I am hoping that the economist and others who comment on why poverty is “relative” and really not as bad as we think, will comment here.
Katie Osgood responded to the post “Ignoring Poverty Is Callous” with her own post:
She writes:
http://mskatiesramblings.blogspot.com/2012/09/reformers-just-dont-know.html
“As anyone who has ever read my blog knows, I work as a teacher on an inpatient psychiatric unit for children and adolescents in Chicago. I work with kids who are so sick, that they had to be hospitalized in order to keep them and those around them safe. On our unit, children and adolescents may not even have pencils unsupervised or paper clips for fear of harm.
And through my job I have seen, real and personal, the effects that poverty can have on our young people. I have seen children, with a history of abuse, placed in the foster care system, who are so sad that they bang their heads against walls, scratch their faces, and scream “I want to die.” I have seen children who get so angry-who have so little frustration tolerance due to living in unpredictable situations where they had to be in a constant “fight or flight” state to keep themselves safe on the streets-who will beat another child just for looking at them the wrong way. I have seen countless children who were exposed to substances in utero and now their brains do not work the same as their typically developing peers. These children get angry, throw chairs, scream in frustration when their needs are not met, and lash out to hurt anyone around them. I have seen these same children struggle to learn even basic letters and counting, thanks to the cognitive impairments they have. I have seen children who were homeless for most of their life, whose brains were forever damaged by the stress of their early childhood experience, who now require one to one assistance just to be able to function with a group of children. I have seen young girls, so severely depressed about growing up in our lawless inner-cities with parents overcome with drug addiction and gang affiliations, grab a bottle of cleaning fluid and try to kill themselves. I have seen child after child exposed to greater trauma on the streets of Chicago, than our soldiers in Kabul face! I have spoken with countless children who feel hopeless, who feel abandoned, whose lives are forever altered due to the rampant poverty we let them be exposed to.
Now there are things we can do to help these kids. And believe me, people like me are doing our best every day to help repair the damage done to these fragile children. The proper interventions are expensive, time-consuming, and will not work for every child. But those of us in the mental health field do what we can with the few resources we are given.
But I ask you, why do we as a society LET these beautiful children become so damaged in the first place? It is as if we are sitting back and letting a child be beaten again and again by an abusive parent, and then looking the other way. The education reformers out there are saying “sorry you got beat, here are some chants and gimmicks that will help you catch up academically”. We tell the kids to “work hard, be nice” as if that were enough. And if some kids can’t just “get over” the massive abuse done to them, then they clearly are at fault and don’t deserve quality education. God forbid kids, after being exposed to all types of trauma and then coming to an understanding of the savage inequalities of their lives, don’t want to just “be nice”.
As poverty in this country deepens, we are seeing more and more kids with even more debilitating disabilities. Insurance agencies are shortening the amount of time these kids are allowed to heal in hospitals like mine. Add to that cuts in mental health services, child and protective services, and the schools that serve these children, and these kids are being doubly abused.
For too many of these children, if their families had not been battling the weight of deep poverty, they would not be sick. Let me say that again, if these kids had not been born into extreme poverty, they would not be screaming, gouging their skin, threatening harm, crying every night, and put into a hospital. It is unconscionable to allow these children to continue to be put in harm’s way. Every penny we have should be thrown into prevention, not just in helping after the abuse has already happened.”
Ignoring the effects of poverty is a terrible practice. The effects of poverty go far beyond not having financial means — or mobility. There are acute and chronic stressors (Eric Jensen) that plague children of poverty throughout life. I see the effects every day.
Poverty, therefore, must be addressed in a more intentional way in our country. We are loosing kids because of it.
Still it appears to be setting up a straw man to say that there is nothing (at all ever) that can be done to change that. It isn’t either “you fix poverty or there is no hope.” Not every child in poverty ends up in an inpatient psychiatric unit. I have great respect for those of you who work there. It is truly a noble field. I have no doubt that you are making a difference in the lives of those children. It is terrible to know the trauma of children who must spent time there (which I do.) Don’t give up!
Can’t we just recognize that schools are a part of the solution, and that they can have an impact on a great number of children of poverty?
It’s a mistake to ignore the effects of chronic poverty, but its also a mistake to say that children, with the help of teachers and schools (who work really hard with the families) can’t break the cycle.
Reply
Who said that schools are not part of the effort to heal our nation? I have written about 100 times or more: we must address poverty and improve our schools at the same time. Every teacher knows this.
