Keep the Poor Poor Pt 4: Useless Life Skills

pstrongThe Insiders' Instruction Manual/strong/p pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TDIMG SRC= "../sites/default/files/arch_img/426/photo_1_supplement.jpg" //td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD pby Donna Anderson/PNN Texas Correspondent/p pThe fourth in a series of satirical policy explanations for government and private social service providers. The prevalence of hypocritical practices in social services leads PNN Texas correspondent Donna Anderson to conclude that there must be an interagency conspiracy to keep the poor poor. The scenarios and statements presented here are based on her actual experiences during 12 years in social services./p p Maintaining the illusion of some actual intervention in the problem of poverty is important for both people experiencing poverty and the middle and upper classes. Intervention in the form of classes on subjects such as budgeting, parenting, job searching, job retention skills, nutrition and even literacy and GED classes, build the expectation that if one acquires certain skills and knowledge, it is possible to get out of poverty. We call these "life skills classes."/p p The name is crucial. "Life skills" subtly implies that the poor have somehow arrived at adulthood without the skills to live, when in fact we know that they do have skills. After all, it takes something to survive a winter on the streets in New York City. But if we put them in the mind that they have not learned the skills necessary for life, they are more likely to behave in a subordinate manner while in class./p p Acquiring skills and education as a way out of poverty is an important concept for the poor. By attending and completing classes, the poor get a feeling of accomplishment and of bettering themselves. It keeps them from focusing on the larger issue of social stratification in a capitalist society that actually requires that a lower class exist if an upper class is to exist. /p pPerhaps they better themselves by learning to read, obtaining their GED or improving their parenting skills. These minor milestones can divert their attention from their overall unchanging economic status./p p However, if they are unable to complete the classes, or the material is presented in such a way that they cannot benefit from the classes, the poor will be left with a feeling of self-blame. They may turn the rage they feel for their unchanged economic situation inward, blaming themselves for never finishing that job search class or never following through on what they learned in budgeting class. The poor person owns the failure, assisting our overall effort to keep them poor./p pAmong the middle and upper classes, life skills classes create a perception that personal initiative is the key to overcoming poverty, rebuffing the systemic obstacles that will be there waiting for life skills graduates. /p pSo in this regard, it is to our advantage that a few like Clarence Thomas who were born into poverty, have overcome the systemic obstacles and made education work for them. We can hold them up as beacons to the huddles masses, admonishing them that, "If he can do it, anyone can." /p pHere are some considerations for implementing a program of life skills classes. /p p1.. Tie continued benefits to life skills class participation. When a person comes to your agency for assistance, let her know that she must attend a schedule of classes. Even if she has already completed these classes before in another state, another agency or at the same agency, she must attend them again. This will create a hostility in her that will shut her mind down to learning. She will sit in the classes sieving about the loss of wages or expense of day care or other inconvenience the classes are costing her./p p2.. Teach over their heads. Even the most basic skills can be taught in industry terms that an average person cannot understand. Go back to those college textbooks and extract technical terms to replace for common sense terms. Here are a few examples from a class on feeding infants that is conducted at the Women, Infants and Children (WIC, a national nutrition initiative) office in South Texas. They use "progression of textures" to mean "adding solid foods"; "GI concerns" to mean "problems with digestion"; and "feeding relationship" to mean "making eating fun." "Shop talk" can confound class participants and discourage them from asking too many questions that might flush out truly useful information./p p 3.. Keep expectations high. Have you ever overspent on your budget? Have you ever shouted at your kid when you could have used redirection? Do you have more credit card debt than you can repay in your lifetime? Have you ever called in sick when you really just wanted to stay home? Can you act like you've never done any of the above? Good, then you too can be a life skills instructor. We must set the bar high for the poor. A convincing teacher can make her students think that the middle and upper classes actually do the things she is teaching. When a teacher has this kind of credibility, the poor students will feel defeated before they've even begun to try to apply their newly learned life skills. They will never measure up. And for those who try, inevitably falling short will take the wind right out of their sails. It's back to class, because they're required, but this time with a humble and defeated attitude. /p p4.. Condescend, Condescend, Condescend. Instructors should learn at least one good phrase like this one: "It's that kind of thinking that got you where you are today."br / Another advantage of the widely popular life skills strategy, is that it produces those tidy little units called "outcomes" that government and charitable funding sources have begun to require of late. Though the days of no accountability are over and we do mourn them, we must keep up with the times as well and find ways to produce outcomes without really impacting the problem at hand. /p pLife skills do just that. They instill hope. They produce outcomes. They provide useless and irrelevant information. They keep our society looking to personal initiative to solve the problem of poverty, believing that it can be remedied with a good solid upward yank on the bootstraps. If the public were to fully comprehend the problem, it might result in widespread feelings of compassion and charity and could spawn socialist legislative initiatives such as creating a guaranteed standard of living for all. This would either mean increased taxes or more drastic measures, such as diverting spending from national defense. /p pLet's keep America secure. Remember, "Poverty can be unlearned and life skills can teach you how."/p pStay tuned for the next strategy in the domestic policy to keep the poor poor, "Day Labor: Your career, one day at a time."br / /p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p