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Bridging the class divide

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Classism among Kids

The Sound of Class

September 15, 2016 by Chris Haigh Leave a Comment

The final days of summer always remind me of the time I left home for college. In an instant I can recall what I felt 25 years ago sitting in the back seat of my parent’s car, my belongings stuffed in the trunk, as we drove silently away from my home and toward my future. Home […]

Filed Under: A World Without Classism, Class cultures, Class in Higher Education, Class prejudice, Classism among Kids Tagged With: academia, class cultures, classism, education, first generation college students, snobs, stereotypes, working class

Tis Better to Give than to Receive?

December 22, 2015 by Taylor Chapman 1 Comment

Every year in preparation for the holidays, there’s a lot of talk about how it’s better to give than to receive. Many people say we should “give to the needy” and make the holiday about “family instead of stuff.” The idea here is that to want gifts is frivolous, shallow, and greedy. While this could […]

Filed Under: A World Without Classism, Classism, Classism among Kids, Classism in Everyday Life, Consumer culture Tagged With: holidays

Fugg Off

July 16, 2015 by Class Explorer Leave a Comment

One wintery day I settled into my seat to enjoy a snack at a Finagle a Bagel not far from my office. The shop happens to be in a wealthy suburban neighborhood just outside of a major city, and there is an interesting mix of patrons there on any given day. On this particular afternoon, […]

Filed Under: Classism among Kids, Classism in Everyday Life, Consumer culture Tagged With: consumerism

Classism: Not Exactly Sporting

June 18, 2015 by Laurie Sheridan 2 Comments

Cheering, Chanting, and Clapping – for Classism? My daughter went to public schools in Milton, Mass, which is an economically diverse suburb right outside Boston. While in school, she was on a lot of sports teams, playing basketball, volleyball, and tennis. Her schools and teams have always included kids from a variety of backgrounds, though […]

Filed Under: A World Without Classism, Classism among Kids, Classism in K-12 Education

Summertime and the livin’ is (not always) easy

September 7, 2014 by Katy Swalwell 1 Comment

In many classrooms across the country this fall, students will be asked to respond to the age-old prompt, “What did you do on your summer vacation?” Though often used as a well-meaning way for teachers to build community and to better get to know their students, such a question can surface deep classist assumptions that […]

Filed Under: Classism among Kids, Classism in K-12 Education Tagged With: classism, kids, teachers

Holiday charity or year-round compassion?

December 23, 2013 by Katy Swalwell Leave a Comment

‘Tis the season to be surrounded with warm fuzzy news stories about people volunteering at food banks or participating in clothing drives or raising money for non-profit groups. When a reporter for a nearby wealthy suburban newspaper called me this morning for my “expert opinion” about how to teach children a “sense of charity,” I […]

Filed Under: Classism among Kids, Classism in Everyday Life, Philanthropy and Classism

Children and mass culture

July 11, 2013 by Pamela Haines 1 Comment

We can’t escape mass culture.  Everywhere, children and adults are bombarded: TV, movies, video, radio, books, newspapers, toys, comic books, billboards, friends and neighbors, etc., etc., etc.. Through all of these media we are pounded with messages that glorify consumerism, reinforce sexual stereotypes, and trivialize and homogenize anything if it will turn a buck. We […]

Filed Under: Classism among Kids, Classism in Everyday Life, Consumer culture Tagged With: consumerism, corporations, kids

Wealthy Kids Pulling Away: Accelerating Privilege, Compounding Disadvantage

June 21, 2013 by Chuck Collins Leave a Comment

How does the system of class advantage reproduce itself, generation after generation? Let me count the ways. I have an article in the latest issue of American Prospect called “The New Politics of Inherited Advantage.” I summarize the mountain of growing research demonstrating how affluent families engage in what sociologists call the “intergenerational transmission of […]

Filed Under: Class in Higher Education, Class in The News, Classism among Kids, Classism in K-12 Education, Classism in the Economy

Jesse’s Choices

June 7, 2013 by Amy Mazur Leave a Comment

My youngest son is about to graduate high school. I am feeling a mix of emotions, as I am certain many others have felt and are feeling at this time. One of the more salient emotions for me is connected to a deep curiosity I have: did I teach him what he needs to know […]

Filed Under: Classism among Kids, Classism in Everyday Life, Consumer culture Tagged With: consumerism, kids

Class & My Identity as a Woman of African Descent

June 3, 2013 by Nicole Renee Brown Leave a Comment

Class was a confusing issue for me.  Despite that, I never doubted for a moment that my race intersected with my class in a profound way. I experience class through the many different lenses of my identity.  I am a Black Woman of Afro-Caribbean descent from Brooklyn New York. Class has been racialized in American […]

Filed Under: Classism among Kids, Classism in K-12 Education

Poem: White Trash Beaner (to my 11-year-old confused self)