See here, most recently:
And here also:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/diane-ravitch/wendy-kopp-teach-for-america_b_1359322.html
Diane
Shaun….your last paragraph is puzzling….nobody has said teachers are not a factor…they are NOT the one and only solution. Your use of the words “work really hard” is an insult. Pay attention.
Tell us how YOU “work really hard”to help children…I mean work with them directly…not just post and make policy. Please share.
Linda,
I apologize for being insulting. That was not my intention in any way. I’m truly trying to figure out what people are saying. I will admit I don’t understand the exact points yet. I’m just trying to. I want to understand the issue from the perspective of Diane and others on this blog.
I work in a school where 75% of the children qualify for free and reduce priced meals. I work with students every day.
I’m not saying that schools are not the only possible solution, just that they are a great one — possibly the best.
Google James Heckman on early childhood education.
Diane
But James Heckman is one of those “crazy economists” that you have complained about in other posts. Even worse, from the perspective of many who post on here, he teaches at the University of Chicago!
James Heckman won a Nobel prize. He is well respected for his work on early childhood education. I have complained about Eric Hanushek (who is not crazy) proposing that firing teaches will raise test scores and that raising test scores will generate billions or trillions in national wealth.
Please respond to Katie Osgood’s post. She works with children, not data.
Diane
TE,
Once again what are you talking about? Readers referred to Emanuel and Obama sending their kids to the University Lab Schools and not CPS and the vast differences bewteen the two. Where are the negative references to the University of Chicago? I don’t recall anyone referring to Heckman as crazy. Can you find these comments?
Your comprehension seems to have a filter.
Linda-The negative comments about the University of Chicago economists were made in posts discussing privatization of various aspects of government services. I will find them for you when I can get to a computer.
The “crazy economist” statement comes from one of Dr. Ravitch’s posts about loss eversion. I believe Dr. Ravitch was specifically referring to Steve Levitt, the author of Freakanomics and Professor Heckman’s colleague at the University of Chicago, though her post seemed to me to be an indictment of all economists.
Can I point out one irony?
You felt defensive and attacked when a reference was made that was critical of economists.
Imagine an indictment of all educators!
Diane,
Consider posting this, excerpt and full link:
Fred,
As a former high school and college political science teacher, I also agree with protecting the right of free speech. I, as you can see from the open letter to Edelman (below) have also seen him “up close and personal.” Given his adoption of the anti-teacher corporate agenda for education reform (read “deform”), I found it amazing that ASCD would pay this character money to spew his bile about “education’s failures” and his central theory of action being teacher-bashing. I’ve terminated my 30 year membership in ASCD. That’s my right. Maybe Edelman’s next gig will be at an ALEC soiree?
Here’s my letter to Edelman
========================
An Open Letter to Jonah Edelman dated July20, 2011
Dear Jonah:
I’ve viewed the video of your recent presentation to the Aspen Institute about how you view your recent Illinois Stand for Children “successes.” Well, former friend and colleague, your behavior and approach in that video is final justification of all the reasons why my wife and I cancelled both our sustaining memberships in Oregon Stand for Children 15 months ago.
Like your mother, whom I deeply respect and admire, my involvement in grass roots social justice advocacy goes way back to the1960’s. Continuing this quest, early in the last decade I joined Oregon Stand for Children as a volunteer. I saw the future of public education seriously threatened by politicians who were de-investing in public education, while creating more mandates for phony “accountability;” Based on excellent research work, the Oregon Legislature and Governor adopted the Oregon Quality Education Model. It called for an investment of more than $8 billion biennially to truly deliver the quality education our children deserve. Stand for Children appeared to be committed to engaging volunteers like myself to help Oregon deliver on this moral purpose promise, and build school systems’ capacity to help all children succeed in school and as adults.
I agree with that statement. “we must address poverty and improve our schools at the same time.”
Sorry if I missed it. I would appreciate a blog post about what schools are doing at their level despite good or bad national policy. Can you direct us to strategies schools are using that are reducing the risks of poverty? and in some way closing the achievement gap?
I don’t see that much on the blog, but I certainly could have missed it.
1. Diane left you two links, read them
2. Search the blog, you missed many informative entries
3. Volunteer in a school or become a teacher to help these children
4. Be informed before you tell us to “work really hard”…you haven’t a clue how hard we work.
To further clarify. I taught and am a principal in the school I’m at currently.
I will continue to read links and posts here, again to understand your point of view.
