Growing Up In High School

As soon as we start highschool we start to think about college, or was that just me? The thought of college can be quite a straining one. It requires you to think of your future and what you want to do with your life. Do you want to end up like your parents or do you want to be better than your parents? Of course I want to be better than my parents, but some things are just easier said than done.Growing up in a working class family, we worry/stress about expenses a lot. I am fortunate to be in college because it 's very expensive, especially when you have one parent that didn 't finish college and another who is still paying off their loans. Stressing about expenses takes some of my focus away from my studies. Personally, I have never thought …show more content…
Sometimes as students we never really think about the small things that can make us better students. Our life situations can overcome our plans to reach our goals, which is to be successful in college then in life. Getting ahead in college can be difficult , but there are some simple solutions like, asking questions, seeking help, forming better study habits, or even changing your group of friends.
Many of us enter college with our high school with thinking caps on. In high school students worry a lot about what their peers think. That being so, they stray from doing or saying anything that can be potentially embarrassing. The point is, that when these students enter college they are ashamed to ask questions. That or they just don 't know how to approach the professor on a personal level. So, they just don 't do it. The second part of this issue is due to social class and parenting. “Calarco (2011), for example, shows that young middle-class children get out of their chairs to badger teachers for help, whereas their working-class counterparts, in the same …show more content…
Coming from a working class family my parents just let me fend for myself. In all honesty, I didn 't know how to ask for help or where seek help when I came to college. It took me a couple of weeks before I spoke to someone face to face because I wasn 't used to having someone that was eager to just help me. When I started college I was working, and got used to doing a lot of things on my own. I didn 't really think I needed an advisor. However, having one saved me from a lot of trial and error. For middle class students they have to learn to be independent. Some working class students have no choice. This makes it harder for working class students to seek help because they are not used to the idea of being dependent. Personally when it came to seeking help pride became an issue. I soon learned that my pride was more harmful than helpful. Another thing is that working class parents make their kids feel lucky when they go off to college. Middle class parents tell their kids that they deserve better than the best. “Ms. Marshall was training her daughter in help-seeking behavior with professionals in institutions (and cultivating a sense of entitlement). Ms. Marshall saw help-seeking as a valuable life skill that Stacey needed to develop for herself”(Lareau 15). Working class parents usually tell their children to mind their place. This basically means not to bother adult with child things.