The Shock of Poverty

It's like an electrical prod, always sticking you. Making you do things you don't want to do.

I might as well be a herd of cattle, and you brand me with that hot iron brander.

As #Canada150 approaches, I have been shocked back into reality. Canada is not a "great nation". I am reminded of all of the faults our country has been, is, and possibly will be in the future.

My first week of school at The Canadian Poverty Institute was Shock Poverty, and boy, was it an emotional roller coaster. And for someone like me, with Borderline Personality Disorder, probably more so.

The highlights of it:

The Role of Language and Story. To better understand poverty, you must understand three aspects of language: registers of language, discourse patterns, and story structure.

I learned that every language in the world has five registers being:

1. Frozen
2. Formal
3. Consultative
4. Casual
5. Intimate

Formal register is not used at home in families who are poor. And it is used in schools, middle-class, social services, and politics. If people do not understand formal register, it is hard for them to communicate with people and situations that do.

Therefore: Acquisition is the best and most natural way to learn a language. This can only occur when there is a significant relationship. 

There are also "hidden rules" among classes of poverty, middle class, and wealth. For instance, humor to someone in poverty is generally around people and sex, where as a someone who lives in wealth they find humor in and about social faux pas.

The biggest thing I learned about all of this, is the language. And I need to learn formal register and others need to learn "street language". 

I knew this, as I had a "street name" when I was a teenage run away, it was Star. Yes, Star.

Like, when you wish upon a star, makes no difference where you are!

Like Star, who was half vampire in "The Lost Boys". 

I am so thankful that I was able to take this course at The Canadian Poverty Institute. If you would like to know more about this course you can find the courses here: https://ambrose.edu/poverty-studies-summer-institute

Derek Cook, the Director at The Canadian Poverty Institute taught the Shock Poverty course. And I am very thankful that he used plain language in this course, as it gave me a better opportunity to understand the material.

The course was unique, as it brought people with lived experience, students, and community workers together, to work collaboratively in a safe and comfortable setting.