Ruby Payne refutes allegations that her work is built on "stereotyping" and negative depictions of poverty. Instead, she says her work is built on a theory of cognitive determinism, that is, a belief that everyone has a mind and educators are able to develop every mind if they understand learning styles for children of poverty.

People face four fundamental dilemmas, which are essentially moral choices: (1) alleviating poverty; (2) removing the gap between rich and poor; (3) controlling the use of violence for political ends; and (4) changing the patterns of production and consumption and achieving the transition to sustainability. The world in which future generations…

For too long, educators' approach to understanding the relationships between poverty, class and education has been framed by studying the behaviors and cultures of poor students and their families. If only we--in the middle and upper-middle classes--can understand "their" culture, why "those people" don't value education, why "those parents" don't…

This article talks about the large achievement gap between children of color and their white peers. The reasons for the achievement gap are varied. First, many urban minorities come from a background of poverty. One of the detrimental effects of growing up in poverty is receiving inadequate nourishment at a time when bodies and brains are rapidly…

Comments on "Psychotherapy, classism, and the poor: Conspicuous by their absence" by Laura Smith (see record 2005-11834-002). Smith is to be commended for identifying a critical missing area in applied psychology: the inclusion of people who are poor into training, education, research, and practice. But in advocating for psychology to be…

Argues that home visiting and related services have been shaped and constrained by the tendency to use services as a substitute for adequate income and economic opportunity, by ambivalent attitudes toward poor people, and by a preoccupation with the effects of poverty on child rearing. Proposes basic principles of practice that should guide early…

Surveys arguments for and against income redistribution in the United States against the background of the latest empirical and theoretical findings. (Author/JDH)

Outlines the four worlds of childhood and the ways that alienation in adolescents can be counteracted through the creation of interconnecting links. The risks of losing youths to alienating factors caused by institutions, the social structure, and the pressures under which schools and families function is the highest it has ever been. (MD)

This literature review focuses on the overrepresentation of African-American males in special education. The most prevalent factors that contribute to this epidemic are poverty and the perceptions of teachers, their attitudes towards African-American men and the lack of their cultural understandings. Not only does this literature review focus on…

This essay examines poverty in Latin America and its effect on education. It focuses on sexual bias and emphasizes that poverty is inherent in the social and economic structure of the region. The text examines how states in Latin America view the role of education, and it describes the growing chasm between the poor and the gentrified in various…

This report discusses the increasing incidence of divorce and unwed parenthood in the United States, arguing that the "divorce revolution" of the last several decades has created terrible hardships for children, generated poverty within families, and burdened the nation with unsupportable social costs. It calls for a fundamental shift in cultural…

Rural poverty in Sindh, Pakistan, has been artificially created by low prices of wheat, fixed by the federal government's price control board. Agriculture and agro-based industries account for 80 percent of the country's labor force. Among the consequences of this price control are low margins of profit to the farming community; low capacity to…

Explores the historical development of adoption and fostering attitudes and practice in Britain, noting the influence of socioeconomic class, of the stigma of illegitimacy, and of national economic prosperity in child welfare trends since the Middle Ages. (HTH)

The article examines the educational implications of people's inclinations to blame social victims for their plight, looking at the situation of immigrants and issues of apathy. The article suggests that genuine encounters with suffering may offer the best hope for educational and social progress. (SM)

Five interpretations of equity are examined as they relate to the distribution of public goods and services. The first principle, utilitarianism, maintains that individuals are free to pursue their own interests and are rewarded according to contributions. The second principle, needs, is the basis of communist societies in which each gives…