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Post #2 (Anyon & Greene)

qjules's picture

"Even the education levels of welfare recipients are high"

 

This quote jumped right of the Anyon and Greene reading for me because the essay and the quote gave me alot of context for my childhood and more specifically my mother when I was a child. I remember her mentioning to me that when i was younger we were on food stamps, but I never saw it as an injustice to us until now. This article is reminding me that my mother was a professional. She had her bachelors at the time, and she was pursuing a masters degree which are relativly high education levels. What curtailed her social mobility was that she is also female, black, and was a single woman, and a  middle school science teacher at the time- which is not in the field of technology and computers as the artical describes is the fastest growing field in the U.S. my mother's economic past supports Anyon and Greene's claim that race and gender can outweigh the benefits of education, and that educaction is not a guarantee for social mobility. I have heard her groan and complain about NCLB and standardized tests for some time now, so naturally she is my context for this reading but not in the way that I thought.

Comments

jccohen's picture

qjules,

Ah this is an enlightening connection, and makes sense for your mom and also more broadly if we think about resources on a neighborhood/community level.  Your story really highlights the question of what kind of jobs need to be created as well as how we as a society value and reward various kinds of work.