Check Your Privilege -- THE QUIZ

[talisyn]

So, who should check their privilege?  The disadvantaged student who got a full-ride scholarship, despite signficantly lower grades and test scores, or the one with a A+ GPA, who golfs at 5 below par, is an all-state short stop on his school's baseball team, plays first chair violin for the community ochestra, started his own company, started a non-profit for inner city grade school kids, and who has authored four Newberry Award books, but who barely got in because he checked "the box?"

 

 

PC, can you read what you wrote again, please, with regards to privilege

[prisonchaplain]

Yes...I can.  I even did.  Question?

[talisyn]

No question. Just pondering the idea that someone who has the opportunity to play the violin in a community orchestra (lives in a community with an orchestra), attends a school that offers quirky little sports like golf, has the start - up capital to create a business, knows enough publishing people to get 4 books out into the world (even 1 book is amazing, it's a difficult world to break in to, those must be awesome books), and has the time to help inner - city kids with problems not faced by his peer group (assuming this person doesn't live in an inner-city, sorry), is somehow under served by his community.

[Dravin]

Which takes us right back to success = privilege. Circle of life complete.

[Guest]

No question. Just pondering the idea that someone who has the opportunity to play the violin in a community orchestra (lives in a community with an orchestra), attends a school that offers quirky little sports like golf, has the start - up capital to create a business, knows enough publishing people to get 4 books out into the world (even 1 book is amazing, it's a difficult world to break in to, those must be awesome books), and has the time to help inner - city kids with problems not faced by his peer group (assuming this person doesn't live in an inner-city, sorry), is somehow under served by his community.

 

Right... so if I was that dude, I shoulda just started up a meth lab in my bathroom to fry my brains, transfer to the inner city to go to the local F-school, spend all my time hanging out at the club because if I work I might make enough money to start up a business and that is so not good, write a book because I'm just oh-so-good-at-it, and then stuff it under my bed, and for good measure, shoot up a few cats and maybe a dog...

 

... so I can get a greater chance of attending Princeton.

[Quin]

I think I mentioned before that in my area most families can't afford for both parents to work because the cost of childcare is too high.

A side effect of this (and other things, like mediocre schools) is that our area has a HUGE homeschooling community.

There are half a dozen school districts in the city, and homeschoolers outnumber all but the biggest 2.

Over 25,000 registered homeschool kids in my county.

So if ya wanna get into Princeton... No need to go all Breaking Bad

'Cause Ivy leagues are recruiting HARD from the HS community.

'Cause HS'ers have the time to do all the snazzy well rounded stuff (to the point that a lot of parents are complaining that homeschool,kids have unfair advantage in academic competitions... From spelling bees to internships), and since most states are dual enrollment* (38 last I looked)

Most HS'd college "freshmen" already have 2 years of community college under their belts at 17.

So the Ivies are getting YOUNG, advanced, highly motivated kids they can either use their CC credits as a highschool transcript, or just funnel them through 2 years, diploma, and off to grad school (depends on the school whether they want more grads or less out in the world. Different schools, different policies).

* Dual Enrollment has different names in different states -RunningStart, BrightFutures, etc.- but it boils down to a Federal option that allows highschool students to take community college courses for free (tuition waved, still need to buy or rent textbooks & materials) until they graduate from highschool or age 18/19. Away-school kids do these courses on top of their other coursework, although some kids get 1-2 periods a day off / use them as elective credits. Most come school kids doing dual enrollment attend full time.

I'm sure, sooner or later, more parents are going to catch on that they can pull their kid from highschool & send them to college for free instead, but until then... It's a meth-free alternative that can help getcha into a competitive program.

Q

[applepansy]

I was able to answer the first question on this.  But... the rest. . . . I just don't fit into any of what it describes.  Some of it I don't even understand.     I answered 3 questions and that wasn't enough to get a number.

[Suzie]

I got: 60 out of a possible 150 Unbelievably privileged; check it hourly.

 

[prisonchaplain]

There is no assumption that the kid was or was not underserved.  Rather, frustration that such a kid would be overlooked for entry into a school because he was too masculine and had the wrong skin tone.

 

 

No question. Just pondering the idea that someone who has the opportunity to play the violin in a community orchestra (lives in a community with an orchestra), attends a school that offers quirky little sports like golf, has the start - up capital to create a business, knows enough publishing people to get 4 books out into the world (even 1 book is amazing, it's a difficult world to break in to, those must be awesome books), and has the time to help inner - city kids with problems not faced by his peer group (assuming this person doesn't live in an inner-city, sorry), is somehow under served by his community.

[talisyn]

Here is a great article I read and immediately thought it would bring a lot to the discussion

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/18/magazine/who-gets-to-graduate.html?action=click&contentCollection=Opinion&module=MostEmailed&version=Full&region=Marginalia&src=me&pgtype=article

[prisonchaplain]

Talisyn, thank you for the link.  My takeaway is that a lot of students fail, in part, because they come from family and community cultures that contrast sharply with what they face at university.  Those from weathier families, with a strong history of college graduation, do much better.  White students from rural areas struggled as much as African-Americans from the cities, and as much as Hispanics from more challenged neighborhoods.  How ironic that the very people who are so eager to overcome racism and sexism engage is such blatant reading-the-book-by-the-cover prejudice.

[Guest]

I want that 2 minutes back.