1. A Framework for Understanding Poverty
Ruby K. Payne, Ph.D.
PowerPoint Presentation
Version 2.1
aha! Process, Inc., Highlands, TX
Copyright © 2005 aha! Process, Inc.

2. This is a workshop about economic diversity, not racial or cultural diversity.
This is a workshop about class.
It is a workshop about economic diversity.
It is not about race because Ruby Payne's area of expertise is class, not race.
This is simply about issues of class and about how class impacts so many of the things we see.
Ruby took a job in Barrington, Illinois, as an elementary principal. Ninety-five percent of the parents were in the top 1 percent of household income in the United States. A myth we have in America is that if you're wealthy, you're smarter.
The school had wealthy African Americans, Hispanics, Caucasians, Asians, and East Indians, and Ruby could not tell any difference among them. If they had a package of resources, they were doing equally well.
The research is this: There is no difference in achievement levels of white and minority children if the net worth of the households is the same.
They hired Ruby in Barrington because even though the children had so much money they weren't learning very well; their achievement scores were low. Ruby began researching what it is that makes a difference in learning.
One day Ruby met a Russian man who was driving a limo. He had been a teacher in Russia, and his wife had been a medical doctor. They came to this country because of poor wages in Russia. He told Ruby, "If you have to work all day just to have enough money for food for one day for one person, that's what you're going to spend all your time doing. But if you can make enough money for food in one day to keep two people alive, that other person can do something besides survive and work." That story is a metaphor for this workshop.
Learning takes time.
You have to devote time to learning these things because many of them are unrelated to daily life, but people don't devote the time to learning that it needs.
Most people keep the same mindsets, the same habits, the same belief systems they've always had—even when they don't need them anymore—unless one or two things happen: They get relationships, they get education.
Copyright © 2005 aha! Process, Inc.

3. Establish a mental framework for understanding economic realities.
Objective for Module 1:
Establish a mental framework for understanding economic realities.
Module 1
The objective for Module 1 is to establish a mental framework for understanding economic realities.
Copyright © 2005 aha! Process, Inc.

4. Registers of Language Registers of Language
In 1967 Martin Joos, a Dutch linguist, found that no matter what language you have in the world, there are five registers.
The first register is frozen: words that are always the same, like the Lord's Prayer, U.S. Pledge of Allegiance, wedding vows. Literally, the words don't change. They're frozen.
Formal: what most of us use at school and work. It's about a to 1600-word working vocabulary. Often formal register is in writing.
Consultative tends to be more spoken, and it's a mix of casual and formal.
Casual register is language between friends. It comes out of the oral-language tradition of any group of people. It has about a 400- to 800-word working vocabulary.
Intimate register is what is used between lovers and twins: highly private language about private activities. But intimate register also is the language of sexual harassment.
You can go up or down one register in a conversation, and it's socially acceptable. But if you go up or down two registers or more, people often are offended.
Maria Montano-Harmon, a linguist in California, found that in generational poverty virtually all that the adults and students know is casual register.
Use the registers of language as a teaching tool. Many times when students say, "I don't know what that means," they cannot say it in your words. How much time do we give them to translate something from casual register to formal register? Try translating the Pledge of Allegiance from frozen to formal. See how difficult that is?
Students get referred for discipline because of language issues when they're in the wrong register.
A sixth-grade boy was sent to the office because he told the teacher that something "sucked." Well, part of his discipline was to find two ways to say "sucked" in formal register. His first translation was "I don't like this work." His second translation was "There's no longer any joy in this activity."
One of the issues in this whole area of registers is this: The abstract words—all of them—are in formal register.
One of the reasons there's so much violence in poverty is that when you have only casual register, you don't have the words to resolve a conflict. What they tell you in conflict resolution is this: To resolve a conflict, you have to get away from the personal to the issue. Well, to get to issues, you must have abstract words.
Copyright © 2005 aha! Process, Inc.

5. Research about language in children from
ages 1 to 3 years from stable households
by economic group.
Number of words exposed to
Economic group
Affirmations (strokes)
Prohibitions (discounts)
10 million words
Welfare
1 for every 2
20 million words
Working class
2 for every 1
30 million words
Professional
5 for every
[Use this chart to talk about the research about language in children from ages 1 to 3 in stable households by economic group.]
Research by Hart and Risley shows that the average 3-year-old in a professional household has a larger vocabulary than the average adult on welfare. In the 1999 book Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children, the authors estimate that children at 36 months in professional families have a working vocabulary of 1,200 words, while it’s 900 words for adults on welfare.
There is one affirmation for every two prohibitions in welfare, two affirmations for every prohibition in working class, and five affirmations for every prohibition in professional families.
Source: Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children (1995), by Betty Hart & Todd R. Risley
Copyright © 2005 aha! Process, Inc.

