Introduction-During her decades of involvement in education as a teacher, principal, consultant and administrator; Dr. Ruby Payne noticed that when students from poverty backgrounds performed poorly in school it was more because of attitudes and initiative than a lack of intelligence or ability. She developed the insights she gained during those years into books, seminars and workshops to prepare educators to be better able to help students from poverty backgrounds succeed. It follows that parents would be better able to help their students perform better if they too were familiar with those stumbling blocks so we have summarized a few of Dr. Payne’s insights here. As you read them remember that “The truth shall set you free but at first it could make you very angry”.

Education is a major key to getting out of and staying out of generational poverty

Specific to educational success/failure; students from poverty:

• Are extremely disorganized
• Frequently lose papers
• Don't have signatures.
• Bring many reasons why something is missing, or the paper is gone, etc.
• Don't do homework
• Only do part of an assignment
• Can't seem to get started

Entertainment Value-The value of an individual to the group is determined by an ability to entertain. Academic achievement is not nearly as important. Parents of children in poverty are much more likely to attend a school function where their children are performing in sports, singing, dancing or acting than a much needed conference.

Friendships-The bottom line in generational poverty is entertainment and relationships. In order to move from poverty to middle class or from middle class to wealth, one must trade off relationships for achievement.

Pro-activeness-Individuals in poverty live in the moment. They do not consider future ramifications of present actions, being proactive, setting goals or planning ahead.

Money-Two of the biggest difficulties in getting out of poverty is managing money and the lack of tools available to those in poverty. In poverty, money is used for entertainment and relationships. The notion of investing money for future security is truly grounded in the middle and wealthy classes.

Conclusion-Parents are extremely important to the success of their children in whatever they want to achieve. Hopefully the information provided here will help you make an even stronger contribution to your child’s future success.