EDSE 600: Understanding Poverty

Dr. Ruby Payne’s expansive definition of poverty includes the shortage (or potential shortage?) of emotional, mental, relationship, and support resources, etc., rather than merely financial resources. A Framework for Understanding Poverty elucidates the cultural traits of poverty that may not be understood by members of the middle class. There are many aspects of her generalizations (stereotypes?) that ring true to my experience teaching in the Mississippi Delta, such as the predominance of the “casual register” of speaking, loud noisy-ness, ownership of people (e.g. in response to question about “most-prized possession”), distrust of authority, a certain amount of disorganization and focus on the present, etc. Again, one of the most powerful points the author makes is that economic class is not simply a matter of having money or not having money. For instance, the so-called “hidden rules” of class (such as how to keep your clothes from being stolen at the laundromat or bail someone out of jail vs. how to set up a retirement fund and enroll your kids in soccer camp), as well as the various cultural and relationship ties, make it exceedingly difficult for someone to move to another economic class without someone to sponsor them and/or leaving behind old relationships. The book ends with a bit of psycho-babble about how the cultural traits and living conditions of poverty lead to cognitive deficits, such as the inability to identify consequence and put things in order. Accordingly, these poverty-linked cognitive deficits ought to be directly addressed at school, rather than diagnosed as special ed.

Certainly, A Framework for Understanding Poverty has made me take a second look at my own perceptions of my students. I know there must be students living in poverty at my school. But I also wonder how much the culture of poverty (“ghetto,” if you will) pervades my school regardless of how much money comes home. While the book has caused me to pause for thought, it will take some time for me to absorb everything I read and deliberately implement any of it in the classroom. Besides subtly informing my classroom management, the idea of making a thematic unit about personal finance (esp. the evils of predatory lending in all its forms) has occurred to me, perhaps with a little discussion about the “hidden rules” of middle class thrown in for good measure.

For now, I just crash-land on my bed at the end of the week and wake up an hour or so later, so disoriented I can’t even remember what day of the week it is or whether I just overslept something really important.