Last week, I took a few days off work. I was on the be(a/n)ch, so I wanted to advance some personal projects. I did. I laid down a draft presentation of a potential project - developing open source life skills curriculum.
[note: still deciding on whether to pursue this, I don't know if I have the passion, time, resources, or team to do it successfully. I don't want to waste time on something that's not a winning idea. Thank you for teaching me that Keary and Lalendran]
Anyway, the motivation for developing this open source life-skills curriculum was because I've been given so much opportunity in my life. My parents did math with me and read books with me when I was little. They sent me to different classes and to play on sports teams. They talked to me and parented me. They had me explore and expose myself to things that they couldn't teach me. They cooked. They did all these things, and I was one of the lucky ones.
This enrichment, I think, was really important for my development and my ability to function as a normal human being, more or less. There are lots of people that probably didn't get the chance to develop the "life-skills" that I was able to, or they might not have ever had anyone to teach them.
So, I thought, why not develop a way for current, prospective adults to develop life-skills that they have never had the privilege to learn?
And that's precisely the point, I considered my upbrining privilege. And it was, of course. But as I was talking with some friends about privilege, upbringing and agent guilt...the privilege is precisely not the point.
Those things I had...a stable home life, the opportunity for enrichment and good parents, should not be considered privilege. Those things are the bare minimum that a kid needs to adjust reasonably well to adult life. Being blessed enough to have sound mind and body, going to a REALLY good school, living in a neighborhood that's really friendly and clean...maybe that's privilege.
Having someone to teach me math, reading and some of those other things...it's ludicrous to think that any kid should not have them. To think of them as privilege is an excuse to not provide them to others.
So, I am lucky, yes. Privileged? No. Those things are essentials. I find it mildly insulting to think of them as a privilege, because that implies that special people get those things. Everyone should get those things and needs to get those things. Really, it's an act of wrongdoing to allow anyone to go through life without some or all of those things that others would call privilege.
2 comments:
I think your conceptualization of "privilege" just has to do with prescriptive or descriptive norms. Yes, everyone should have opportunities, and we should expect that our world either affords everyone opportunities or at least is working towards providing more people with opportunities...but in the mean time, the privileges you and I enjoyed do in fact make us privileged, for better or worse, as I understand the term.
Using philosophy, what if we were to all start in an original position, not knowing which of us would have natural talents or committed and amazing parents, and which of us would not have the same advantages of a privileged life? All of us would vote or wish for society which gave and afforded equal opportunities so that all of us would have basic needs met. As long as we are using our privileged lives to work towards a notion of equality, than I think the title of privileged should not be considered so negatively. We are mostly innocent to where all of us fall on the privileged spectrum; we might be guilty of not acting on our options to change things for the better.
Realizing this, I think using the term privileged should be confined to people who take advantage of their opportunities for selfish gain. Lucky or another term should be ascribed to those that live a pure and noble life consecrated towards others.
well said. hope you get to puruse the project at some point neil
Post a Comment