Just recently I attended a Class Action workshop. This was my first workshop ever dealing on the issues of classism. Heading into it, I didn’t know what to expect. I had an open mind and was willing to work with others I hadn’t met. It was definitely a big step to go outside my comfort zone and really engage. I learned a very valuable lesson that we all overlook at times, and that is to take the stereotypes out of class before you can get a deeper understanding of it.
Exploring Classism
Sunday, April 22nd, 2012Class Reproduction by Four Year Olds
Friday, April 20th, 2012I watched how class played out in a preschool classroom, creating disadvantages for the already disadvantaged and privileges for those born into privilege.
An interesting class culture question
Monday, January 30th, 2012To what extent is a person’s class culture determined by the environment they are raised in, and to what extent is it determined by their parents’ class culture?
Hiding the lunch ticket
Monday, January 16th, 2012I was an outsider at my junior high school. Why was I ashamed of my family’s poverty?
A 4th of July Declaration of Dependence
Monday, July 11th, 2011It’s no small irony that on the 4th of July weekend our nation’s largest union surrendered a chunk of its independence. At their annual meeting in Chicago, the National Education Association’s Representative Assembly voted to support the use of student standardized test results in the evaluation of teachers. That vote alters the union’s previous opposition to such a policy and ties the NEA even closer to the Obama administration’s educational agenda.
Moving the Bar
Monday, June 27th, 2011At first glance, I thought that it was just another article about disappointing test scores.
Race Forward: Children, Wealth, and the Future of our Economy
Tuesday, June 21st, 2011For many children today, the door to economic opportunity is being shut, and they may never realize the “American Dream.” Of these kids, it is children of color that are most at risk since they are more likely to live in the most economically vulnerable households from birth to adulthood.
Learning about Class in Private School?
Tuesday, June 21st, 2011Like parents everywhere, we wanted to give our teenage daughter advantages we never had. High on our list was to provide her a much clearer class-consciousness than what we got as kids.
I’ll take the Highlander
Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011It’s almost impossible to sell anything in the United States without reinforcing the social class hierarchy. But some ads are more explicit than others.
Middle Class Brats?
Saturday, April 9th, 2011I fear I am raising spoiled-rotten, middle-class brats. I fear I am raising the very kind of children I would have hated as a child. Why? Because they are comfortable and cozy and have everything they need in their day-to-day lives.
Condescending Baby-Feeding Advice
Thursday, February 17th, 2011Class in the Classroom
Tuesday, December 28th, 2010There is a loud silence about social class in U.S. public schools. The silence was deafening on the first day of the course I recently taught — a course in which teachers look closely at how education in the United States is deeply entangled with social class.
Visioning Our Way to Justice
Monday, December 13th, 2010I grew up in poverty, the daughter of a tenant farmer. I thought people were privileged if they lived in a house, had running water or even an outhouse. My family of five lived in a ten-by-forty foot trailer.
Defending my vibrant neighborhood
Thursday, November 18th, 2010Recently four people were killed about ten houses away from where I grew up in Mattapan, a neighborhood of Boston. The neighborhood was maligned by the media coverage which plastered the headlines “Massacre in Mattapan” in large print across the 6:00 news every night. That image of Mattapan was permanently emblazoned across the minds of the nation.
Living in a rich neighborhood
Thursday, November 18th, 2010I’m a kid of a single mom that works very hard to make a living and support her family’s needs. We live in a rich neighborhood. The other kids at my school are richer than us and they have a lot of things we don’t. They can get a lot of stuff that they want. Sometimes I get jealous.
The Bus Stops Here
Thursday, November 18th, 2010I have two little boys; they are very bright, good boys. They have never had a babysitter and maybe I have been a little over protective. But their innocence is refreshing. They do not understand that when a bigot sees that our car is dated, and that our address is in the flats, and they are snubbed for a play date, that it is not about them. It’s about the crappy soul of that person.
A Wealth of Whammies for Youth in Poverty
Friday, November 12th, 2010It is unjust enough that scores of young people in the United States are denied basic human rights; that even in a country which paints itself as a global model of human rights, kids go without food, safe and affordable housing, equitable schooling opportunities, and healthcare. Heck, in a country with the level of resources the U.S. has, the very existence of homelessness, hunger, and poverty in the face of growing corporate profits is inexcusable. In this way, the U.S. is the very definition of systemic classism: a country in which poverty rates, income inequality, and corporate profits often grow simultaneously.
The Politics of “Waiting for Superman”
Wednesday, November 10th, 2010I fidgeted throughout the film Waiting for Superman, through the bells and whistles, the graphs, the close-ups of the five cute kids and their caring single moms, grandmas and parents, having read enough reviews, and having listened to enough critiques to know that I wasn’t going to like the film. And I didn’t, but what disturbed me the most wasn’t Davis Guggenheim, the film maker, playing fast and loose with data and attacking teachers and their unions every chance he had. As is turned out, for me, the most painful moments of the film were the charter school admissions scenes at the end.
