Poverty (Part 2)

I've been thinking a lot about poverty lately - and not so much in the direct sense of low income families and how they live, but how poverty in the three forms that I wrote about yesterday (financial, relationships and physical forms) could be leveraged to increase awareness in our own lives.

I've been brainstorming the possibilities of how these three areas dwell within each and every one of us. That when a person can take a step back from themselves and delve into the core issues that prevent them from ultimate success, that poverty can be found.

Almost everyone can look at their check book and see that they don't really have enough money to do what they'd like to do. It's amazing to me to interview people at different stages of their lives and different income levels in that the sense of ultimate security - that money seems to want to foster - is always elusive. A family making it on $50k a year would like to have more - maybe to buy a bigger home or make ends meet a little better. A family on twice that amount can still have those same feelings. Or even four times that amount.

Security is the minimal set of circumstances that allow for growth. Insecure circumstances do not allow for growth. This has been explored in education - (I wish I could cite this - but it comes from my teacher friends) - that our brains' higher function is based in the frontal lobe and survival functions come from the rear of the brain. When "survivor mode" is active higher functioning isn't working well. So functions like creative problem solving are incredibly hindered and/or shut down.

Think of training for a high stress job like a paramedic or a soldier. Repetitiveness - the constant training upon training upon training (I was in the Army, so I know about this first hand) burns into the brain of what to do in the high stress circumstance. It allows for brain functioning to happen in a prescribed way even when the brain has literally creatively shut down. The repetitive training allows the task to be done with security is shaky or non-existent.

Or think of the child that is being abused at home. That child's preoccupation in the classroom isn't about learning math tables (frontal lobe) - it's about what's going to happen at home later (survival). The whole idea that they'll be high functioning students will be severely handicapped and it becomes a downward spiral. It has nothing to do with intelligence or capability of the individual (I'll revisit education later on in another post and the whole idea of "no child left behind" is completely screwed up).

Creating secure environments is the crucial step in brain function and ultimately any growth in the individual. That's why the concept of trust is very, very, very important.

How do we make switches in socio-economic classes? Education and training is the key. Keep in mind that intelligence is equally distributed amongst all social, racial and economic classes. One of my favorite books is written by Dr. Jared Diamond called "Collapse" (wonderful read) - he mentioned on one of his several trips to Papua New Guinea that the tribes people who lived there had no idea of the modern world and to most people from western societies, we would consider these people cavemanesque. But after living with them for a while - he found the tables were turned and the tribesmen were appalled at Dr. Diamond's severe lack of understanding of the local plant life and animals. To them, this was their world and in that context, they were the world's experts even if they couldn't read or classify animals in the proper western way.

On the other extreme one doesn't have to look far with personalities such as Paris Hilton and Brittany Spears to know that you can have wealth and no brains.

Moving from one socio-economic class to the next isn't like winning the lottery - it takes time and effort on the part of the guide and student. As a side note: most lottery winners actually come from the low income class and it really isn't surprising that the windfall of cash is gone within record time. Most of us in the middle class look at that and wonder how is that even possible? Remember that management is a hallmark of the middle class - windfalls of money in the lower incomes - especially in generational poverty - is to blow it now while you've got it (and to share within your group). The middle class has a concept of future and what that means (hence the management of resources - save for tomorrow). Lower income/poverty level families have really no concept of future. That day is what their reality and perspective consist of - there really isn't anything else beyond that.

People can move between socio-economic levels with the assistance of a guide who can help educate them to the unwritten rules of that society. This goes for both upward and downward mobility. To me, the educational system is in place to help with this overall guide for lower socio-economic strata to find avenues into the middle class - and some do make it there, but the energy expended to move that inertia is incredible compared to those that come into an educational system with that momentum and social support systems in place.

The old adage of "walk a mile in another man's shoes" best fits this perspective shift. We, as a society, cannot demand excellence from ill devised programs that do not address the common ground in tackling issues of poverty - whether it is from financial, physical or emotional levels. We need to invest in on another as guides - educating and leading people if we want to really find long term success and sustainability in the health and welfare of our communities.