Rare that I do a meme
My family is hard-core academic middle-class (one of my great grand fathers was a coal miner, some of my great uncles were railway men, but my grand parents were a professor, a nurse/research technician, a chemical engineer, and a high school math teacher). My patrilineal line is ridiculous: professor, professor, highly respected painter, director of the US census, military officer and part of the military government of New Orleans, somewhere back there I'm descended from the reputed author of the supposed novel that Joseph Smith is sometimes claimed to have cribbed the Book of Mormon from. My family wasn't rich when I was growing up (we got much richer when my mom started working full time when I was 12 or so) but we were far from poor (even if we did dumpster dive for food occasionally, it was out of a hippy anti-wastefulness ideology, not poverty).
From What Privileges Do You Have?, based on an exercise about class and privilege developed by Will Barratt, Meagan Cahill, Angie Carlen, Minnette Huck, Drew Lurker, Stacy Ploskonka at Illinois State University. If you participate in this blog game, they ask that you PLEASE acknowledge their copyright.
Bold the true statements.
1. Father went to college
2. Father finished college (PhD)
3. Mother went to college
4. Mother finished college (I suppose I could italicize this, since she mustered out with a MS rather than finishing her PhD, but a MS in botany and a MA in social work on top of a BA seems like it probably qualifies)
5. Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor (only professors as far as I know)
6. Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers
7. Had more than 50 books in your childhood home
8. Had more than 500 books in your childhood home
9. Were read children's books by a parent
10. Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18 (flute lessons for 4 years)
11. Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18 (I took a canoeing class with my mom once)
12. The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively (white men in button downs with generic academic accents, yup)
13. Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18 (carried my parents credit card and was allowed to use it in stores, even though it didn't have my name on it)
14. Your parents (or a trust) paid for the majority of your college costs (my parents paid most of my first few years, but then I took out massive loans for the rest)
15. Your parents (or a trust) paid for all of your college costs
16. Went to a private high school
17. Went to summer camp (day camp one year, 1 week boy scout camp another year)
18. Had a private tutor before you turned 18
19. Family vacations involved staying at hotels (camping, staying with friends, or rented beach houses, but never hotels)
20. Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18
21. Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them
22. There was original art in your house when you were a child
23. You and your family lived in a single family house
24. Your parent(s) owned their own house or apartment before you left home (but we almost always lived in rentals in town to avoid going to the county schools)
25. You had your own room as a child (once we moved into town when I was nine or ten)
26. You had a phone in your room before you turned 18
27. Participated in an SAT/ACT prep course
28. Had your own TV in your room in High School
29. Owned a mutual fund or IRA in High School or College
30. Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16 (once to Hawaii to visit relatives, once to Chicago to visit a girlfriend)
31. Went on a cruise with your family
32. Went on more than one cruise with your family
33. Your parents took you to museums and art galleries as you grew up
34. You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family (I can't really remember, but I knew how much we paid for rent)
From What Privileges Do You Have?, based on an exercise about class and privilege developed by Will Barratt, Meagan Cahill, Angie Carlen, Minnette Huck, Drew Lurker, Stacy Ploskonka at Illinois State University. If you participate in this blog game, they ask that you PLEASE acknowledge their copyright.
Bold the true statements.
1. Father went to college
2. Father finished college (PhD)
3. Mother went to college
4. Mother finished college (I suppose I could italicize this, since she mustered out with a MS rather than finishing her PhD, but a MS in botany and a MA in social work on top of a BA seems like it probably qualifies)
5. Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor (only professors as far as I know)
6. Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers
7. Had more than 50 books in your childhood home
8. Had more than 500 books in your childhood home
9. Were read children's books by a parent
10. Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18 (flute lessons for 4 years)
11. Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18 (I took a canoeing class with my mom once)
12. The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively (white men in button downs with generic academic accents, yup)
13. Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18 (carried my parents credit card and was allowed to use it in stores, even though it didn't have my name on it)
14. Your parents (or a trust) paid for the majority of your college costs (my parents paid most of my first few years, but then I took out massive loans for the rest)
15. Your parents (or a trust) paid for all of your college costs
16. Went to a private high school
17. Went to summer camp (day camp one year, 1 week boy scout camp another year)
18. Had a private tutor before you turned 18
19. Family vacations involved staying at hotels (camping, staying with friends, or rented beach houses, but never hotels)
20. Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18
21. Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them
22. There was original art in your house when you were a child
23. You and your family lived in a single family house
24. Your parent(s) owned their own house or apartment before you left home (but we almost always lived in rentals in town to avoid going to the county schools)
25. You had your own room as a child (once we moved into town when I was nine or ten)
26. You had a phone in your room before you turned 18
27. Participated in an SAT/ACT prep course
28. Had your own TV in your room in High School
29. Owned a mutual fund or IRA in High School or College
30. Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16 (once to Hawaii to visit relatives, once to Chicago to visit a girlfriend)
31. Went on a cruise with your family
32. Went on more than one cruise with your family
33. Your parents took you to museums and art galleries as you grew up
34. You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family (I can't really remember, but I knew how much we paid for rent)