Jenson Chapters and Hooks article

{quotes} These texts clearly have a great deal to do with the class divide between working class and other classes, specifically dealing with higher education. The Bell Hooks article "Where We Stand: Class Matters" talked about a young woman's struggle with higher education in terms of race and class. Raised in a working class home she did not quite fit in when she got to college because it was clash of classes. She did not conform to the class standards of these wealthy girls she went to school with and they could not seem to figure out why. It also showed how the people around her viewed her class. She stated, "almost everyone around me believed working class folks had no values" (35). They did not understand where she was coming from and did not want to try and understand it therefore making her feel very uncomfortable. She later talked about her class in terms of how it affected her education. She said, "Slowly I began to understand fully that there was no place in academe for folks from working class backgrounds who did not wish to leave the past behind" (36). It is a struggle for working class people because they are stuck in a really difficult stop .

              They are from working class families who have a set of values that are quite different from other classes. Working class values community more than individualism. This becomes a problem when you get mixed in with other classes in higher education. They do not understand where you are coming from and they are not going to conform to you so either you assimilate into the middle or upper class values or you don't. Which leaves you with two options either leaving everything you know and conforming to a new set of values or being an outcast. These people who move into a new class have a sense of sadness because it forces them to go against what they grew up with and also it distances themselves from their friends and families who just can't grasp this new culture. They have a problem when crossing culture happens.

              Jensen states in chapter 6, "the less cultural capital they have form previous schooling, the more they face a tangle of extracurricular psychological, sociological, and cultural confusion". These people are not usually looking for a change in culture just a change in work. So the question lies in how do we deal with this? These college dreams threaten the working class identity. These people usually have to cope with it in one of three ways; distancing, resisting, or building bridges. When we get to the middle class we see a, "cultural emphasis on becoming through individual achievement". This means using self actualization whereas in working class self actualization may be "incomprehensible". The struggle between individualism (middle class) and community (working class) is evident. America seems to be heading more towards the idea of individualism and less with community making issues for the working class. Although this also creates the problem that we are losing social capital because of it. The class issue here is problematic when it comes to higher education. Working class students are finding it difficult to move ahead in the world without losing their sense of identity.