You already know poverty is real, near home and far away. Today is not about blaming anyone. It is about the harder question people who study this still argue over: why does it last?

By the end of the period you will place yourself on four claims about root causes (three on a standing line, one in writing), hear the strongest case on each side, and write your own short explanation, plus the best objection to it.

People who study poverty disagree in good faith. Here are four explanations, each at its strongest. None of them is the official answer. What is verifiable is that poverty exists locally and globally. What is contestable is which root cause matters most. Keep the four labels in mind; you will stand on three claims next and answer a fourth in writing.

1. Opportunity and skills. People stay poor mainly because they lack education, skills or networks that open decent work. If this were the main cause, you would expect poverty to fall where schooling and training rise, and people with similar skills to do roughly as well wherever they live. Familiar picture: a town where more young people finish school and training, then more of them find steady work.

2. How the economy is set up. Poverty is built into systems that pay some work highly and leave others with too little, even when they work hard. If this were the main cause, you would expect full-time workers still to be poor, and large gaps between top and bottom pay that do not close on their own. Familiar picture: someone working full hours in a shop, café or care job and still struggling to cover rent and bills.

3. History and inherited disadvantage. Poverty today is shaped by what happened to families, communities and countries in the past: land lost, industries closed, barriers that lasted generations. If this were the main cause, you would expect poverty to cluster in the same places and groups over long periods, even when individuals try hard to move on. Familiar picture: an area where a big employer closed years ago and good jobs are still scarce there compared with elsewhere.

4. Rules, institutions and power. Institutions means the organisations and rules that shape everyday decisions (councils, courts, public services) and who gets listened to when plans are made. Where those are weak, unfair or closed to ordinary people, poverty sticks. If this were the main cause, you would expect places with similar resources to end up very differently depending on how decisions are made and who gets heard. Familiar picture: two areas with similar money and jobs, but in one residents have a real say on housing and transport decisions and in the other they do not.

A strong opinion names which explanation it trusts most, and what evidence would shake it.

Stand on the line for each of the three statements below. Argue from what the explanation would predict, not from a gut dislike of the other side. After both sides are heard, you may move. Nothing is scored. Changing your mind is allowed and useful.

For each statement, be ready to say: what evidence would make you shift.

A fourth statement will be done in writing in the next step (full wording on the board and in your notebook task).

No class share. Go straight to writing.

Statement 4 (written agree / disagree)
Write this claim in your notebook, then circle Agree, Not sure, or Disagree, and add one evidence line or prediction:

"Poverty lasts longest where ordinary people have little real say over the rules."

Evidence / prediction line: If this were true, we would see…

Then write three sentences only (bullet points are fine if that helps you):

1. Your explanation of why poverty lasts, locally or globally (or both). Use the cause label you stood on most confidently on the line, or statement 4 if that fits you better.
2. One piece of evidence or a prediction that fits your view.
3. The strongest objection someone on the other side could make.

Starters on the board: "I think poverty lasts mainly because…", "If that were true, we would see…", "The strongest objection is…"

You can now:

• set out more than one serious explanation for why poverty lasts, locally and globally
• separate the fact that poverty exists from the contested question of root causes
• place yourself on a claim, hear the other side at full strength, and say what would change your mind
• write a short informed opinion that includes the strongest objection to it

An informed opinion is not a loud one. It is one that can name its evidence and its weak spot.