Have you ever noticed a co-worker’s grammar mistakes, such as “I don't have no...,” or, “I axed him to go?” Chances are that if you notice these types of errors, then you are solidly middle class in your values. Use of language is just one of several benchmarks that distinguish between the three economic levels of poverty, middle class, and wealthy.
Ruby K Payne has written this book for educators, with the goal of enabling them to effectively reach their students. She makes the interesting observation that financial resources do not explain the difference in the success with which individuals leave poverty, nor does the lack of money explain the reasons that many stay in poverty.
Generational poverty is defined as having been in poverty for two successive generations. Situational poverty is caused by a sudden financial catastrophic event, such as sickness or divorce. Both types have their own set of problems to overcome.
She explains seven resources other than money that contribute to a person’s social class:
(1) Emotional resources are the most important, because they give you the strength to not return to old habit patterns. (2) Mental resources are the ability to process daily information. If you can read and write, you have an advantage. (3) Spiritual resources are powerful because the individual can draw on a power greater than himself, and life is not destined to fate, but rather a higher purpose. (4) Physical resources refer to having a body that is healthy. (5) Support systems are important for providing such things as child care and emergency money. (6) Relationship resources are needed to provide mentors and role models. (7) Knowledge of hidden rules is essential to understanding the class you are in, and the class you wish to transition to. Each economic level has specific unwritten rules, which can be mystifying to the other levels. For example, a person in poverty is much more likely to know how to get someone out of jail. A middle class person understands term life insurance, and a wealthy person knows how to get their children into selective private schools.
In order to move from one class to the other successfully, it is critical to have a mentor already in that class. Without a mentor, it is almost impossible to learn the hidden rules.
One of the more interesting differences between classes is their world view. Those in poverty see the world in terms of their local setting. The middle class have a national outlook, and the wealthy are much more likely to have an international view.
This book is a great tool for teachers who want to communicate effectively with their students of all three economic levels. It is also useful for anyone who wants to understand why it is so difficult to leave poverty and transition to the middle class.
I was fascinated by the way the three classes treat money. Those in poverty spend and share with each other; the middle class earns and accumulates, and the wealthy preserve.
Which class do you fall in? Have you or your family recently transitioned up or down the scale? What precipitated the change? I’m interested to know.
Ruby K Payne has written this book for educators, with the goal of enabling them to effectively reach their students. She makes the interesting observation that financial resources do not explain the difference in the success with which individuals leave poverty, nor does the lack of money explain the reasons that many stay in poverty.
Generational poverty is defined as having been in poverty for two successive generations. Situational poverty is caused by a sudden financial catastrophic event, such as sickness or divorce. Both types have their own set of problems to overcome.
She explains seven resources other than money that contribute to a person’s social class:
(1) Emotional resources are the most important, because they give you the strength to not return to old habit patterns. (2) Mental resources are the ability to process daily information. If you can read and write, you have an advantage. (3) Spiritual resources are powerful because the individual can draw on a power greater than himself, and life is not destined to fate, but rather a higher purpose. (4) Physical resources refer to having a body that is healthy. (5) Support systems are important for providing such things as child care and emergency money. (6) Relationship resources are needed to provide mentors and role models. (7) Knowledge of hidden rules is essential to understanding the class you are in, and the class you wish to transition to. Each economic level has specific unwritten rules, which can be mystifying to the other levels. For example, a person in poverty is much more likely to know how to get someone out of jail. A middle class person understands term life insurance, and a wealthy person knows how to get their children into selective private schools.
In order to move from one class to the other successfully, it is critical to have a mentor already in that class. Without a mentor, it is almost impossible to learn the hidden rules.
One of the more interesting differences between classes is their world view. Those in poverty see the world in terms of their local setting. The middle class have a national outlook, and the wealthy are much more likely to have an international view.
This book is a great tool for teachers who want to communicate effectively with their students of all three economic levels. It is also useful for anyone who wants to understand why it is so difficult to leave poverty and transition to the middle class.
I was fascinated by the way the three classes treat money. Those in poverty spend and share with each other; the middle class earns and accumulates, and the wealthy preserve.
Which class do you fall in? Have you or your family recently transitioned up or down the scale? What precipitated the change? I’m interested to know.
15 comments:
Interesting post.
