A Framework for Understanding Poverty (2 page)

Meeting Standards & Raising Test ScoresWhen You Don't Have Much Time or Money: Video Series & Manual (Payne & Magee)

Removing the Mask: Giftedness in Poverty (Slocumb & Payne)

Bridges Out of Poverty. Strategies for Professionals and Communities

(Payne, DeVol, & Dreussi Smith)

Think Rather of Zebra (Stailey & Payne)

What Every Church Member Should Know About Poverty (Payne & Ehlig)

Living on a Tightrope-A Survival Handbook for Principals

(Sommers & Payne)

Hidden Rules of Class at Work (Payne & Krabill)

Acknowledgments

A very special thanks to. . .

Judy Duncan, the assistant principal at Bowie Elementary School, who first approached me with the idea of writing a book about poverty.

The teachers at Bowie Elementary, who were so gracious and receptive to the ideas presented to them.

Sara Hector, field service agent for the Texas Education Agency, whose continuing encouragement and support led to the development of this book.

Jay Stailey, principal at Carver Elementary School and president of the National Storytelling Association, whose conversations about poverty and stories stimulated my thinking.

Karen Coffey, colleague and Project Read consultant, who provided suggestions.

Carol Ellis, my secretary, who knew the hours I was putting in at home on the book and was supportive.

Sue Franta, for all her assistance and support.

Cheryl Evans, for her illustrations, editing, and layout design.

Jim Grant and Dan Shenk, for their editing assistance.

Donna Magee, for her assistance with the Research Notes.

Anna Elmore, for her countless revisions and endless patience.

The TEAM project members at the University of Houston-Clear Lake for their interest and encouragement.

Frank Payne, my former husband, and Tom Payne, our son, whose patience, support, encouragement, and love have allowed this book to happen.

aha! Process, Inc. exists to improve the education and lives of individuals in poverty around the world. It provides an additive model that recognizes that people in poverty, middle class, and wealth are all problem solvers. The focus is on solutions, shared responsibilities, new insights, and interdependence. This work is about the resulting connectedness and about relationships; it is about "us."

Additive Model:

aha! Process's Approach to Building High-Achieving Schools

SUMMARY

An additive model, implicit throughout this book and analyzed more directly in the Appendix on page 163, is a vital tool for better understanding and addressing poverty, as well as the underlying factors that perpetuate it.

Dr. Ruby K. Payne's additive model:

Honors internal assets of people from all economic classes.

Names problems accurately.

Identifies the mindsets and patterns that individuals use to survive different economic environments-and provides a vocabulary to talk about it.

Identifies strengths and resources already found in the individual, family, school, and community-and adds new information and a new perspective for creating and growing resources.

Offers economic diversity as a prism through which individuals and schools can analyze and respond to their issues.

Identifies skills, theories of change, program designs, partnerships, and ways of building schools where students achieve.

Encourages the development of strategies to respond to all causes of poverty.

Introduction

his book came to be because so many people were asking questions that, finally, I promised to put things in writing. My name is Ruby Payne, and I never realized that the information I had gathered over the years about poverty, middle class, and wealth would be of interest to other people.

It wasn't until an assistant principal, Judy Duncan, came to me and asked about a staff-development program for her faculty on discipline-and referenced the number of student referrals they were having-that I even began talking about the differences. She noted how the population in the school had changed over the past three years from 24% low income (as measured by the number of students on free and reduced-price lunch) to 6o% low income. As she described the kinds of discipline situations they were experiencing, I would explain why those behaviors were happening. Finally, she stopped me and asked where I was getting my information. It was at that point that I realized that I had been gathering data for 24 years.

Where had I gotten the data? First of all, I was married more than 30 years to Frank, who grew up in poverty because his father died when he was 6. Though it was situational poverty, he lived for several years with those who were in generational poverty. Over the years, as I met his family and the many other players in the "neighborhood," I came to realize there were major differences between generational poverty and middle class-and that the biggest differences were not about money. But what put the whole picture into bas-relief were the six years we spent in Illinois among the wealthy. It was the addition of the third dimension, wealth, that clarified the differences between and among poverty, middle class, and wealth.

As the principal of an affluent elementary school in Illinois, I began to rethink so much of what I had thought about poverty and wealth. The Illinois students had no more native intelligence than the poor students I had worked with earlier in my career. And I noticed that the achievement levels of affluent African-American, Hispanic, and Asian children were no different from those of affluent Caucasian children.

So, at Judy Duncan's request, I shared the information with her faculty members. They were very interested and thought the information was helpful. One teacher told another, and soon I was doing several workshops in other districts. Sara Hector, a field service agent with the Texas Education Agency, attended a workshop and told many people about it. Then Jay Stailey, another principal, asked me to come with him to the University of Houston-Clear Lake to meet with a grant consortium, of which he was co-chair. This session led to more meetings and conversations.

So this information has spread more quickly than I could have ever anticipated. I just hope this data will be helpful to you, the reader, as well.

SOME KEY POINTS TO REMEMBER

i. Poverty is relative. If everyone around you has similar circumstances, the notion of poverty and wealth is vague. Poverty or wealth only exists in relationship to known quantities or expectations.

2. Poverty occurs in all races and in all countries. The notion of middle class as a large segment of society is a phenomenon of this century. The percentage of the population that is poor is subject to definition and circumstance.

3. Economic class is a continuous line, not a clear-cut distinction. In 2004, the poverty line in the United States was considered $18,850 for a family of four. According to census data from 2003, the median household income was $43,318, and 15% of U.S. households earned more than $100,000 per year. Individuals are stationed all along the continuum of income; they sometimes move on that continuum as well.

4. Generational poverty and situational poverty are different. Generational poverty is defined as being in poverty for two generations or longer. Situational poverty is a shorter time and is caused by circumstance (i.e., death, illness, divorce, etc.).

5. This work is based on patterns. All patterns have exceptions.

6. An individual brings with him/her the hidden rules of the class in which he/she was raised. Even though the income of the individual may rise significantly, many of the patterns of thought, social interaction, cognitive strategies, etc., remain with the individual.

7. Schools and businesses operate from middle-class norms and use the hidden rules of middle class. These norms and hidden rules are not directly taught in schools or in businesses.

8. For our students to be successful, we must understand their hidden rules and teach them the rules that will make them successful at school and at work.

9. We can neither excuse students nor scold them for not knowing; as educators we must teach them and provide support, insistence, and expectations.

io. To move from poverty to middle class or middle class to wealth, an individual must give up relationships for achievement (at least for some period of time).

il. Two things that help one move out of poverty are education and relationships.

12. Four reasons one leaves poverty are: It's too painful to stay, a vision or goal, a key relationship, or a special talent or skill.

SOME STATISTICS ABOUT POVERTY

i. In the United States in 2003, the poverty rate for all individuals was 12.5%. For children under the age of 18, the poverty rate was 17.6%, and for children under the age of 6, the rate was 20.3%, up more than 2% in two years (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2004).

2. There were 7.6 million poor families (10%) in 2003, up from 6.4 million (6.7%) in 2000 (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2004).

3. The foreign-born population in the United States has increased 57% since 199o to a total of 30 million. In 2000, one out of every five children under age 18 in the U.S. was estimated to have at least one foreign-born parent. Immigrant children are twice as likely to be poor as native-born children. Among children whose parents work full time, immigrant children are at greater risk of living in poverty than native-born children (National Center for Children in Poverty, Columbia University, 2002).

4. Regardless of race or ethnicity, poor children are much more likely than non-poor children to suffer developmental delay and damage, to drop out of high school, and to give birth during the teen years (Miranda, 1991).