andrewducker (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
andrewducker) wrote2008-01-03 12:50 pm
andrewducker) wrote2008-01-03 12:50 pm
Privilege
There's been a meme going around about privilege, which was vaguely interesting in its own right.
More interesting, though, is the post here that![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
heron61 pointed me at, about what kind of privileges make a difference at college/university level, including all sorts of things you might never have thought of.
I, by the way, am terribly privileged. Partially because of money, which was always there for the things that mattered when I was growing up. Which doesn't mean large amounts of expensive foreign holidays (when we went abroad it was usually in a cheap, off-season way - we went to Austria by coach, for instance). But it did mean that when I needed additional tutoring to get through my English GCSE it was possible, and when I needed another year to get my degree it was never going to be an issue. Of course, nepotism helped with cash too - because my father was a doctor when I needed a summer job I was working at the hospital without any problems. And of course, I was working in IT because my father was buying computers before they were either popular or readily affordable for the general populace.
The other, and much more important, part of my privilege was growing up with educated parents who had huge numbers of books, watched documentaries and generally made sure I grew up interested in the world around me.
When I was a teenager I remember one of my brothers telling me that the kids in their class did not believe that we sat around a dinner table each evening, eating together and talking about what we'd been doing that day, or anything else that occurred to us. We could ask my parents questions and generally speaking _they would know_. Most of the other kids were eating while staring at the TV. I can't quantify the difference this made to my life, but all three of us are now well educated and earning a fair bit more than the median UK income, so I'm not about to start complaining.
More interesting, though, is the post here that
heron61 pointed me at, about what kind of privileges make a difference at college/university level, including all sorts of things you might never have thought of.I, by the way, am terribly privileged. Partially because of money, which was always there for the things that mattered when I was growing up. Which doesn't mean large amounts of expensive foreign holidays (when we went abroad it was usually in a cheap, off-season way - we went to Austria by coach, for instance). But it did mean that when I needed additional tutoring to get through my English GCSE it was possible, and when I needed another year to get my degree it was never going to be an issue. Of course, nepotism helped with cash too - because my father was a doctor when I needed a summer job I was working at the hospital without any problems. And of course, I was working in IT because my father was buying computers before they were either popular or readily affordable for the general populace.
The other, and much more important, part of my privilege was growing up with educated parents who had huge numbers of books, watched documentaries and generally made sure I grew up interested in the world around me.
When I was a teenager I remember one of my brothers telling me that the kids in their class did not believe that we sat around a dinner table each evening, eating together and talking about what we'd been doing that day, or anything else that occurred to us. We could ask my parents questions and generally speaking _they would know_. Most of the other kids were eating while staring at the TV. I can't quantify the difference this made to my life, but all three of us are now well educated and earning a fair bit more than the median UK income, so I'm not about to start complaining.
no subject
Eating out was reserved for special occasions too, it was a big thing to go to a restaurant or a pub for food, something usually reserved only for birthdays or perhaps Sunday lunch when the grandparents were visiting.
I've often wondered if either of these things was unusual. My parents had an above average income, and there are certainly no shortage of fast-food outlets in the town so there was plenty of opportunity.
I also wonder whether the eating of fast food, or not eating it was the privilege.
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I think part of that was that they just didn't see the point of buying in food when they could make it themselves - and both of them were good cooks.
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A trip to the cinema was another special treat, although much more frequently than the takeaway food, since it involved a trip to Falkirk and usually afternoon tea at the Victorian teashop round the corner. I think the 'specialness' of the whole experience is what fostered my love of film. :)
no subject