A Framework for Understanding Poverty (11 page)

3. Information and Know-How

This is a key aspect of a support system. When a child has homework, who in the support system knows enough math to help the child? Who knows the research process? Who knows the ropes for going to college or getting a newcar loan? Who knows how to talk to the insurance agent so the situation can be clarified? Who knows how to negotiate difficult situations with a teacher and come to a resolution? Who understands the court system, the school system? Information and know-how are crucial to success.

4. Temporary Relief from Emotional, Mental, Financial, and/or Time Constraints

When you are upset, who provides relief for you? When you aren't sure how you will get everything finished, who helps you? Who takes your children when you are desperate for a break? These people are all part of a support system.

5. Connections to Other People and Resources

When you don't have the information and know-how, who are the people you turn to for assistance? Those people are your connections. Connections to people and resources are an integral part of a healthy support system.

6. Positive Self-Talk

Everyone has a little voice inside his/her head that talks to him/her all the time. This little voice gives encouraging messages. These encouraging messages help one finish tasks, complete projects, and get through difficult situations. If an individual does not listen to this encouraging little voice, the success rate is much lower.

7. Procedural Self-Talk

Procedural self-talk is the voice that talks an individual through a task. It is key to success. Many individuals in poverty have a very limited support system-and particularly missing is procedural self-talk. Many tasks are never finished. In numerous dealings with students, teachers and other school officials find that self-talk is simply not available to the student.

The following case study identifies what aspects of a support system would be beneficial to a student-and would promote success.

LAKEITHA

You are a high school social studies teacher in inner-city Houston. One of your students, LaKeitha, was so rude in your loth-grade class that you told her she could not return until you had a conversation with her mother. She calls her mother and tells you that her mom will be there at 7:3o a.m. the next day to meet with you. You are at school the next morning at 7:15 a.m. LaKeitha's mother doesn't show up.

The next day LaKeitha is waiting for you before school. She is crying. She apologizes profusely for her behavior in class and tells you the following: Her dad is in jail. She is the oldest of five children. Her mother works two jobs, and LaKeitha works from 5:0o to 9:oo p.m. at Burger King every day to bring in money. Yesterday her mother was on her way to school to see you, but she got stopped by the police for an expired inspection sticker. Because she didn't have a driver's license, she was put in jail. Her mother is still in jail, and LaKeitha is all alone with the children. She is 15 years old.

LaKeitha asks to be allowed back into your class, and she asks you to help get her mother out of jail.

WHAT SUPPORT SYSTEMS CAN BE ACCESSED TO HELP LAKEITHA?

Here is a sample list of the support systems some schools use to help students.

Support Systems Schools Use

1. Schoolwide homework support: A very successful middle school in Texas schedules the last 45 minutes of every day for homework support. Students who did not get their homework done must go to the cafeteria where tutors are available to help them with their homework. The students must stay until their homework is finished. School officials have arranged for a late bus run to take students home. Many poor students do not have access to adults who have the knowledge base to help them with homework. The school has built this into the school day. Another middle school has arranged for students to have two sets of textbooks-one set at home and one at school. This school does not have lockers. The school has eliminated several problems and has also provided support for students.

2. Supplemental schoolwide reading programs: Many schools have gone to the concept of an Accelerated Reader program, using a computer-based management program that provides tests for students to take over the book(s) they have read. Students are encouraged to read more because the programs are designed so that students aren't penalized for what their parents don't know or cannot provide for them.

3. Keeping students with the same teacher(s) for two or more years or having a school within a school are other options. Both of these concepts are designed to build longer-term relationships between teachers and students. Also, much less time is wasted at the beginning of the year establishing relationships with the students and their parents.

4. Teaching coping strategies can be done in several ways. One is to address each issue as a student needs assistance. Many schools have small groups that meet with the counselor, principal, or a teacher during lunch to work on coping strategies in a number of areas. This ongoing group support allows students to discuss issues and ways to deal with those issues. For example, one elementary school divided all of its sixth-graders into groups of eight. Then school officials took these students and met with them for four weeks, twice a week over lunch, to discuss the issues they would face the next year when they went on to junior high school. Another school has a similar group of students meet who are physically aggressive; the discussion centers around ways to lessen the aggression at school. Advisory groups are yet another way to address issues of support.

5. Schoolwide scheduling that puts students in subgroups by skill for reading and math can be a way of providing support. One concern with heterogeneous grouping is the difficulty for the teacher to address all of the diverse instructional needs in the classroom simultaneously. One elementary school scheduled the hour for math at the same time in grades i through 3, as well as 4 through 6. Students were then pretested and moved to the appropriate group for that particular unit of instruction. Within two years, the math scores in that building made a considerable gain.

