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Higher Education can be a class marker, the access channel to "upward" mobility,or class liberator. What are the connections with class and higher education for you?
Survey Responses:
Higher education is no guarantee of 'upward"" mobility. My mother was slated to become a public administrator in Vietnam. After forced immigration to the States, my mother focused on childrearing while depending financially upon my father (who had earned his degree here). After my father passed away, my mother found herself without a degree and without strong English skills. She has worked as a cashier for Walmart ever since and our family income is below the government designated poverty level. I was lucky and found mentors in high school who helped me channel my skills and hard work and I was accepted to an elite private institution. Ironically, I am paying less at a private institution than I would have at a state or community college (private schools often have academic and need based scholarships). Too much talent and hard work is wasted; there are so many individuals out there who have worked so hard and sacrificed so much to try to obtain a higher education. Often students are ill equipped to compete with the rigors of higher education, especially if they come from a poorer school district. All that is missing is some extra guidance: adequate knowledge about the resources available or information about the requirements of academic/job market competition. This knowledge is taken for granted by upper/middle classes, who pass these ideas and privileges down the generations. In my experience, for someone from a lower class background, access to higher education (and trying to translate this higher education into 'upward mobility"") requires a process of reinventing the wheel; a way of having to try to understand the way the world works through experiences of trial and error.
My family had at least one generation that had been college educated before moving to the United States. Despite that college education, I know that only ""American"" education counts in this country and my mother, aunt, and uncle had to work hard to get their education credentials in this country before they were considered educated enough to do work equivalent to the work they'd done in our home country. My family's experience certainly focused their thoughts on ensuring I got into college, and I felt that pressure since I was in elementary school. I do not come from a family where it's okay to take 6 years to graduate, or for whom it was an option to take a year off between high school and college. College was the door to everything, to the detriment of other experiences, most notably the importance of doing unpaid internships while in college. Upon graduating, I did have the education, which I feel is more a signal for employers as to my follow-through than anything else, but I didn’t have the employment experience they were looking for. That’s something I feel is more obvious to the privileged, who have the prerogative to take a semester off, or who can graduate in four and a half years instead of four so they have time for their internships.
Thirty years ago, the summer before my senior year in High School, I left my family's home; my parents were divorcing and all thought it best for me to be on my own. I went to live with, and pay rent to, distant relatives living in a wealthy school district. After graduation, my friends all went to 'good' schools. I was broke and opted to work while attending the local community college, planning to accrue credits and transfer when I could afford it. My first (and last) class was English Lit taught by a British professor in the US on an exchange program. She was a first-rate teacher, but I was the only person who spoke in class. On my first paper, the exasperated prof wrote, "An oasis in the desert!" Shortly afterwards, I began realizing how unprepared my classmates were for college-level coursework. Although I felt considerable guilt over 'abandoning' the teacher, I decided continuing in such a frustrating class environment was more than I could cope with. I dropped the class, worked for a year, and transferred to a state college with tough entrance requirements. Over the years since, I've wondered whether my decision was as motivated by realism as it was by my own classism. And I often wonder if our education system's inequities can ever be rectified.
Read earlier survey responses:
August 2006: How does class affect how you spend your non-working hours and impact your vacation options?
June 2006: What are the ways that you see class or classism play out in your spiritual community or congregation of faith?
May 2006: When did you first become aware of your class or class differences? How old were you?
March 2006: All U.S. citizens benefit from different forms of government assistance. Some are more stigmatized than others. What forms of assistance benefit you and others in your class?
February 2006: How do class differences impact your relationships?
January 2006: What privileges should we all have?
Are there any privileges none of us should have?
December 2005 Survey Question:
How do class issues come up for you during the end-of-year "consumer" holidays?
November 2005 Survey Question: Please tell us about your experiences of class, class differences, and classism in your education/school.
October 2005: Tell us about a time you've either been an ally to someone or had someone be an ally to you around issues of class.
September 2005: What are the ways you see the race and class divisions exposed by Katrina?
August 2005: What class did you grow up in? What was good or bad about your class experience growing up?
July 2005: What are your strongest memories connecting race and class?
June 2005: The New York Times and Wall Street Journal each ran their own series on class. What is your response to the recent press on class?
May 2005: The good, the bad, and the ugly of cross-class relating
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