I’d just encourage you not to hyperfocus on “work really hard.” I believe that is all teachers (minus a few — like any occupation). However not all things have the same results, so let’s talk about what does. (John Hattie is and interesting researcher from which to gain some good insight)
Shaun,
Many programs address the achievement gap. Read Tichard Rothstein’s book and many articles on how to do it.
Start here: http://www.epi.org/publication/narrowing_the_achievement_gap_for_low-income_children/
Shaun, The worst way to help kids is to use standardized tests to label and stigmatize them. If they are always in the bottom half, what hope do they get? What value is there in labeling based on a dubious measure? Give rewards to the odest on this blog, and I win. But is that the best measure of what matters?
Diane
Labeling and stigmatizing is reprehensible. Unfortunately people use scores in all kinds of inappropriate ways. I don’t love it when groups singularly focus on standardized assessments, but as a school leader I have to figure out how to work within that system and make it the best possible outcome for our kids. The reality is that our children, if they want to go to college must take a test one which they are at least partially judged. Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. Multiple measures of “success” are important, but not sure how we must fight all standardized tests.
I realize that may not have been what you were saying. More to the point: Talking about a failing school is insulting. It would make me angry if I was in that school. But I don’t believe any of our schools must be failing and research is helping us see what can be done to raise achievement. (turnaround schools)
Shaun, the research on turnarounds is pretty thin.
These days, a “turnaround” is a school where half or all the staff were fired, or the school was turned into a charter, or closed.
All of this is punitive.
That’s not support.
Thank you for the links Diane. I will read them — and Rothstein’s book.
while you are at it, read mine too. In your local public library, if you still have one.
I will. I might even buy it even though we still have libraries. 🙂 As long as I can keep probing and sometimes disagreeing (and sometimes agreeing) on your blog.
To Ms. Katie- THANK YOU for articulating the things your students need others to hear. THANK YOU to you and your colleagues who work hard every day on behalf of the children who have been hurt.
To Shaun-
Of course we can recognize that schools are part of the solution and can impact a great number of children in poverty, but the current direction of the so-called reformers makes the odds of children gaining the ability to “break the cycle” very low. The focus, climate, curriculum, and services that need to be provided to help children are difficult, if not impossible, to provide alongside the focus, climate, curriculum, and services that are being forced upon schools, administrators, teachers and students. The two agendas really cannot co-exist. The profiteers, vulture philanthropists, and politicians know little (and care less) about the young human beings with complex minds, hearts, and souls who show up to public school. Many experienced professionals who have worked with children in schools know the pieces that would give kids who come from struggling environments a better chance. The decision makers with all the ideas that are a means to their selfish ends are doing the OPPOSITE.
THEY DONT CARE ABOUT THE NEEDIEST OF CHILDREN AND ARE STEERING US FURTHER AWAY FROM ANY HOPE OF BREAKING THE CYCLE.
Kay
(mother of three, former school counselor, licensed psychologist, and adult who cares about the kids who can’t yet advocate for themselves).
Chicago has 31% of its children living in poverty, much higher than the national average of 22%, and 10,000 are homeless. If only our mayor would have articulated initiatives that carefully address these children’s needs, what might our crime rate look like in 5 years?
Thanks Diane for posting this and thank you all for your comments. Do I believe schools can help ameliorate the effects of poverty? To some degree, yes. My point above is that for a certain number of kids, the damage is permanent. You cannot fix brains once they are broken. Special ed teachers, doctors, social workers, and the likes can do much to help. My hope for every child I work with is to provide a great future. And I do have hope for every single child. But for many, it is a long uphill battle.
But here is the thing about school reform: By focusing on issues like teacher quality, teacher evaluation, teaching tenure, charters, and choice, NO ONE is really addressing poverty nor how schools can be part of the solution. Do you ever hear debates around getting more social workers in our schools to catch kids sooner from Duncan, Rhee, Kopp, Bloomberg, or Emanuel? NO ONE is addressing the needs of kids suffering from the types of sicknesses I describe above for things like significantly smaller classes, much much lower student:staff ratios, really really imaginative,individualized, NON-standardized curriculum. How about early childhood interventions including quality early childhood education for all to stop these abuses sooner rather than later?
And even if this were the conversation, how cruel is it to put kids through the intense suffering I describe above when there are things society could do to stop the abuse from happening in the first place? Give me living-wage jobs for disenfranchised communities of color, give me affordable housing, give me robust social safety-nets before you ever talk about giving me “school choice”.
