Words

I love the word "socioeconomic." Last week, I had a friend over for dinner. It was casual, and I sat our plates down in the living room in front of the television. When he asked if I wanted to eat at the table, I said, "No. The table is for fancy dinners. Where you're from, people eat at the table. Here in the lower socioeconomic classes, we eat in front of the t.v." :>)

In her essay, "Pedagogies of Belonging: Listening to Students and Peers," (see the latest Writing Center Journal,) Julie Bokser addresses the socioeconomic differences revealed when many students enter university studies:

"After they are admitted, many students find actually joining the university to be disorienting and even daunting, especially those whose socioeconomic, racial, linguistic, and/or educational worlds differ markedly from the academic world they encounter in college" (43). And how. I'm reminded of This Fine Place So Far From Home, a collection of essays by working class academics that features an essay called "Stupid Rich Bastards." It tells one woman's story of growing up with a father who was a junk dealer and then ending up in graduate school. Funny and too true. Often our parents want us to go to college, but they don't want us to change.

More later. I've got to meet with a student.