OK so lots of people have been doing this privilege meme. It’s originally 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.
1. Father went to college
2. Father finished college
Engineer.
3. Mother went to college
4. Mother finished college
Geologist.
5. Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor.
One. In the whole of history as far as I know. By and large we specialise in being over educated and underpaid. Or teachers, who are both I suppose. Anyway. My cousin is a lawyer. She said going into it that someone in the family should make some decent money. Except she does legal aid type stuff, so isn’t all that well off by lawyer standards.
6. Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers.
7. Had more than 50 books in your childhood home.
8. Had more than 500 books in your childhood home.
Probably, when you imagine that every room, the landing and the loft had bookshelves.
9. Were read children’s books by a parent.
And frankly, I’m pretty sure my Dad would have continued forever, but at age 12 or so first I and then my brother felt it was all getting a bit undignified. Teenagers, huh?
10. Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18
11. Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18
Ballet, gymnastics, piano, drama and double bass. Only the drama and double bass ones lasted for any real length of time though. Hated ballet and the piano.
Also, do other types of organised after school activity count? Cos I can add brownies/guides and the church youth group to that too. Of the two I infinitely preferred the church youth group. I always felt we should be learning how to light our own fires by friction and tickle trout in a sort of cross between Swallows and Amazons and Ray Mear’s Survival Guides in the Brownies. At least in the church youth group we got to camp in an abandoned church in the middle of nowhere, complete with ancient graveyard.
12. The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively
White, middle class southern Brits? Yeah. People who have blogs, a passing acquaintance with all things scifi and actual friends who they’ve met on the Internet? Not so much. Teachers? Ha. Ha ha. Ha ha ha ha ha.
13. Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18
No. I only have one now for emergencies.
14. Your parents (or a trust) paid for the majority of your college costs
15. Your parents (or a trust) paid for all of your college costs
Fees and such were paid by the taxpayer as per the UK system. My parents paid for my living costs and I worked summers to get spending money.
16. Went to a private high school
No.
17. Went to summer camp
I was going to say ‘No’ in the sense that I understand Summer Camps to be huts by a lake and a variety of Scoutlike outdoor activities, craft projects and campfire singing which lasts for months, but actually I guess I went to Band Camp. Well, Orchestra Camp. Which was definitely not as racy as American Pie makes out.
18. Had a private tutor before you turned 18
No.
19. Family vacations involved staying at hotels.
No. We mostly stayed in either a rented cottage next to Windermere or a rented boat on the Norfolk Broads. Rented self catering accommodation, anyway.
20. Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18
No. Although in my teenage years a lot of it was.
21. Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them
I used Mum’s car. I miss that Fiat Panda.
22. There was original art in your house when you were a child
It wasn’t very impressive, mind you, and at least one picture was one I did.
23. You and your family lived in a single-family house
Yes.
24. Your parent(s) owned their own house or apartment before you left home
Yes.
25. You had your own room as a child
Yes.
26. You had a phone in your room before you turned 18
No. No one I knew did. This might be more of an age class thing? People didn’t, really, when I was younger.
27. Participated in a SAT/ACT prep course
Not relevant.
28. Had your own TV in your room in high school
No. See above for phones.
29. Owned a mutual fund or IRA in high school or college
No. Whatever they are.
30. Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16
No. The first time I flew I was 19 and going to France to see a uni friend who was doing a placement in Versailles. I thought they were going to make me pay for the food.
Mind you, I think this has more to do with my Dad’s travel phobia than anything else.
31. Went on a cruise with your family
No. I don’t think this is a British thing, unless you are over 60.
32. Went on more than one cruise with your family
No.
33. Your parents took you to museums and art galleries as you grew up
Yes. Mostly museums. Oddly enough for a historian I find a lot of museums bore me rigid. I think it might be that my Dad has this compulsive thing about stopping to read every label or notice in the place, and I feel both compelled and repelled to do the same.
