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Jan. 3rd, 2008 08:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yolenFrom What Privileges Do You Have?, based on an exercise about class and privilege 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, they ask that you PLEASE acknowledge their copyright.
1. Father went to college
2. Father finished college
3. Mother went to college
My mother didn't even go to high school. She left school after the 8th grade to help her mother care for my 3 cousins whose father had killed their mother (my mom's sister) in NYC. It was Puerto Rico 1953, my mother was 14 and my cousins were very little boys at the time.
4. Mother finished college
5. Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor.
6. Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers.
7. Had more than 50 books in your childhood home.
At a certain point, most of those books were mine.
8. Had more than 500 books in your childhood home.
9. Were read children's books by a parent.
It was a regular & ongoing thing but I remember my folks reading the occasional book to me. Once I learned how to read it stopped. I preferred to read my books myself.
10. Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18
11. Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18
12. The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively.
13. Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18.
14. Your parents (or a trust) paid for the majority of your college costs.
15. Your parents (or a trust) paid for all of your college costs
16. Went to a private high school
17. Went to summer camp.
18. Had a private tutor before you turned 18.
19. Family vacations involved staying at hotels.
Only once, when I was 16 in 1990, I went to FL with my parents, younger brother, and 2 oldest nephews. We stayed at a Holiday Inn. Oh yeah, this was the trip where I had meatloaf for the first time ever!
20. Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18.
I had 2 older sisters, so there was some level of hand-me-downs, but most of my hand-me-downs were clothes to bum around the house. I always had new clothes for school each school year
21. Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them.
LOL, my parents never learned how to drive themselves.
22. There was original art in your house when you were a child.
23. You and your family lived in a single-family house.
24. You had your own room as a child
I was 16 years old by the time I had my own room. From about 5-10 years of age, I slept on the sofa-bed in the living room and had my clothes in a dresser in my parents room. My older brother had a bedroom, my 2 sisters shared one, and my parents had the master bedroom where my younger brother slept. I had slept in that room till shortly after he came along. I loved having that big sofa-bed to myself! After my older brother moved out, my oldest sister M. took his room for her and her baby boy, and I moved in with my older sister S. I got the room to myself when S. got married. Then a year and a half later my parents bought a 2 family home across the street and my younger brother and I had our own rooms. Poor O, he had to wait till he was 13 to get out of my parents room!
26. You had a phone in your room before you turned 18.
27. Participated in a SAT/ACT prep course.
I went to a magnet public school with a college prep curriculum. So yeah, we had SAT Math & English prep classes.
28. Had your own TV in your room in high school.
29. Owned a mutual fund or IRA in high school or college .
30. Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16.
Went to Puerto Rico when I was 2 and 13. My parents spent a long time saving for those trips in order to visit family.
31. Went on a cruise with your family.
32. Went on more than one cruise with your family.
33. Your parents took you to museums and art galleries as you grew up.
I didn't go to an art museum until I was 15 years old as part of an art class field trip. It was the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was a revelation. And I was sorely jealous of the little boy in the Egyptian section talking about sarcophagi with his mother. It was a term I had only learned that year.
34. You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family.
I was always well too aware of how tight $ always was. It was always very difficult for me to ask for money for something for myself (no allowance). But my parents always accommodated my requests when they could.
So yeah, not terribly privileged at all, no surprise. Still, my life was a big jump from what my mother lived back in Puerto Rico (my dad actually had it pretty decent growing up, but they got married very young, and started a family very young so they were a broke-as-hell married couple). Strange to think how many of the things on this list any children I have will be able to Bold.
1. Father went to college
2. Father finished college
3. Mother went to college
My mother didn't even go to high school. She left school after the 8th grade to help her mother care for my 3 cousins whose father had killed their mother (my mom's sister) in NYC. It was Puerto Rico 1953, my mother was 14 and my cousins were very little boys at the time.
4. Mother finished college
5. Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor.
6. Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers.
7. Had more than 50 books in your childhood home.
At a certain point, most of those books were mine.
8. Had more than 500 books in your childhood home.
9. Were read children's books by a parent.
It was a regular & ongoing thing but I remember my folks reading the occasional book to me. Once I learned how to read it stopped. I preferred to read my books myself.
10. Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18
11. Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18
12. The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively.
13. Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18.
14. Your parents (or a trust) paid for the majority of your college costs.
15. Your parents (or a trust) paid for all of your college costs
16. Went to a private high school
17. Went to summer camp.
18. Had a private tutor before you turned 18.
19. Family vacations involved staying at hotels.
Only once, when I was 16 in 1990, I went to FL with my parents, younger brother, and 2 oldest nephews. We stayed at a Holiday Inn. Oh yeah, this was the trip where I had meatloaf for the first time ever!
20. Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18.
I had 2 older sisters, so there was some level of hand-me-downs, but most of my hand-me-downs were clothes to bum around the house. I always had new clothes for school each school year
21. Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them.
LOL, my parents never learned how to drive themselves.
22. There was original art in your house when you were a child.
23. You and your family lived in a single-family house.
24. You had your own room as a child
I was 16 years old by the time I had my own room. From about 5-10 years of age, I slept on the sofa-bed in the living room and had my clothes in a dresser in my parents room. My older brother had a bedroom, my 2 sisters shared one, and my parents had the master bedroom where my younger brother slept. I had slept in that room till shortly after he came along. I loved having that big sofa-bed to myself! After my older brother moved out, my oldest sister M. took his room for her and her baby boy, and I moved in with my older sister S. I got the room to myself when S. got married. Then a year and a half later my parents bought a 2 family home across the street and my younger brother and I had our own rooms. Poor O, he had to wait till he was 13 to get out of my parents room!
26. You had a phone in your room before you turned 18.
27. Participated in a SAT/ACT prep course.
I went to a magnet public school with a college prep curriculum. So yeah, we had SAT Math & English prep classes.
28. Had your own TV in your room in high school.
29. Owned a mutual fund or IRA in high school or college .
30. Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16.
Went to Puerto Rico when I was 2 and 13. My parents spent a long time saving for those trips in order to visit family.
31. Went on a cruise with your family.
32. Went on more than one cruise with your family.
33. Your parents took you to museums and art galleries as you grew up.
I didn't go to an art museum until I was 15 years old as part of an art class field trip. It was the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was a revelation. And I was sorely jealous of the little boy in the Egyptian section talking about sarcophagi with his mother. It was a term I had only learned that year.
34. You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family.
I was always well too aware of how tight $ always was. It was always very difficult for me to ask for money for something for myself (no allowance). But my parents always accommodated my requests when they could.
So yeah, not terribly privileged at all, no surprise. Still, my life was a big jump from what my mother lived back in Puerto Rico (my dad actually had it pretty decent growing up, but they got married very young, and started a family very young so they were a broke-as-hell married couple). Strange to think how many of the things on this list any children I have will be able to Bold.