It's nice to live in America where transition between classes is possible.
For instance, my boss, who was recently promoted to COO of the company, makes more than his share of spelling and grammatical mistakes. Luckily, due to his strong engineering skills and people skills, that hasn't held him back.
The author comments about the fluidity of the transition--sometimes it can take one or two generations.
Hi, Rod,
One of the questions that a lot of teachers who've gone through Payne's training is about her source of this information about poor people might be. She's unusually vague about this in her book.
My understanding from an interview that she once gave is that she bases most of her teaching about poor families on her experiences with a few members of her husband's family.
When do we know if someone is teaching from a solid knowledge base, and when is someone making a lot of money by perpetuating stereotypes?
She's published all of her own books, so they haven't gone through any review by anyone before they're published. That's really, really unusual.
Why do you suppose she didn't go through a more conventional route of having her work viewed by other experts before being published?
At least some of us who grew up on poor families wish that more people would read Payne a bit more critically.
Good point. However, the poverty customers I work with in my business seem to have the same issues that she also encountered.
I think the goal of us all is to pull others out of a dysfunctional thought pattern and make them successful. We don't want to keep anyone down.
i axt my spechal ed stoodnts to told me how much edjumacashun dare mom hadd.
Evry wun uh dem sed dare mom dinunt finich hi scoo.
All grammar aside - studies in 1988-1998 concluded that the leading indicator (with 99% correlative affect) for academic success was: (not teacher, school, student...) it was the level of education the mother had attained.
What can the public school do to support moms?
Hi Brad
Are teachers in Oregon familiar with this book? If so, how do they feel about it? I sensed some animosity from the comments by anon.
I have noticed that the cops in my area, both white and black, use double negatives a lot. "Can't do nothin' about that." I'm almost tempted to respond, "That's right. You can't do nothing. You must do something!"
Curiously, there is one double-negative expression that seems to go unnoticed in the speech of many educated middle-class speakers: "no nothing." (As in, "I looked in my mailbox today, and I found no bills, no junk mail, no nothing.") So much for the belief that double negatives are inherently vulgar.
Kylopod, thanks for your comment. I find myself making grammatical mistakes from time to time just like what you describe. BTY, I see you are a former homeschooler. Does that mean you were taught, or you did the teaching?
Everyone makes grammatical mistakes from time to time. Indeed, I don't think it's possible for any English speaker to go through life and not violate the tenets of classical grammar. You'd have to be insane to reply to the query "Who's there?" with the answer, "It is I!"
Linguists argue that what most people consider "correct grammar" is in fact a mixture of prejudice, historical accident, and outdated theories. A great deal of the classical rules of English grammar were modeled on Latin. Others were bits of folklore that got passed down in the schoolroom. (The most famous examples of the latter are the "rules" against split infinitives, and ending sentences with a preposition.)
Of course, many middle class speakers use ain't not because they're slumping, but because they're making a self-conscious attempt to sound folksy.
I was taught.
RW
We are familiar with the book. It does have some questionable research. Books on poverty in the world of education are often overly sappy and tend to be anecdotal. Sound, research based books for educators tend to be published by sociologists not educators. These sociologists pack leftist agendas and their research can't seem to escape their bias either.
In the mean-time, poverty and meth are taking a real hold on the lives of our students...
bg
RW
Follow up..
...but it is a very good book.
bg
I had no idea the subject of poverty would be so popular. It seems that there are patterns of thinking that predispose a person toward success or failure in our culture. The key is to identify the destructive patterns and then minimize them in that person's life. Since we tend to politicize everything, it becomes a battle between conservatives and liberals; each convinced that their program is the best. Meanwhile, real people continue to suffer. I thought the picture I used of the homeless person was quite appropriate.
Thanks for the recommendation. Looking forward to reading the book.
I noticed one of your comments was re correct English.
I was a newspaper editor and I found that it is not that important to people if your English is correct or not. I am not nearly as smart as some people but I made it just fine.
I always say if I had been smarter or more educated maybe I would have been working on a BIG paper!!!
So don't be critical of people's speech, every neighborhood has its own speech!!
Betty G
Hi Betty,
I do realize that there are great people out there with bad grammer. It is sad, however, when the grammer detracts from their message. When that happens, I try to ignore the grammer and listen to what they are saying.
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