The NYT is doing a whole spread on class in America, and it has really got me thinking. According to their calculator, I’m in the 63rd percentile overall, currently. I was surprised at how much education factored in, and just how high even a Master’s degree would put me. Odd.
It also has me thinking about the different schools that one can go to. We do several graduations, and our best school is a private liberal arts college that costs about 40k a year to go to. Number one client, easily. Our next best schools, though, are the community (formerly called technical) colleges. Our biggest order ever came from a student who got a degree in working on power lines. Behind those fall the state universities and larger, less exclusive private schools.
At the liberal arts college, I am always a little. . . . I don’t think envious is the word, but I’m something. I look at these kids (and more and more, they seem like Kids to me, but hey, I’m a month and a few days from 30 now) and think "How many of you are fully cognizant of the opportunities you have just based on the fact that you were able to attend, and graduate from, this school?" I really don’t think that some of them grasp that at all. It’s just a given for them, that they will have connections built in from their families and their classmates and their social class that will help them out along the way.
Don’t get me wrong: I love connections. I have several myself, and as I’ve said, that’s why I’m going to grad school, really, after my conversation with Marilyn. But, I look at the next year, and I just really hope that this works out. That my M. Ed will mean more than being near the top of the education scale on the NYT calculator. According to it, a Master’s puts me in the 97th percentile for education. Only 3 percent of Americans will be more educated than myself. That’s crazy when you look at it that way.
I grew up in a different class than my husband did. He grew up dirt poor, living in cityhousing, one parent, without even a car to get around. I grew up in a home that my (still) married parents built. We traveled, and had birthday parties and christmas presents and educational opportunities that even I didn’t appreciate until recently, until I realized that it’s not like that for a lot of people. We had books and a backyard and savings bonds from our grandparents on our birthdays. Dave never even had a grandparent.
And while my family might be middle class for the nation, for our area, we were solidly upper class. I got my clothes at JCPenney, which was more than most kids ever got. I never ever worried about my parents not being able to provide for me, or worried about my living conditions changing, or anything. I worried about how to rearrange my bedroom and passing my driver’s test so I could drive the truck to school instead of taking the bus. Dave never got his license until he was 19, and he had to buy an old VW Golf first, to take the test with.
But then, in the scope of my extended family, we’re at the bottom of the ladder. There is great wealth in the periphery of my family, which I was exposed to and aware of at a very young age. I remember riding in the glass elevator of my great-aunt’s home when I was 5, wondering why WE couldn’t have something so cool. In my extended family, there are/were professional athletes, oil company execs, engineers, doctors, and self-made successful businessmen. Dave never even ate in restaurants when he was a kid.
In the world of class, I feel really odd. I sure as hell don’t make much money as a teacher, and will make less as a grad student, but I hope that I make more on the other end. But, in the context of the world, I make a LOT. One of my earliest lessons in teaching was when I made a generic, off the cuff remark about being "a poor teacher." People in my circles understand those jokes, and make them themselves, it’s a standard line. But I said it in front of a kid, who said "What do you mean? You’re not poor, you’re a TEACHER." The kid lives in a 2 bedroom apartment with his brother and mom and stepdad. He doesn’t have what I do. To him, I’m rich. To others, they can’t understand how I live on my salary. To Dave’s family, I’m rich. To mine, I’m poor.
One of the basic tenets of my life is that "You don’t need money to have class." I truly believe that. I have known some classy poor people in my day. Manners count for much more than money to me. The way people treat others counts more than how much you can donate to charity. I would talk to one kind and generous lineman over a wealthy and entitled private school graduate, any day.
I don’t even know where this is going, my thoughts on it are so complex. My biggest asset, according to the NYT, is my education. Even without a Master’s, I’m in the top 5th. I don’t know how that will translate to my income in a year or two, but I hope there is some correlation. For, while I know how to make a teaching salary work, I would love to have some of the freedoms of a higher income. But, for me, a reasonable income would be 40-50k, while, for others, that is peanuts.
What do you think about class?
