that privilege meme

[jenk]

siderea posted on the meme's background at length, noting that it was developed as a learning exercise for college students about them and their classmates, and is meant to be applied to your life conditions at the time you started college.

For the curious, it appears to be based on the "Take A Step Forward" exercise at http://wbarratt.indstate.edu/socialclass/social_class_on_campus.htm.

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This blog-game is based on an exercise developed by Will Barratt, Meagan Cahill, Angie Carlen, Minnette Huck, Drew Lurker, Stacy Ploskonka at Illinois State University as reported by Quaker and Social Class. The exercise developers hold the copyright and ask that if you participate in this blog game, you acknowledge their copyright. Quaker and Social Class is requesting that if you post this in your blog, please leave a comment on their post about it.

• Father went to college
  
• Father finished college
  
  Dad started college after the Navy. He found trying to wrestle with calculus without pre-calc, while working full-time in a very physical job, to be rather difficult. He also was good enough at math to figure out how long it would take to graduate while taking 1 class a quarter - which is discouraging to think about, yes.
  
  
• Mother went to college
  
• Mother finished college
  
  Mom quit school after 8th grade because she had "a good job cleaning houses". I think this tells more about how her background had shaped her expectations than anything else.
  
  
• Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor.
  
• Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers
  
  Not exactly, no. My folks were definitely blue-collar, and teachers weren't.
  
  
• If you had a computer at home
  
• If you had your own computer at home
  
  Not even when I got out of college, and yes, I majored in computer science. I didn't buy my first home computer until after I'd been at Microsoft 3-4 years.
  
  
• Had more than 50 books in your childhood home
  
  I was a library fiend as a kid, mostly in the school library. We did have a box of kid's books, mostly Dr Seuss, but I doubt there was more than 20. Mom didn't have many books (10 or 12) until I started buying her books for her birthdays and xmas in college. OTOH, we did have a World Book Encyclopedia, so if we counted each volume as a separate book, it might be over 40.
  
  I started buying books seriously in college.
  
  
• Had more than 500 books in your childhood home
  
  Not even as I was moving out after college.
  
  
• Were read children's books by a parent
  
  Not that I recall. We had a box of children's books that I would read to myself.
  
  
• Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18
  
• Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18
  
  A bit of piano from a neighbor, and swimming classes for water safety. (Mom had a formative accident involving her mother driving off a bridge into a river. I don't recall her ever doing more than wading in Green Lake or Haller Lake, tho she would take us there almost daily in the summer. Dad was in the Navy, which drummed "You Will Be Able To Swim" in rather effectively.)
  
  
• The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively
  
  I didn't see people on TV who dressed or talked like my family outside of The Beverly Hillbillies - who were on TV to be made fun of - and Roseanne. (And Roseanne debuted 3 years after I started college.) I recall Mom recoiling from Designing Women because "If I listened to that I'd sound even more like a hillbilly than I am."
  
  
• Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18
  
  Mom got me cards on her accounts so I could do her xmas shopping and she could avoid crowded malls.
  
  
• 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
  
  I paid for community college tuition, books, and transportation from my day care job.
  SPU's tuition was paid via loans.
  My folks let me continue to live with them, so they had some additional utility and food costs.
  
  
• Went to a private high school
  
  My folks moved to the Shoreline School District because the schools were "better" than Seattle.
  
  
• Went to summer camp
  
  Girl scout camp for a week. Not a highlight of my youth.
  
  
• Had a private tutor before you turned 18
  
• Family vacations involved staying at hotels
  
  If the family we were visiting didn't have room we'd sometimes rent a cabin.
  
  
• Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18
  
  Lots of hand-me-downs from cousins and friends. As I got older they became hand-me-downs from Mom.
  
  
• Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them
  
  Not until I was in college for a few years. It helped that the hand-me-down Pacer was dying, and Dad had received a small inheritance.
  
  
• There was original art in your house when you were a child
  
  My aunt's. I believe she sold a few of her paintings at her roadside vegetable stand. Not sure if she got any showings.
  
  
• Had a phone in your room before you turned 18
  
  I got the phone itself as a "free gift" for subscribing to Time magazine; the jack was already in my room. That I considered Time magazine to be interesting reading at age 15 or 16 was a surprise to my mother.
  
  
• You and your family lived in a single family house
  
• Your parent(s) owned their own house or apartment before you left home
  
  Not outright, the mortgage wasn't paid off until 94. But in the normal way of home ownership in this country, yes - and my parents felt their 2-bedroom 1 bath home was quite an accomplishment. It was a big part of their bedrock assertion that "We ain't poor. We been poor. This ain't it. We ain't rich, mind, but we ain't poor." :)
  
  
• You had your own room as a child
  
  Helps to be an only child.
  
  
• Participated in an SAT/ACT prep course
  
  No, tho I don't think this was quite in vogue then.
  
  
• Had your own TV in your room in High School
  
  Not in high school; I'd had a hand-me-down from the living room when I was younger, but I asked to get rid of it because it took up too much space (big console set).
  
  
• Owned a mutual fund or IRA in High School or College
  
  Nope.
  
  
• 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
  
  Heh. You're kidding, right?
  
  
• Your parents took you to museums and art galleries as you grew up
  
  Dad took me to MOHAI a few times to keep me occupied while Mom was watching the boats at the ship canal.
  
  
• You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family
  
  Nope, way too much arguing about money for me to be unaware.