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I'm participating in this because I want everyone to see it a million times and do it, because I'm personally fascinated. My answers, however, are not what I would think of as fascinating. Short version: yes. Yes, I has it.
Based on an exercise developed by Will Barratt, Meagan Cahill, Angie Carlen, Minnette Huck, Drew Lurker, Stacy Ploskonka at Illinois State University. If you participate in this blog game, PLEASE acknowledge their copyright.
Bold which apply to you:
* Father went to college -- My father has two doctorates, a D.Min. and a PhD. -- the first he got in seminary before I was born, and he was in school for the second, in a clinical research program in educational psychology while I was growing up. My dad was actually my primary caretaker until I started school, because he worked part time and was in grad school and had the schedule flexibility that my mother didn't have.
* Father finished college -- see above.
* Mother went to college -- Both a Bachelor's and a Master's degree in education.
* Mother finished college -- My mom bailed through her undergrad work in three years because her parents would only give their approval to her getting married if she finished school first. *g* She started her master's program when I was pretty young, but she was teaching full-time and raising a kid and she dropped out of the program. She went back and finished the degree when I was, I can't remember, in my early 20s and my sister was in junior high, I believe.
* Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor -- I started to say no, but I do have an uncle (my mother's brother) who is a physician, so there you go. My father taught classes while he was in grad school of course, like you do, but was never a professor.
* Were the same or higher socio-economic class than your high school teachers -- Yup, the same.
* Had more than 50 books in your childhood home -- God, yes.
* Had more than 500 books in your childhood home -- Hm. Probably not. My mother has never really read for fun. My father and I had a lot of books, but more than 500? It doesn't seem like it. Certainly hundreds, but.... I don't know for sure, but I would say no, if only because I was a library junkie. The books I did own copies of were all ones I read over and over again.
* Were read children's books by a parent -- Oh, *God,* yes. My parents actually liked reading to me; it was probably their favorite part of the whole parenting job. *g* I remember mostly my mother reading to me when I was very small (*Lengthy,* I recall being a favorite of mine. That old lady sure loved her dog, man!), but when I was early school age, I remember my father reading me the Chronicles of Narnia and the Hobbit.
* Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18 -- I was pathologically shy as a kid, so one of the things my parents thought would help me was taking acting classes; I did that for years. I also played the viola for a year and the clarinet for, I think, three years...although those were through school, so I'm not sure that my parents payed for those lessons? They did have to buy the instruments, though. I remember doing dance class and horseback riding very briefly; I didn't like either. So, yeah, I guess I did take lessons, but I never really thought of myself as one of those lesson-taking children. I was a pretty busy kid, but my big commitments were the public radio show I did, school and community theater, and church groups -- more *doing stuff* than *being taught stuff.*
* The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively -- I wasn't sure what to do with this, exactly. It seemed like cheating not to bold it, for some reason, but.... Nobody in the media dresses as plainly as I do -- I mean, I'm strictly jeans and a shirt and maybe some earrings, I have no style to speak of. And although I can trot out the excellent grammar and diction when I feel like it, I do actually swear as much as my characters do and I have a slight but noticeable Southern twang, which is pretty much always used in the media to shorthand that a character is stupid and probably dangerous. So...I don't know? I don't really watch tv and movies and think that anyone on screen reminds me of me, particularly, but I felt like I should bold it because everyone who *is* "portrayed positively" on tv feels like someone I might know and be comfortable around, so I feel that in a sort of social-group sense, I'm included.
* Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18 -- I got my credit card just a couple of years ago and still resent it. The only things I've ever needed to put on it were the moving expenses from when we came to NC and the emergency vet bills when Thelma got sick. And I'll probably still be paying it off for the rest of my natural life.
* Your parents (or a trust) paid for the majority of your college costs -- The majority of my college costs were loans, with some scholarship money in the first couple of years. But my parents did pay my dorm and dining hall fees for the three years I was a residential student, which gets pretty expensive, and they're putting some of the money they inherited from my grandmother into repaying my student loans, so by the time all's said and done, I'm sure they will have paid more on my education than anyone.
* Your parents (or a trust) paid for all of your college costs -- No.
* Went to a private high school -- I went to public school, but our public school system was one of the best in the country; I would *absolutely* put my high school education up against anyone's.
* Went to summer camp -- I went to church camp every year. I *loved* church camp.
