Sunday, April 27, 2008

An alternative prospective from Middlebury Confessional...

Original post: "I don't understand when people at Middlebury choose majors they don't like."

Commenter: "Your inability to understand is called privilege."

3 comments:

Will B said...

So, the commenter is suggesting that only those who are well off can major in something like English or Theater, which have few obvious practical applications?

Hmmm.... I wonder if that's true. There are certainly plenty of priviliged kids in my econ classes. I'd like to see some stats.

Jeff said...

I think the commenter was consistent in his/her reasoning. He didn't draw strict lines (obviously anyone here can major in anything they want--the rich in economics and the poor in theater, if they so wish) but rather gave a fair explanation for why people might major in things they're not interested in--because they might have little to fall back on if they couldn't translate their education into a job. This argument was only by implication, however, and assumed that the original poster is privileged, which doesn't necessarily have to be true. I think that's where they were mistaken. I thought the comment was interesting for the perspective it pointed out, not necessarily for its accuracy.

George said...

Interesting perspective from the commenter. The realities of student loans and whatnot probably do make it so people need to make the 'scrilla. That being said, I know both privileged and underprivileged counterexamples.