enjoyed learning more about how poverty affects children and trying to connect it to my capstone

so ready to be volunteering and actually making a difference after reading this

I'm sure I will get some heat for this but . . . This book is part a book study, so I was required to read it. The book was very disturbing. The author goes on endlessly about low-income students and described "low-income" value sets and how these translate to poor academic performance. Her goal is to have students learn middle-class values and communication styles to enable them to achieve a middle class lifestyle. This book is all about getting students to conform to a middle-class European-American standard. It is insulting and could be dangerous in the hands of someone with little life experience or perspective. A more accurate title would be "Outdated Stereotypes for Oversimplifying Poverty."

I think I would like to run this book through a Social-Science version of Mythbusters.

Full of generalizations, yes. Entirely wrong- no. The role of language and story; Hidden rules among classes & Characteristics of Generational Poverty are some of the better chapters. There ARE rules of behavior and language in the middle class (and other classes) and trying to function in a middle class atmosphere requires knowledge of these rules. This is not a judgment statement, just statement of fact; just as knowledge of French would be a requirement for success in France. The difference is that knowledge of middle class rules is generally valued whereas the knowledge of those in poverty is dismissed and devalued.

I would say that a serious student of class and issues related to poverty in the U.S. would want to include this book in their reading, but would not want to rely on it for the reasons that other reviewers have stated. It is predominantly anecdotal and short on hard data. Nonetheless, it is a decent starting point for new teachers or social workers who may not have much exposure to the realities of low-income, urban areas and their students' lives at home.