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Rachel Watson
Semi-pro
Joined: Thu Jan 15, 2009 2:27 pm Posts: 24
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I have heard more than once that Americans don't really have class consciousness. I understand that to be true in the Marxist sense; as I mentioned in class on Thursday, it's far more rare here than in Europe for someone to declare themselves socialist or to strike regularly or to openly call the working class inferior.
However, I think that each of us has a pretty good idea where we fit in. Maybe we don't talk about it in Marxist terms, and we tend to say we are "middle class," be it upper, lower or middle middle--but we still identify with a certain class of people. Were you not aware in school of who was higher and lower in terms of SES? Not to say that you didn't have friends across the spectrum...but I can remember which of my friends went to cotillion and the yacht club, and which of my friends rode the regional bus in from downtown and then worked nights at the gas station.
What do you think?
_________________Rachel Watson
watsonre@appstate.edu
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Mon Feb 09, 2009 6:36 pm |
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Elliot Westbrook
Semi-pro
Joined: Mon Jan 19, 2009 5:41 pm Posts: 24
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I do not disagree, everyone regardless of whether they are aware of it or not, place themselves in a “class.â€
_________________ Elliot Tyler Westbrook
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Mon Feb 09, 2009 7:17 pm |
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Erin Strong
Semi-pro
Joined: Sun Jan 18, 2009 4:17 pm Posts: 28
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I think Elliott raises some great questions here concerning teachers. As educators, if we choose to ignore the class differences among our students and don't set up a classroom environment that is comfortable enough for ALL students, then I don't think we are doing our full jobs as teachers. I think it is extremely important that teachers make all kids feel welcome and comfortable inside the classroom. By this, I mean that teachers should not have a classroom that appeals only to higher-class kids, or a classroom that appeals only to lower-class kids. I believe that there is some middle ground where teachers can help their students work together and associate with one another without the different social structures being a big focus. Likewise, I feel that teachers should not just look at the social class in which they personally grew up in...kids are going to come from all different social classes and if teachers continue to ignore that fact instead of trying to "blend" all the social classes together, then school is going to be very difficult for most children.
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Thu Feb 12, 2009 1:30 pm |
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jesseycpace
All-star
Joined: Mon Jan 19, 2009 7:11 pm Posts: 37
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The whole time we were talking about 'class' during the last few days, one word came to mind: tracking. If you're unfamiliar with tracking, it's simple...students are divided up and placed in classes according to performance. That's were AIG, Honors, and AP stuff came from. Anyway, I worked in a middle school last semester where they used tracking. I worked with both AIG and a lower performing group. And I could most definately see a difference in class with both groups. Most of my AIG students were middle to upper middle class while my lower performing group were lower middle class. Although, to be fair, the majority of these students were where they belonged. But the AIG group had parents who went to college and the students in the lower performing group came from ESL parents and high school graduates or dropouts. I'm not saying these kids are doomed for failure, but they just don't have much support at home. The school was not the problem for motivation, it was the parents. Even though my master teacher tried to motivate these students to do well, they just didn't seem to want to, and that's not his fault. He tried to talk to the parents with little response and he felt helpless. All in all, class and student performance do sometimes go hand in hand, as I've seen personally.
_________________ Jessey Pace
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Thu Feb 12, 2009 11:35 pm |
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