not embrace the importance of education, this means that they will remain in poverty. Youths from poor backgrounds need to overcome the challenges they face so as to get education just like their peers. Some of the strong points that I found from the article is the fact that culture plays a significant role on poverty. This is true because the values and attitudes of an individual determine how they will embrace education and other opportunities that might improve their living standards. For example, children from poor backgrounds do not have motivation or ambition to get education. This means they have to work harder to reach where their advantaged peers have reached. 

Article Critique 

The main purpose of this article is to explain how culture and educational background influences poverty. The author argues that the values and beliefs of the society in one way or the other impact their socio-economic disadvantage. Culture is now defined as the resources and tools that can be put to use to improve the standards of the society. Therefore, this article proves that the values and attitudes of people determine their social and economic status. Stephen Vaisey uses this article to integrate the new and old thoughts of how culture impact poverty levels (Vaisey, 2010). This argument is true as people from poor families do not have the motivation to work hard and improve their lives unlike those from rich backgrounds. This is because their culture subjects them to think that poverty is part of them and they can do nothing to change their fate. This article is useful in motivating youths from poor families to go with the flow of their rich peers and get the same education as the others do. The author of the article also helps people know that they cannot change their culture by they can change their social and economic status by getting educated. This article raises the issue that people can use their culture as a tool to fight poverty. 

Reference 

Vaisey, S. (2010). What People Want: Rethinking Poverty, Culture, and Educational Attainment. 

The ANNALS Of The American Academy Of Political And Social Science , 629 (1), 75 

101. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0002716209357146