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After 3 months of discussing class and education, i developed an 8th sense - class sense. This video is an attempt to call us in on some causes of class divide here at Bryn Mawr. It is a declassified paper, so dont expect certain formalities to be observed. Enjoy, criticize, comment and most important act. I must acknowledge my roomate for her moral support and for being Oota.

I thoroughly enjoyed our shared experience of Skype this morning.

I hope that someone can record what Parkway said to Bryn Mawr--I would love to savor those words!

Here is what Bryn Mawr said to Parkway:

Thank you for inviting us to see in new ways, and speak so frankly, about our own experience at Bryn Mawr.

Thank you for making us grateful for our campus and all the opportunities that Bryn Mawr College provides.

Thank you for calling us out on our inconsistency: a bunch of us wrote that college isn't necessary for success, but you pointed out that we are in college now; it was easy for us to say that college wasn't necessary... because we're in college.

Thank you for helping us recognize that the things we say are very much influenced by our life situations and where we are right now.

Thank you for forcing us to reevaluate our choices and goals.

Thank you for reminding us of the need for positive thinking.

Thank you for opening up different perspectives.

Thank you for reminding us that we can make our goals more concrete – we can make paths to follow.

Thank you for giving us renewed faith in the youth of this city.

Thank you for teaching us that it's ok to identify ourselves as what we aspire to be, to say "I am a writer" or "I am a basketball player."

Thank you for being our friends.

Please see the attachment!

Everything that went on in class today made we realize how much I've come to love ESem. I'll admit it, In the beginning, I was quiet, unsure, and cursing myself for choosing a topic which I knew nothing about. After these 13 weeks I'm glad to say that I definitely feel differently. So, like we did with Parkway, I have some thank yous for you all as well:

Thank you for introducing new points of view to me, and being willing to share your unique backgrounds.

Thanks for always being such an open, understanding group. 

Thanks for being the only one of my classes that I actually feel close to, and that I know everyone's name.

Thanks for being so awesome outside of class, too. 

And finally (and repetitively), thanks for being my friends. It really means a lot. 

I hope that we can continue to remain close. Thanks for a great semester!

Hayley

Want to share books with me?

My name is Michaela, and I’m an upper-middle class white girl. (Hi, Michaela).

Well then. Now that we’re all a little more acquainted (or at least you know something a little personal about me), let’s talk.

I’ve been at Bryn Mawr as a student now for approximately 3 ½ months, but I spent many of my formative (read: awkward teenage) years here as the kid sister to a BMC student. My sister graduated class of 2010—another fact about me, another thing that I don’t necessarily like to bring up for fear that it reveals my unfair privilege.

In high school, I tried to empathize with the less well-off kids at my fairly diverse, but still very wealthy, public school. I’m from around DC, so I wanted to identify with the “real people” of DC, not the ones like me who were truly from the affluent Maryland suburbs but told people that they were from the city (the count is up to three on things that I’ve now told you about myself that are a little tough/embarrassing/shameful (?) to share. If you comment, will you tell me at least one?)

            On Tuesday, I decided to participate in a direct, non-violent action against PNC bank in Philadelphia instead of going to class. The group I participated with is called the Earth Quaker Action Team (EQAT) and although they are primarily an environmental justice group, the action was actually focused on jobs and economic justice as well as environmental justice. PNC invests in mountain top removal coal mining in Appalachia, where basically mountaintops are blasted off to get the coal in the ground for energy uses. EQAT has lead a campaign to get PNC to divest from this for the past three years now. However, during the two groups’ last interaction, PNC defended their investment by stating that it creates jobs for the people in Appalachia, an area that happens to be a very poor part of the country in general. While this does provide jobs, it’s jobs that are harmful to the employees and are not sustainable. Also, the practice itself adversely affects the people who live in Appalachia in many ways – cancer rates have increased, more babies are born with birth defects, and many people don’t have access to clean water in their homes.

First of all, apologies for being antisocial and doing my teach-in so individually. I really liked the group participation that so many of the other ones provided and I'm sorry mine kind of lacked that dimension!

For my presentation, I wanted to showcase some of the instances in which the assumptions about gender that we've been questioning all semester get questioned variously embodied ways in four distinct dance worlds, suggesting that in its inherent playfulness and performativity, dance is an important outlet for the creative expression of gender, both normative and nonnormative.

(Before I go through them, here's a great TED talk, Dance vs powerpoint, that inspired me to think about how one might do a "teach-in" that incorporates dance. If I had more than 7 minutes, I would have been doing some movement myself -- and getting you all to move, too!)

Masquerade Ball: A Message to the Pretenders

pretending [pri-tend-ing] (v.) – the act of being something you are not

upper class [up∙per-class] (n.) – a class of people above the middle class, having the highest social rank or standing based on wealth, family connections, and the like

middle class [mid∙dle-class] (n.) – a class of people intermediate between the classes of higher and lower social rank or standing; the social, economic, cultural class, having approximately average status, income, education, tastes, and the like.

lower class [low∙er-class] (n.) – a class of people below the middle class, having the lowest social rank or standing due to low income, lack of skills or education, and the like.

mask [mask] (v.) – to disguise or conceal; hide; dissemble

Why is it that we pretend to be something we are not? “Poor people want to be rich. Rich people want to, well, blend in”

TOP TEN WAYS TO HIDE BEING RICH

Hello All,

 This collage is titled “New Points of View,” and it aims to represent the various experiences and cultural capital we bring with us here to Bryn Mawr. Ultimately, social class is another form of diversity such as gender, race, or ethnicity. It shapes who we are and how we experience the world around us. However, social class is different from all of these things in the fact that the topic is alarmingly taboo. Although, like race and gender, it is something we are usually born into, we feel uncomfortable embracing it or even acknowledging its existance. This collage aims to ask the viewer whose culture has capital. Do we all have cultural capital? Whose is most important? Is anyone's cultural capital more valuable than others? Is there a way that we can acknowledge these differences rather than ignore them? And finally, how do we “bridge the gap” and learn from one another? 

What differences do you see between the left side and the right side? Are these differences important? Which one more closely mirrors your experience?  

What are your feelings about the American Dream? Is it attainable for everyone?