This is what I love about reading and writing and why I chose to be a comparative literature major. When people's writing is informed by their lived experience, their creativity is shaped by who they are and the concrete things that they have faced, instead of just from their idea of what is "good" writing. When writing is disconnected from people's concrete day to day lives, and when it is isn't accessible to the people, it loses its purpose and meaning.

This is exactly how it should be and I felt very moved hearing this perspective! A teacher doesn't just teach and talk at their students, but learns from their lived experiences and knowledge that they may not have based on their class and cultural background. A classroom is a collective space where everyone can learn from each other and support each other.

Housing plays a big role in a students ability to thrive. These details might seem unimportant to some, but the environment a student lives in shapes how they interact with school and their peers and teachers. In this home, there isn't much space for a kid to play without dangers of glass or the confinements of a small yard. This aspect of Harold's life that is determined by his class background, shapes his ability to move freely and therefore may shape is participation in school.

It is interesting how having his schedule full and so many planned creative activities has made Alex less creative in some ways. He can't imagine what he could do in his free time because everything is always planned out. When I was younger, I was lucky to have access to an after school program, but there was not too much structure for it, we just got to be outside or inside and play with safety rules and guidelines. This allowed my friends and I to get creative without structure. We would run behind the bungalows, make potions out of the weeds that were growing, and play games we made up. With all of Alex's set activities it is hard for him to develop that type of creativity that was so intrinsic to my childhood.

This is why this research is important. There needs to be an understanding of the true conditions of people based on their class and the long-term effects of that to cultivate an academic culture that does not solely adhere to middle and upper class culture. Students from all socio-economic backgrounds should feel that their education is not only accessible in that they can go to school, but that it is relevant and important to them.

This shows the importance of finding the root cause of certain conditions and then being able to connect the individual experiences back to that root cause. So many of these factors that were being studied separately ultimately can be drawn back to class analysis. Being able to connect them together and find the root cause allows educators to effectively fight back and support their students.

I've seen that school is often the place where children gain class consciousness, especially students t in poverty being surrounded by their peers experience differing economic conditions at home. Having to become aware of your class so early on in life and with such hostility is a reality for so many kids. I taught art over the summer and there were students who would brag about the money their parents had, while other students would try to compete or get just get quiet. I felt that there needed to be guidance for teachers to deal with situations like that so no student every felt shame for their class background.

This shows the importance of a reciprocal relationship between students and teachers. Sometimes there is a strange separation between teacher and student that prevents true understanding. In my opinion, the best teachers don't just teach, but learn from their students and their lived experiences and perspectives.

This figure really hurts to see, but it is so important to understand the impacts of poverty in all stages and sectors of someone's life. People's social and emotional problems, mental health, and even family dynamics, are not isolated but are shaped by the economic conditions they live under. It shows the need to understand the class structures that inform a student's ability to learn and thrive. There are ways that educators can fight back locally against the broader systems that keep people in poverty while those at the top continue to get richer.

This made me reflect on my experience growing up in a middle-class single parent household. My mom already struggled raising my brother and I while working full-time even with the privileges of being middle class, so I can't imagine what it would be like as a single parent in poverty trying to provide the best environment for your children. It makes me think back to the opportunity gap and how parents should not solely be to blame for the struggles their kids have in the classroom. Oftentimes they are trying their very best and fighting for their kids to meet their basic needs.

The part about severe health problems really sticks out for situational poverty and exposes the system that cares more about profits for healthcare and big pharmaceutical companies than people's health and wellbeing. Why is it that having an injury or a medical emergency can plummet someone into poverty? Healthcare, just like education, should be accessible to everyone.

I think that the discussions of race and class are inseparable and intersectional. You can't talk about one without the other. We learned las week that race is socially constructed, and that it was created and continues to be upheld for the economic interests of the people on top to continue to justify the oppression and exploitation of others. Institutionalized racism reinforces the economic conditions of certain racial and ethnic identities as well.

I find it frustrating that academia teaches scholars to distance themselves from their research subject. Research becomes extractive and stagnant if a scholar is only looking to write a paper and talk about something, instead of really being immersed and have genuine care for what they are researching, or even having it be related to our own communtiities and lived experiences. When we separate our studies from the real world it becomes isolated and pointless.

I think this contradiction exposes the culture of the US and how that manifests in the classroom. Growing up in the US we are taught that we should only look out for ourselves, and that even when it comes to care, there is transaction involved. I agree with the students' perspective that teachers should really be caring for students and that will foster students' care for their studies, and I think this could be reached by actively combatting this culture of individualism. Classroom spaces should foster a collective culture that honors and takes into account everyone's individual experiences and where everyone is supporting each others' learning and growth together.

This sentence really resonated with me as not only a teaching method, but as a practice that I think about in my day to day life. We should never assume, and should always strive to truly get to know the people and community around us, especially as a teacher. It's only through building genuine relationships and having care for those around us and learning about their lived day-to-day experiences that we can know how to move forward and support each other.

It isn't only in the home that these stereotypes and beauty standards need to be unlearned and actively combatted through affirmation and love. It is the responsibility of teachers at school need to not only having awareness of these stereotypes, but by taking active steps to support black girls through their intersectional and unique experiences as students.

This reminds of last class where we talked about the achievement gap and how it should be reframed as an opportunity gap. Oftentimes the lived experiences of race and racism intersect with issues of class and access to education, and these performance evaluations which decide the level of education a student should receive fail to take into account the lived experiences of students, often limiting access to black and brown students. My high school was framed as "academically rigorous" and even though it was public, there was an admission system which was made based on applications and grades from middle school. I always found it wrong that there was an admission system, because I thought that a student's grades and ability to put together an application should not decide whether or not they had access to this academically rigorous education. While my school prided itself on its diversity, this admission system limited access to many students of color who didn't attend a highly-funded middle school where there were opportunities to thrive. This exposes a form of institutionalized racism within the school district.