Understanding Poverty Ruby Payne - aha! Process

1 Although this article was orig-inally written for teachers,the information presentedmay be of help to those whoare working with persons making thetransition from welfare to understand and work with stu-dents and adults from generationalpoverty, a framework is needed. Thisanalytical framework is shapedaround these basic ideas: Each individual has eightresources which greatly influenceachievement; money is only one. Poverty is the extent to which anindividual is without these eightresources. The hidden rules of the middleclass govern schools and work; stu-dents from generational Poverty comewith a completely different set ofhidden rules and do not know middle-class hidden rules.

2 Language issues and the storystructure of casual register causemany students from generationalpoverty to be unmediated, and there-fore, the cognitive structures neededinside the mind to learn at the levelsrequired by state tests have not beenfully developed. Teaching is what happens outsidethe head; learning is what happensinside the head. For these students tolearn, direct teaching must occur tobuild these cognitive structures. Relationships are the key motiva-tors for learning for students fromgenerational pointsHere are some key points that need tobe addressed before discussing theframework: Poverty is everyonearound you has similar circumstances,the notion of Poverty and wealth isvague.

3 Poverty or wealth only existsin relationship to the known quantitiesor occurs among people ofall ethnic backgrounds and in notion of a middle classas a large segment of society is a phe-nomenon of this century. The percent-age of the population that is poor issubject to definition and class is a continuousline, not a clear-cut move and are stationedall along the continuum of Poverty and situa-tional Poverty are Poverty is defined asbeing in Poverty for two generationsor longer. Situational Poverty existsfor a shorter time is caused by circum-stances like death, illness, or framework is based on pat-terns.

4 All patterns have individual bring with themthe hidden rules of the class inwhich they were the income of the individualmay rise significantly, many patternsof thought, social interaction, cogni-tive strategies, and so on remain withthe and businesses operatefrom middle-class norms and usethe hidden rules of the middle norms and hidden rules arenever directly taught in schools or must understand our students'hidden rules and teach them thehidden middle-class rules that willmake them successful at schooland can neither excusethem nor scold them for not know-ing.

5 We must teach them and providesupport, insistence, and move from Poverty to middleclass or from middle class towealth, an individual must give uprelationships for is defined as the "extent towhich an individual does withoutresources. These are the resourcesthat influence achievement:Financial:the money to purchasegoods and in 2003. Copyright by Ruby K. Payne (800) 424-9484page 1 Individuals who made it out of Poverty usually cite an individual who made a significant difference for and Working withStudents and Adults from PovertyBy Ruby K. Payne , and President of aha!

6 Process , !aha!aaha!aha!ahaha!aha!aaha!aha!ahaaha! aha!aaha!aha!ahaaha!aha!aarticlesaha!aha !a!articlesarticlesarticlesarticlesartic lesarticlesarticlesaha!aha!aharticlesaha !aha!aarticlesRuby K. Payne , Series Part IEmotional:the ability to chooseand control emotional responses, par-ticularly to negative situations, with-out engaging in self-destructivebehavior. This is an internal resourceand shows itself through stamina,perseverance, and :the necessary intellectualability and acquired skills, such asreading, writing, and computing, todeal with everyday :a belief in divine pur-pose and :health and systems:friends, family,backup resources and knowledgebases one can rely on in times ofneed.

7 These are external models:frequent access toadults who are appropriate and nur-turing to the child, and who do notengage in self-destructive of hidden rules:knowing the unspoken cues andhabits of a and story structureTo understand students and adultswho come from a background of gen-erational Poverty , it's helpful beacquainted with the five registers oflanguage. These are frozen, formal,consultative, casual, and register is standard businessand educational language. Formalregister is characterized by completesentences and specific word register is characterized by a400- to 500-word vocabulary, brokensentences, and many Montano-Harmon, aCalifornia researcher, has found thatmany low-income students know onlycasual disciplinereferrals occur because the studenthas spoken in casual register.

8 Whenindividuals have no access to thestructure and specificity of formalregister, their achievement lags. Thisis complicated by the story structureused in casual formal register, the story struc-ture focuses on plot, has a beginningand end, and weaves sequence, causeand effect, characters, and consequencesinto the plot. In casual register, the focusof the story is , the story starts at theend (Joey busted his nose), proceedswith short vignettes interspersed withparticipatory comments from theaudience (He hit him hard. BAM-BAM. You shouda' seen the blood onhim), and finishes with a commentabout the character.

9 (To see this inaction, watch a TV talk show wheremany of the participants use thisstructure.) The story elements that areincluded are those with emotionalsignificance for the teller. This is anepisodic, random approach with manyomissions. It does not include sequence,cause and effect, or consequence. Cognitive issuesThe cognitive research indicates thatearly memory is linked to the pre-dominant story structure that an indi-vidual knows. Furthermore, storiesare retained in the mind longer thanmany other memory patterns for , if a person has not hadaccess to a story structure with causeand effect, consequence, andsequence, and lives in an environ-ment where routine and structure arenot available, he or she cannot plan.

10 According to Reuven Feuerstein,an Israeli educator: Individuals who cannot plan,cannot predict. If they cannot predict, they cannotidentify cause and effect. If they cannot identify cause andeffect, they cannot identify consequence. If they cannot identify consequence,they cannot control impulsivity. If they cannot control impulsivity,they have an inclination to refers to these students as"unmediated." Simply explainedmediation happens when an adultmakes a deliberate intervention anddoes three things: points out the stimulus (whatneeds to be paid attention to) gives the stimulus meaning provides a strategy to deal withthe example: Don't cross the streetwithout looking (stimulus).