Posted by europerep on February 1, 2014, at 15:19:04
In reply to Re: the natural order, posted by alexandra_k on January 31, 2014, at 23:46:46
> perhaps it is about... upsetting the natural order.
>
> you aren't supposed to be able to do well, coming from my background.
>
> it has to be about helping people (who wouldn't do anything otherwise) get entry to scrape through a degree. first in family sort of a thing.
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> it can't be about helping people (who wouldn't get in otherwise) do programs like... medicine.
>
> i mean... that is what private schools are for. a lot of people invested a lot in their children over the years... helping them do their homework... encouraging them... supporting them... loving them... taking delight in them... sending them to private schools... getting them doing extra-curricular... setting them up with compatible friends...
>
> if people from disadvantaged backgrounds have any chance at all it is when they are identified early enough to get to go to the good schools... to get good, supportive teachers behind them, at the very least. you know... expensive schools. expensive teachers.
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> if people like me (low decile public schools) stand a chance against people like them then... well...
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> no.
>
> that simply can't be.
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> it is too late for me, they tell me. i'm good at english! why do i need to be good at anything else for? i mean, sheesh... who do i think i am???
>
> being a high school english teacher is a suitably respectable thing to do. what do i ?? i think i'm better than that? some people don't have enough to eat. and some people never even get to go to school. who am i??? ungrateful little bitch...Ha, for once there's a post of yours that I understand from A to Z. Or at least I think that I do...
There are two things I'd like to say.
One, I think I kind of identify with how you feel vis-à-vis your university's "establishment", or more generally the people who tell you - explicitly or implicitly - that it's too late, or that you should aim lower, or whatever. I'm not really in the same situation, socio-economically speaking, because I come from a solid middle class family. Maybe even a hint more than solid... but not rich. But my parents invested a lot in me and my sister's education. The thing is, my past has taken a toll on my grades, especially at the end of high-school, and so on paper I look less privileged than I actually am. And I also "lost a few years."
But when I look around, or especially when I read about great thinkers or scientists on the internet, so many of them also have a "weird" history. I think that, sometimes, being privileged is actually kind of something that can hold you back, simply because you are already privileged. Had I not had to really fight to survive my disease, I think I'd be more successful on paper but less ambitious and motivated to fight to show everyone, not least myself, that I do have something going for me.
And I see that you fight. I don't understand every part of every of your posts, but it is completely clear that you do fight. That's what matters. And not just "matter" in the sense that it's the right thing to do even if you fail, but if you keep going like you are, you will not fail.
So, in short I guess my point is, fuck them lol.
The second thing is about what you said here:
> i mean... that is what private schools are for. a lot of people invested a lot in their children over the years... helping them do their homework... encouraging them... supporting them... loving them... taking delight in them... sending them to private schools... getting them doing extra-curricular... setting them up with compatible friends...
Are you sure about the "loving them" part? And even the encouraging and supporting and helping them with their homework all too often looks to me like parents investing in their children so they will pay off, especially in terms of prestige. ("My son is studying law, la-di-da") I am very glad that I wasn't sent to a private school (there are very few of them here anyway, much less than in Britain for example). And here too, feeling entitled is probably not the ideal condition in which to excel.
Ok, that's all ;)...
poster:europerep
thread:1058481
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20140129/msgs/1060082.html