Reformers at best offer an escape to the very least affected children-the kids who have come out of impoverished neighborhoods relatively unscathed. Thankfully, there are many of these kids. But how many other kids aren’t so lucky? Is there ANY acceptable percentage of kids who will be forever damaged, who will suffer from PTSD, who will be labeled a “behavior kid” and be much more likely to end up in the criminal justice system?
And at worst, reformers are purposefully destabilizing communities and schools for their own financial profit and power. I encourage everyone to read the work of Prof Pauline Lipman from the University of Illinois-Chicago about how in Chicago, school choice and other school reform efforts which are closely tied to housing and commercial policies to displace low-income people of color in order to gentrify certain sections of the city. (See http://www.uic.edu/cuppa/voorheesctr/Publications/DD2012_Report_2_21_2012.pdf )
Schools absolutely can be one way to combat the effects of poverty. But let’s be clear, the types of reform being offered by the school reformers are NOT about addressing poverty through schools. “No excuses” charters, strict discipline codes, standardized tests, common core, ending union protections and collective bargaining, TFA and their under-prepared teachers, and closing/turning around schools are not helpful in addressing the myriad of needs of kids living in extreme poverty. If we want to have the conversations about how schools can help, let’s have it. Let’s talk school funding to get programs in place, to hire enough social workers and counselors, to lower class sizes.
But let’s also keep the conversation on the larger issues to put pressure on politicians to stop these atrocities from happening in the first place.
Thanks for the thoughts Kay and for advocating for the children that need us the most.
I agree that adults focused on profiting either monetarily or politically we don’t have a common ground on which to stand. However I’m not sure who you mean by current reformers. My guess is the ones who get the most press.
Instead I would point you to a growing body of research on “turnaround” schools. I don’t mean the federal program, but schools that have seen significant growth — yes academically — in three years. There must be much more research, but they are starting to define what makes that happen — and it isn’t just firing everyone.
Let me reiterate. I agree with what you say will not work. I’m just not sure that you aren’t lumping too many people together.
Thank you to everyone for your excellent comments and the ability to have a dialogue where we can agree to disagree on important topics. I am a National Board Certified Special Ed teacher with 10 years experience in the public school system and 15 years experience working with large non-profit ICF/MR Facilities for adults with developmental disabilties. I currently teach in a school district that serves over 40,000 children, and has both an urban and rural population within its large boundaries. I, too, see the need for increased social work services in the public schools.
We have parents without medical insurance who do not have the means to get their children to therapy services, or who cannot figure out how to address the needs of their children. We are in our third and fourth generation of students who are impacted with the ravages of drug and alcohol addiction – meaning that the great -grandparents did drugs in the 70’s, and the grandparents, and the parents. The term “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree” applies here, and we have classrooms full of at-risk students that are not being prepared to meet the problem solving needs they will need in the future. Day after day I meet parents who are overwhelmed, struggling to make ends meet in dead end jobs. They can’t help their children with their homework because they themselves can barely read and write. It is a vicious cycle.
In a side note, I have an adopted son whose birth mother was an oxycontin addict living below poverty level. We took custody of him when he was 36 hours old. He is now a healthy six 1/2 year old, but due to the damage caused by the drugs inuterine he has temper tantrums, attention issues, is aggressive, and shows signs of clinical depression. Although my husband and I are both educated, middle class citizens we struggle every day to support our son in school. He is a behavior kid, and the teachers have no idea how to provide the behavior supports to meet his needs in the classroom. There are no behavior therapists, and the school psychologists are there to do educational and psych testing, not counsel. If this can happen to me, it can happen to anybody.
This is heart wrenching for sure but I’m unclear as to why “poverty” is the cause. Or that seems to be the implication. Do you honestly believe that with money, these problems these children face will go away? Addiction is not a poverty problem. Neglect is not a poverty problem. Parents who refuse to instill morals and values in children is not a poverty problem.
I’m in NO way trying to minimize the real problems in our culture, but this is why so many believe the family unit is crucial to a child’s well-being. The in-tact family that has a foundation in morals and ethics.
Sadly that is mocked by those on the left. It wasn’t wealth that made my 20 year old son and 18 year old daughter ethical members of society, it was their moral foundation. It was the fact that they had a mother and a father figure in their life. Two people who could mentor and be the model for what would give them the tools to becoming good adults.
The STATE is a LOUSY replacement for this. Yet now we see the state becoming more and more involved with the child because of these desperate situations.
The STATE used to empower and find ways to support the family. Now they’ve taken over their role and even work to dismantle the family structure.
I think this information is VERY important, I just do not see poverty as the root cause.
