Growing up, I never thought much about the class system. We discussed it in school, but it was extremely difficult for me to put it into perspective until I got into college - when I was blindsided by a storm of social science classes that discussed just how much our culture's class system affects us.
My ignorance of this system I blame entirely on where I grew up, but I'll describe to you why. I grew up in a small town south of Pittsburgh and went to a school district that is the largest (in terms of mileage covered) in all of Pennsylvania. Because of the size of the land area that my school district had, the diversity in my school district was unbelievable.
In all, Ringgold School District covers nine separate towns, each with their own unique dynamic and environment that contributed to our diversity. One of those townships, Nottingham, has a median income of $72,212 and a median house value of $233,927. And at the other end of the spectrum, the borough of Donora has a median income of $27,872 and a median home value of $51,653. (Statistics from City-Data.com)
Even without visiting, you could imagine the difference in the living conditions of Nottingham and Donora with nearly a $50,000 difference in the median income. The towns are vastly different. One a brand new, developing town with only 5 percent below the poverty level, and the other an old, half-abandoned steel mill town with nearly 20 percent below the poverty rate and gang-related shootings on a nearly-regular basis. Over 70 percent of students at Donora Elementary Center are on a free or discounted lunch program, while only 30 percent receive discounted or free lunch at Gastonville Elementary Center, where Nottingham children attend.
But the fascinating part of all of this is: we all went to school together and got along.
The fights I saw in school (and believe me, there were many) were not over money or race or class. Very seldom was there an instance where someone was teased for their parent's income or even acknowledged the fact that such a stark difference existed. Even more rarely was there an instance where race was an issue, even though the minority rate in Nottingham is below one percent and the minority rate in Donora is over 25 percent. Perhaps this was because most of the teachers that worked at my school district grew up up in the area, went to my high school, went to colleges and universities close by, and returned to the area.
Or maybe it’s because we were a school of only 1,128 students with a “small town attitude” in which everyone knew everyone’s business. We knew each other’s families, most of our parents went to high school together, and we knew that some kids had bigger problems than who they were taking to prom – like domestic violence, shootings down the street, or parents losing their jobs. It was almost as if my entire school district separated themselves from situations so that 7:21 to 3:10 every day was an escape from what they had to deal with at home.
I never realized just how much of a psychological wonder my high school was until I came to college and was shocked by the way people treat each other in an environment outside of the Monongahela Valley. I come from a place where seeing my classmates' names in the headlines for shootings happened on a biannual basis and graduating with 17 girls who had babies of their own at home was an accepted thing, but everyone was treated just the same as those who carried around Coach purses and got cars on their sixteenth birthdays.
As much of a fairy tale as this may seem to some who went to high schools where "status symbols" declared where you sat at lunch time (I had never even heard of a North Face jacket before I came to Ohio University), I can't help but wonder if my upbringing set me back from other students. Despite the fact that my senior year, my school district was ranked in the bottom 10 percent of high schools in Pennsylvania, I was completely oblivious to many of the social problems we read about in political science, women's gender studies, and sociology classes at Ohio University.
It blows my mind, based on everything that I’m learning, that people from polar opposite situations can come together and be friends without any sense of class system. Talking about this in class sparked my interest in analyzing the social stratification situations I face at home and realizing that it isn't all relative around the United States or even in Ohio. Referring back to the class system subject we are learning in class, I think the way that people are “organized” socially differs everywhere. What I’ve been learning in class about contrasts with what I’ve experienced my entire life, and it is fascinating to me that I have been so ignorant to other methods of social stratification until this class.
Here is a book called The Shape of Social Inequality by David B. Bills which discusses largely the way my are reacted to the crash of the steel industry in shaping our economic and social situations. It discusses the way that the Pittsburgh area was affected by the loss of tons of jobs and how it changed the outlook of Pittsburghers on social stratification.
http://books.google.com/books?id=Lf3q3zePi2UC&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+shape+of+social+inequality:+stratification+and+ethnicity+in+comparative+perspective&hl=en&ei=IVSrTs7qIefz0gGV2MiCDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false
After reading this post, I recollected on my own high school and college experiences with differences in social class. I personally went to a middle-class suburban public school with about 2500 students. With so many students I was exposed to a variety many people, and a variety of household incomes. The students who had rich families would usually show-off their money or at least talk about it, and if they wanted something they couldn't have they would usually complain about it. But I would never hear the students who had little money ever complain about not having enough to get by. When I came to college I anticipated a similar situation, just on a much broader scale. For the most part I was right in that assumption, but I noticed that money is a much bigger issue in college. With most students having to spend their own money on things or helping to pay for their own education it becomes a much bigger issue. My girlfriend's constantly fight about money, what they have and don't have. Even if one of them complains about money, another will probably compare their economic troubles with their own. I just want highlight that in high school money was not an issue from which conflict would occur, and in college it can be one of the main causes of conflict.
ReplyDeleteWhen reading this post I too, like Cody, reflected back on my high school experience. My high school experience was probably much different than most students experience because I went to a small school in Athens county and for the total high school we accounted for about 300 students in grades 9-12 combined. Even though everyone at Ohio University sees what most of us from around the area would call "the richer, better part" of Athens, most of the county schools are not even close to being as privileged with the money or supplies needed for school. Although it can be a rough situation at times, my school was still able to be rated effective.
ReplyDeleteThe students at my school all got along. At least for the most part. The "rich", if you could call them that, got along with the poor and vice-verse. It was even kind of funny at times because you knew the students that played football were also the ones who were going to be on that years basketball team because we wouldn't have enough students to fill the rosters otherwise. As you have probably already noticed, the "richer" kids were the ones who got the opportunity to play while the poorer students were in theater, choir, and band.
The more I thought about this concept it amazed me as to how much our social system relates to the cast system in Playing with Fire. The women in the book were less privileged than others depending on their cast in which they belonged and it reminded me of those who played sports at my school. Was it that they didn't want to play or was it because due to their social class they didn't get the chance to? The women in the book were so excited to finally get the chance to ride a bike and to me learning that even as a child was not exciting. However, the more I compare the class and cast system I realize I was lucky because I was a student who always got the opportunity to participate in sports and different activities at my school. But what would I have done if I was in these women's shoes and never got to ride the bike? Who knows. Maybe there would have been enough of us who wanted a chance to play who would have found a way. Or maybe we would just be like the rest of the "poor" students from the area and end up singing in the choir or playing in the school band.