Word: working-class
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Living for extended periods as the guest of migrant workers, black and white urban and rural poor, sharecrop farmers, mountaineers, and working-class whites taught Coles to respect their stature as dignified and resilient persons confronting the common dilemma of working out a suitable means of facing life's cruelties, inconsistencies, and ambiguities. He studies not only their problems, but their lives, in order to communicate both "what is strong as well as weak, what is sound as well as what ails, what may be struggling for expression in a person's life as well as what is lacking...
Living for extended periods as the guest of migrant workers, black and white urban and rural poor, sharecrop farmers, mountaineers, and working-class whites taught Coles to respect their stature as dignified and resilient persons confronting the common dilemma of working out a suitable means of facing life's cruelties, inconsistencies, and ambiguities. He studies not only their problems, but their lives, in order to communicate both "what is strong as well as weak, what is sound as well as what ails, what may be struggling for expression in a person's life as well as what is lacking...
...combination of such treatment with the conditions of working-class work and life is what alienates the white majority. The illusion of an affluent society mocks members of the white majority whose real wages are falling, who are getting deeper in debt, and who face a lifetime on an assembly line or in a mechanical white collar...
...increased availability of scholarships, student loans and work-study programs has drawn more children of working-class families to college than ever before. While they predominate at "commuter colleges" like Wayne State in Detroit and the new Federal City College in Washington, they also attend the better-known universities. Indeed, one study indicates that 58% of U.S. freshmen last year had fathers who did not go to college. At last count, 37% of all college students came from families headed by blue-collar, service or farm workers...
...Overwhelmingly, the working-class students feel that the radicals do not appreciate the value of a modern university education. To them, it is the all-important thing, and the one form of campus protest they cannot abide is disruption of classes. Yet unlike earlier generations of poor students, and like the middle-class revolutionaries, they tend to define success in terms of making a contribution to society rather than making money. "I think the most important thing I can do with my life is to use my education to help chicano communities," says John Gonzales. He hopes to work...