One of the main reasons I wanted to get into this EdS. program was because we would learn how to critically evaluate programs of instruction and curriculum. In addition, I have learned a great deal about constructivist pedagogy, instructional evaluation, multiculturalism, research practices, and reflection. Using my newly polished educator lenses and my experience, I would have to say that Ruby is overgeneralizing a serious issue to quanitify something that can be packaged, easily understood, and sold. Her views on poverty are too simple. I have seen poverty with my own eyes that she describes in her vignettes, but I have seen some wealthy people act in the same manner that she describes as traits linked to poverty. There are deplorable character traits across all classes and all cultures. I have seen children abused by poor as well as wealthy parents. Drug abuse and sexual promiscuousness does not stop at 15K a year. Violence and a lack of respect of life does not start once you are put on welfare. Her views on poverty do not require any deep reflection or change in sociopolitical practice to correct the problem; all that is needed is teaching the poor to act middle-class, right.
Poverty is not a disease that needs a cure or a war that needs to be won; it is a group of people who have needs, not wants, that are not being met. They deserve respect and kindness, not generalizations and empty promises.
The reality is that some people find themselves living in poverty from their poor choices and others just from circumstances that are out of their control. That is the truth. You cannot lump them all together into one corner and fulfill all their needs in the same way. It is complicated and larger than Ruby Payne or Gorski. To make progress and a positive impact, we need serious people making serious policy changes on a national scale before things get better.
