Socio-Economic Diversity

ctymomteacher
Wed, 12 Dec 2007 16:27:31 +0000

I understand the OP’s question, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with asking it. Although my son went to a “crappy public high school,” to quote one of the posters above, some of his classmates there would throw their change in the trash rather than be bothered to put it in their pockets at lunch time. My son would pick it up and pocket it. Now he has a DSA, need-based aid and one and a half jobs at Tulane. After two years without a car, he finally has one, though it’s over twenty-five years old (His dad REALLY knows how to pick used cars! It’s a gift.) He appreciates every dime we can send him and every dollar he earns.

At the same time, he has at times felt the difference between his values and those of some of the people he goes to school with. It took him some time to find the people he wanted to hang with. Now he’s taking even more time to adjust again because he’s getting really serious academically. But that doesn’t mean the people he wants aren’t there. Just as with the perpetual drinking/not-drinking threads that show up here, you just have to find the people who share your tastes and values–or those that don’t but who are worth hanging out with anyway.

And try to remember also that a “better” life doesn’t necessarily mean one with more money. My son’s attitude is “Get rich–or don’t. Who cares?” He doesn’t. He’s in it for the science. If you want to go to Tulane, don’t let the rich kids–or the drunk kids, for that matter–stop you. Two days before Katrina, as we were trying to decide whether to leave our then-freshman son behind, we saw a girl whine at her father because she wouldn’t be allowed to take all fifty pairs of shoes with her on the bus to the evac shelter if she stayed. I don’t know whether she’s still there or not. I’m sure my son doesn’t know her at all, but he certainly does know some much more interesting people! I’ve met some of them.