Response to Ruby Payne's Understanding Poverty
As a case study, Ruby Payne’s “A Framework for Understanding Poverty, is well-researched and topically comprehensive. As a sociological handbook with ‘practical yet compassionate strategies for addressing impact on people’s lives’ it is more prescriptive than any such resource should claim to be.
While the observation-based generalizations in which Payne made regarding the characteristics of generational vs. situational poverty seem to be accurate or at least representative of my own observations many generalizations are misappropriated as facts. Specifically, the ‘Deposits, Withdrawals’ chart on pg.111 can be easily reciprocated from lower to middle class. While I agree that mannerisms for living (such as importance of matriarchal structure, identity tied to lover/fighter role for men) can be positively influenced through mentoring from someone who has made the transition to the higher economic class- the references that intend to define specific mannerisms (‘mating dance,’ ‘negative orientation’) were more theoretical than factual.
While “A Framework for Understanding Poverty” does not in and of itself equip me with the understanding I need to both emphasize and educate my students it does provide a register to interpret the results from the anonymous student survey and a language to articulate the responses that they so candidly put forth.
Perhaps, the greatest shortcoming of Ruby Payne’s book is that she juxtaposes credible researches with sources that are commercial rather than academic.
