What does it mean to be privileged? I come to this post thinking about an exchange I recently had with another parent at my child’s elementary school. The school is a study in contrasts. There are very few students in the middle class – kids either come from fairly well-to-do families, or they come from the migrant camp down the road. In other words, there is a pretty solid bifurcation in student privilege.
I really believe that most parents at the school care about kids who might come families different then their own. But sometimes the privilege they enjoy makes it hard for them to see how their actions affect the very kids they would say they care about.
Today, I received an email from the parents organizing the yearbook asking for ‘high resolution’ photos for the 6th grade yearbook. I wrote an email to the teacher (I thought) saying that perhaps not all under-privileged kids would have access to ‘high resolution’ photos, or maybe even photos at all (e.g., adopted kids, kids in foster care, migrant worker families). I wrote that if someone would collect hard copy photos I could at least take these to a photo place and have digital images made (at my expense).
As luck would have it, I inadvertently sent my email (which also complained about the lack of awareness) to one of the parents, who responded with a scathing email about how much time was being spent on the yearbook and how the parents doing it should be commended. I was also reprimanded for my “tone.”
The real kicker though was this part of the second email from the parent:
“…I am sorry that some children do not have access to photos of themselves as babies, [the email] does state the photos can be from early school years, which would include kindergarten. But you can not penalize those who do have photos, and you can not expect [the organizers] to stop asking for them…”
Embedded in this response is the assumption that privilege lies with “permanent, intact” families, a theme I’ve seen before. Last year, there was a parent meeting in which we were asked to describe our our ideal community/school. On one list, someone wrote “permanent, intact families.” Preferably, those with baby pictures.
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