Book - A Framework for Understanding Poverty by Ruby Payne

This book by Ruby Payne is one of the most interesting books I've read in the past year, a must read for anyone interested in education, poverty or social issues. The author divides people into wealthy, middle class and poverty; each of which has hidden rules that identify and separate the classes.

Poverty is defined as “the extent to which an individual does without resources”. Dr. Payne says; “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 book examines the non-financial resources needed to leave poverty and why so many well meaning programs fail to alleviate poverty. I will focus on one illustration from the book that relates the role of language and story telling to why children from generational poverty homes do poorly in school from the first day they attend.

All languages have five registers:
• Frozen – I.E. Lord’s Prayer, wedding vows, swearing in ceremonies
• Formal – Has the standard sentence syntax and word choice of work and school. Information flow is linear.
• Consultative – Formal register when used in conversation, discourse not quite as direct as Formal
• Casual – Language between friends and is characterized by 400-800 word vocabulary, conversation dependent on non-verbal assists with sentence syntax often incomplete. Information flow is circular.
• Intimate – Language of lovers or twins

The language register of poverty is casual with many unfortunate results for those whose only register is casual. People speaking in the casual register in a job interview with fail the interview within two minutes. In school and on the job, all tests are written in the formal register.

Because sources of entertainment that cost money are relatively unavailable to the poor, they tend to place value in and grant status to the person who can entertain. That bad boy who can tell a great story will have status even if in trouble at school or with the law.

Stories only work well if there is surprise. As a result, the story line tends to be circular and isn’t a good story unless it is unpredictable. This is a characteristic of the casual register. People whose only register is casual grow up expecting to be unable to predict the ending – story or life itself. This extends to predicting next year or even tomorrow. What is the point of saving money for a tomorrow that is unpredictable? Logical consequences that require prediction have no meaning to the person with only the Casual register.

When students with only the Casual register are asked write a story, they have an almost insurmountable problem. First they are expected to write in the formal register (proper syntax, grammar, and vocabulary) without the basic skills and then they must write without all the non-verbal assists of the story teller. When they finish writing the story they was spoken with success, they realize that what they have written makes no sense. Conclusion – writing is stupid.

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