Potentially interesting article

Over the weekend I was looking through some articles of the New York Times and I found a particularly interesting article about the class system and how it effects children in school. While the article wasn't directly related to langauge diversity, I think it does reflect on financial diversity and how we as teachers must be cogniscent of the fact that very often our students will come from very financially divers homes, particularly in the public sector. The article reminded me of a discussion I had had in one of my educational psychology classes, in which we discussed Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Maslow basically states that in order for children to be able to focus on their education they must have certain needs fulfilled. Obviously, a student who has nothing to eat for days, will not be able to focus on a math or reading lesson. It is important that we remember this when we become teachers. Here is a link to the article that I read. It is kind of lengthy, about four pages on the website, but I personally found it pretty interesting.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/10/magazine/10payne-t.html?pagewanted=3&_r=1&ei=5087%0A&em&en=bb499b7bf491dcb1&ex=1181620800