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Hummingbird's picture

I totally agree – and it's

I totally agree – and it's something Dan, Michaela, and I really didn't discuss too much when working on this. I think that discussion – of not wanting to admit to graduating debt free, for example – is very much connected to the idea of privilege that we've been thinking about in class (how much easier, or at least less stressful is it to think about getting a job when you know you don't need one to pay off debts?). I would push back and say that we neglect speaking about both extremes regarding class here – as you noted, those who don't need loans or need to work feel shamed away from admitting that, while at the same time, those who are really struggling to make ends meet and figure out how to balance work and school also don't feel comfortable talking about it or don't know who to speak with. I think (and this seems to be common for American society as a whole) that the focus is on everyone in the middle. And while those middle class students also face large loans because of the way the higher ed system works here, they do have the social and cultural capital to feel more comfortable in Bryn Mawr's campus. On the other hand, I would argue that students from more working class backgrounds often don't have as much access to the social and cultural capital of their peers (hence, Dan's page on whether I should "have learned this stuff in high school?"). This doesn't explain the lack of conversation about people from high socio-economic class backgrounds, but it does help to explain one of the reasons I think we as a group felt it was important to touch on one experience over another. Class in general is still something we as a school don't seem to acknowlege very much.

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