The Poverty Experiment

Our granddaughter who is turning thirteen next week is privileged. Saturday night as we were "kid sitting," we marveled at her schedule of activities for the evening--Cotillion in her new red dress I bought her last week followed by two junior high parties at homes. She then planned to spend the night at a girlfriend's house with six or so of her friends. When I picked her up Sunday afternoon, she told me of the poverty experiment she was to participate in the next two days.

She and her classmates were planning to go to Heifer Farms in order to attempt to understand what being poor actually means. They were to be given one food item for their team (each representing evidently a third-world country) for the entire time. Other teams were to be given another food item. If the participants wanted variety in their diet, they would barter and trade with another team. They would sleep on the floors of the huts they were occupying for the one night. I asked her to write about her experience so that I could read her account later and see what she learned from the trip.

Upon her return to her school the next day just before lunch, the poverty experiencers would likely eat a hearty meal. That night privilege would be returning to her once again as she was to attend a Taylor Swift concert here in Little Rock with her girlfriends. Privilege--poverty--privilege.

I am concluding already that this experinment in poverty will likely be the closest she ever gets to really experiencing what the non-privileged endure each day. No amount of talking to her about my own poverty in childhood would ever be as effective I am sure.