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I disagree with a lot of what Felice Picano said, but I think there’s something to the idea that education and class are tied together in this country.

Sometimes it’s just getting a toe in the door--graduating from Harvard versus getting a degree from the local community college--Harvard will make you stand out. The Harvard grad may not be smarter, or a harder worker, or better in any other way, than the community college grad, but it’ll make the Harvard grad stand out at least a little. And sometimes that’s all you need--a little extra something at the beginning.

And getting to college--class contributes to that. It’s easier to get into college--into a good college, especially--if you’re in a rigorous college-prep school that prizes academics than if you’re at a school where the teachers are more concerned with keeping order than teaching anything. One of the things I learned about at a workshop I went to on privilege was how much class and money affects education. From school districts, to AP tests, to quality of schooling, to how much time kids have to study based on whether they need after-school jobs, there are so many ways in which people with money (those from a higher socio-economic class) are advantaged over those with less money.

I’m not saying that there aren’t success stories of people from the lower end of the socio-economic spectrum going to great colleges and getting fantastic jobs. I’m not saying that being rich guarantees a good job. Or that going to a good college guarantees a good job. Or that one can’t get a good job (or a great job) without going to an amazing college--or any college. I’m not saying that everyone cares about what school you went to. I’m just saying that it’s an influence. From what I’ve read and heard, education is one of the things that tends to reify socio-economic and class status. People who make more money are able to send their kids to better schools. It becomes a cycle.    

It’s really difficult to find a job without a college degree. I mean, with the current economy, it’s difficult to find a job in general. But it’s particularly difficult to find a job that pays more than minimum wage if you only have a high school degree (if that). And it’s difficult to try to rise to a higher economic class on minimum wage. And money (and career--the prestige of various careers) is really tied up with class. And so education also becomes tied up with class.

Also, the New York Times did a series of articles on class in the United States a while ago; they published them in a book I bought (it’s called Class Matters www.amazon.com/Class-Matters-New-York-Times/dp/0805080554/ref=sr_1_1 ). It was really interesting and a relatively quick read. I think one part of it was about how different classes view class. For some, it has to do with how much money one makes; for others, it has to do with the type of career one has; for yet others, it has to do with culture, education, manners, morals, viewpoints, and things like that. All of that is influenced by education. Education can affect how much money a person makes and what sort of job a person can get (example: you can’t be a doctor without a lot of education--you can be an entrepreneur and make a ton of money without ever going to college, but there are some careers that you just can’t legally have). And education affects the last especially--learning about “speaking properly,” or about Kantian ethics, or about the effect of globalization, or all sorts of potentially pretentious intellectual things can happen at college/university. Not that it can’t be learned elsewhere--and whether it’s even important is debatable--but I think that for some people, at least, being able to know who Sartre is and (insert really “elitist” academic something-or-another) is a signifier of class.

I just think that a lot of times, if you can “walk the walk and the talk the talk” of some really educated Ivy leaguer (or equivalent), people will make assumptions about your class (generally that you’re of a higher class). I’m not saying it’s true/correct/morally right, just that it happens. Therefore, education can act like a class system.  

And I had other points, but I’ve now forgotten where I was going with this.