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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I have been thinking about that thread recently. I have a degree from an Ivy and two graduate degrees from top schools and I make about $130,000 a year as a professor. I am vastly overqualified for my job at a third Tier institution although it works well with my family responsibilities.

My parents were extremely working class and the number one skill that I feel like I did not acquire as a child was the ability to advocate for myself. My parents are very timid and they have never stood up to an employer or asked for anything. The overwhelming sense I had as a child was that life was something that happened to you and I remember being terribly surprised when I figured it out in graduate school, that other people had a vision for where they wanted to end up and that they were working to implement that vision. But to some degree it was already too late for me when I realize that other people had been doing that since they were 16.

A good school can only take you so far if you have no sense of agency or the ability to create their own life, and unfortunately most of us from poor and working class environments do not have that skill[/quote]

I share many similarities with you.  As an undergrad, and in my very small graduate program, I took a lot of small seminars. I was often the only Black student, the only POC, and, occasionally, the only woman in a class.  I quickly realized that if I didn’t speak up, a lot of things—from what I viewed as basic information, to my own informed opinions and perspectives — would go completely unsaid.  So one thing I got from my experiences was the ability to speak out and to hold my own while advocating for minority perspectives.

You captured perfectly my bewilderment as I realized how people with more resources than I could envision exercised their own agency.  I’m still struggling with that — and still working to find a balance that feels authentic.  [/quote]

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