Classism in Our Schools
Students begin to experience the effects of classism in schools as early as kindergarten, or perhaps even nursery school. Elementary school playgrounds reveal the effects... Read More
Happy Day Before Payday!
While summer 2018 has been a scorcher, the high for February 1st and 2nd made it to 11º in Kari Fisher’s hometown in Minnesota, and single... Read More
Class Inequality in Children’s Movies
A new study, Benign Inequality: Frames of Poverty and Social Class Inequality in Children’s Movies, from Duke University sociologist Jesse Streib reveals that almost universally G-rated movies... Read More
Mental Health Diagnoses
Through a Classist Lens
Many people believe that you’re born with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). As a person who has been diagnosed with ADHD myself and treated with Ritalin... Read More
A Hard Lesson about Free Money
“Congratulations, you have been awarded a scholarship by your high school foundation. You are invited to attend awards night and be recognized for your achievement,”... Read More
Is That What They Would Say?: Home Knowledge vs. School Knowledge
Two incidents from my school years illustrate the clash between home experience and school assumptions. In second grade, I was drawing in my Alice and... Read More
The Unlevel Playing Field of High School Sports
I grew up thinking that even if some people were born to great privilege and others were born into much more challenging circumstances, there was... Read More
Summertime and the livin’ is (not always) easy
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... Read More
Humiliation at School Should Be a Thing of the Past
Dozens of children at a Utah elementary school had their lunch trays snatched away from them before they could take a bite last month. Salt... Read More
“Bring Enough for Everyone”: What We Lose When We Lose Public Education
Did your schoolteachers say, “Don’t bring [candy, toys, coveted items] to school unless you bring enough for everyone”? Mine did. Maybe they recognized how incapable... Read More
Neighborhood Class Divisions and Hope for the Future
On Halloween in my neighborhood, kids come around dressed as princesses, super heroes and ghosts – nothing that would be offensive based on class, race... Read More
Brendan and the Magic Jeans
Once upon a time there was a boy named Brendan. He went to high school. He liked to sleep in. He liked to eat pizza.... Read More
Children and mass culture
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.,... Read More
Jesse’s Choices
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... Read More
Santa Claus, Imagination, and Class
I must have been around seven, living in far northern Wisconsin—not classy Minoqua and other Chicago playgrounds, but the dregs of the timber industry, the... Read More
Gifts, power and money
The holidays can be hard times. With all the hopes and expectations of the season up, disappointments have more room to play. And when we... Read More
Inciting critical thinking in 8th graders: An inspiring ‘Created Equal’ story
“The learning process is something you can incite, literally incite, like a riot. And then, just possibly, hopefully, it goes on.” — Audre Lorde A deep conversation about... Read More
Shame, School Lunch, and Passing
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... Read More
“Is This for a Rental?”
Ever gone to a hardware store to buy a toilet, sink, or door and have the salesperson ask, “Is this for yourself, or for a... Read More
Exploring Classism
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... Read More
Class Reproduction by Four Year Olds
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... Read More
An interesting class culture question
To 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... Read More
Hiding the lunch ticket
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... Read More
A 4th of July Declaration of Dependence
It’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... Read More
Moving the Bar
At first glance, I thought that it was just another article about disappointing test scores. I almost didn’t click through to read it, in part... Read More
Race Forward: Children, Wealth, and the Future of our Economy
For many children today, the door to economic opportunity is being shut, and they may never realize the “American Dream.” Of these kids, it is... Read More
Learning about Class in Private School?
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... Read More
I’ll take the Highlander
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... Read More
Middle Class Brats?
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.... Read More
Condescending Baby-Feeding Advice
I read this article about negative breast-feeding myths among African Americans in The Root and sat upright when I saw this bit of social class... Read More
Class in the Classroom
There 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... Read More
The Santa Secret: Santa Plays Favorites
Australian author Dr Joanne Faulkner created a stir worldwide recently when she advocated for parents to not tell their children the Santa Claus story. “[Parents]... Read More
Visioning Our Way to Justice
I grew up in poverty, the daughter of a tenant farmer. I thought people were privileged if they lived in a house, had running water... Read More
Defending my vibrant neighborhood
Recently four people were killed about ten houses away from where I grew up in Mattapan, a neighborhood of Boston. The neighborhood was maligned by... Read More
Why don’t schools do more to stop bullying?
I have been reading (I am sure you have too) about the many cases of bullying and the awful consequences of being a target for... Read More
Living in a rich neighborhood
I’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... Read More
The Bus Stops Here
I have two little boys; they are very bright, good boys. They have never had a babysitter and maybe I have been a little over... Read More
A Wealth of Whammies for Youth in Poverty
It is unjust enough that scores of young people in the United States are denied basic human rights; that even in a country which paints... Read More
The Politics of “Waiting for Superman”
I 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... Read More