May 24, 2005

  • The Elusive Middle Class


    I taught for years in a large public high school, and the overwhelming majority of our students were from the middle class or upper middle class.  I used to tell my students, in the interest of motivation, that they couldn't assume they would necessarily be a member of the class they were born into.  Follow my logic.


    People born into the "welfare class" tend to "inherit" the attitudes and proclivities that will keep them there all their lives.  Ditto that for members of the "rich class," defined by me as those people who really don't have to work for a living because they inherit wealth, and the attitudes and proclivities that go with it.  Kids born into the middle classes, though, have to earn the right to stay there.  And the most sure-fire way to remain in the middle classes is education and hard work.


    Today I read an article in the New York Times that reinforces my idea.  Click here for the source. 


    ED