understanding poverty (a little)

I didn’t expect “A Framework for Understanding Poverty” to engage me as much as it did. Maybe it was the book’s appearance, suspiciously textbook-like. On some level I wanted to believe that what I'm already doing on daily basis, working for/with people in poverty, is the definitive education on poverty. But of course that's silly. The book was not as detached and academic as I'd expected. And more importantly, just being around people in poverty will not automatically teach me how poverty shapes their lives, the ways they think and act. The book's title promised a structure for approaching poverty and that's exactly what I've needed. Like "scaffolding" after the destabilizing experience of trying to deal with my students day in and day out, the book has been valuable. What follows is my thought on a couple of the book's insights I found most compelling.

First of all, the book's profile of people living in poverty, especially in terms of the mental and emotional patterns behind their behavior was interesting--not necessarily new to me, but valuable in that it confirmed what I've already noticed in my students. My students who are quickest to anger, who narrate their every feeling aloud, and who can't think beyond the present are also the ones who loudly announce the arrival of their mother's welfare check or the disconnection of their phone. I'm thinking especially of two of my 8th-graders (who also happen to be some of my brightest students, poverty having nothing to do with innate academic potential). S. and D. are both very bright and vocal, often to the point of disrupting class. D. is also S.'s niece, a familial relationship characteristic of poverty. When I've had conferences or otherwise given consequences to those two, things escalate quickly, with them throwing a fit and me barely able to reach them. The first few times they did this, I would feel helpless and almost frightened, which makes sense if I was engaging with people who don't follow the middle class "hidden rules" I know. It's interesting to compare those incidents with ones where I do reach students. Often those are the ones who appear to come from relatively wealthier homes and who have very involved mothers, mothers who, I've heard, "will beat the black off them if they act up."

So the book's value wasn't so much in teaching me new information as it was in confirming and organizing what I'd already witnessed. But confirmation feels good right now. I was struck by how many of the suggestions for behavioral interventions echoed what we've already been taught about classroom management. It's good to know that the ideal of classroom management I've been working toward (and falling far short of, so far) is appropriate for even my poorest students.