Framework for Understanding Poverty

I found Payne's writing on poverty to be a relatively fresh and helpful approach. He had me hooked right away because he recognized that poverty means more than just a lack of financial needs. I found the scenarios be a little bit stereotypical and redundant; however, it was really helpful to see the importance that spiritual, emotional and family health play in a students life. What I really found interesting was chapter 2 where he talks about language. The examples he uses about talking around a topic, both from the student and the parents was very eye opening to me. As teachers it is important to recognize the cultural and socioeconomic gaps that exist among our students. I could just hear a teacher complaining during a free period about how they hate calling on "Mike" because it takes him forever to get to the point. So perhaps the teacher avoids calling on him. Now Mike has suffered yet another blow to the emotional support necessary to succeed in school. I was also able to draw some insightful connections to this issue because of the Ravitch article. You can see where achievement is directly related to poverty. Education only exists through personal connections. How can we expect students to care about anything we teach when they are struggling to fulfill one or more of the categories in that poverty survey?