To be perfectly honest, I had never heard of Ruby Payne until Ed.S.  Since she is supposed to be this poverty-educating guru, I was a little suprised that I had never heard of her until now.  After reading the words of Anita Bohn I was a little shocked.  How can someone claim to be so knowledgeable on the area of poverty, yet have no research to back it up?  And then to learn that she publishes her own work so she doesn’t even have to have the research to back it up made it even worse.  I think that so many people buy into what she has to say simply because they are desperate to seek some kind/any kind of help to better their teaching situation.  I don’t think that children in poverty are any less intelligent than any other student.  If we treat them like they are incapable, we are just hindering them from the start.  I was truly appalled at her “hidden rules for lower class and hidden rules for middle class”.  Does every person in a poverty situation really know how to get a hand gun if the have a police record?  It is almost as if she was implying that simply living in poverty one will eventually have a police record.  I truly try hard not to pass judgement on someone unless I’ve done the research myself, but the things that Anita Bohn points out in her article are just too huge to overlook.  You better believe that I will now think twice before attending a Ruby Payne seminar or purchasing a Ruby Payne book.