Bridgett Hutchinson

A Framework For Understanding Poverty

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A Framework for Understanding Poverty
EDU 400
Bridgett Hutchinson

4/25/2014

North Carolina Wesleyan College



Bridgett Hutchinson
A Framework For Understanding Poverty
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A Framework for Understanding; Poverty by Ruby Payne provided an introduction to poverty
in a way that was easy to comprehend. Payne begins Chapter One, Definitions and Resources
defining poverty as the extent to which an individual does without resources and examines it
from an individuals access to financial, emotional, mental, spiritual, and physical resources, as
well as the availability of outside support systems and role models.Payne (2005) Payne then
goes on to use seven different scenarios to illustrate how one might have access to different kinds
of resources and still experience poverty. For Payne, the key to accessing resources are the
hidden rules, crucial to attaining class position. Some of the other things talked about in this
book were, Fact and Figures Related to Poverty, Four Reasons to Leave Poverty, Types of Poverty,
and the Causes of Poverty.
Fact and Figures
Related to Poverty
Four Reasons to Leave
Poverty
Types of Poverty Causes of Poverty
Unemployment Too painful to stay Parental employment
status and earning
Generational-having
been in poverty for at
least two generations
Foreclosures Visions or goals Family structure Situational-lack of
resources due to a
certain event
Working poor(living
paycheck to paycheck)
Key relationship Parental education
Special skills or talents




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A Framework For Understanding Poverty
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In the Fall of 2012, I met a young lady named Fatimah Jones (the name has been changed to
protect her identity) at one of the local high schools I worked. I worked there for a few months
when Fatimah asked me to become her mentor, and I agreed. At first I did not understand why
this young lady felt she needed a mentor, because she was very respectful, kind, clean, and very
well dressed. I informed her that mentoring is not just at school, and I needed to meet her
parents. The day of parent night I asked Fatimah if her parents were coming. She said Ms. H I
have a five year old daughter in kindergarten, and I need to go to her school tonight. I asked
her how old are you, she said, I m 17 soon to be 18; I had my daughter young. My mom had
me young she is 32, and my grandma is 45, and my great grandma died two years ago at 58.
Fatimah lived in public housing with her mother (who does not work), her mothers part-time
live- in boyfriend, (I call him part-time because, he is married to someone else, but Fatimah calls
him her stepdad), and 5 siblings. Fatimahs grandmother lived in the next building. In many
ways, Fatima is one if not several of the scenarios Ruby Payne describes in the first chapter of
the book A Framework for Understanding Poverty. An unemployed mother unable to make ends
meet depending on a man to pay her bills, a teenager pregnant at a very early age, money shared
with friends and family that is never available to pay bills, generations of poverty apparently
stuck in a never ending cycle. This never ending cycle may be part of the reason why Ruby
Payne wrote her book. We all needed to find a way to put our hands around problems that
seemed far too complex for any simple solution.
An example like Fatimahs would have significant challenges in any environment
especially for people working with poverty related issues. Recent legislation
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A Framework For Understanding Poverty
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designed to end welfare as we know it had been understood locally to mean a more punitive
approach toward the poor. DeVol (2009) describes four rationales for poverty to include
individual behaviors, human and social capital, exploitation, and political/economic structures.
Republicans and Democrats Legislators in North Carolina are more likely to weigh individual
behaviors as the main challenge facing the poor of our state.
In A Framework for Understanding Poverty, I was able to relate to all the different scenarios
in this book. Now as a grown African- American woman living a secure middle class life,
poverty was something I witnessed growing up on the streets of Jersey City, NJ in the 70s, but
as an individual I wanted a change. While reading this book I took a quiz that was in Chapter
Two, Hidden Rules Among Classes, Could You Survive in Poverty? I checked 15 out of the 18
boxes on this quiz. Could You Survive in Middle Class? I checked all the boxes on this quiz.
The final quiz, Could You Survive in Wealth? I did not check one box on this quiz. I had two
reasons for leaving poverty. First it was too painful to stay there, and second I had a vision and
goals. I lived with my mother, father, and 7 siblings in public housing (3bedrooms for 10
people). The United States in the 80s was a place where it seemed everyone could make it if
they just tried.
For anyone looking to understanding the issues dealing with poverty, or for an individual
with a middle class upbringing, this book helps the reader to identify and perhaps formulate a
way to respond to a challenging situation. A person does not need to become a physician or a
lawyer to work in the field. Rather, a short book, reliant upon case studies and followed with
practical suggestions, can help a teacher or social worker to open the door to a very foreign
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A Framework For Understanding Poverty
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world. Payne was consistent in pointing out the assets and abilities of low-income individuals.
When discussing discipline, she stresses the importance of talking to a student as a partner in a
relationship rather than a child who must be managed, noting, as in the title of Chapter Nine,
Creating Relationship the importance of a trusting relationship is the success of a student. By
understanding the students poverty the relationship becomes stronger. She provides a
framework for professionals to understand their backgrounds not as natural but as part of the
middle class cultural capital from which they benefited and into which we hope to bring the
student. Payne (2009)
Many people have criticized Payne for this book, the context of the times and the objective of
the message, it is hard for me to understand the criticisms; Payne had gathered information for
24 years. She gets it, not from an academic viewpoint, but from a common-sense humanistic
viewpoint. As a taxpayer, I am proud to have my tax money go to someone who is spending their
life making a difference. It is a shame she has to fight and defend herself from bureaucrats and
academic critics to help those less fortune. I heard it said once little people talk about people,
average people talk about things, & big people talk about ideas. Ruby Payne is talking about
solving huge problems in our society, and the little people are talking about her, but it is not hard
to separate the big people from the little people: big people are the people who are doing, and
taking action, and little people are criticizing them for doing it.


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A Framework For Understanding Poverty
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References
DeVol P.E ,Payne, R.K., PhD. Smith, T.D. (2009) Bridges Out of Poverty: Strategies for
Professional and Communities aha! Process, Incorporated
Payne, R.K PhD. (2005) A Framework for Understanding Poverty ( 4
th
ed.) aha! Process,
Incorporated