The Privelige Meme - seems a bit U.S.-centric

[gemfyre]

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 - just a trade school.
2. Father finished college - and he finished.
3. Mother went to college
4. Mother finished college
5. Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor
6. Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers - huh?
7. Had more than 50 books in your childhood home
8. Had more than 500 books in your childhood home - not sure, never counted.
9. Were read children's books by a parent
10. Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18
11. Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18 - but that was pretty much because I didn't want any others.
12. The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively
13. Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18
14. Your parents (or a trust) paid for the majority of your college costs (costs after scholarships) - They paid for TAFE, and assisted with uni, but I have a HECS bill.
15. Your parents (or a trust) paid for all of your college costs
16. Went to a private high school
17. Went to summer camp - I went on school camps. We don't have "summer camp" in Australia.
18. Had a private tutor before you turned 18
19. Family vacations involved staying at hotels
20. Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18
21. Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them
22. There was original art in your house when you were a child
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 did from the time I was 10.
26. You had a phone in your room before you turned 18
27. Participated in an SAT/ACT prep course
28. Had your own TV in your room in High School
29. Owned a mutual fund or IRA in High School or College - what?
30. Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16 - twice when I was a baby.
31. Went on a cruise with your family - no, but we went on a yearly driving holiday.
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

Yeah, VERY American-centric. Half of those things don't even make any sense to me. Schools work totally differently in Australia.

Comments

[stawberi.livejournal.com]

Hahaha heating bills.

[moonvoice.livejournal.com]

It's extremely US-centric. I don't think they have the joy of HECS over there. ;)

[princess-kessie.livejournal.com]

NO, they don't have subsidised education (HECS may be expensive, but full-fee places are often upto twice the price). They do, however have massive student loans (according to some friends, they average US$30-40,000 for a basic degree, and go up exponentially when it comes to degrees for high-paying jobs like medicine, law etc. Some of their student loans top US$100,000), and access to many more scholarships that we could even imagine. Sports scholarships, music scholarships, academic scholarships - they have dozens...

[princess-kessie.livejournal.com]

17. Went to summer camp - I went on school camps. We don't have "summer camp" in Australia.

I beg to differ. I was abandoned at summer camp for 2 weeks every summer holidays at the CYC Campsite just out of Rockingham from 1982-86 (age 11-15). I was the most teased kid there, and I hated every moment, but my mother and step father said it would be good for us all. I think my stepfather just wanted me out the way for a while so he could be with "his" family - my mother and my two half-brothers. Way to make a pre-teen (and a fat, ungainly, geeky, precocious one at that) feel wanted, folks...

And aside from that one, I can only bold numbers 10 (6 weeks of ballet at age 9, then we moved), 23 (although many of the places we - my mother and I for 11 years - lived in were shared accommodation, including one single room in another family's home for 6 months, and the basement of my grandparents' place), 25 (I was an only child for 12 years, and sometimes got my own room) and 30 (that's how my mother and I came to Australia when I was just 3 months old).

Number 9 is interesting - I don't recall ever being read to by my mother, but I remember reading to her from about the age of 3 or so. By the age of 5 I was spending all my spare time reading whatever I could get my hands on - once I started school, I devoured the class library (consisting mainly of Dick and Dora readers and picture books - *yawn*) and begged to be allowed to go to the library instead of sitting through needless colouring tasks. Eventually my mother begged the principal to allow this pain-in-the-ass 5 year old to borrow a book a day from the library!

[just-the-ash.livejournal.com]

Some of the questions confuse me (I just saw this at rutemple's journal), and I do live in the US. I mean, I know that SATs and ACTs are standardized tests meant to serve as indicators of whether you're good enough to get into a particular university, but try:

12. The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively. Well, kind of. People who habitually dress in black from head to toe up here are portrayed as dangerous, Satanic Goths, of the sort you don't want your kid turning into or socializing with; frivolous Manhattan faux-bohemians or socialites, like Andy Warhol except alive; undercover cops; or bank robbers. Also, my speech tic is the liberal use of "dude" and "man," which makes me sound like a burnt-out 1960s leftover, which is particularly comic when you register that I was not alive for any part of that decade.

22. There was original art in your house when you were a child. Yes! It hung on every vertical surface! It was original art by me and my sister! I can't accuse my parents of having been rich enough to own a Picasso, but neither can I accuse them of not having supported my juvenile fantasylands crammed with, Lord help us, unicorns and bunnies.

[mexicanjewlizrd.livejournal.com]

hur? Its basically the exact same here and there, just with different names.

Tafe = community college
Uni = university

and: 14. Your parents (or a trust) paid for the majority of your college costs (costs after scholarships) - They paid for TAFE, and assisted with uni, but I have a HECS bill.
HECS is a loan like any other, just nice enough to be interest free and repayed based off of income, not a flat amount. But this has been adequately commented on already.

27. Participated in an SAT/ACT prep course
TEE/TER or STAT prep here.

29. Owned a mutual fund or IRA in High School or College - what?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutual_fund
ie something like an ING DIY account, etc. Just an easy way to invest in stocks, etc. A lot of parents do this, or a trust fund.

17. Went to summer camp - I went on school camps. We don't have "summer camp" in Australia.
We DO have "summer camp in Australia. I know. I've been to them when I was in Victoria. 5 seconds on google also revealed this:
http://www.adventure-camp.com/Australia.htm
http://www.summerdownunder.com/
http://www.mysummercamps.com/search/Query/australia/

The two countries are really not as different as you make them out to be :-P

Admittedly, #6 confused me too.

[stefanina.livejournal.com]

Remember, America was a British colony once, so the idea of noble/common class does exist in it's own way... heriditary money vs "new money" folks.
This list just seems to be pop culture indicators of solidly middle class families...