Wednesday, March 24, 2010

A Framework for Understanding Poverty

Ruby Payne’s book titled A Framework for Understanding Poverty was written to help society understand and react appropriately to the various characteristics and behaviors displayed by people in poverty. Because I teach in a Title I school in an Abbott district, my building principal purchased a copy of this book for every faculty and staff member in the school. We meet periodically during lunch and hold a professional book club to discuss various aspects of the book.
In order to fully understand the praises and criticisms of the book, I think it is important for you to have a basic understanding of what the book is about. To do this, I am going to briefly summarize each of the chapters of the book.
The introduction provides the reader with Payne’s rationale for writing the book, key points about poverty for the reader to remember, and various statistics about poverty that she felt was pertinent. One of the statistics I found astonishing was the fact that in 2006, 26.9% of all children in poverty were Hispanic and 33.4% were African American. In the district that I work for most of the population of my school falls into these two ethnic categories, so that really hit home for me.
In chapter one, Payne defines poverty as “the extent to which an individual does without resources.” These resources are defined as: financial, emotional, mental, spiritual, physical, support systems, relationships/role models, and knowledge of hidden rules. The rest of the chapter presents the reader with various scenarios and asks him/her to say whether each of the resources is present or lacking. A discussion of each scenario follows discussing why each resource is either present or lacking.
Chapter two exposes the reader to each of the registers of language: frozen, formal, consultative, casual, and intimate. Payne explains that most children in poverty speak in the casual register. Teachers present information and skills in the formal register, so it makes it difficult for these children to understand what is being said. At the end of the chapter, the reader is given several ideas and activities that can be implemented to help compensate for the gap between casual and formal registers of language.
In the beginning of chapter three, the reader is asked to participate in a brief survey to see if he/she can survive in poverty. I learned very quickly that I do not know the first thing about being in poverty. The chapter also informs the reader of the hidden rules that exist among each of the social classes. Payne states that in order for a child trapped in poverty to succeed, we need to teach them the hidden rules of the middle and upper classes.
Chapter four defines generational poverty and discusses various traits and characteristics associated with this type of poverty. Payne begins the chapter by briefly explaining the difference between generational poverty and situational poverty. It presents the reader with a case study and analyzes the various aspects of generational poverty that is present in the study. Payne also provides the reader with a list of various behaviors and characteristics that an educator would observe in a child of generational poverty.
Chapter five discusses the importance for a child to have good role models and stable emotional systems for support. It presents a case study that illustrates what happens to a child that is brought up in an environment that lacks strong role models and is very unstable emotionally. It provides a list of things that an educator can do to help promote these two important factors in a child’s life.
In chapter six, Payne describes the seven categories that support systems fall into: coping strategies, options during problem-solving, information and know-how, temporary relief from emotional, mental, financial, and/or time constraints, connections to other people and resources, positive self-talk, and procedural self-talk. The reader is presented with a scenario about a high school girl and is given a list of nine support systems that the school could provide to help the child.
I found chapter seven to be one of the most beneficial chapters of the book. It explains how people in poverty discipline their children and how it is different than what others are used to experiencing. It contains a chart that depicts various behaviors displayed by a child in poverty, the reasoning behind this behavior, and an example of an intervention that an educator can use to help alleviate that behavior. The chapter goes on to explain the different types of voices, or tones, an educator can use with a child and the various reactions that he/she may encounter.
Chapter eight discusses how the education system needs to change the way that skills and information are taught to children in poverty. The reader is exposed to Feuerstein’s instruments that help teach students various cognitive strategies that help promote success in school. It also provides the reader with various activities and questioning strategies that an educator can implement into his/her classroom that will help build the conceptual framework and cognitive strategies in a student.
The last chapter enforces the importance of developing relationships with students. Payne states that the stronger the teacher’s relationship is with his/her students the higher their achievement will be, especially children in poverty. She discusses the various deposits and withdraws that children experience in their lives. She stresses the importance of an educator trying to make as many deposits as he/she can to help develop a strong relationship and bond with the child.
By reading various reviews from educators that have either attended one of Payne’s workshops or read her book, I have found that many of them find her book to be very beneficial and insightful. They say that the book contains many clarifications about poverty that has helped them to improve their instructional strategies and also develop strong, positive relationships with all students in their classroom, no matter what social class they belonged to. This book has also opened their eyes to various aspects of living in poverty and has helped them to better relate to the diverse population of students in their classrooms.
Although there are many praises and support for Payne’s book, there is also some criticism. Among the critics are Paul Gorski and Anita Bohn. Gorski states that Payne’s views on poverty are based on racist and classist stereotypes. He also says that Payne does not truly understand the relationship between the causes and effects of poverty. For example, Payne states that parental employment status and parental educational levels are causes of poverty, but they are actually a result of the impact that poverty has on a society.
Bohn starts out by saying that Payne is self-published through her company, aha! Process Inc., so her research does not have to be verified, validated, or reliable in order to be published. She says that the case studies/scenarios in the book are based on families and children that Payne supposedly encountered, but none of them are substantiated or verified. Bohn also states that Payne makes people believe that poverty can be reduced by helping the people involved learn the rules of the middle class rather than making the reader realize that in order to truly reduce poverty, changes need to be made in people’s everyday lives and in the structure of our society.
Personally, I found this book to be very interesting and enlightening. There were many times throughout the book that I stopped reading and said to myself, “Oh, so that is why Johnny said that!”, or “That is why Mary reacted the way she did today.” It truly opened my eyes to the world of poverty. I used to think that some of the ways that some of the families I deal with behaved were merely their way of playing the system, but after reading this book I now realize that this is the only way that they know how to act. I have found some of the ideas and activities that Payne presents to be very helpful with my instruction. Although I cannot fully implement some of them because I deal with very young children, I have been able to adapt some of them to fit the needs of my students and their families.

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