34. You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family
Except inasmuchas we didn’t have central heating for a long while and borrowing and turning on the one upstairs heater on was considered a bit of a luxury.
19/34. About right that, I reckon. I am relentlessly Middle Middle Class.
I got B to do this too:
1. Father went to college
2. Father finished college
Engineer.
3. Mother went to college
4. Mother finished college
She studied economics, but didn’t finish. Eventually, she did get accountancy qualifications though and ended up as a head accountant somewhere. Accountancy, to my amusement, is a woman’s profession in Russia.
5. Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor.
Teachers, engineers and accountants are what B’s family run to.
6. Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers.
7. Had more than 50 books in your childhood home.
8. Had more than 500 books in your childhood home
Books were a bit of a premium and not quite as plentiful in the shops as here. Libraries were though.
9. Were read children’s books by a parent.
10. Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18
Piano and singing. This does make me giggle. B can’t carry a tune and is and rhythm deaf.
11. Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18.
Disappointing. Most Russians seem to send their kids off to every after school class imaginable. Which I thoroughly approve of. The Star won’t know what’s hit him. Well, we’ve got to keep him from joining agang and knifing someone somehow, eh?
12. The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively
In Russia. Eastern Europeans are the butt of any number of jokes and sneers on TV in the UK at the moment though, and Russia has only to sneeze before someone on the news claims they are starting the Cold War up again.
13. Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18.
Not relevant.
14. Your parents (or a trust) paid for the majority of your college costs
15. Your parents (or a trust) paid for all of your college costs
Not relevant. State did. Different system. See also the UK.
16. Went to a private high school
No private schools in the USSR.
17. Went to summer camp
This is quite a Russian thing too, and every factory or organisation organised their own. But he only went once. Hated it and refused to go back. His brothers went often though.
18. Had a private tutor before you turned 18.
Russian kids tend to negotiate their grades after the fact rather than do extra study beforehand. Since the grades are cumulative, mostly this means doing extra coursework to make up for the bits that are letting them down, although B did once help one of his teachers clear out his garage in exchange for a favourable look at his borderline grade.
Personally, I think this system is quite good. Builds negotiating skills and if the point of education is to learn how to do the work well enough to get the grade rather than merely get the grade, then this is better than the one exam one shot system we tend to operate.
19. Family vacations involved staying at hotels.
The only thing my Dad and B’s Dad don’t have in common, I’ve decided, is that B’s Dad loved camping and my Dad hated it.
20. Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18.
The problem of having older brothers is that clothing gets handed down no matter where you come from. Half and half new.
21. Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them
Cars were not so common in the USSR. Plus, you live in Moscow, you have great public transport.
22. There was original art in your house when you were a child.
Although there were more prints.
23. You and your family lived in a single-family house
Communal flats were a bit of a feature in the Soviet Union. B’s flat started out as a communal flat, but there were rules about how much space each person got and as B’s family grew, they were allotted more of their flat, until it was all theirs. It helped that B’s mother was a bit of an operator and did a few deals along the way to get more space, too.
24. Your parent(s) owned their own house or apartment before you left home
No private property in the USSR, but they owned the right to live there and when the Soviet Union collapsed were able to privatise the two flats the family had at that point, so we are going to say that for all practical purposes, yes, here.
25. You had your own room as a child.
Shared with a brother. But since brother was considerably older and out a lot…
26. You had a phone in your room before you turned 18.
27. Participated in a SAT/ACT prep course.
Not relevant.
28. Had your own TV in your room in high school.
Again, consumer goods not so common.
29. Owned a mutual fund or IRA in high school or college.
Not relevant.
30. Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16.
People in Russia often go long distances in the country by train. And of course, you really were privileged if you were the sort of person who went abroad under the Soviets.
31. Went on a cruise with your family.
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.
13/34. If it weren’t such a capitalist, money obsessed quiz… But B says he wouldn’t score that highly on a survey aimed at privileged Soviet people either.
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