How many of the students with whom you regularly interact are disorganized, frequently lose papers, bring many reasons why something is missing, don’t do homework, are physically aggressive, like to entertain, only see part of what is on the page, only do part of the assignment, cannot monitor their own behavior, laugh when they are disciplined, don’t know or use middle-class courtesies, or dislike authority? These, according to Dr. Ruby Payne, author of A Framework for Understanding Poverty, are characteristics of students who live in an impoverished culture.
When I read the checklist of behaviors above, I actually laughed out loud because it aptly described more than half of my students. Obviously, this population commands excessive amounts of my attention during class, but I had no idea that they most likely live in poverty and come to school with skills for surviving in the world of poverty but not the world of middle-class school.
Dr. Payne writes, “One of the reasons it is getting more and more difficult to conduct school as we have in the past is that the students who bring the middle-class culture with them are decreasing in numbers, and the students who bring poverty culture with them are increasing in numbers.”
I bring a middle-class culture to my classroom and expect middle-class behaviors and attitudes from my students. After all, that is what I know, but this leaves around half my students struggling to survive. How can I relate to them? How do I help them succeed in this foreign world?
The book, A Framework for Understanding Poverty, is an excellent starting point for answering these vital questions and happens to be the best professional book I have ever read. Ruby Payne’s website, aha Process, also includes a plethora of information, resources and professional development opportunities for teachers and community leaders who work with students who come from poverty. In the following video clip Dr. Payne and Rita Pierson demonstrate the different voices with which students speak.
Reaching the impoverished is vital to the success of the schools in my area. How about you? What population in your area is hard to reach, hard to teach? What is your school doing to reach them?
Kendal blogs at a spacious place