A Framework for Understanding Poverty Read online

  A FRAMEWORK FOR

  UNDERSTANDING

  POVERTY

  FOURTH REVISED EDITION

  A FRAMEWORK FOR

  UNDERSTANDING

  POVERTY

  FOURTH REVISED EDITION

  Ruby K. Payne, Ph.D.

  Contents

  Introduction ................................................................... i

  i. Definitions and Resources ......................................7

  2. The Role of Language and Story ........................... 27

  3. Hidden Rules Among Classes ............................... 37

  4. Characteristics of Generational Poverty ............... 47

  5. Role Models and Emotional Resources ................ 63

  6. Support Systems ................................................... 69

  7. Discipline ............................................................... 77

  8. Instruction and Improving Achievement ............. 87

  9. Creating Relationships ........................................ io9

  Conclusion .................................................................. 113

  Research Notes ............................................................119

  Appendix .................................................................... 163

  Bibliography ............................................................... 187

  Index ........................................................................... 195

  OTHER SELECTED TITLES BY RUBY K. PAYNE, PH.D.

  Un Marco Para Entender La Pobreza (Spanish translation of Framework)

  Understanding Learning

  Learning Structures

  Preventing School Violence by Creating Emotional Safety. Video Series & Manual

  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, at
tended 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).

  5. Poverty-prone children are more likely to be in single-parent families (Einbinder,1993). Median female wages in the United States, at all levels of educational attainment, are 30 to 50% lower than male wages at the same level of educational attainment (TSII Manual, 1995, based on U.S. Census data, 1993). See 2003 U.S. census data on page 115.

  6. Poor inner-city youths are seven times more likely to be the victims of child abuse or neglect than are children of high social and economic status (Renchler, 1993).

  7. Poverty is caused by interrelated factors: parental employment status and earnings, family structure, and parental education (Five Million Children, 1992).

  8. Children under age 6 remain particularly vulnerable to poverty. In 2003 children under 6 living in families with a female householder and no husband present experienced a poverty rate of 53.7%, more than five times the rate for children in marriedcouple families, 9.7% (U.S Bureau of the Census, 2004).

  9. The United States' child poverty rate is substantially higheroften two or three times higher-than that of most other major Western industrialized nations.

  1o. In the 2003 census, the following racial percentages and numbers of poor children were reported.

  Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2004

  NOTE: The U.S. Census Bureau publishes income and poverty charts each fall for the previous calendar year. For the most current information provided in this format, visit www.ahaprocess.com.

  ii. While the number of Caucasian children in poverty is the largest group, the percentage of children in poverty in most minority groups is higher.

  CHAPTER 1

  Definitions and Resources

  "'o better understand students and adults from poverty, a working definition of poverty is "the extent to which an individual does without resources." These resources are the following:

  FINANCIAL Having the money to purchase goods and services.

  EMOTIONAL Being able to choose and control emotional responses, particularly to negative situations, without engaging in self-destructive behavior. This is an internal resource and shows itself through stamina, perseverance, and choices.

  MENTAL Having the mental abilities and acquired skills (reading, writing, computing) to deal with daily life.

  SPIRITUAL: Believing in divine purpose and guidance.

  PHYSICAL: Having physical health and mobility.

  SUPPORT SYSTEMS: Having friends, family, and backup resources available to access in times of need. These are external resources.

  RELATIONSHIPS/ROLE MODELS: Having frequent access to adult(s) who are appropriate, who are nurturing to the child, and who do not engage in self-destructive behavior.

  KNOWLEDGE OF HIDDEN RULES: Knowing the unspoken cues and habits of a group.

  Typically, poverty is thought of in terms of financial resources only. However, the reality is that financial resources, while extremely important, do not explain the differences in the success with which individuals leave poverty nor the reasons that many stay in poverty. The ability to leave poverty is more dependent upon other resources than it is upon financial resources. Each of these resources plays a vital role in the success of an individual.

  Emotional resources provide the stamina to withstand difficult and uncomfortable emotional situations and feelings. Emotional resources are the most important of all resources because, when present, they allow the individual not to return to old habit patterns. In order to move from poverty to middle class or middle class to wealth, an individual must suspend his/her "emotional memory bank" because the situations and hidden rules are so unlike what he/she has experienced previously. Therefore, a certain level of persistence and an ability to stay with the situation until it can be learned (and therefore feel comfortable) are necessary. This persistence (i.e., staying with the situation) is proof that emotional resources are present. Emotional resources come, at least in part, from role models.

  Mental resources are simply being able to process information and use it in daily living. If an individual can read, write, and compute, he/she has a decided advantage. That person can access information from many different free sources, as well as be somewhat self-sufficient.

  Spiritual resources are the belief that help ca
n be obtained from a higher power, that there is a purpose for living, and that worth and love are gifts from God. This is a powerful resource because the individual does not see him/herself as hopeless and useless, but rather as capable and having worth and value.

  Physical resources are having a body that works, that is capable and mobile. The individual can be self-sufficient.

  Support systems are resources. To whom does one go when help is needed? Those individuals available and who will help are resources. When the child is sick and you have to be at work-who takes care of the child? Where do you go when money is short and the baby needs medicine? Support systems are not just about meeting financial or emotional needs. They are about knowledge bases as well. How do you get into college? Who sits and listens when you get rejected? Who helps you negotiate the mountains of paper? Who assists you with your algebra homework when you don't know how to do it? Those people are all support systems.

  Relationships/role models are resources. All individuals have role models. The question is the extent to which the role model is nurturing or appropriate. Can the role model parent? Work successfully? Provide a gender role for the individual? It is largely from role models that the person learns how to live life emotionally.

  No significant learning occurs without a significant relationship.

  - Dr. James Comer

  Knowledge of hidden rules is crucial to whatever class in which the individual wishes to live. Hidden rules exist in poverty, in middle class, and in wealth, as well as in ethnic groups and other units of people. Hidden rules are about the salient, unspoken understandings that cue the members of the group that this individual does or does not fit. For example, three of the hidden rules in poverty are the following: The noise level is high (the TV is always on and everyone may talk at once), the most important information is non-verbal, and one of the main values of an individual to the group is an ability to entertain. There are hidden rules about food, dress, decorum, etc. Generally, in order to successfully move from one class to the next, it is important to have a spouse or mentor from the class to which you wish to move to model and teach you the hidden rules.