A Framework for Understanding Poverty – no really

In 2016 J. D. Vance’s book, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis was published to critical acclaim. Of the book, the Economist said, "You will not read a more important book about America this year." It the story of one family of the Appalachian diaspora that moved out eastern Kentucky and poverty after WW II, fell back into it in the 70’s and 80’s and how the author escaped but left behind the poverty that still haunts the Midwest.

This entry is not about Hillbilly Elegy. It is about a book that, in an organized and systematic way, explains every facet of the origins of poverty that J.D. Vance experienced, the patterns of culture and family structure that he experienced in poverty, and offers instruction in how to break those patterns and where Vance’s escape from poverty is a prime example.

The book is A Framework for Understanding Poverty by Ruby K. Payne.[1] Ms. Payne is a educator and she wrote this book as a workbook for teachers and guidance counselors to help them not merely deal with poor students but help them develop skill sets to get them out of poverty. More than 20% of children in this country live in poverty.[2] This is not only a disproportionate part of our population but we are 34^th out of 35 developed countries[3] with respect to the percent of children in poverty.

A patient of mine who is a retired police officer and runs a shelter for homeless women and children told me about the book and for me I did “not read a more important book about America” in 2016 and I read it on the heels of reading Hillbilly Elegy.

In the introduction she has “Key points about Poverty” and some statistics, about poverty.  Most important in this are the factor that get people out of poverty. These are that it is too painful to stay, a vision or a goal, a special talent or skill, a key relationship.

In chapter one she enumerates the factors that define poverty. Poverty is more than a lack of money. People who are poor also lack:

1.     Emotional resources, the ability to withstand hardship and persevere. She considers this the most important resource

2.     Mental resources, ability to process information

3.     Spiritual resources when present help the individual to not feel hopeless or useless.

4.     Physical resources, People with disabilities lack the ability to be self-sufficient

5.     Support systems, people or groups who provide physical, financial, or emotional support for the person in poverty

6.     Role model/mentor to model the hidden rules of the class (the middle class) to which you should be aspiring if you want to get out of poverty.

7.     Knowledge of the hidden rules of class

 

 

In chapter 3 she enumerates the hidden rules of poverty, middle class and the wealthy. People in these different classes have different relationships to very fundamental aspects of our life. The following are some examples:

	POVERTY	MIDDLE CLASS	WEALTHY
Money	To be used and spent	To be managed	To be conserved and invested
Education	Valued and revered as abstract but not as reality	Crucial for climbing success ladder and making money	Necessary tradition for making and maintaining connections
Time	Present most important. Decision made for moment on feelings and survival	Future most important. Decisions made for future ramifications	Traditions and history most important. Decisions made partially on basis of tradition and decorum

The point she makes here is that first people in poverty aren’t making “bad” choices because they are stupid; they are making the choices they make because that is what allows them to survive in poverty. Second, in poverty crises arise in the moment so time is compressed and everything is about the current moment so middle class skills like perseverance and delayed gratification are hard to master in this environment. Third the object of education (and perhaps by extension any anti-poverty program) is to educate the poor to the hidden rules of the middle class so that when they enter the middle class world (at work or school) and can find success there and hopefully find their way out of poverty.

In chapter four she delineates generational poverty, defined as two generations living in poverty.  Unlike situational poverty in which one has fallen out of the middle class into poverty, in generational poverty the hidden rules of the middle class are unknown and the hidden rules of poverty are more deeply ingrained. In addition, the family structure, discipline, and language (as presented in chapter 2) are such that they only reinforce the hidden rules of poverty.

The last half of the book consists of strategies for educators to use to address these issues. Furthermore, this book is a publication of an organization Aha Process that offers education of these strategies.

Virtually every aspect that Vance described about poverty from the multiple aspects of poverty, to the hidden rules, to the family trees. For me what was so important about this book was that while Vance's personal saga is about Appalachian poor, she make crystal clear, that poverty regardless of race color or creed regresses to the same mean and the path out is identical for all who are born or fall into poverty.

Vance suggestion that the government throwing money at poverty has largely been a waste may be because we are not focusing in on the other co-conspirators in the cause of poverty.

J. D. Vance credits his grandmother’s mentoring as his salvation from poverty and doesn’t think government can reproduce that. Of the factors that get people out of poverty (see above) the only one outside the individual is a mentor to lead them. Ms. Kane suggests that this is a piece of the puzzle that education might provide if the teaching community embraced it.

In my next blog I am going to give my thoughts on education and how to change it. Since this is something about which I know nothing there will probably be a lot of dogma. (Although I will try to reference my dogma as much as possible.) However, I would very much like to hear your thoughts (and corrections).

 

 

 

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[1] The version I read is the 2003 edition. This can be purchased used on Amazon for under $10. The version I bought is pictured above.

[2] http://www.nccp.org/topics/childpoverty.html

[3] https://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/pdf/rc10_eng.pdf