Rare public post.
Bold the ones that are true for you.
The list is based on an exercise 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.
If you post this in your blog, please leave a comment on this post. To participate in this blog game, copy and paste the above list into your blog, and bold the items that are true for you. If you don't have a blog, feel free to post your responses in the comments.
Father went to college
Father finished college
Mother went to college
Mother finished college
Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor
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
Went to a private high school
Went to summer camp
Had a private tutor before you turned 18
Family vacations involved staying at hotels
Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18
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
Participated in an SAT/ACT prep course
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
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
Living in coastal SoCal, heating bills were less of an issue than in many parts of the country, so really, it should have been electric bill, etc. The home ownership, well, they owned, in succession, two homes in Roseburg, one in Cheyenne, and one in California, never more than one at a time, and not without breaks (two rentals between Cheyenne and CA, and after 1991, we owned no property at all). Car was an $1100 '79 Volvo, not a cutesy-poo semi-new Jetta or Mustang or suchlike. Didn't need the SAT prep course -- got a 1450 on my first try, after reviewing geometry a little. Received financial aid all through university -- Regent's scholarship, grants, and direct federal loans.
Mom finished college first with a nursing degree in '71, and later in '93 (when I was 16) with a BA in Visual Arts. She received her MBA 2.5 years ago.
That said, I knew that I had class privilege, before I even knew what it was called -- I couldn't not, when the inside of my house didn't look like my friends', either in Cheyenne or Oceanside, and my dad was a doctor. Every school survey that requested parental education information, every ski vacation, the fact that we ate dinner no earlier than 7:30, and frequently at or after 8, it all made clear to me that we were not the same as many of our friends and neighbors.
When I finally read Paul Fussell's Class, it made complete sense to me. Some of the information is slightly dated, but it's still more relevant than not to US society and its class divisions.
Anyhow, I found the survey via jillene, thought it was interesting, and have posted accordingly. There ya go.