* Family vacations involved staying at hotels -- Yes. We stayed in cheap hotels, but after a few camping trips gone bad when I was quite small, my parents swore that as God was their witness, they would never sleep outside again, and they have not. *g* Traveling is one of the things my parents would work very hard to save up for, and we took some nice vacations when I was a kid -- to Yellowstone, to Disneyland (I know they say Disneyworld is better, but Disneyland was the one my dad watched them build on the Mickey Mouse Club, and by God, that was where he wanted to go!), to Vancouver, to the Wisconsin Dells, to the Badlands, to the Smokey Mountains. My family is partial to mountains. When we couldn't afford longer trips, we'd go to Chicago or to Branson (back when Branson was just an amusement park and two concert halls on a lake, someplace you only ever went to if you were from Missouri or Arkansas *g*), and yes, there was always a Motel 6 with our name on it.
* Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18 -- There was no one to hand down to me. I had one older female cousin, but she was seven years older and lived in another state. I'm sure some of my clothes were garage sale finds, but most of them were new.
* There was original art in your house when you were a child -- One of my father's good friends is an artist, and when my father resigned from the church where he worked until I was ten or twelve, as a going-away gift this friend had him and my mom come out to his studio and pick whatever they wanted. They have a lovely, two-panel blue and green abstract piece that takes up the majority of one wall of their living room. I have no idea what it's worth, but probably something.
* You and your family lived in a single family house -- This one was tough, too -- which half of my childhood? We lived in three different duplexes, from the time I was born to the time I was twelve. Right before I started junior high, my parents bought their house. So...I guess if I consider the first eleven years the "formative" ones, then no. We always had another family upstairs or across the way.
* Your parents owned their own house or apartment before you left home -- I wasn't sure with this one -- owned it outright? They've refinanced the house several times and still owe quite a lot on it, twenty years later. So technically the bank owns it. But, yeah, in the sense that we normally say it, they own the house.
* You had your own room as a child -- I was an only child until I was ten, but even so, there was always enough room after Erica was born for us both to have our own rooms.
* You had a phone in your room before you turned 18 -- Indeed I did, and I abused it mightily. Ah, high school.
* Participated in an SAT/ACT prep course -- No. I don't remember anyone really suggesting that I should, even.
* Had your own TV in your room in High School -- My parents would never for a second have allowed it. Watching tv was sometimes they only time they would ever see me. *g*
* Owned a mutual fund or IRA in High School or College -- Still don't.
* Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16 -- My first time was when I was eight or nine, and I flew to Chicago with my grandmother to visit my uncle, who was in medical school there. I thought it was awesome! Our vacations were usually road trips, though I think we did fly to California and to Vancouver. I've flown quite a lot by now, but not that much before 16.
* Went on a cruise with your family -- No. There was some discussion that my parents might take Mary and me on a cruise as a graduation present a couple of years ago, but the timing and the money didn't work out, sadly.
* Went on more than one cruise with your family -- No.
* Your parents took you to museums and art galleries as you grew up -- I don't remember going to any *art* museums with my parents, but they were crazy about science and natural history museums, planetariums, aquariums, all that sort of thing. We never traveled *anywhere* without finding something like that to go to.
* You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family -- I was pretty sheltered in a lot of ways; I don't think my parents liked me to worry about money, so they kept me fairly unaware of it. I remember there were times when I was young when my parents did talk about being broke and about having to figure out how to pay all the bills. But in terms of what the numbers were, what they made and what they owed? They never told me anything like that, just that everything would be okay. My parents didn't have a lot of extra when I was younger (they're at the point now where I'm constantly surprised how much money they *do* have), and there were a lot of things I just knew not to ask for, because they couldn't get it for me. But the things all of us did really want most, we usually could get, and the bills were always paid. It's kind of sad to me now to realize how much that really does count as "privilege." I think that's what *regular life* is supposed to be like.
Based on an exercise developed by Will Barratt, Meagan Cahill, Angie Carlen, Minnette Huck, Drew Lurker, Stacy Ploskonka at Illinois State University. If you participate in this blog game, PLEASE acknowledge their copyright.
Bold which apply to you:
* Father went to college -- My father has two doctorates, a D.Min. and a PhD. -- the first he got in seminary before I was born, and he was in school for the second, in a clinical research program in educational psychology while I was growing up. My dad was actually my primary caretaker until I started school, because he worked part time and was in grad school and had the schedule flexibility that my mother didn't have.
* Father finished college -- see above.
* Mother went to college -- Both a Bachelor's and a Master's degree in education.
* Mother finished college -- My mom bailed through her undergrad work in three years because her parents would only give their approval to her getting married if she finished school first. *g* She started her master's program when I was pretty young, but she was teaching full-time and raising a kid and she dropped out of the program. She went back and finished the degree when I was, I can't remember, in my early 20s and my sister was in junior high, I believe.
* Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor -- I started to say no, but I do have an uncle (my mother's brother) who is a physician, so there you go. My father taught classes while he was in grad school of course, like you do, but was never a professor.
