Ivy educated teachers?

QuantMech
Thu, 30 May 2013 09:39:39 +0000

I think that there are two separate issues that should not be conflated. First, do students who are not wealthy have the same access to later opportunities as students who are better off? To this, I would say that from everything I know, the answer is an emphatic “yes.”

Second, will students who are not as well off experience awkward moments, or times when their friends just don’t get the reality of their financial situations? I think the answer to this is also “yes,” as TheGFG pointed out in the first part of an earlier post.

QMP’s roommate’s parents came to freshman parents’ weekend in a private plane.

In my own experience, interacting with some HYP etc. grads during grad school, I did find that they didn’t understand economic limitations. My family came to visit at the end of my first year (long trip). When she got home, all of my mother’s friends wanted to know if she thought the expense of the trip was worth it. They stayed at a fairly inexpensive hotel. I talked with a group of my fellow grad students about where we had gone for dinner the previous night, to a relatively cheap and not-very-good restaurant in town. One of the H crowd asked why my parents took me there, rather than to one of the more upmarket places. He was in all other respects a kind and thoughtful friend. I think he just had no idea.

Of course, I thought that my fiance’s family was “rich,” because their towels, shower curtain, and throw rug in the bathroom were all color-coordinated.

Finally, in my official role as Nemesis-to-Pizzagirl :), I’d bet that I can identify a Kate Spade handbag from across the room these days.

Teaching is a fine profession. It has higher status in the UK than in the US, Teach for American notwithstanding.