Reply to spin-off! What is so awful about attending school with exclusively upper middle class kids?

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[quote=Anonymous]I think that a lot depends on how the school, whether private or public, addresses--if at all--the issue of SES.

When I was growing up as the "poor, but bright" scholarship student at my private school, it was painfully clear that the school did not make an effort to address socio-economic diversity. Things like having to pay from prom tickets--when your family is working class poor, you cannot shell out $200 for tickets to the prom, pay extra for soccer uniforms, pay for out-of-town debate tournaments, hire a violin teacher, etc. My parents worked, so they couldn't shuttle me to playdates. Most of my friends lived in wealthier parts of town. Poor children become ostracized from social activities and then from other students at school.

I think that many public schools don't have the resources to make sure that these sorts of economic barriers come in the way of cross-economic socialization. They simply can't afford to subsidize poor students' participation in these activities.

Private schools send mixed messages about SES. When they claim to embrace economic diversity among their students, it's usually the teachers who are getting tuition benefits. Hardly the kind of diversity that we really want.

Ultimately, I think that schools have to reach out to parents to make sure that they talk to kids about this sort of thing. Wealthy parents in particular need to make sure that their children respect other children who don't have the same economic means that they do.[/quote]

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