Introduction

I’m Elissa Matheny.  I grew up in Durham, New Hampshire, a small university town.  However, this summer my parents moved to St. Louis, so now I have a new home in the Midwest, quite a different experience from New England.   I’m really excited to be in In Class/Outclassed because although I’ve never considered myself interested in becoming an educator, I’ve discovered a recent fascination for learning about educational reform in America. I’m hoping to gain a better sense of the current flaws in our educational system and how they came to be.  During class yesterday it really struck me how relative our sense of class really is.  Class only exists because we allow it to in our thought.  It was interesting reading our list of categories because they mostly consisted of personal qualities rather than attributes such as race and social status.  We must be so much more aware of class among others rather than for ourselves.