Having "Poor" Values

In my SED class one day a student did a presentation on a book about being poor. The author of the book believed that people of the lower class have different values than the people of the upper and middle class. Probably true. She also believed that in order to help the students in the lower class succeed we need to teach them middle class values. Then the students giving the presentation handed out a chart listing values each class held. Some of the middle class values I agreed with and some I didn't. The last thing on the list was that the lower class believes love is conditional on whether or not you like someone and the middle class believes love to be conditional on achievement. I'm sorry I do not agree that love is conditional on achievement. I don't care if you eat dirt every night for dinner. I don't care if you make a million dollars or five. My love is not going to be based on what you have achieved in your life. I don't believe that love should be based on that no matter what class you are apart of. I agree we need to teach the poor kids that there are ways for them to overcome their status. That it isn't divine providence that they are poor. That they aren't fated to be poor forever. I agree that we need to teach them that yes hard work does help you go places. I know that as a poor kid it is hard to believe that. After all my dad works a steady job and he doesn't have money. I work hard at my job and I don't have money. My mom worked for awhile after my parent's divorce and she didn't have money no matter how hard she worked. But when you are a kid that hard work can pay off. I would like to show me as an example. I would like to look at them and say I come from a family that never had money. I lived in what this author describes as generation poverty. No one in my family ever dreamed of being middle class. And look at me. I am a teacher. A damn good one too. It isn't a lot of money but it more money than I ever dreamed of having as a kid. And I love my job. No one in my family dreamed of liking what they do for a living.

I was offended by the list. I did identify with a lot of of the lower class values and I am succeeding just fine with those values. It offends me to think that some stuck up white, middle class woman somewhere thinks her and her values are better than mine. To think that someone in this world thinks I shouldn't be where I am because I am different. I'm sorry to tell you this lady but you are severely misinformed. I am where I am today because I am different. Because I was stubborn and kept the values my mother instilled in me since birth. You can shove your bullshit up your ass.