Privileges

I usually don't do these but I thought this one was interesting.

From What Privileges Do You Have?, based on an exercise about class and privilege developed by Will Barratt, Meagan Cahill, Angie Carlen, Minnette Huck, Drew Lurker, Stacy Ploskonka at Illinois State University. If you participate in this blog game, they ask that you PLEASE acknowledge their copyright.)

Bold the true statements.

1. Father went to college
2. Father finished college
3. Mother went to college
4. Mother finished college (in her forties she got her RN)
5. Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor (father was a physician, uncle a professor)
6. Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers. (I have no clue what this means, so I guess the answer is no)
7. Had more than 50 books in your childhood home.
8. Had more than 500 books in your childhood home. (I think my parents had more books around than I do now and that's saying a lot)
9. Were read children's books by a parent
10. Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18. Piano lessons from a friend of my family's, and guitar lessons from my father.
11. Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18 (yes if you count my father's guitar lessons)
12. The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively. (I am a geeky, absent-minded type with seven children -- nope I don't think so).
13. Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18
14. Your parents paid for the majority of your college costs
15. Your parents paid for all of your college costs
16. Went to a private high school (sort of an accident because we were in a foreign country and the only English-speaking schools were private ones).
17. Went to summer camp (occasionally -- Christian Bible Camp for a week some summers)
18. Had a private tutor before you turned 18
19. Family vacations involved staying at hotels (we weren't the camping type and usually had our vacations oriented around our family's every-summer moves since my father was in the Indian Health Service and was relocated often since it operates like the Army or Navy).
20. Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18 (I was the oldest and the only girl and so it was mostly true but also my mother sewed for me quite a bit before I turned into a teenager)
21. Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them (I never had a car until I was married and we still have only one family car).
22. There was original art in your house when you were a child (yes, but it was folk art -- my parents would buy things from Native American and Eskimo local artists since we lived on reservations growing up)
23. You and your family lived in a single-family house
24. Your parent(s) owned their own house or apartment before you left home
25. You had your own room as a child. I was the only girl.
26. You had a phone in your room before you turned 18
27. Participated in a SAT/ACT prep course (ha, I didn't even know what an SAT was until we were shuffled into the room to take the test).
28. Had your own TV in your room in high school (we didn't even have a family TV until I was about 10 and it was always black and white until I had already left for college).
29. Owned a mutual fund or IRA in high school or college
30. Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16 (we moved every year and also spent three years in Switzerland while my father had a diplomatic temporary position).
31. Went on a cruise with your family (we went on an Alaskan cruise when we lived in Alaska)
32. Went on more than one cruise with your family
33. Your parents took you to museums and art galleries as you grew up
34. You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family

Looks like about 50%.

This quiz makes me wonder how they define "privilege" -- some of it seems consumeristic and some cultural -- you don't have to be rich to give your kids cultural privileges like going to art galleries or a parent reading children's books. And contrarily, some of the economic "privileges" like a TV or phone in your own room or your own car don't seem like cultural privileges.

HT Studeo