Children need a loving family and parents who love them. They need to know right vs wrong. They need a moral compass so they do not make bad decisions in their lives. They do not need a cellphone, Internet, cable tv, etc to become good human beings.
Unfortunately, poverty does have a powerful effect on mental health including increased rates of PTSD, ADHD, substance abuse, and the chronic stress of instability from homelessness, food insecurity,and domestic violence can cause changes in brain development. Growing up in poverty can actually change a child’s brain. (See Anthony Cody’s recent summary of some of those effects of poverty: http://www.impatientoptimists.org/Posts/2012/08/Can-Schools-Defeat-Poverty-by-Ignoring-It ) The evidence is really really clear.
And please remember, poverty is not only about money but access to opportunity and power. Privilege matters. And you need to also account for the blatant racism seen through the housing and policing policies as well as the criminal justice system. Classism also is alive and well in our country making social mobility extremely difficult.
But this mindset, the common myth that Americans espouse about “pulling ourselves up by the bootstraps” really works well for the elite. The people won’t rise up and rebel against the unjust systems as long as people believe that even that anyone can strike it rich. It’s a form of silencing the masses. The charters and choice rhetoric plays right into this idea. “Work hard, be nice” completely ignores the legacies of racism, classism, and oppression in our country. No wonder the rich love those KIPP schools….
With all due respect, I couldn’t disagree more with this perspective.
Have you looked at what programs such as “El Sistema” are doing for at-risk youth? I have launched one successfully, and it is saving these children’s lives. The worst thing about poverty, as El Sistema Founder Jose Antonio Abreu said, “is not the lack of bread or water, but the lack of hope.”
I HAVE seen the real effects of poverty, so I take offense to your remark aimed squarely at ed reformers. These kids CAN be reached, and while the responsibility should NOT rest squarely on the backs of our educators, I can attest to the fact that educators are not keeping their end of the bargain. Social and emotional skills CAN be taught, through enrichment programs, through digital learning, and through other avenues, which continue to be ignored and/or poorly implemented by schools.
So stop blaming poverty and take a good look in the mirror. Good teachers can motivate these kids – I have seen this happen in my own “El Sistema” program. We CAN reach these kids, but it takes an ecosystem – a collaboration of educators, politicians and philanthropists to make this possible.
Please re-read what I wrote regarding doing all we can to help these kids. I am one of the people who has dedicated their lives to working with children suffering from the worst effects of poverty, many of whom have developed really tough behaviors. My job is really really difficult. But frankly, while not perfect by any means, I do a really great job. I reach kids that no one else can. I motivate kids that others have given up on.
But the cruelty is that many of these kids illnesses- their suffering and their pain-COULD HAVE BEEN PREVENTED! We live in the wealthiest nation on earth. We could have offered hope long before it got to this point. And unfortuantely, some kids will have permanent brain damage from their exposure to stress, trauma, and lethal substances while they were young. Research is really clear about the negative effects on brain development from growing up in extreme poverty.
That we let kids grow up in such conditions is absolutely unforgivable. Can’t we as a society make a commitment to at least protect our children??
Katie,
I have a GREAT deal of admiration for you. You sound like one of those “special” people and it sounds like you work in some of the most extreme circumstances. I could NOT agree more that their suffering may have been prevented in certain circumstances. However, research has also shown how social and emotional learning programs are having very favorable effects on these same youth.
Please – in the spirit of collaboration, lets just agree not to make sweeping accusations against ed reformers. Some of us are doing noble work, just doing it “disruptively,” just how the theory of disruptive innovation prescribes!
please do not disruptively innovate on my grandchildren. Do it to your own children first. Do their parents want you to practice disruptive innovation on them? Do they know you are doing it to them? Did you get letters of permission? Or are they poor parents who don’t know you are doing it?
To destroy ED,,
What the heck is “disruptive innovation”….please enlighten me and yes, tell me how it worked on your children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews, etc.
Is that the buzz word for prison mind control…SLANT, sit up straight or we pull you up by the collar of your shirt. I think you make me sick.
It truly saddens me, Diane, that you would take my comments so literally! Clearly, you have never studied disruptive innovation theory. Why do you think that “disruptive” has to be a negative connotation? I truly feel sorry for all of you for again feeling threatened by new ways of doing things!
And Linda – let me educate you! Read my friend Michael Horn’s book, “Disrupting Class.” It is not a theory, but fact! I have lectured on this process of innovation and how innovation happens in the areas of non-consumption. I will not waste paragraphs of Diane’s precious blog trying to teach something that is readily available in books, research, lectures, etc.
