How does socioeconomic diversity appear in and impact the classroom and the school? How can you help young people understand class, avoid assumptions, and learn to appreciate the differences? Gather information and tools to help the youth in your lives grow, learn, work, and play in today’s increasingly diverse world.

1. Where’s the Class in Class?
Supporting Our Children in Understanding
Socioeconomic Diversity
Evergreen School Parents
Rosetta Eun Ryong Lee
Seattle Girls’ School
Rosetta Eun Ryong Lee (http://tiny.cc/rosettalee)

2. About Seattle Girls’ School
Rosetta Eun Ryong Lee (http://tiny.cc/rosettalee)

3. Goals
 Acknowledge the Obstacles and
Opportunities of Talking About
Socioeconomic Status
 Learn the Realities of Wealth in the United
States to Come Closer Together
 Discover Ways We Grow Apart
 Identify Positive Steps to Help Our Children
Understand and Appreciate Across
Socioeconomic Differences
Rosetta Eun Ryong Lee (http://tiny.cc/rosettalee)

4. Agenda
 Class Taboo in the United States
 Discussion – What Makes You Stop?
 Wealth in the United States
 Exercise – Ten Chairs
 Class Culture in the United States
 Discussion – Where’s the Class in Class?
 So What, Now What?
 Resources
Rosetta Eun Ryong Lee (http://tiny.cc/rosettalee)

5. Student Voices
 “Popularity seems to be decided on how
much money you have, how you look,
and what you have. It very much
depends on your class.” (Heather)
 “I feel the same way as probably
everyone else does about class. When I
was … [at] a different school … I don’t
think anyone really cared about what
class people were in. But now, I go to a
different high school … and I think that
class has a lot to do with how people
think of you.” (C. Frye)
Rosetta Eun Ryong Lee (http://tiny.cc/rosettalee)

6. Assumptions about Addressing Class
 Class is confusing in the United States
 There is a lot of secrecy about class issues
 Talking about class can be emotional
 Our experience of class is individual
 Our childhood class experiences matter
 We derive strengths as well as weaknesses from our
class background
 Classism hurts us all
 Each of us is born innocent and bear responsibility
 There are multiple paths to change
Rosetta Eun Ryong Lee (http://tiny.cc/rosettalee)

7. Discussion
What brought you to
tonight’s session? What
are your hesitations,
concerns, or worries about
talking about
socioeconomic class?
What are your hopes? Do
you talk about class often?
Why or why not?
Rosetta Eun Ryong Lee (http://tiny.cc/rosettalee)

8. Wealth Versus Income
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9. Wealth in the United States:
A Reality Check
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10. Present Day
Wealth in the
United States:
What We Want,
What We Believe,
and What We
Know
Rosetta Eun Ryong Lee (http://tiny.cc/rosettalee)

11. Debrief: Ten Chairs
What did you learn, gain, or
notice about our exercise?
What are you feeling?
What questions or ponderings
do you have?
What does this mean for us as
a school community?
Rosetta Eun Ryong Lee (http://tiny.cc/rosettalee)

12. What Pulls Us Apart?
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13. Class Culture
All generalizations are
inaccurate to a
degree. However,
they can be helpful.
There are many
subgroups that vary
from the
generalizations in
each group.
Rosetta Eun Ryong Lee (http://tiny.cc/rosettalee)

14. Class Culture: Orientation
Owning Class Professional Working Class
Middle Class
Dreaming Doing and Being and
Becoming Belonging
• Fulfillment oriented • Achievement • Character oriented
• Past and future oriented • Present, here and
oriented • Future oriented now oriented
• Play and be good at • Life as • Life as tangled web
the game of life transformation of relationships
• Expansive sense of • Concerned with • Anti-status
time status •
• Anything is possible • Individualistic Interdependent/Solida
• Enjoy the good life ristic
Rosetta Eun Ryong Lee (http://tiny.cc/rosettalee)

