Thread by @Daniel_Laurison

Today I told my class that working class/poor students are less likely to know rules can be bent, and less likely to ask to bend them, or for other kinds of help, and I got an email from a sophomore saying that helped her make sense of why her first year was so hard.

I told them explicitly that they can ask for extensions on their papers, and how to do it, and that they can come to talk to me about their papers. Same student admitted they'd been overwhelmed about the paper, asked for an extension, and set up an office hours appointment. Win!

(I also mentioned that not all professors are as free with extensions as I am.)

(Also this was Forms of Capital day so it was perfect timing.)

Worth noting here, as I've said in a couple side threads, that who can bend rules & get away with it, and what they have to perform for that to work, isn't only about class or knowing that some rules can bend. Outside my classroom, race & gender matter at least as much as class.

In many contexts, they matter far more. Black & Brown people too often don't get the benefit of the doubt, are made to adhere to rules not often enforced against white people. Women of all races too often are held to standards not applied to men. Etc etc.

I talk about that in my classes too.

If anyone wants to read MORE about how class origins matter even after people have gained entry to various elite positions, um, check out my book with @SamFriedmanSoc coming January '19: press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book… (US) policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/the-class-ceil… (UK)

If I put this reply here, do more people see it? I think this part is in some ways more important than the main thread:

https://twitter.com/Daniel_Laurison/status/1047696940979441664?s=19

[then I said] In many contexts, they matter far more. Black & Brown people too often don't get the benefit of the doubt, are made to adhere to rules not often enforced against white people. Women of all races too often are held to standards not applied to men. Etc etc.

This tweet has gotten more attention than anything I've ever done or maybe will do. If I'd known it was going to have 1 million + impressions I'd have spent more than a minute writing it. I think this is pretty clear from the follow up tweets above, but a few things to clarify:

This would be more accurate: I told my class that working class/poor/1st gen students are less likely to ask for exceptions or extensions, or other kinds of help from professors, and I got an email from a sophomore saying that helped her make sense of why their 1st was so hard.

The "rule bending" bit is a reasonable shorthand for the kinds of things I was talking about, but I don't think it's generally true that these students don't know that sometimes rules get bent or broken overall.

I also think it's the responsibility of professors & institutions to try to make colleges & universities work well for students coming from these backgrounds; there's no reason poor/working class/1st Gen students *should* know the #HiddenCurriculum before they get to college.

It just shouldn't be hidden.

Maybe it would have been better also to phrase the whole thing as about the ways privileged students gain further advantages, not about something 1st Gen & etc students "lack" even if it's clear that "lack" is no fault of their own.

I talked to my students often about a fundamental challenge I see in the work if studying & naming injustices - sometimes just directly naming a harm can repeat a portion of that harm.

E.g. it sucks for me to hear something like "trans people are widely reviled" for an example that applies to me. But naming and analyzing problem is part of figuring out how to solve it.

The vast vast majority of responses to the tweet have been very similar to this one, with people identifying with what I describe.

https://twitter.com/beyNONEce/status/1048393706754252806?s=19

But I am sorry the tweet came off condescending or victim-blaming/deficit-framing to some & I wish I'd phrased it better.

(obligatory SoundCloud-esque self-promotion below here so it's all in one thread)

If anyone wants to read MORE about how class origins matter even after people have gained entry to various elite positions, check out my book with @SamFriedmanSoc coming January '19: press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book… (US) policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/the-class-ceil… (UK)

*them make sense of why their first year was so hard. I'd have made it gender-neutral to further anonymize the student & also because I'm just generally in favor of gender-neutral language.