So before you make personal attacks on someone, why don’t you actually try and take the time to learn something for yourself rather than display the hostile and unprofessional tone that I would never want displayed in front of my students!
And Diane – if you censor my reply, then you better censor Linda’s too. Why the hostile rhetoric? Maybe if everyone stopped looked at reforms as a threat and instead look at them as opportunities, we might actually be able to make a real impact on these at-risk youth!
Why are you unable to summarize this “fact”?
Educate us here if you are an expert on the topic. Be professional yourself and practice what you preach.
censor your reply? You are insulting. I won’t tolerate your behavior on my blog. Last warning.
Better for all of you to learn it from the inventor himself. http://blogs.hbr.org/video/2012/03/disruptive-innovation-explaine.html If you want a “literal” definition: here is the Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disruptive_innovation
Note that this is probably more “general” than you might like; however, the theory was successfully applied to the education industry with the book: “Disrupting Class.”
I don’t know many people who work in the education industry.
My friends work in schools.
Unbelievable.
Diane – do i have to remind you that education is an industry? A multi-billion dollar industry?
In the 21st century, we used the term “learning environment.”
I hope your readers will view the links I gave on disruptive innovation. In my house, I teach my children to do some critical thinking and not spoon-feed them the answers. Teachers are supposed to facilitate knowledge and not give the kids the answers!
Sorry, I am a historian and an educator.
I am not part of the education industry. I am nominally an employee of a university. It teaches knowledge. I write about children and schools.
You are part of an industry. I am not.
I am not a global competitor.
Maybe you are.
I am not.
The reviews of his book (on Amazon), or his friend’s book are not that great. It doesn’t sound revolutioary to me. Who said teachers give students answers? No one!
This debate captures much of what is wrong with the education reform debate in general. Health care has also become an “industry”, a profitable industry which has a perverse incentive to want people to become ill in order to buy their products. There is very little attention paid to preventative medicine because where would the profit be?
In the same manner, education is also becoming an “industry”, one which also has a perverse incentive to create “failing schools” in order to sell the “cure” of charters, turnaround companies, technology, and consultants. In my city of Chicago, we see neighborhood schools purposefully disinvested in, starved of resources, along with entire communities, all to open the flood gates of “industry” in the form of charters, real estate, and business. It is a dirty, nasty, and utterly inhumane undertaking.
My point, ultimately, is that these policies which ignore poverty–in health care, in education, in neoliberal business practices–cause massive human suffering. The suffering is happening primarily in low-income communities of color, places which are intentionally segregated and hidden from middle-class America’s view. But I see it. My students are suffering from it. And I say “no more”.
Diane, we can debate until the cows come home. The problem is that you are in fact in an industry, and your students are your customers. And we are failing them miserably.
When we move from a teacher-centric to student-centric learning environment, then we will be properly educating our children.
I am focused on my students everyday. You make many ASSumptions that are not true. Educate yourself.
Right, putting children online is “student-centric.”
Do you belong to ALEC?
In the future, please post your name and affiliation.
I have decided not to reply to anonymous posters who join our civil conversation to be “disruptive.”
We don’t care for disruption here.
We prefer genuine exchanges, and that can’t happen when one party insists on wearing a mask.
Better for all of you to learn it from the inventor himself. http://blogs.hbr.org/video/2012/03/disruptive-innovation-explaine.html If you want a “literal” definition: here is the Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disruptive_innovation
Note that this is probably more “general” than you might like; however, the theory was successfully applied to the education industry with the book: “Disrupting Class.”
Theory? Before you said fact….I am confused. I read a few reviews on Amazon….it doesn’t appear to be convincing educators, those who teach children everyday…we are not in the education industry, but we are in schools which is definitely a learning environment.
It is a theory that has been proven time after time to be “fact.” And despite your misgivings, it is ABSOLUTELY working to convince educators.
And again, I will reiterate that you are in an industry! The textbook publishers generate billions of dollars of monopoly profits from this “industry,” albeit a highly regulated one.
I did not read the opening carefully enough, so I did not see the question until now.
Poverty is poverty. Some measures of poverty measure relative poverty, that is they compare income or consumption of one group to that of another group. The UNICEF measure is an example of this type of measure. Other measures of poverty measure absolute poverty, that is they typically define a minimum level of income or consumption and either do a head count or sometimes look at the poverty gap. The poverty rate calculated in the US is an example of an absolute poverty measure.
Both kinds of measurements are useful, but they do have different meanings and are most useful when used appropriately.