And lets just the bottom 20 percent of this would be parents with income below roughly 25000. 00 and now we come watch their kids grow up and we made sure their kids income. 30 to 34 years of age are they doing better than the kids from that bottom 5th of income below 25000 are twice as likely as we would expect based on chance to be in the bottom its very difficult to get out of the bottom. Its a fight every day to meet your needs and the needs of your family. I am very aware. Of the. Current for how long we are on the. More must be done to reduce poverty and dependency and believe me nothing is more important than welfare reform. To a large extent its also a state of mind poverty in a sense. How does piloted love. Papa didnt have a loan. Because you can put make up. Some clothes on anything about it sometimes if we struggled with poverty in a certain way were going to be most critical because we say well we didnt i pulled myself up by the stress i got it done i struggled i had to work 2 jobs i did it well your situation is not the same somebody else is because were individuals and our characteristics our personality our network of people our demographics of the area that we live in are different so we cant take 2 people from different factions and say well this person did it he must be good and this person didnt do it they trained elephant backhand elephant with a little roll when theyre young. And elephant growth of the poll found them all the elephant. Put the same little rope around that elephant. That elfin event condition only go in far as that rope will lead and. Probably were saying wait a minute cases of people as he had a little rope around there man. Will will only let him go so far. You know enough of. So far and they would show. Me when they grew up. The same little rope youre talking about. That only goes towards. The 2 most important thing is where youre born and who youre born to so this one guy he said ill do your study for you he said i grew up in poverty and i said thank you so much i said tell me how did your family get by he said well my father was a physician he died when i was 12 i had to go live with grandparents i worked in their store i pulled myself up off my own bootstraps i had the right mindset and i was determined and i became a doctor like my dad and im listening to him through the eyes of somebody whos bought her 5 brothers in the back window of the car and im thinking you knew someone who owned a store and you were related to bill. But if you look at it from his context his experiences who do the children a professional singer. Typically its going to be other children of professionals and what people do is we compare ourselves to the people around us and we sometimes put an umbrella and say poverty is just poverty and thats not thats not true thats not the case its so difficult to come up with a solution to help someone we dont understand the problem ourselves how can we Work Together how can we understand each other and the answer is we have to accurately understand poverty what is poverty about. So understanding the perspectives of people who live in generational poverty or working class poverty or immigrant poverty or situational poverty theres so. Many different Life Experiences of poverty and we use one word to describe them so many people theyve they have no idea if youre born into a poor family youre born into a minority family if youre born into a family that only has a single parent that really constrains your life chances people die on average 15 years younger if youre born into generational poverty. Only 17 percent of the people born into generational poverty move out so you move a lot and you just get through the day and a life becomes about getting through the day generational poverty is the deepest part radio cycle out of any people in generational poverty are working 1. 7 jobs and to decide between paying more buying food. Thats the kind of poverty i come from where most of my family members cant read and write theres high mobility of absolutely a victim youre going hungry to have nutrition if you dont really really sick eulogists really just hope they give you sales you know theyll buy the prescriptions working class poverty is a little different youre living paycheck to paycheck dont have a lot left over but know that checks coming so you feel like you have a little more control over your life but theyre very hard on themselves they buy into the idea that if they work or dont make it and they have the labor statistics they without an education or skill or your whole life. And then theres emigrant poverty where you have people who are struggling with housing transportation child nutrition out of their basic human needs and in addition to that and the language barriers the cultural barriers. The discrimination the racism to live to move really big obstacles to address to really develop to their potential and then you have situational poverty you go up to middle class environment you hear middle class words since you were in the war you know middle class and structure youre not saying you maybe have a divorce and you fall. Into poverty or maybe you get downsized in your job and you fall into poverty those are the ones that sometimes dont find their way into our numbers that didnt fill out the papers for the free and reduced lunch. So in america we like to thank that everybody who works hard and has a certain amount of talent can make it and can join the middle class thats the American Dream and past generations the American Dream seem to be working pretty well its not working as well now we always think that in america on the theory of the land of the brave equal opportunity. To. See. Kids. Go to school so. Through education you can also better yourselves in other words you learn how to learn how to think critically and find solutions to unexpected challenges education also teaches you the value of discipline but the greatest rewards come not from instant gratification but from sustained effort and from hard work. And finally with the right education both at home and at school you can learn how to be a better human being. You know look forward to talking to you all that technology should