Chapters 3, 4, and 5

Understanding Poverty

Group Assignment: Hidden Rules Quiz Step 1: Answer the questions to Survive

Poverty, Middle Class, and Wealth on your own.

Step 2: Get into your groups and discuss your responses.

Step 3: Find someone to represent the findings from your group (specific items from each survey in particular) to present to the the whole class.

Step 4: The class will discuss your responses.

Discuss Chart Page 42-43

Possessions Money Personality Social Emphasis Food Clothing Time

Education Destiny Language Family Structure World View Love Driving Forces Humor

Comparing: Generational Poverty Generational Poverty:

– Decisions made based on needs of entertainment and relationships

– Ability to fight or have someone who is willing to fight for you.

– Money is for entertainment and relationships

– The world is what is locally around you.– Comments are usually made about you

before you are introduced to others.

Comparing: Middle Class

Middle Class: – Decisions are made related to work

and achievement.– Able to use words as tools to

negotiate conflict.– Money is for security.– The world is your own nation.– You introduce yourselves to others

Comparing: Wealth

Wealth: – Ramifications of the financial, social,

and political connections.– Money is for security.– The world is international.– Someone in the group formally

introduces you.

What does that mean for schools? Assumptions about IQ and approaches to

school work may relate more to hidden rules than to actual facts.

Students need to be taught the hidden rules of middle class.

Work w/in the attitudes and hidden rules of the students and parents whenever possible (instead of forcing middle class rules).

If you understand their values, then you will be less frustrated in your interactions.

Poor students may not see themselves as “poor.”

Group Project: Apply the Theory In your groups, discuss the following:

– 14 y/o girl from poverty has been given an assignment from her home ec. teacher to balance a household budget for 4 on $3000/ mo. She is to list all “necessary” expenses, prioritize them, and assign different people in the family to be in charge of different parts of the family budget (grocery shopping, paying the bills, etc.).

– The teacher comes from a middle class family with little experience of families from poverty.

– Describe the responses given compared to the teacher’s expected responses from the student.

– How might that impact the student’s perceived ability?

Generational vs. Situational Poverty Generational Poverty: poverty for 2 or more

generations– Prevailing attitude: Society owes them a living.

Situational Poverty: lack of resources due to particular event (i.e., death, illness,etc.)– Prevailing attitude: Pride and refusal for charity.– Usually have more resources (formal language

being one)

Characteristics of Generational Poverty Background “noise”: Almost always the TV is

on, people talk over one another in conversations.

Importance of personality: You bring your personality, because it is what you have. If you have a good, entertaining personality, then you are valued.

Significance of entertainment: It is important to get away from basic survival for awhile and entertainment is a for of escapism.

Importance of relationships: Since you depend on others, you need to get along with them.

Characteristics of Generational Poverty Matriarchal Structure: The mother is the

most important (caretaker) Oral-language tradition: You say things

instead of read or write them, and you use casual language.

Survival orientation: Little room for abstract, academic topics. You talk about people and relationships.

Identity tied to lover/fighter for men: Men are expected to work hard physically. Idea of the “sensitive male” is not valued.

Characteristics of Generational Poverty Identity tied to rescuer/ martyr for women:

Be a care taker and put the family first. Importance of non-verbal/ kinesthetic

communication: Touch, space, and gestures are used to communicate.

Ownership of people: People are possessions. You don’t betray them and you take care of one another.

Negative Orientation: Failure at anything is the source of stories and being made fun of.

Characteristics of Generational PovertyDiscipline: Punishment is about

penance and forgiveness, not change.Belief in fate: Destiny and fate make or

break you… not choices.Polarized thinking: Things are either

black or white (few shades of grey). Mating dance: Use your body to attract

others or complement others on their body (not their mind, personality, etc.)

Characteristics of Generational Poverty Time: Think of the present, not the past or

future. Think of time as an emotional event and not actual date/ day.

Sense of humor: If you have one, then you are valued. You joke about other people (most often people you know).

Lack of order/organization: Many of the homes/apartments are unkempt and cluttered.

Lives in the moment: Not a lot of goal setting or planning. Consequences are not often considered.

Group Assignment

Step 1: Review the list on pages 51-53.

Step 2: Discuss each of these in terms of academic, social, or emotional impact on a child’s average school day.

Step 3: Choose the top 5 that you have discussed to present in class.

Step 4: Present these to the class.

Review the Family Diagrams (pg. 55). Mother is always at the center in generational

poverty. Many times relationships are confused;

however, everyone is always aware of the main caretaker “mom.”

Many relationships do not result in marriage. Men will often come and go in relationships. Who you depend on on any given day may vary

depending on the current situation. Many times teenage parents pass their children

back to “mom” and take on a sister role.

Role of the man…

In generational poverty, the primary role of a real man is to physically work hard, to be a fighter, and to be a lover. In middle class, a real man is a provider. If one follows the implications of a male identity as one who is a fighter and a lover, then one can understand why the male who takes this identity cannot have a stable life. When stress gets high, he fights, then flees from the law or the people closest to him, leaving his home. Either way, he is gone. When the heat dies down, he returns, then the cycle continues.

Generational Poverty @ School

Disorganized Excuses, excuses No homework Aggressive Class-clown, Joker Concrete thinker Can’t get started Can’t monitor own

behavior

Laugh when disciplined

Will work if they like you

Tell stories in casual language

Don’t know middle class rules

Disliek authority Talk back Extremely

participatory

Vocabulary

System: A group in which individuals have rules, roles, and relationships

Dysfunctional: The extent to which an individual cannot get his/ her needs met within a system

Maturity Continuum: – Dependence:

dependent on others– Independence:

dependent on yourself

– Interdependence: equal partners

Co-dependent:– Stuck b/w

dependence and independence.

Co-dependence

When you are forced to act as an adult too early, you must become independent before you are ready, thus you may get stuck in cycles of co-dependence.

If you have no role models to model independent or interdependent behavior, you will not be able to break this cycle.

Review the story on pages 63-64

Moving from poverty to middle class Emotional memory bank: emotions that are

accessed habitually and “feel right.”– In poverty, relationships are the most valued. As

you move away from placing importance on these relationships toward placing importance on achievement you may “feel wrong.”

Emotional resources and stamina: allow the individual to live with feelings other than those in the emotional memory bank.

Why take the risk to change emotional memory bank? Current situation is too painful for the

individual to stay A compelling goal or vision of the future

drives the individual A talent or skill takes the individual into new

surroundings A spouse or mentor provides an emotional

comfort level while the individual learns the new skills/ knowledge.

Group Project

Step 1: Get together in your groupsStep 2: Discuss “Ellie” who is

described on pages 63-64Step 3: Offer up some suggestions of

interventions that might have been tried to keep her from dropping out of school. Possible suggestions are on pages 66-67; however, think in terms of what a school psychologist might offer.