* Were the same or higher socio-economic class than your high school teachers -- Yup, the same.
* Had more than 50 books in your childhood home -- God, yes.
* Had more than 500 books in your childhood home -- Hm. Probably not. My mother has never really read for fun. My father and I had a lot of books, but more than 500? It doesn't seem like it. Certainly hundreds, but.... I don't know for sure, but I would say no, if only because I was a library junkie. The books I did own copies of were all ones I read over and over again.
* Were read children's books by a parent -- Oh, *God,* yes. My parents actually liked reading to me; it was probably their favorite part of the whole parenting job. *g* I remember mostly my mother reading to me when I was very small (*Lengthy,* I recall being a favorite of mine. That old lady sure loved her dog, man!), but when I was early school age, I remember my father reading me the Chronicles of Narnia and the Hobbit.
* Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18 -- I was pathologically shy as a kid, so one of the things my parents thought would help me was taking acting classes; I did that for years. I also played the viola for a year and the clarinet for, I think, three years...although those were through school, so I'm not sure that my parents payed for those lessons? They did have to buy the instruments, though. I remember doing dance class and horseback riding very briefly; I didn't like either. So, yeah, I guess I did take lessons, but I never really thought of myself as one of those lesson-taking children. I was a pretty busy kid, but my big commitments were the public radio show I did, school and community theater, and church groups -- more *doing stuff* than *being taught stuff.*
* The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively -- I wasn't sure what to do with this, exactly. It seemed like cheating not to bold it, for some reason, but.... Nobody in the media dresses as plainly as I do -- I mean, I'm strictly jeans and a shirt and maybe some earrings, I have no style to speak of. And although I can trot out the excellent grammar and diction when I feel like it, I do actually swear as much as my characters do and I have a slight but noticeable Southern twang, which is pretty much always used in the media to shorthand that a character is stupid and probably dangerous. So...I don't know? I don't really watch tv and movies and think that anyone on screen reminds me of me, particularly, but I felt like I should bold it because everyone who *is* "portrayed positively" on tv feels like someone I might know and be comfortable around, so I feel that in a sort of social-group sense, I'm included.
* Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18 -- I got my credit card just a couple of years ago and still resent it. The only things I've ever needed to put on it were the moving expenses from when we came to NC and the emergency vet bills when Thelma got sick. And I'll probably still be paying it off for the rest of my natural life.
* Your parents (or a trust) paid for the majority of your college costs -- The majority of my college costs were loans, with some scholarship money in the first couple of years. But my parents did pay my dorm and dining hall fees for the three years I was a residential student, which gets pretty expensive, and they're putting some of the money they inherited from my grandmother into repaying my student loans, so by the time all's said and done, I'm sure they will have paid more on my education than anyone.
* Your parents (or a trust) paid for all of your college costs -- No.
* Went to a private high school -- I went to public school, but our public school system was one of the best in the country; I would *absolutely* put my high school education up against anyone's.
* Went to summer camp -- I went to church camp every year. I *loved* church camp.
* Family vacations involved staying at hotels -- Yes. We stayed in cheap hotels, but after a few camping trips gone bad when I was quite small, my parents swore that as God was their witness, they would never sleep outside again, and they have not. *g* Traveling is one of the things my parents would work very hard to save up for, and we took some nice vacations when I was a kid -- to Yellowstone, to Disneyland (I know they say Disneyworld is better, but Disneyland was the one my dad watched them build on the Mickey Mouse Club, and by God, that was where he wanted to go!), to Vancouver, to the Wisconsin Dells, to the Badlands, to the Smokey Mountains. My family is partial to mountains. When we couldn't afford longer trips, we'd go to Chicago or to Branson (back when Branson was just an amusement park and two concert halls on a lake, someplace you only ever went to if you were from Missouri or Arkansas *g*), and yes, there was always a Motel 6 with our name on it.
* Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18 -- There was no one to hand down to me. I had one older female cousin, but she was seven years older and lived in another state. I'm sure some of my clothes were garage sale finds, but most of them were new.
* There was original art in your house when you were a child -- One of my father's good friends is an artist, and when my father resigned from the church where he worked until I was ten or twelve, as a going-away gift this friend had him and my mom come out to his studio and pick whatever they wanted. They have a lovely, two-panel blue and green abstract piece that takes up the majority of one wall of their living room. I have no idea what it's worth, but probably something.
* You and your family lived in a single family house -- This one was tough, too -- which half of my childhood? We lived in three different duplexes, from the time I was born to the time I was twelve. Right before I started junior high, my parents bought their house. So...I guess if I consider the first eleven years the "formative" ones, then no. We always had another family upstairs or across the way.
