Class act 20 January 2008, 00:46

From What Privilege Do You Have?, via Arwen...

COPY FROM THIS BIT ONWARD...

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.

Father went to college
Father finished college
Mother went to college and stepmother
Mother finished college stepmother, with 3 kids and a mobility disability
Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor
Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers (Who can tell?)
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 (Not in plus sizes I ain’t, though I talk like I’m on CBC when not saying “ain’t”)
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 * GUILTY
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 (or campgrounds)
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 parents 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 (this is a privilege?)
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 (keenly aware that they were huge as I stoked our woodstove and turned the hot water heater back on at 3pm daily, but not of the actual figure, no)

*These two are edited because [someone] pointed out that the previous wording didn’t clearly delineate between people who had their tuition paid for them and people who worked for their college expenses.

In the group exercise which was originally designed for college students, staff and faculty, everyone stands in a line and steps forward if any of these things are true for them.

If we were all in a big room, I would have taken 14 steps forward. How about you? How many would you have taken? How many steps will your kids have taken by the time they’re 18 (or how many did they take before they turned 18)?

Notice that each of these are things that were given to you or provided for you rather than things you necessarily earned yourself. The exercise instructions note that just because you’ve taken a lot of steps doesn’t mean that you haven’t worked hard to get where you are. But perhaps consider the things you’ve had handed to you that others didn’t have.

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