A woman in the video "People Like Us" stated that she thought social class was all a state of mind. I am in full agreement with her thoughts and feel that society puts way to much emphasize on the idea that money puts a person into a certain social class. I believe that manners, the way you treat other people, and how you handle situations can determine what social class you are in. Although money might play a small role, as someone stated in class even old and new money don't mix into the same social class. Understanding the behaviors of different people and how they feel about social class can be a great asset to teachers. We need to understand how to treat everyone as equal and show everyone that they are special no matter what social class they categorize themselves in.

"What good is social class and status? Truthfulness is measured within"

I agree that social classes are all just a state of mind but when it comes to a classroom I think teachers recognize that some children are better off (financially) then some of the others. Students who come from a poor background are constantly being tease because of the way they dress. But maybe the like the way they. How are you going to explain to other children that it's ok to dress/look different? Children are very honest and if one of their classmates comes from a wealthy/poor family they will use that as a reason not to share or even be friends with that child. School is harsh and for the rest of a child's life they will be judged.
I think that in a classroom environment, it's important to teach your students that no matter who they are, what clothes they were, and how they talk, they should respect each other. A child may not like the color purple but that doesn't mean that their best friend has to hate it too. Everyone has different taste, whether it is cheap or expensive it should not matter. Whether both your parents work or only one does should not indicate what kind of person you are.
Like Aretha Franklin said "R E S P E C T, find out what it means to me."

I really struggled with the video we watched in class on Tuesday. For me, class is always a difficult issue to deal with or address, and I feel like no matter how I slice it, there seems no tactful politically correct way to articulate exactly how I feel. I feel like there are several connotations that come with the term "class".

Like Amanda said, it is a state of mind. I think that applies to times when people say "wow she handled that tough situation with class" or "he's a real class act". I feel like these instances imply a certain amount of grace and poise, and has nothing to do with their particular social situation.

However, there still is the issue of socialclass, which I feel is a very different issue. Although I think a good part of this issue is rooted in finances, I feel it is more about image; and I know image is affected by finances (sometimes) but I think it's all in how people choose to live their lives, and their own personal social customs or tendencies that relate themselves to other groups of people in society. I feel that a large part of social class depends on association. Not just who people choose to associate with, but the ways they conduct their lives, and how those patterns are similar (or not) to those around them.

Social class discussion is kind of a hard thing to talk about for me too. Its just not something you think about in terms of your own standings within the class system. You see others and judge what class they are in but never really think of it yourself. I was in West Palm Beach Florida last spring break and i was overwhelmed by my experience. There is a whole other social class that exists there that ive never seen back home in Raleigh. We were walking down Worth Avenue right on the beach looking for some place to eat. We were all just wearing our flip flops and bathing suits but the old guys were all in sports jackets. It was atleast 85 degrees outside and these guys are wearing sports coats and slacks on just an average day. We walked past a store were a young lady was looking at some pearls in the window. The older man she was with just pulled out a wade of money and handed it to her, telling her to go get what she wanted. I freaked out, ive never seen anything like this before. The looks we were getting from the local people were very obvious. It got to the point where we took pleasure in making these people mad or uncomfortable. Obviously, we weren’t ‘supposed’ to be there so why not stick around and make these yuppies a little uncomfortable for a while. I look back on it now and realize how immature it was. I think social class is relative in a sense. I would consider myself upper middle class by national standards; however, in West Palm we were looked at as trash. I definitely have a prejudice towards people with lots of money. I automatically assume that they are greedy people, only caring for their own well being. This leads me to believe social class is just a state of mind, just another way of creating the ‘us’ and ‘them’ mentality. It always us to create more prejudices about people.

I think that you have a good point with the whole "new money" and "old money" statement and how they don't mix, but I also think that not taking the "new money" people into account for the most part money has a large impact on social class. Yes it is about morals, how you act... however, when you look at the women from ohio with the four kids that lived in the double wide, money had a very big impact on their social class.

I agree with Allison when she said that class and social class are two different things entirely. Class is how you present yourself in certain situations and no matter what social class a person is in they can have a great deal of class. I work for Sears here in Boone and I deliver appliances. I have had the opportunity to go to every gated community in the area and see how people live. I have seen multi-million dollar homes that are just summer vacation homes on several occasions. When you go to these houses you either expect a big tip or some asshole to be mean to you. A lot of these people look down on us because we are doing the job we do. I even had one old goat not even speak to me when I spoke to him. I thought he was a mute but his wife informed me that he didnt speak to hired help. I expect that this man has never had to work for anything in his life and as a result he has no respect for someone like me. After experiences like this I feel very fortunate to have to work hard for things. If a person has respect for a person in any social class then that person has a lot of class. On the other end of the spectrum, when I go into home that doesnt have a front door and there are old appliances and trash just laying in the yard, the customer is in the back of the delivery truck trying his best to help us do our job. I think if I met one of these people in a low social class under a different circumstance and I had on a suite and tie I am sure that person would have not been as generous. Similarly with the high end of social classes I would have probably had a converstation with that old goat. In teaching there is no way to avoid the effects of social class. It will have a profound effect on every classroom that we enter. Somehow every student needs to have respect for the others regardless of what background they come from. This will be very difficult because as I have noticed even adults have trouble with respecting people from other social classes.

I agree with what Amanda said-- "Although money might play a small role... old and new money don't mix into the same social class" -- I was watching this show a few weeks ago, it was about people who won the lottery. All the people it featured on the show ended up losing everything or most of what they had bought (mansions, fancy cars, etc.) Anyways -- it seemed to me like no matter how hard the people tried or how much stuff they bought they never quite "fit in" with the old money families. Old money and new money are totally different classes.

I agree with Allison when she says that image is a important part of social class. People that can dress the part, can do a very good job in potraying a certain role in a class. Like in the video, the lady gets a makeover and this plays a huge part in the way she is perceived by others. I think that image also can change the way a person feels about themselves. You can tell from the lady in the video that she is more comfortable in her new look with that crowd of people. I wonder how she would have acted without the new look. I think image is only part of the whole picture, but can be a very large portion. I think that people would agree on this matter.

I think image might have something to do with it, and money is always helpful, but I really think that it comes down to the different prejudices that people have about those from other classes. The rich WASP guy on the video was talking about how they "write better, speak better, look better" etc. than other people. It is very common to hear middle or lower class people speak negatively about people who have a lot of wealth. I think a lot of the lines that are drawn between classes are there because people want to stick to their own and are at least somewhat prejudice of people who are from other classes. Just having money doesn't make you part of another class. You have to learn an entirely new culture if you want to jump from one class to another, and even then you have to hope that you are not spoken of as "the fat people dancing at the party."

I just don’t understand why difference can’t be accepted. We make distinctions based on money and socio-economic standings in order to separate ourselves from others. I think its just human nature to consider oneself ‘normal’ and others that are unlike you to be ‘abnormal.’ For example, I went down to Sarasota, Florida to visit my sister at the beginning of Christmas break. Something I didn’t know about Sarasota before visiting was that there is a huge Amish population there. I remember driving around with her and we saw an Amish restaurant and I asked her, “do only Amish people eat there, or can…normal people eat there too?â€

I've been thinking about the movie we just watched in class esp. the last part that showed the different clics in high school. My school wasn't at all divided by money and social class. It was more or less divided by level of intellegence. I think this divide began early in life because of the placement testing around 3rd grade,that we also talked about. It was bizzare for me to imagine a school full of several different groups based on class.