15. Class Culture: Values
Owning Class Professional Working Class
Middle Class
Values Values Values
• Being hard-working • Being brilliant • Being generous
• Being free to choose • Being ambitious • Being kind hearted
• Being successful • Being successful • Being cooperative
• Being on the cutting • Being competitive • Being connected
edge, a trend setter • Being independent • Stability
• Being in charge • Change • Tradition
• Being responsible • Progress
• Being philanthropic
• Tradition
Rosetta Eun Ryong Lee (http://tiny.cc/rosettalee)

16. Class Culture: Frame of Reference
Owning Class Professional Working Class
Middle Class
More Global More Cosmopolitan More Parochial
• Global view, global • Weaker loyalty to • Stronger loyalty to
allegiances, multiple persons, places, persona, places,
homes, loyalty to groups, and groups, and
family and other class institutional affiliations institutional affiliations
members and
institutions
Rosetta Eun Ryong Lee (http://tiny.cc/rosettalee)

17. Class Culture: Results
Owning Class Professional Working Class
Middle Class
Best Result Best Result Best Result
• Visionary, big picture • Individual • Secure, supportive
• Thinking outside the achievement has community
box positive human
• Undeterred by impact
barriers and difficulty
• Generous with time
and money
Worst Result Worst Result Worst Result
Arrogant, entitled, The lonely individual Unachieved potential
isolated, unaware,
overwhelmed by
choices
Rosetta Eun Ryong Lee (http://tiny.cc/rosettalee)

18. Debrief:
Class Culture
1. What in the descriptions
of class culture resonated
with your own experience,
growing up or now?
2. What are aspects of class
culture that feed into class
stereotypes? What are
the class stereotypes?
3. How are our own children
affected by class culture
and stereotypes?
Rosetta Eun Ryong Lee (http://tiny.cc/rosettalee)

19. So What, Now What?
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20. How Class Shows Up In Class
 Who is smarter?
 Who is cooler?
 Who is more cultured?
 Who is more beautiful?
 Who is more talented?
 Who is more fun to be with?
 Who sets the tone?
 Who makes the rules?
 Whose values rule?
Rosetta Eun Ryong Lee (http://tiny.cc/rosettalee)

21. What Can Parents Do?
 Help them develop strong interaction and social skills.
 Show them diverse role models of all class identities.
 Encourage and help them to make informed choices.
 Teach them about class and classism.
 Respect and nurture their true selves.
 Be EXPLICIT about your values.
 Share your stories.
 Model the way.
 Stay Involved.
Rosetta Eun Ryong Lee (http://tiny.cc/rosettalee)
Rosetta Eun Ryong Lee

22. The Influence of Media
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23. Teach Media Literacy
 Choose media FOR youth whenever possible.
 Engage in media WITH youth.
 Teach them your values.
 Guide how they spend their money.
 Get to know their friends and the media they engage in.
 Talk to other parents/guardians about media literacy.
Rosetta Eun Ryong Lee
Rosetta Eun Ryong Lee (http://sites.google.com/site/sgsprofessionaloutreach/)

24. Your Next Steps
 What did you learn today
that was new, helpful, or
thought provoking?
 What are some goals or
strategies you would like to
apply in your life with your
children?
Rosetta Eun Ryong Lee (http://tiny.cc/rosettalee)

25. Final Questions or Comments?
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26. Presenter Information
Rosetta Eun Ryong Lee
6th Faculty and
Professional Outreach
Seattle Girls’ School
2706 S Jackson Street
Seattle WA 98144
(206) 805-6562
rlee@seattlegirlsschool.org
http://tiny.cc/rosettalee
Rosetta Eun Ryong Lee (http://tiny.cc/rosettalee)

27. Resources
• G. William Domhoff,
http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.
html
• Elizabeth Gudrais, “What We Know About Wealth”,
Harvard Magazine, Nov/Dec 2011.
http://harvardmagazine.com/2011/11/what-we-know-
about-wealth
• People Like Us, http://www.pbs.org/peoplelikeus/
• Felice Yeskel, Class Action, www.Classism.org
Rosetta Eun Ryong Lee (http://tiny.cc/rosettalee)