work for people. I robot must obey the orders given by human beings except where such orders to conflict with the 1st law show your identification for should be very careful about official intelligence and the point obesity is too great trusts ever the shia. Only take on various chozen with Artificial Intelligence will summon the demon. The robot must protect its own existence has only existed. This. Time of the time cold parishioners repeat the same mantra sustainability very important. Transitions to sustainable prize board sustainability stay number man a more equitable and sustainable world. They claim their production is completely hamas. It. Companies want us to feel good about buying their products while the damage is being done far away and this is something this must be done to anyone and i need money. And news to me doing the nieminen im. Understood so when the. Cash cow and is gone all forms are among. Those cherished and. Change dard serve our. Whose 1st words were at allowing a c. Or a child to post youve got 2 years to live. I have no doubt that what happened was criminal. Offense concentrate market is a 1000000000. 00 industry these companies have a huge financial motivation to sow these problems there are numerous documents showing that doctors were keen to test facts right concentrates for the effects of its own that patients wont give them doctors the wrong stoplight. Term stuff why they would keep me from circuitry those years back and people still die and im always question or so i tried being hard to live by and so many have. Their own beds or to. Go behind or to feel good but such. An arguer. Of it is that you. Just fitted a commission did. You see mathematics move. To nominate you fish you know not just go from home in israel. They are the house when the. God sits. In a manner without any. Need to name it. The scandal in the. Prison system definition of. Ministers in the news to. Is your media a reflection of reality. In a world transformed. What will make you feel safe. Isolation community. Are you going the right way or are you being led so. Directly. What is truly wants is faith. In the world corrupted you need to descend. To join us in the depths. For a mate in the shallowness. When you look at the landscape of our Community One of the things that keeps me up at night is. Our education attainment rates 70 percent of our citizens our neighbors that live with us have no postsecondary credential todays economy is very demanding scales and skills means education so getting a job these days with just a High School Education is a lot harder than it used to be the chances are that youre going to be in poverty or close to be especially if youre trying to support a family. Why did 20 different focus groups i did surveys i did interviews expecting to find that students were afraid of math which they are that students need more tutoring which they do but those werent the barriers that students identified that were keeping him from being successful in the classroom what students told me overwhelming thing he is the Biggest Barriers to their success in the classroom had nothing to do with the classroom transportation childcare. Health care housing food utility payments statistics show that college is a very successful way to go and its still the best decision for students or anyone who wants to get out of poverty or level up in what they want to do however i also think that the worst thing to do is go to college and drop out years ago the goal is to graduate youve got a graduate but you just cant drop out because unlike anything else you still got to pay the bill. Now what higher ed would do is they would look at those success rates and they would go oh our students arent as well prepared theyre not smart they dont know how to study theyre not dedicated and i think what weve learned in emerald colleges those arent true at all our students are smart theyre ambitious theyre capable they want for themselves theyre burdened not just provide a future for themselves but to save their families but they have real barriers that they bring with them if were going to fulfill our mission and Higher Education weve got to understand those barriers and address them if we want our students to be successful in the classroom. And i teach people that if you dont get educated you dont get skilled you going to be poor your whole life and so will your children is an absolute exception of the 1st thing you know so when i say well my uncle makes a 100000. 00 and hes not educated including labor statistics and census data thats an exception i didnt know what i wanted to be and so after i graduated from college i think that thats somewhat normal but i went ahead and i i went to college and i picked the major and i was glad that i had people in my life there. Me just to go ahead and a lot of people because theyve learned they theyve been sent messages that theyre not smart enough theyre not good enough they dont try telling you to. Get your High School Diploma gets your College Degree and then keep pursuing what it is that you have a skill set for and your passion about one of the hardest most heartbreaking things about not having your ged or your High School Diploma is sometimes you hit a ceiling at work or you miss an opportunity we dont want you to miss we we want people to have those are. The best due to you know im not iostat in every the lot of those Walking Around but i graduated man education and you need to plan. One of things i think were really not talking to High School Students about is this subject that i like to call success we teach english we teach math but we dont teach except which regardless how smart you are in any of those other categories if you understand the subject of the best way to lose is basic fundamentals of understanding you know how to network how to communicate will be bold but also how to be strategic realizing whats important. College is down about how smart you are its about how hard youre willing to work in every case you should exposed to at school that shows the average income of people who drop out of high school and people who graduate from high school but doable for the kids who get a 2 year degree in kids