A Framework for Understanding Poverty (7 page)

At the ball the Prince was completely taken with Cinderella and danced with her all evening. As the clock began striking midnight, Cinderella remembered what the fairy godmother had said and fled from the dance. All she left was one of her glass slippers.

The Prince held a big search, using the glass slipper as a way to identify the missing woman. He finally found Cinderella; she could wear the glass slipper. He married her, and they lived happily ever after.

Casual-Register Version

(Italicized type indicates the narrator; plain type indicates audience participation.) Well, you know Cinderella married the Prince, in spite of that old nasty stepmother.

Pointy eyes, that one. Old hag!

Good thing she had a fairy godmother or she never would've made it to the ball.

Lucky thing! God bless her ragged tail! Wish I had me a fairy godmother.

And to think she nearly messed up big time by staying 'til the clock was striking 12. After all the fairy godmother had done for her.

Urn, um. She shoulda known better. Eyes too full of the Prince, they were. They didn't call him the Prince for no reason.

When she got to the ball, her stepsisters and stepmother didn't even recognize her she was so beautiful without those rags.

Served 'em right, no-good jealous hags.

The Prince just couldn't quit dancing with her, just couldn't take his eyes off her. He had finally found his woman.

Lucky her! Lucky him! Sure wish life was a fairy tale. Kinda like the way I met Charlie. Ha ha.

The way she arrived was something else-a coach and horseman-really fancy. Too bad that when she ran out of there as the clock struck 12 all that was left was a pumpkin rolling away and four mice!

What a surprise for the mice!

Well, he has to find her because his heart is broken. So he takes the glass slipper and hunts for her-and her old wicked stepmother, of course, is hiding her.

What a prize! Aren't they all?

But he finds her and marries her. Somebody as good as Cinderella deserved that.

Sure hope she never invited that stepmother to her castle. Should make her the maid!!

As is readily apparent, the second story structure is far more entertaining, more participatory and exhibits a richness of character, humor, and feeling absent from the first version. The first version has sequence, order, cause and effect, and a conclusion: all skills necessary for problem-solving, inference, etc.

Cognitive studies indicate that story structure is a way that the brain stores memories. Given the first story structure, memories would be stored more sequentially, and thinking patterns would follow story structure. Feuerstein (1980) describes the episodic, nearly random memory and its adverse effects on thinking.

WHAT CAN SCHOOLS DO TO ADDRESS CASUAL REGISTER, DISCOURSE PATTERNS, AND STORY STRUCTURE?

Because there is such a direct link between achievement and language, it must be addressed. The following suggestions are not exhaustive, but rather a place to begin.

1. Have students write in casual register, then translate into formal register. (To get examples of casual register down on paper, ask them to write the way they talk.)

2. Establish as part of a discipline plan a requirement that students learn how to express their displeasure in formal register and therefore not be reprimanded.

3. Use graphic organizers to show patterns of discourse.

4. In the classroom, tell stories both ways. Tell the story using the formal-register story structure, then tell the story with the casualregister structure. Talk about the stories: how they stay the same, and how they're different.

5. Encourage participation in the writing and telling of stories.

6. Use stories in math, social studies, and science to develop concepts.

7. Make up stories with the students that can be used to guide behavior.

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

? Formal register needs to be directly taught.

? Casual register needs to be recognized as the primary discourse for many students.

• Discourse patterns need to be directly taught.

? Both story structures need to be used as a part of classroom instruction.

? Discipline that occurs when a student uses the inappropriate register should be a time for instruction in the appropriate register.

? Students need to be told how much the formal register affects their ability to get a well-paying job.

CHAPTER 3

Hidden Rules Among (lasses

idden rules are the unspoken cues and habits of a group. Distinct cueing systems exist between and among groups and economic classes. Generally, in America, that notion is recognized for racial and ethnic groups, but not particularly for economic groups. There are many hidden rules to examine. The ones examined here are those that have the most impact on achievement in schools and success in the workplace.

But first .. .

A LITTLE QUIZ

Take the quiz on the next three pages, putting a check mark by all the things you know how to do.

Could You Survive in Poverty?

Put a check by each item you know how to do.

Could You Survive in Middle Class?

Put a check by each item you know how to do.

Could You Survive in Wealth?

Put a check by each item you know how to do.

The first point about this exercise is that if you fall mostly in the middle class, the assumption is that everyone knows these things. However, if you did not know many of the items for the other classes, the exercise points out how many of the hidden rules are taken for granted by a particular class, which assumes they are a given for everyone. What, then, are the hidden rules? The chart on pages 42 and 43 gives an overview of some of the major hidden rules among the classes of poverty, middle class, and wealth.

Several explanations and stories may help explain parts of the quiz and this chart. The bottom line or driving force against which decisions are made is important to note. For example, in one school district, the faculty had gone together to buy a refrigerator for a family who did not have one. About three weeks later, the children in the family were gone for a week. When the students returned, the teachers asked where they had been. The answer was that the family had gone camping because they were so stressed. What had they used for money to go camping? Proceeds from the sale of the refrigerator, of course. The bottom line in generational poverty is entertainment and relationships. In middle class, the criteria against which most decisions are made relate to work and achievement. In wealth, it is the ramifications of the financial, social, and political connections that have the weight.

Being able physically to fight or have someone who is willing to fight for you is important to survival in poverty. Yet, in middle class, being able to use words as tools to negotiate conflict is crucial. Many times the fists are used in poverty because the words are neither available nor respected.

The one deep experience that distinguishes the social rich from the merely rich and those below is their schooling, and with it, all the associations, the sense and sensibility, to which this education routine leads throughout their lives.

As a selection and training place of the upper classes, both old and new, the private school is a unifying influence, a force for the nationalization of the upper classes.

- C. Wright Mills, The Power Elite

Hidden Rules Among Classes