ABOUT THE BOOK A Framework for Understanding Poverty provides important insight into the nation’s ongoing difficulty educating poor children. Students from impoverished backgrounds at all levels of America’s education system achieve success at lower rates than students who are not impoverished. The author, Ruby Payne, suggests that individuals who have experienced generational poverty—that is, individuals whose parents also grew up in poverty—behave in certain characteristics ways that put them at a disadvantage in institutional settings like public school. Payne defines generational poverty as different from “situational poverty,” that is the condition of poverty caused by lack of resources due to a particular event like death, chronic illness, or divorce. The idea is that raising oneself out of situational poverty is easier that raising oneself out of generational poverty. MEET THE AUTHOR Jeff Davis is a life long educator with a Ph.D. in English Studies who has taught at both the high school and university levels. He is also an artist and an amateur anthropologist who is a proponent of “First Art,” that art which our ancient ancestors practiced some 30,000 years ago and even earlier. His most recent book, The First-Generation Student Experience, expanded the college student-affairs field describing the challenges of contemporary nontraditional students. Related to his interest in evolutionary biology, he is currently working on a writing pedagogy book that argues that motivation is the most important dimension of the creative process, even more important than skill and native ability. EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK Payne establishes her working definition of poverty as “the extent to which an individual does without resources” such as financial, emotional, mental, spiritual, physical, support systems, relationships/role models, and knowledge of hidden rules (8). The challenge for the school or work setting is to analyze and understand the available resources before problem solving and to utilize opportunities that impact the non-financial resources. She describes “three aspects of language: registers of language, discourse patterns, and story structure (27). Registers of language include frozen, formal, consultative, casual, and intimate. Dropping down one register in the same conversation is socially acceptable; dropping down two registers is socially offensive. Buy a copy to keep reading!

The 5th edition features an enhanced chapter on instruction and achievement; greater emphasis on the thinking, community, and learning patterns involved in breaking out of poverty; plentiful citations, new case studies, and data: more details findings about interventions, resources, and causes of poverty, and a review of the outlook for people in poverty---and those who work with them.

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 A working definition of poverty is the extent to which an individual does without resources. These resources are the ability to purchase goods and services, emotional resilience, mental ability, and spiritual belief. #2 Support systems are resources. They are individuals who can help you when you need it, and they are not just about financial or emotional support. They are about knowledge bases as well. #3 Hidden rules are the unspoken understandings that cue the members of a group about whether an individual fits in or not. To move from one class to the next, it is important to have a spouse or mentor from the class you want to move to model and teach you the hidden rules. #4 John’s mother, Adele, is a 29-year-old female. She is a doctor’s wife who has quit college to support her husband while he goes through medical school. She is elated when John is born, but her husband divorces her one year later and announces he is in love with another woman.

A Framework for Understanding Poverty was Dr. Ruby Payne's first book, written for teachers with adaptations for work and community members. Its purpose is to educate people about the differences that separate economic classes and then teaching them strategies to bridge those gulfs. Ruby discusses at length the social cues or "hidden rules" that govern how we think and interact in society - and the significance of those rules in a classroom. Other topics include why students from generational poverty often fear being educated, discipline interventions that improve behavior, and the eight resources that make a difference to success.