The most love, if not the most money
Mar. 3rd, 2008 07:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dreaminghopeEquality
This exercise was developed by Will Barratt, Meagan Cahill, Angie Carlen, Minnette Huck, Drew Lurker, Stacy Ploskonka at Illinois State University. The exercise developers ask that if you participate in this blog game, you acknowledge their copyright.
To participate, bold the items that are true for you.
Father went to college.
Father finished college.
Mother went to college. I don't think so.
Mother finished college.
Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor. But I do have relatives who are engineers, accountants, and successful business owners.
Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers.
Had more than 50 books in your childhood home.
Had more than 500 books in your childhood home.
Were read children's books by a parent.
Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18.
Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18.
The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively.
Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18.
Your parents (or a trust) paid for the majority of your college costs.
Your parents (or a trust) paid for all of your college costs. Except for the scholarships I received.
Went to a private high school.
Went to summer camp. We went camping as a family every summer, all summer.
Had a private tutor before you turned 18.
Family vacations involved staying at hotels.
Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18. Except where I chose to buy used for myself.
Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them.
There was original art in your house when you were a child.
Had a phone in your room before you turned 18.
You and your family lived in a single family house.
Your parent(s) owned their own house or apartment before you left home.
You had your own room as a child. After the age of about nine.
Participated in an SAT/ACT prep course. I'm Canadian – no SATs here.
Had your own TV in your room in High School.
Owned a mutual fund or IRA in High School or College.
Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16.
Went on a cruise with your family.
Went on more than one cruise with your family. Yes, but I was 27 for the second one.
Your parents took you to museums and art galleries as you grew up.
You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family.
I think there are problems with this list of privileges; I think I had the most privileged childhood possible, but I cannot answer "yes" to every question. That leads me to believe that either my childhood was not as privileged as I thought, or the list doesn't measure privilege in the way I would. Since the former is impossible, it must be the latter.
I came home from school to the smell of fresh baked cookies and homemade bread. I came home from school to a Mom who chose to be a stay-at-home-mother, and who had the financial support from my Dad to make that comfortable.
We ate dinner around the table every night as a family. At the kitchen table, I learned that whales are mammals and that two cookies for dessert is the right amount.
I had a small allowance to teach me how to save for what I wanted. It took me three weeks to save up for each Fabulous Five and Baby-sitters Club book I wanted.
We camped every summer. We crossed Canada in our motorhome to visit Expo 86 one year and to tour the Maritimes another. My Mom read my sister and I Heidi as Dad drove. Over the course of my childhood, we went to England, Mexico, and Florida. I went on class trips to Quebec and to France.
TV was very limited in our house. There were no Saturday morning cartoons – I thought they only played in hotel rooms. I don't think we had cable until I was about ten years old. I've never had a TV in my bedroom. My sister and I learned to play together. I drew, and read, and learned to knit.
The many benefits I reaped originated mostly in financial and class privilege. Although my parents were not wealthy when I was very young, we were middle-class, and my parents made careful choices about what to do with their resources. They chose a trip to England over a TV in my bedroom. They put me in French immersion in public school and put money aside for my post-secondary education instead of putting me into a private school.
Sometimes when confronted with the vast inequalities that exist even within my comparatively wealthy country, I understand why people want to believe that hard work automatically means success, and that the lack of success clearly means a lack of will and hard work – it's hard to admit that what you have may have come from luck of birth.
I did earn scholarships during university, but maybe only because I didn't have to work a part-time job at all during high school and not much during university. And my parents taught me to love to learn by taking me to the library, by reading to me, by learning themselves.
I have worked hard to save money for home improvements and an upcoming trip to Italy, but my parents gave Russ and I a huge head start by giving us money for our down payment. And my parents taught me how to manage money.
Financial well-being itself is privilege, but more importantly, it can buy other privileges: time and attention, education, travel. And I think that's where the "Privilege Meme" fails: someone whose parents were very wealthy would score very high on the test even if their parents were only wealthy because they worked all the time and couldn't spend any time with their kids. I knew those kids: they had everything a kid would think to want from the best toys to the most desirable clothes, but they never ate dinner with their parents. I was more privileged than that.
