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 enlarge | Author: Ruby K. Payne
Publisher: aha Process, Inc.
Category: Book
List Price: $22.00
Buy New: $14.50
You Save: $7.50 (34%)
New (38) Used (68) from $12.94
Avg. Customer Rating:  98 reviews
Sales Rank: 761
Media: Paperback
Edition: 4
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 199
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 9.8 x 7 x 0.5
ISBN: 1929229488
EAN: 9781929229482
ASIN: 1929229488
Publication Date: May 15, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 I passed my test July 13, 2008
Very enlightning book, gives a deeper understanding of povery and why it is hard to break the cycle.
 Oh for heavens sake June 14, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
As an individual who works with children in a variety of settings (club settings, classrooms, Youth Groups, etc), I picked up this book thinking it would provide me with some useful insights.
Two pages into it I was annoyed by a "hidden rule" she listed as applying to families who live in generational poverty. Half-way through I put it down in search of better resources.
I'm sure Dr. Payne's intentions are good and I suspect many of her offerings are useful. But close examination of the specific "hidden rules" as they apply to the supposed societal group who live in poverty (as though there was only one kind) reveals an author who needs to spend more time with people and less time writing books about them. It's so riddled with stereotypes it's difficult to take it seriously.
One for instance: Payne's first reference to one of the "hidden rules" of poverty is that households of this group are noisy--with televisions always on and everyone talking at once. I read it twice as I was sure I'd missed something. Surely someone with a Ph.D who'd done the proper research, would know better than to make a generalization of such ridiculous proportions, I thought.
'Guess not.
Personally, I come from a large middle-class loud German-Irish family with a television always on, music always playing (often live), and people talking all at once. The ability to tell a good joke or story was extremely important in our family, as was a sharp wit and the ability to defend one's point of view. This family produced three educators of which I am one. We're readers, thinkers, amatuer actors, singers, writers, and communicators. So for the life of me I can't quite grasp how on earth a noisy household is equated with class.
The idea that there are educators out there who are using this book as a basis to understand children who come from poor families concerns me. Apart from sparking discussion, I don't see this book as offering much of real value to educators and I would recommend those considering it to look past the hype and the slick marketing techniques and give this one a miss.
Fast shipping June 13, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Book was exactly what I thought it would be. I ordered it for a class that I was taking this summer and it arrived promptly. I was impressed with how quickly it arrived and it was in excellent shape. I have no complaints at all!
Understanding Poverty June 11, 2008
Excellent book by Ruby Payne. She has changed the way educators teach to children living in poverty. The book provides tools that can help break the cycle of generational poverty. Should be required reading for all educators and social service professionals!
 Payne as a Culture of Poverty Theorist April 28, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
I have been reading "Bridges out of Poverty" for a social work class I am taking at The Ohio State University. I am a senior in psychology and sociology, and I find this book academically lacking and socially irresponsible. This text is classic culture of poverty--the theory that those in poverty are there because of character flaws and bad behavior. Payne never confronts the structural barriers which bar the poor from increasing their economic position. Education, full-time employment (at a living-wage), and inadequate social safety-nets are stronger correlates to poverty than language and perspective as Payne would suggest. Payne suggests, though never directly, that the family is the primary socializing force in the development of an individual. Schools, and the staff and educators who operate them; neighborhoods and their relationship to the city as a whole; and the national and political culture, defused to homes through the media, are all prominent factors in the socialization of every individual.
Thus, when one receives messages of worthlessness and derogation from the whole of society, when your existence is viewed as a cause to herald and correct, when you are bombarded by a consumerist culture in which you cannot participate, the logical end is an attitude of hopelessness and dissociation. Instead of a steadfast defense of "middle-class ideals," I propose a more critical analysis of this society. A society with more wealth than any other nation in the world, but also with a poorly performing education system (which is blamed on the student and not the lack of funding), a service focused economy which will force us to sell to each other the products of distant lands, and an obsession with consumption which is destroying our planet.
When it is proposed that a critical look be taken toward a particular group, we must first look at ourselves. Before we espouse the lifestyle and ideology of one group onto another, we must first determine if that lifestyle is "correct." In my opinion, there is no certificate or qualification which a person can obtain that gives them the power to do that. It is hypocritical to ask of the poor what we would not ask of ourselves. Ruby Payne, and "academics" like her, have become unable to see the forest for the trees.
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