Valley Students Get A Taste Of Homelessness
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
AKRON - Four Tippecanoe Valley High School students experienced a sample of homelessness Tuesday night as part of a school project.
About 50 students in two of Grace College student teacher Mike Ellis' classes participated in "Deviance Day" Tuesday at the high school. Ellis is student teaching under Jeff Shriver. But four of the students - juniors Craig Willard, Cody Kaiser and Zack Smith, and senior Stanford Hall - decided to take the experience one step further.
"We just wanted to go all out for it," said Kaiser.
"It was a fun idea at first," said Willard.
Hall said, "It was fun, lots of weird reactions, most of them were positive. It was really cold out there. The cops came by twice to see if everything was OK."
During Deviance Day, Ellis said students experience part of another culture they might not be a part of on a daily basis. They dress and act the part, such as wearing "punk" clothes if they might otherwise usually wear "preppy" clothes.
"It was an interesting experience," said Ellis, and many students took the idea "to extremes."
Shriver said Willard, Kaiser, Smith and Hall decided to pursue it more than the others and they really got into the project by pretending to be homeless for a night. The foursome, Ellis said, camped out at TVHS overnight, using newspaper as pillows and blankets. Shriver said the four young men gained an appreciation for the plight of the homeless. Besides the cold of the night, they also didn't eat anything more than chips.
"It was fun at first, until it got late at night. It got really cold and was hard to sleep on the concrete," said Willard.
Kaiser said there were bugs crawling on them and they only got a couple of hours of sleep. The students indicated they were tired for the next two days after the project because of the lack of sleep Tuesday night. Kaiser said he did research on the Internet to see how to "dress" like a homeless person.
Willard said they started a small fire in a barrel to keep warm.
On Wednesday morning, Kaiser said, they were awakened by his mom throwing walnuts at them, simulating someone being cruel to the homeless.
Willard said they tried to get money from people, but most wouldn't even look at them and hurried along their way.
"You realize how hard it is to be homeless," said Willard.
According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, "two trends are largely responsible for the rise in homelessness over the past 20-25 years: a growing shortage of affordable rental housing and a simultaneous increase in poverty." Other factors that contribute to homelessness include lack of affordable health care, domestic violence, mental illness and addiction disorders.
In 2004, the NCH reports 12.7 percent of the U.S. population, or 37 million people, lived in poverty. Both the poverty rate and the number of poor people have increased in recent years, up from from 12.5 percent in 2003, and up 1.1 million from 2003.
According to the NCH, in 2003, children under the age of 18 accounted for 39 percent of the homeless population; 42 percent of these children were under 5 years old. A 2004 study by the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty found that unaccompanied minors comprised 5 percent of the urban homeless population. However, in other cities and especially in rural areas, the numbers of children experiencing homelessness are much higher. According to the NLCHP, in 2004, 25 percent of homeless were ages 25 to 34; the study also found percentages of homeless persons aged 55 to 64 at 6 percent.
Ellis said all students participating in Deviance Day were really excited and interested to see how the student body would react. Students also had to write a paper imagining how it would be if their entire life was like that one-day experience.
"I think they gained an appreciation for what they have and who they are," said Ellis.
Shriver said this is the first year for Deviance Day at TVHS and is a project Ellis developed while working toward his teacher's license. His idea is to get students involved at looking at stereotypes of people who are "different" from them.
On the Net:
National Coalition for the Homeless: www.nationalhomeless.org [[In-content Ad]]
AKRON - Four Tippecanoe Valley High School students experienced a sample of homelessness Tuesday night as part of a school project.
About 50 students in two of Grace College student teacher Mike Ellis' classes participated in "Deviance Day" Tuesday at the high school. Ellis is student teaching under Jeff Shriver. But four of the students - juniors Craig Willard, Cody Kaiser and Zack Smith, and senior Stanford Hall - decided to take the experience one step further.
"We just wanted to go all out for it," said Kaiser.
"It was a fun idea at first," said Willard.
Hall said, "It was fun, lots of weird reactions, most of them were positive. It was really cold out there. The cops came by twice to see if everything was OK."
During Deviance Day, Ellis said students experience part of another culture they might not be a part of on a daily basis. They dress and act the part, such as wearing "punk" clothes if they might otherwise usually wear "preppy" clothes.
"It was an interesting experience," said Ellis, and many students took the idea "to extremes."
Shriver said Willard, Kaiser, Smith and Hall decided to pursue it more than the others and they really got into the project by pretending to be homeless for a night. The foursome, Ellis said, camped out at TVHS overnight, using newspaper as pillows and blankets. Shriver said the four young men gained an appreciation for the plight of the homeless. Besides the cold of the night, they also didn't eat anything more than chips.
"It was fun at first, until it got late at night. It got really cold and was hard to sleep on the concrete," said Willard.
Kaiser said there were bugs crawling on them and they only got a couple of hours of sleep. The students indicated they were tired for the next two days after the project because of the lack of sleep Tuesday night. Kaiser said he did research on the Internet to see how to "dress" like a homeless person.
Willard said they started a small fire in a barrel to keep warm.
On Wednesday morning, Kaiser said, they were awakened by his mom throwing walnuts at them, simulating someone being cruel to the homeless.
Willard said they tried to get money from people, but most wouldn't even look at them and hurried along their way.
"You realize how hard it is to be homeless," said Willard.
According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, "two trends are largely responsible for the rise in homelessness over the past 20-25 years: a growing shortage of affordable rental housing and a simultaneous increase in poverty." Other factors that contribute to homelessness include lack of affordable health care, domestic violence, mental illness and addiction disorders.
In 2004, the NCH reports 12.7 percent of the U.S. population, or 37 million people, lived in poverty. Both the poverty rate and the number of poor people have increased in recent years, up from from 12.5 percent in 2003, and up 1.1 million from 2003.
According to the NCH, in 2003, children under the age of 18 accounted for 39 percent of the homeless population; 42 percent of these children were under 5 years old. A 2004 study by the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty found that unaccompanied minors comprised 5 percent of the urban homeless population. However, in other cities and especially in rural areas, the numbers of children experiencing homelessness are much higher. According to the NLCHP, in 2004, 25 percent of homeless were ages 25 to 34; the study also found percentages of homeless persons aged 55 to 64 at 6 percent.
Ellis said all students participating in Deviance Day were really excited and interested to see how the student body would react. Students also had to write a paper imagining how it would be if their entire life was like that one-day experience.
"I think they gained an appreciation for what they have and who they are," said Ellis.
Shriver said this is the first year for Deviance Day at TVHS and is a project Ellis developed while working toward his teacher's license. His idea is to get students involved at looking at stereotypes of people who are "different" from them.
On the Net:
National Coalition for the Homeless: www.nationalhomeless.org [[In-content Ad]]