The documentary I chose to watch was one by PBS titled “Poor Kids”. I thought this would be a good one to pick because it went right along with my blog where I am looking into how different environments may effect childhood psychology. The documentary was about 55 minutes long and it followed the lives of 3 main real families as they struggle to raise their kids in their harsh financial situation. It also has no narrator which I found to be very interesting, instead they let the kids do the talking. One big question I had going into this was will these conditions of poverty effect the kids as they grow old.
In the documentry we first meet a 10 year old girl named Kaylie who lives with her brother Tyler(pictured above), her mother, and their dog. Right at the start we are hit with a powerful example of pathos, Kaylie can be heard saying “I don’t think we are a rich family, I think we are kind of a poor family”. The producers put this in to get the audience feeling some emotion and maybe some connection to who we see on screen. Then they hit us with even more pathos by including Tyler saying that most nights they cannot eat and it makes it worse when he sees cooking channels on TV. Pathos continues to be used all throughout the film as a way to keep the audience engaged. They follow Kaylie and her family as they eventually have to sell their home and move into a motel to then selling their dog just to have some extra money. It ends with them talking about finally get a stable place to live inside a trailer home and though the kids don’t like it, it is much better than staying in their one room, one bed motel, and thats where it ends for Kaylie and her family
We also see two other families who are in very similar situations, one being a poor inter-city family and the other a rural family struggling to make ends meet. Something I found interesting with the rural family was how the mother is expecting a newborn on the way which was crazy to hear considering their situation.
But anyways back to my question about how will poverty change the kids while they grow, I think it drastically changes the way they view the world. These kids are going up not knowing if theres going to be dinner on the table and they don’t know if they will have heat while they sleep. This changes the brain to not only be more appreciative of what they have/don’t have but also I think it will make them want to work hard as adults, so that they won’t have to live in poverty forever. The documentary shows this in a way, they show Tyler (Kaylie’s brother) mowing peoples lawns for very little money and with the money he does he it goes right to his mom to pay the bills. By showing this it is proving that the poverty is changing the way Tyler’s brain thinks of money. For example when most kids mow others lawn they do it so they have some spending money, but the way Tyler was raised he knows his family needs the money more than him.
Overall the documentary was very well produced and I think it helped a lot with me understanding my topic in more depth.