* Your parents owned their own house or apartment before you left home -- I wasn't sure with this one -- owned it outright? They've refinanced the house several times and still owe quite a lot on it, twenty years later. So technically the bank owns it. But, yeah, in the sense that we normally say it, they own the house.
* You had your own room as a child -- I was an only child until I was ten, but even so, there was always enough room after Erica was born for us both to have our own rooms.
* You had a phone in your room before you turned 18 -- Indeed I did, and I abused it mightily. Ah, high school.
* Participated in an SAT/ACT prep course -- No. I don't remember anyone really suggesting that I should, even.
* Had your own TV in your room in High School -- My parents would never for a second have allowed it. Watching tv was sometimes they only time they would ever see me. *g*
* Owned a mutual fund or IRA in High School or College -- Still don't.
* Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16 -- My first time was when I was eight or nine, and I flew to Chicago with my grandmother to visit my uncle, who was in medical school there. I thought it was awesome! Our vacations were usually road trips, though I think we did fly to California and to Vancouver. I've flown quite a lot by now, but not that much before 16.
* Went on a cruise with your family -- No. There was some discussion that my parents might take Mary and me on a cruise as a graduation present a couple of years ago, but the timing and the money didn't work out, sadly.
* Went on more than one cruise with your family -- No.
* Your parents took you to museums and art galleries as you grew up -- I don't remember going to any *art* museums with my parents, but they were crazy about science and natural history museums, planetariums, aquariums, all that sort of thing. We never traveled *anywhere* without finding something like that to go to.
* You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family -- I was pretty sheltered in a lot of ways; I don't think my parents liked me to worry about money, so they kept me fairly unaware of it. I remember there were times when I was young when my parents did talk about being broke and about having to figure out how to pay all the bills. But in terms of what the numbers were, what they made and what they owed? They never told me anything like that, just that everything would be okay. My parents didn't have a lot of extra when I was younger (they're at the point now where I'm constantly surprised how much money they *do* have), and there were a lot of things I just knew not to ask for, because they couldn't get it for me. But the things all of us did really want most, we usually could get, and the bills were always paid. It's kind of sad to me now to realize how much that really does count as "privilege." I think that's what *regular life* is supposed to be like.
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Date: 2008-01-03 03:27 pm (UTC)From:Anyway, the point is, private schools from the age of 2, excellent college which aside from grants and loans my parents paid for (and I got a full scholarship to Kenyon, so I could have gone for free, but they thought it was more important that I go to the place I found more intellectually exciting), way way way more than 500 books in the house that they did own (well, mortgage, but you know.) On the other hand, while I'm definitely educationally privileged, my dad's an architect and my mom is a freelance writer, and we lived in a part of DC which I think was a very cool and interesting place to grow up, but which they actually lost friends over when they moved there (it was a majority black neighborhood, and you really seperate the fake liberals from the real ones when you do something like move your six-month-old there *and then send her to elementary school there* (it was a Catholic school.)) Growing up I felt fairly comfortable, but we didn't do "extras" like vacations, we didn't have a big tv, we were way behind the much more economically disadvantaged people I knew in getting our first VCR and microwave (which were both hand-me-downs from friends and relatives), and we never threw anything away that wasn't absolutely, finally, positively, 100% broken beyond my dad's ability to fix it. And lots of experience of poor American communities has taught me that it's the rare lower-class family that *doesn't* have a great new TV, you know?
So I do have all the upper-class markers in some ways, and I definitely consider myself privileged along the lines of education (and then all the opportunities that opens up). But definitely in a different way than the kids I went to high school with (I was on scholarship at an ur-swanky school across town; I commuted an hour each way by subway for the first two years, then drove a hand-me-down Nissan Datsun with the stuffing coming out of the seats; my classmates pretty regularly were given fancy cars when they turned 16. BMW fancy.) I never felt poor until I went to high school. Those kids really *were* privileged, not only educationally -- which they only sometimes took seriously -- but in the Serious Money way as well. And I just can't help but feel that it made a big difference, even though we'd mostly answer the questions on the meme in all the same ways.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-03 03:48 pm (UTC)From:My high school not only offered a lot of scholarships but actively sought out applicants from different backgrounds. (As opposed to my college which was need-blind, yes, but only a certain type of applicant even throws in their hat there.) My high school also had a lot of policies to de-emphasize the difference in wealth of the students. For example, no one was allowed to have cars. My sophomore year they discontinued alpine skiing as a sport since students had to pay for their own equipment and lift fees which meant only the rich students could afford it. I think these policies make a difference. Popular culture portrayals of boarding schools like mine have never matched my experience--my school was pretty progressive. Not exactly Dead Poets Society.