I’m working through Sunday’s Magazine, which was devoted to the issue of class.  One article focused on Ruby Payne. Payne is an author and trainer. She gives talks to educators across the country about how middle class teachers need to better understand the cultures of other economic groups. She hawks her DVDs and books.

And while Payne may not believe in class struggle, per se, she does believe that there is widespread misunderstanding among the classes — and more than ever, she says, the class that bears the cost of that misunderstanding is the poor. In schools, particularly, where poor students often find themselves assigned to middle-class teachers, class cluelessness is rampant.

Your class, Payne says, determines everything: your eating habits, your speech patterns, your family relations. It is possible to move out of the class you were born into, either up or down, she says, but the transition almost always means a great disruption to your sense of self. And you can ascend the class ladder only if you are willing to sacrifice many of your relationships and most of your values — and only if you first devote yourself to careful study of the hidden rules of the class you hope to enter.

It’s an interesting article. Worth the read. I had mixed feelings about this woman. On the one hand, class differences do exist (Lareau), and I imagine that culture clashes can exist in the classroom. On the other hand, the inspirational speaker stuff drives me crazy.