As some of you may or may not know, I'm taking several courses for summer school to get some requirements out of the way. All of them are at Miami Middletown, for no reason other than that the classes I wanted were not offered anywhere else. All of my three classes are introductory courses and very small with no more than 10 students in each. In all but one of these classes I am both the youngest member and the only student with Oxford for a home campus. Based on conversations I have heard and had with my classmates, I also seem to be one of the only ones who doesn't smoke two packs a day, doesn't have a family member in jail, and doesn't have at least one child. In my history class, one woman gets up every 15 minutes to light a cigarette, one woman doesn't vote because she "was brought up being taught that women shouldn't be allowed to", one 24-year-old has three children with three different men, and one man doesn't work because the money he receives from Social Security for his son's cancer is "enough to get by". We were discussing Andrew Jackson's "spoils system" today, and the instructor mentioned "aristocracy", and we proceeded to spend 15 minutes discussing the word because no one in class knew what it meant. Some didn't know what a passport is, or that Obama is a Democrat.
Am I a bad person because I judge these people? Because I see myself as a better person? I know hardly anything about them, and certainly nothing about the context of their situations, but even if I did, would it be right to judge them? My family is affluent, we speak properly, we don't have bad habits, we're intelligent and sensical, we respect each other, we take responsibility, we seek out knowledge, and we know about and participate in a world that extends beyond our backyard.
But does that make us better or worth more as people? Does anything make one human better than another? Is this perhaps a topic better suited for a face-to-face conversation?
2 comments:
I work with several people trying to get their GEDs, whose education level is probably not too different from the people you describe. Being less educated, or even desiring education less than another person has nothing to do with one's "goodness" as a person, in my opinion (and I don't mean to imply that I think you suggested that it did).
These people must be trying in some way to improve themselves, or they wouldn't be taking college classes. They are, in fact, pursuing knowledge, even if it is as a means to an end and not an end in itself. Ambition to improve oneself is an admirable quality, regardless of one's starting or ending points.
There are some issues of class (meaning socioeconomic status) at work here, as well as education level. It's not a wealthy area, and the demographics are very different. They're a lot like Dayton, really. The classmates you described could easily be members of my family. Going to Miami U, Oxford was the culture shock for me. Not academically or intellectually, but socially.
I have to stay self-aware when I'm working with the people that I do. I know that I am a lot different from them, and this makes me self-conscious. I look young, and this morning a young woman taking the practice GED test I was proctoring asked me if I was in school, and I explained. And I mentioned grad school, and she said, "Here I am trying to get a GED and you're talking about grad school." She didn't say it unkindly; she was actually commenting on my age because I think she thought I was in high school or at least undergrad. But it was awkward. I didn't have a response. When I get over that, and get to know them better, I tend to judge less.
Does judging them make you a bad person? Well...it's a thoughtcrime. You can think whatever you want. Action is different. If you let thoughts about whether someone is inherently not-as-good-as-you guide your actions in a way that is hurtful to them, or if you treat them differently because you think youself better, or because you think them lesser, that would be a "bad" thing to do...but we all judge and we all have prejudices and at least you're aware of your own thoughts. The fact that the way you thought about them gave you pause at all is meaningful, I think.
I don't think any person is worth more than any other person, no. Are some people better than other people? Probably. Can one, universal set of standards by which to judge who is better and who is worse be established and adhered to by everyone? Probably not. Do we try anyway? Of course. Personally, my standards of "goodness" hinge on ethical behavior.
That whole good/bad thing is a false binary, anyway. Too black and white. The world is gray. I don't really think there are good or bad people. Maybe actions, can be good or bad (or ambivalent or ambiguous). People are just moving masses of gray.
1. that was arguably a bit morally relativistic, but in reality my ethical standards are very high.
2. that response was far longer than any response ever should be, and for that i apologize.
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