In John Zogby's book The Way We'll Be, he spends some time discussing what he refers to as the Dreamless Dead. The Dreamless Dead refers to the people, who in response to a polling question regarding a person's goals in life, chose the following option:
"I believe I cannot achieve the American dream, whether material or spiritual, nor can most middle-class Americans."
Zogby goes onto to say that the Dreamless Dead are heavily represented by those living in poverty. He talks about how even those living below the poverty line still have many possessions (major appliances, televisions, computers, etc.). But it's this statement that really gets to the heart of poverty, "...the real poverty from which many of them suffer is a poverty of optimism and expectations, not possessions." This is what restoration seeks to correct.
It's about injecting optimism into the lives of students. It's about holding students accountable for their actions and not letting them settle for complacency. It's about engaging parents in their child's education, their future. It's about mentors encouraging students both when they succeed and when they fail. The essence of helping urban youth to see and believe in their possibilities, goes to the very heart of the "real poverty" that the Dreamless Dead suffer. With persistence and hard-work from all, we can wake the Dreamless Dead in St. Louis and restore what poverty has taken.
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