This exercise was developed by Will Barratt, Meagan Cahill, Angie Carlen, Minnette Huck, Drew Lurker, Stacy Ploskonka at Illinois State University. The exercise developers ask that if you participate in this blog game, you acknowledge their copyright.
To participate, bold the items that are true for you.
Father went to college.
Father finished college.
Mother went to college. I don't think so.
Mother finished college.
Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor. But I do have relatives who are engineers, accountants, and successful business owners.
Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers.
Had more than 50 books in your childhood home.
Had more than 500 books in your childhood home.
Were read children's books by a parent.
Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18.
Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18.
The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively.
Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18.
Your parents (or a trust) paid for the majority of your college costs.
Your parents (or a trust) paid for all of your college costs. Except for the scholarships I received.
Went to a private high school.
Went to summer camp. We went camping as a family every summer, all summer.
Had a private tutor before you turned 18.
Family vacations involved staying at hotels.
Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18. Except where I chose to buy used for myself.
Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them.
There was original art in your house when you were a child.
Had a phone in your room before you turned 18.
You and your family lived in a single family house.
Your parent(s) owned their own house or apartment before you left home.
You had your own room as a child. After the age of about nine.
Participated in an SAT/ACT prep course. I'm Canadian – no SATs here.
Had your own TV in your room in High School.
Owned a mutual fund or IRA in High School or College.
Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16.
Went on a cruise with your family.
Went on more than one cruise with your family. Yes, but I was 27 for the second one.
Your parents took you to museums and art galleries as you grew up.
You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family.
I think there are problems with this list of privileges; I think I had the most privileged childhood possible, but I cannot answer "yes" to every question. That leads me to believe that either my childhood was not as privileged as I thought, or the list doesn't measure privilege in the way I would. Since the former is impossible, it must be the latter.
I came home from school to the smell of fresh baked cookies and homemade bread. I came home from school to a Mom who chose to be a stay-at-home-mother, and who had the financial support from my Dad to make that comfortable.
We ate dinner around the table every night as a family. At the kitchen table, I learned that whales are mammals and that two cookies for dessert is the right amount.
I had a small allowance to teach me how to save for what I wanted. It took me three weeks to save up for each Fabulous Five and Baby-sitters Club book I wanted.
We camped every summer. We crossed Canada in our motorhome to visit Expo 86 one year and to tour the Maritimes another. My Mom read my sister and I Heidi as Dad drove. Over the course of my childhood, we went to England, Mexico, and Florida. I went on class trips to Quebec and to France.
TV was very limited in our house. There were no Saturday morning cartoons – I thought they only played in hotel rooms. I don't think we had cable until I was about ten years old. I've never had a TV in my bedroom. My sister and I learned to play together. I drew, and read, and learned to knit.
The many benefits I reaped originated mostly in financial and class privilege. Although my parents were not wealthy when I was very young, we were middle-class, and my parents made careful choices about what to do with their resources. They chose a trip to England over a TV in my bedroom. They put me in French immersion in public school and put money aside for my post-secondary education instead of putting me into a private school.
Sometimes when confronted with the vast inequalities that exist even within my comparatively wealthy country, I understand why people want to believe that hard work automatically means success, and that the lack of success clearly means a lack of will and hard work – it's hard to admit that what you have may have come from luck of birth.
I did earn scholarships during university, but maybe only because I didn't have to work a part-time job at all during high school and not much during university. And my parents taught me to love to learn by taking me to the library, by reading to me, by learning themselves.
I have worked hard to save money for home improvements and an upcoming trip to Italy, but my parents gave Russ and I a huge head start by giving us money for our down payment. And my parents taught me how to manage money.
Financial well-being itself is privilege, but more importantly, it can buy other privileges: time and attention, education, travel. And I think that's where the "Privilege Meme" fails: someone whose parents were very wealthy would score very high on the test even if their parents were only wealthy because they worked all the time and couldn't spend any time with their kids. I knew those kids: they had everything a kid would think to want from the best toys to the most desirable clothes, but they never ate dinner with their parents. I was more privileged than that.
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no subject
Date: 2008-03-03 04:54 pm (UTC)Lisa
x
no subject
Date: 2008-03-03 05:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-12 07:44 pm (UTC)