May 16, 2013 by Julie Withers Leave a Comment

Grama says I’m Indian. Mama says my dad was “a Mexican” and that if he really loved me like “Mexican daddies do” he woulda found me by now. Grama says we’re Indian, mama says ‘no’. Sis calls me a “wetback” and a “beaner” (“mom said it all the time”). Brother teases me about getting pregnant […]

Filed Under: Classism among Kids, Classism in Everyday Life, Poverty, Race and Class Tagged With: classism, poverty, race and class, racism

Leaving the Cafeteria: an Outsider’s Perspective on Intercity Students

December 17, 2012 by David Perelman Leave a Comment

One of my greatest privileges of my high school and college education was not the fact that I went to accredited institutions, nor the fact that I was simply educated, (though the latter privilege is certainly noteworthy.) It was the fact that despite being restricted to schools that were by design socially exclusive at-face, (my […]

Filed Under: Class in Higher Education, Classism among Kids, Classism in K-12 Education, Cross-class Relationships

Shame, School Lunch, and Passing

August 20, 2012 by Lita Kurth 9 Comments

When I was in sixth grade, my family was eligible for free school lunches. I attended a small country school, without much class diversity, mostly farmers, some without indoor toilets in their homes. Even so, when I gave my lunch ticket to the student appointed to collect them, I noticed and she noticed that there […]

Filed Under: Class and Disability, Class cultures, Classism among Kids, Classism in Everyday Life, Classism in K-12 Education, Classism in social services, Money, Poverty Tagged With: California Schools, charity, education, entitlement programs, Helping the Poor, kids, money, poverty, public school, public services, School Lunch Program, stigma

The Dreams of Poor and Working-Class Students

May 14, 2012 by Jane Van Galen 2 Comments

I was half-listening to the radio last week when I heard an interviewer ask a question that made me pause in my work to listen.   “So”, the interviewer warmly asked, “You knew even as a small child that you wanted to be a concert cellist?”  “Oh yes”, the woman answered. “Since I was eight.” I’ve […]

Filed Under: Class in Higher Education, Classism among Kids, Classism in K-12 Education, First Generation College Students Tagged With: academia, classism, education, first generation college students, social capital, working class

Class Reproduction by Four Year Olds

April 20, 2012 by Jessi Streib 10 Comments

I watched how class played out in a preschool classroom, creating disadvantages for the already disadvantaged and privileges for those born into privilege. I spent eight months observing in a preschool classroom full of four years old. About half of the preschoolers in this classroom were from working-class families and were receiving scholarships to attend […]

Filed Under: Classism among Kids, Classism in K-12 Education Tagged With: class reproduction, class speech differences, classism, kids, public school, speaking up

Hiding the lunch ticket

January 16, 2012 by S.M. Miller 3 Comments

I was an outsider at my junior high school. Why was I ashamed of my family’s poverty? When my family lost its small business and home in Philadelphia and was forced to move to Brooklyn to live with one of my mother’s sister, I was in the middle of the last term of the sixth […]

Filed Under: Classism among Kids, Classism in Everyday Life, Classism in K-12 Education Tagged With: classism, kids, public school

From a Teenage Class Action Fan

June 21, 2011 by Liora Field 3 Comments

My name is Liora and I’m fourteen years old.  I’ve attended public schools my whole life except for the last year and half when I went to a private school.  At this school, the classes were small and there was support and help anywhere and anyhow we needed. Not the case in public school. This […]

Filed Under: Classism, Classism among Kids, Classism in K-12 Education Tagged With: classism, middle class, private school, public school, working class

Learning about Class in Private School?

June 21, 2011 by Debbie Zucker 1 Comment

Like 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. Class issues are so fundamental to understanding how things work, or don’t, in our personal lives and in our world. So it’s a […]

Filed Under: Classism, Classism among Kids, Classism in Everyday Life, Classism in K-12 Education Tagged With: education, kids, private school, public school

I’ll take the Highlander

May 3, 2011 by N. Jeanne Burns 1 Comment

It’s almost impossible to sell anything in the United States without reinforcing the social class hierarchy. But some ads are more explicit than others. The embarrassing thing in this ad isn’t riding the bus. No. It’s riding in your father’s previous-century station wagon. But it’s not just embarrassing. It’s utter humiliation, according to the blonde-headed […]

Filed Under: Class in the Media, Classism among Kids Tagged With: classism, consumerism, kids

Middle Class Brats?

April 9, 2011 by Linda Carney-Goodrich 21 Comments

I 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. They do not go hungry. They do not wear shoes with holes or ones […]

Filed Under: Classism among Kids, Classism in Everyday Life, Poverty Tagged With: kids, middle class, parenting, poverty, Rationalizing privilege

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