6. Parent training and contact through video is invaluable, particularly in poor communities. One pattern in poor communities is that virtually everyone has a VCR or DVD player because of the value placed on entertainment. A principal in Illinois who had 95% of his parents on welfare started a very successful program of parental education and contact through videos. Each teacher in the building made a 15-minute videotape. During that 15 minutes, the teacher made a personal introduction, gave an overview of the instruction for the year, identified the expectations of the class, and encouraged the parents to visit or call. Five copies of each video were made and during the first month of school each student could take a copy home and have an adult view the video. This was very successful for several reasons: (1) Parents who were not literate could understand, (2) it provided a kinesthetic view and feel for what kind of teacher the child had, (3) the parent was not dependent on transportation to have a contact with the school, and (4) it prevented unnecessary miscommunications early in the year. It is a low-cost intervention, and other short videos could be made for parents about school rules, appropriate discipline, etc.

7. The direct-teaching of classroom survival skills makes a difference, according to the research. What are classroom survival skills? Many of these skills are referred to as study skills, but there are also the cognitive strategies that are discussed in Chapter 8 on Instruction. These include such simple hidden rules as how to stay in your seat, how to participate appropriately, where to put your things, etc.

8. Requiring daily goal-setting and procedural self-talk would move many of these students light years ahead. In the beginning, goalsetting would focus on what a student wants to accomplish by the end of each day and by the end of the week. Goals would be in writing. At the end of the day, five minutes would need to be taken with the class to see if the goals were met or not. Procedural self-talk would begin in the written form; most students likely would need assistance. Procedural self-talk has value only when tied to a specific task. Procedures vary with tasks.

9. Team interventions are a way to provide support to students. This happens when all the teachers of a student meet with the parent(s) to make a plan for helping that student be more successful. This works as long as the intervention with the parent(s) is positive and supportive.

DEBRIEFING THE LAKEITHA CASE STUDY

One of LaKeitha's issues is simply time. She doesn't have any extra time. One of the things the teacher can have LaKeitha do is identify when, given her schedule, she can get things done. The teacher needs to provide flexibility for her to finish her assignments (maybe an extra day) and be flexible about the interruptions that will be a part of her life. The teacher can also give LaKeitha phone numbers and addresses of organizations (churches, social agencies, etc.) that can help provide some relief to her-mentally, emotionally, financially, and physically. Someone needs to spend five minutes with LaKeitha explaining how to access the adult voice, and how using that voice will help her negotiate her difficulties with authority figures and be a better caretaker of her siblings. Certainly of great importance is the acceptance and understanding of her situation by the teacher.

WHAT DOES THIS INFORMATION MEAN IN THE SCHOOL OR WORK SETTING?

19 By reorganizing the school day and schedule, and often by making minor adjustments, educators can build support systems into the school day without additional cost.

v Support systems need to include the teaching of procedural selftalk, positive self-talk, planning, goal-setting, coping strategies, appropriate relationships, options during problem-solving, access to information and know-how, and connections to additional resources.

CHAPTER 1

Discipline

n poverty, discipline is about penance and forgiveness, not necessarily change. Because love is unconditional and because the time frame is the present, the notion that discipline should be instructive and change behavior is not part of the culture in generational poverty. In matriarchal, generational poverty, the mother has the most powerful position and is, in some ways, "keeper of the soul." So she dispenses the judgments, determines the amount and price of penance, and offers forgiveness. When forgiveness is granted, behaviors and activities return to the way they were before the incident.

It is important to note that the approach to discipline advocated in this book is to teach a separate set of behaviors. Many of the behaviors that students bring to school are necessary to hep then survive outside of school. Just as students learn to use various rules, depending on the computer game they're playing, they also need to learn to use certain rules to be successful in school settings and circumstances. If students from poverty don't know how to fight physically, they are going to be in danger on the streets. But if that is their only method for resolving a problem, then they cannot be successful in school.

The culture of poverty does not provide for success in middle class because middle class to a large extent requires the self-governance of behavior. To be successful in work and in school requires self-control concerning behavior. What, then, do schools need to do to teach appropriate behavior?

STRUCTURE AND CHOICE

The two anchors of any effective discipline program that moves students to selfgovernance are structure and choice. The program must clearly delineate the expected behaviors and the probable consequences of not choosing those behaviors. The program must also emphasize that the individual always has a choice-to follow or not to follow the expected behaviors. With each choice then comes a consequence-either desirable or not desirable. Many discipline workshops use this approach and are available to schools.