who get a 4 year degree when they get to be adults the differences in those levels with education have exploded over the last 3 or 4 decades and if we could show the kids and make them understand and say one you know if i get more education im going to make more money and that will have an impact on every other part of my life the most important thing is not the freedom to buy things its the freedom to dream and chase what you really want to do the more money you. Can make and now and not spend it it allows you to dream at a place and give you the oxygen and during where youre not thinking short term. One thing that i think is so important to understand is how poverty steals your hope. And your confidence i was talking to 2 students at my t. Place and i loaded one up on my car brought them over here walk them through the process got him signed up we got a man rolled and then that student told me after we got him a schedule when it came time to go to class but the 1st day he said in his car in his parking lot for 3 hours that he couldnt get out of the car. Thats thats not because he won smart capable or he didnt want to do it thats because he was a brave and. Thats real but it cant be an excuse everybody in their lives everyone has fear i just challenge you to work through your fear and dont let fear keep you from being your best self dont give out by yourself when you are educated and when you know the things that you know and you know how hard you work. To create the story for yourself you need to surround yourself with other people who are going to be possibilities and do not allow negative people negativity to talk you out of your dream. What are you passionate about what do you have skills that for and in the meantime keep pursuing your education you have to understand that you have so much purpose between 14 and 24 that the decisions you make not only going to pack yourself are going to pack your kids and your grandkids you dont even know whos going to benefit from the little decisions you make the. But your grandkids will die. Because. They once were but. I watched. Her that she was going to be. And and im telling you. From the moment she decided she was going to be a singer. Really a little girl at that point and every time i saw her do is not what i think about. You know this work ethic that she had was this weekend amazing i mean you know as a kid authorise thing and all the things and then when we started this church in downtown houston her family joined brought the kids to an assistant and she joined a choir. And every now and then shed get a fellow and she would put more into that fellow than the whole choir would into the whole 12 and now she is on the largest platform in the world and they would be a thing. All because of a work ethic i mean young woman who made a decision to what she was going to do and be in life. And allowed no one to get away will everyone be a. No. Thats why you got to have a plan a a plan b. And a plan speak. We have a hard workers in this Community Whether theyre students in Amarillo College or employees in the community we have a really hard work ethic the issue is theyre underemployed so theyre working really hard and not making a living wage doing she already is working a crisis is 1. 00 jobs and still i cant put food and pay rent i have to make a choice so we say you just got to work harder in order to to make it thats not true not when youre experiencing poverty because people in poverty are working. I started looking at whos the number one teacher of poverty in the United States of america and the answer that i found was the media so whats the average person going to know about poverty and the people who live. Then it is probably going to be things like whether getting rich off welfare with a kid in high school is think and its not that big a deal as long as i have kids ill be fine ill be getting well for all the good and casual for will be covered by medicaid i can get housing and so. It doesnt happen that way in 1906 my welfare check before going any dollars jennifer was 6 daniels to my 15 year old homeless cuz i was living with me they said we wont help her because shes not yours will give you 400. 00 my rent in a neighborhood. In Portland Oregon was 395 i. Have been to the man a welfare check today her family of 3 National Average or 78 thats 1962000 17 the average rent according to had a modest apartment 750. The average disability check is 756. 00 its almost impossible to get out of poverty based just on public. Our labor statistics if you take a minimum wage job and you work 10 years and you dont have Education Beyond High School you dont have a skill like an electrician or plumber the average increase after working hard for 10 years in a persons income is 2. 00 an hour didnt matter how hard you were big about it who works harder the person cleaning the hotel room or the person in their office you dont move up without a skill or an education so if you want to buy your mom house going to make sure your kids dont go hungry cant get a skill got a good education now if you want to on say start all the 30000 a year and have the possibility or up to 60 or 70000 you are to have to have skills you have to be now wont you have to know how to do you need what we call soft skills and hard skills part skills are just you know being technically trained to do something Computer Literacy anybody who goes through school these days and isnt computer literate is going to be in trouble. And i think our schools should be doing a lot more if theyre not already to teach people programming and coding skills and the whole set of things you cant get a decent job anymore if you dont have the skills and the other the soft skills and if you talk to employers employers will tell you that theyre really missing the soft skills as much as the hard skills the soft skills are things like getting to work on time dressing appropriately knowing how to interact with other people knowing how to be polite with a client or a customer knowing how to rob them solved knowing what to do when something doesnt go quite right you know being a bit creative. One of the things that helped me in my personal life was to see other people may