A Framework for Understanding Ruby Payne
I read the article the was written by Anita Bohn and found it interesting because I had always heard great things about Ruby Payne and her strategies for teaching children who come from poverty. I heard of Ruby Payne about six years ago when I first began teaching. My principal had introduced our staff to the book and told us a little about its content. I never read the book after that, though I wondered about her message to educators. This article surprised me because I did not know some of the things that it described. For example, the article said that she owned her own publishing company so that gave her rights to publish really anything she wrote. It also accused her of publishing and holding conferences based on unresearched information. While I do not know this to be true (as I am only going by what this article implies), I wonder about the validity of the message she brings to educators of poverty stricken schools. Is her message true or is it false? I cannot say, more research is required of me to make an accurate analysis. I found her questions on the second page of the article interesting as well. I found myself asking the question about the lower class questions…”does the lower-class really know the answers to these questions or is this some kind of stereotyping? Where did Ruby Payne get these questions and how valid are they of the lower-class? Again, more research is needed to answer this question. I thought the same of the middle class questions as well. Bottom line…teachers don’t need someone to come in to their school and tell them how to teach poverty stricken kids based on the questions listed in this article…kids need to know you care and that you are going to stand by them and help them to succeed. Trust can make the biggest difference in whether a child succeeds or fails. No graphic organizer is going to give that kind of assistance to a child…all they need is YOU…
