SLS Library: Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging: Socio-Economic/Class

What people are saying -- Socioeconomic/Class

Engaging in Meaningful Conversation on Socioeconomic Status and Class Identity
Where are you going for spring break? How many colleges did you apply to? Why aren’t you going on the international service-learning trip?

These are the sort of questions we hear students and colleagues ask each other in our advisories, classrooms, and hallways. No doubt they are born out of intentions to connect. They are not meant to embarrass or be unkind. But the truth is that they contain often overlooked class assumptions and, when raised, reinforce disparities based on class identity.
Social Class in the Classroom -- Ways to help
...imagine you're a teenager keeping up with the latest music and it feels as if you're the only one your age without your own i-Phone. Any teacher can recall such situations impeding the harmony of a classroom. Indeed, any adult can recall such situations having an impact on his/her own life.
The Influence of Affluence
In our society, which bears one of the most unequal income distributions in the developed world, the impact of such inequities has never been more palpable and so present in conversations both political and personal. In independent schools, class differences are writ particularly large, yet we rarely talk about how this reality shapes school culture and our relationships with students.

Privilege by Shamus Rahman Khan
Call Number: 373.742 KHA
ISBN: 9780691145280
Publication Date: 2011-01-17
As one of the most prestigious high schools in the nation, St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire, has long been the exclusive domain of America's wealthiest sons. But times have changed. Today, a new elite of boys and girls is being molded at St. Paul's, one that reflects the hope of openness but also the persistence of inequality. In Privilege, Shamus Khan returns to his alma mater to provide an inside look at an institution that has been the private realm of the elite for the past 150 years. He shows that St. Paul's students continue to learn what they always have--how to embody privilege. Yet, while students once leveraged the trappings of upper-class entitlement, family connections, and high culture, current St. Paul's students learn to succeed in a more diverse environment. To be the future leaders of a more democratic world, they must be at ease with everything from highbrow art to everyday life--from Beowulf to Jaws--and view hierarchies as ladders to scale. Through deft portrayals of the relationships among students, faculty, and staff, Khan shows how members of the new elite face the opening of society while still preserving the advantages that allow them to rule.