Institutional Inequalities: Inside-Out Winter 2011

Katie D.

March 16, 2011 - 8:06 PM

My favorite part of winter term has been working as a Graduate Teaching Fellow.

It's been a wonderful combination of University work: logistics, planning for conferences, working for the Honors College, and teaching. As always, I am thrilled to be working with the Inside-Out Program, and feel lucky every time I clock in for work. But this term has been amazing in that I am actually helping lead a classroom for Inside-Out. And, as of yesterday, that class has ended with huge success.

Co-facilitating "Institutional Inequalities and Individual Lives" with Sociology Professor Ellen Scott has been an incredible experience. I last wrote about the class in January (http://www.isupportuoregon.org/my_duckstory/blog/katie_d/update_on_the_insideout_class) while the class was still hitting its stride. We finished the term with some of the most profound conversations, true human connection, and an interaction with the course material that went far beyond anything I have experienced during a ten-week term. We explored the sociology of structural inequalities in American society, and applied those theories to our own lives and circumstances. In the process, we learned about ourselves and our histories, coming to understand why we are who we are in a delicate balance of structure and agency that has shaped our lives.

Our students dove into the course material. We discussed David Shipler's book The Working Poor, in which he discusses the status of working-class people in America. Students from both the inside and the outside could see themselves and their histories in the text: either the precarious nature of low-wage jobs without benefits, or the ways they had themselves been privileged by the economic and social system. As we discussed social stratification, we began to understand a little of why some of us were arriving in class by way of the University of Oregon, while others met us at the classroom door from their cells in the Oregon State Penitentiary. I realized, myself, that I had never made the choice to be a college student: I had worked hard in school, but I was placed on a college track before I was even of school age. It's just what was expected of me. An inside student shared a tiny bit of his background, and told us that when he was growing up he couldn't have even imagined living a middle-class life. While most of us sat in silence, considering this, it was a fellow inside student who challenged him. "You COULDN'T imagine it, even seeing it on TV and knowing it was around you? Or you didn't WANT to imagine it." His classmate replied, "I didn't even know it was there. Not for me."

There's something I can't imagine.

Every time I enter an Inside-Out activity, I know it will change my life again. The ability to engage in dialogue, to see into another person's life, and to share a piece of my own is such an empowering and inspiring thing. This is education at its best and most basic: the bringing alive ideas within the student's life. I believe in that idea as a student, a beginning teacher, and as a human being.

It seems to me that we often go through life with few deep examinations of ourselves. We waltz through our days, happy in our friendships and safe within our social circles. We engage in the routines we love, and the activities that bring us joy and meaning (if we are lucky). With Inside-Out, I have found an activity that brings me into immediate contact with the complex and hidden in the world. It asks me to really see myself, and to see other people who are so often overlooked.

And now, with the final class ceremony to close the term, my first term as an Inside-Out co-instructor has ended. I worked hard and did my best. I shared everything I could with my students: I read their response papers, I helped them write their essays. I ran the logistics for the course. I drove the van. I shared my opinions, my dreams, and the truth of myself.

Here's to another wonderful class behind me! Thank you to all my students, inside and out. Thank you to Ellen Scott. Thank you all for your openness, your honesty, and your compassion. This class has taught me everything, and brought deep and enduring inspiration.