6. If an individual cannot plan, he/she CANNOT PREDICT.
If an individual depends upon a random episodic story structure for memory patterns, lives in an unpredictable environment, and HAS NOT DEVELOPED THE ABILITY TO PLAN, then ...
If an individual cannot plan, he/she CANNOT PREDICT.
If an individual cannot predict, he/she CANNOT IDENTIFY CAUSE AND EFFECT.
If an individual cannot identify cause and effect, he/she CANNOT IDENTIFY CONSEQUENCE.
If an individual cannot identify consequence, he/she CANNOT CONTROL IMPULSIVITY.
If an individual cannot control impulsivity, he/she HAS AN INCLINATION TOWARD CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR.
Feuerstein also said this: When you have an individual who has not been well mediated to the abstract, it's not unusual to get this next pattern. You cannot plan. When you cannot plan, you can't predict. And when you can't predict, you don't know cause and effect. And when you don't know cause and effect, you don't know consequence. And when you don't know consequence, you can't control impulsivity. And when you can't control impulsivity, you have an inclination to criminal behavior.
Copyright © 2005 aha! Process, Inc.

7. Mental Model for Poverty
What It’s Like Now
This mental model was first created by a group of people in poverty in central Ohio. This model would be somewhat different by region, race, ethnicity, and cultural history, but it has common features that appear in all situations.
We will examine three pieces of the pie—wages, housing, and illness—and we will learn to analyze poverty situations for stability, time horizon, and problem-solving strategies.
ANCHOR:
Transportation always shows up on the pie because when you’re in poverty, you cannot afford a reliable car. How many of you are AAA members or have some other roadside-assistance program? So when your car dies, you pull over and call AAA. But in poverty, you don’t call AAA, you call Uncle Ray, and he comes out with a truck and a chain and hauls your sorry car back home. Uncle Ray is the reason that “relationships” is written across the pie. When you don’t have AAA, you need Uncle Ray.
ADD:
A mental model gives the big picture in a few moments; the mental model communicates the “why.” For example, by looking at the mental model, you can see that when you’re in poverty you need people to survive, to “get by.” That is WHY “relationships” are critical in generational poverty.
One woman in a Getting Ahead group told the facilitator to draw several lines around the perimeter of the circle with a big black marker because once you’re in there it’s tough getting out. Another participant studied the mental model for a while, then said, “I never realized it before, but poverty sux!”
Copyright © 2006 aha! Process, Inc.

8. Businesses Schools Police Social Services Church Pawn shop
With this slide we expand our examination of the environment to include businesses and other community organizations. Have the group think about the relationship between people in poverty neighborhoods and the police, schools, etc. Is that the same as it is for middle-class people? Analyze the model for stability, safety, and interactions with the dominant culture.
ANCHOR:
If you think of a ”pocket of poverty” in your community, you will often see certain organizations, services, and businesses. Are these present in your community?
In order to understand poverty, we must also address the larger elements that co-exist with poverty in our communities.
Businesses
Pawn shop
Liquor store
Corner store
Rent-to-own
Laundromat
Fast food
Check cashing
Temp services
Used-car lots
Dollar store
Copyright © 2006 aha! Process, Inc.

9. Mental Model for Middle Class
ADD/ANCHOR:
Take a minute to look over the elements in this pie. Now, let’s compare and contrast this environment with poverty. Let’s look at stability, time horizon, choice, future story, problem-solving skills, and power.
Basically this is a picture of stability and higher resources. Higher resources give those with economic stability the “gift” of choice and future story. Education and achievement are driving forces that glue the elements together.
Relationships are important in middle class, but relationships are more “interdependent.” Relationships are not about survival but are expected to incorporate stability.
REINFORCEMENT:
The mental model of middle class is also woven together by the formal register of language used to negotiate through systems and organizations. This is a world where planning and resources attempt to keep poor choices and crisis at bay. When a crisis does occur, there’s usually a significant amount of resources, including social capital, to stop a downward spiral into massive instability. In poverty, you often can’t stop bad things from happening as one crisis often leads to a pileup of crises in a short amount of time.
Copyright © 2006 aha! Process, Inc.