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[concordancia]

The "I am the only working class academic" and "Displays of wealth and low-income" threads have gone active again, so I decided that we should check out the fora distribution. From those threads, I actually suspect that a large percentage of us come from the first few categories. Perhaps the academic aristocracy can't be deemed to visit us here ;)

My mother has a business certificate, which I believe involved a couple of math classes. As I recall, the one job that she used it for was cashier. She doesn't talk about it much, but it was definitely something to make girls [sic] suitable for the working world.

My father has an Associate's degree in engineering. Once he got off the drafting floor, most of his colleagues, and everyone who got promoted above him, had at least a Master's. He has published some of his innovations in trade journals. He is a big enough name in his field that he is earning as much with his retirement consulting as he was before retirement. He still has no clue what I do, though. After all, engineering is useful.

[ursula]

My mother was a teacher; she went to university, and eventually got a B.A.  My dad couldn't go to high school because of the Great Depression, and it was the greatest sorrow of his life. Their children, among us, have five university degrees and four college diplomas.

[see_wolf]

Both of my folks have at least a Bachelor's degree, but neither were traditional students.  My dad dropped out of high school to work when his dad became ill, as he was the oldest son and needed to support the family.  But he finished by going to night school, and then in his early 40's, received his Bachelor's in business - and went right back to work in the factories (now as a manager).

My mom has a MSW - but didn't start college until I was a senior in high school (she was in her 50's).  She was a secretary in a CPA office during my childhood.

[octoprof]

Both of my parents finished high school. They were both too poor to go to a university at the time. Both were the youngest children of widowed mothers. Their only siblings who went to college went much later in life.

The only education they earned beyond high school was training (for electrician and maintenance - dad took courses while in the Navy and later while working for the Federal Reserve Bank; for real estate (much later in life) - mom). They both eventually became self employed entrepreneurs and were successful in their chosen fields. Their one goal for their children was for us all to earn bachelor's degrees. Two of us managed that (and I managed a bit more).

[wegie]

Mum finished high school, but as she was brought up by her gran in small town south west Ireland after her parents went their separate ways, there was never any question of university. My Dad finished high school only in the sense that the legal leaving age in the UK at the time was 14, and he went to work as a farm labourer.

[marigolds]

Mom has a BA, dad has a JD.

[busyslinky]

We were immigrants.  Neither parent graduated from high school.  One did not even know how to write.  My family was essentially migrant workers in our home country.  Still amazing that we were able to get to the U.S.  We did come in legally.  My father, although uneducated, really was clever.

[merinoblue]

Both parents were "helping professionals" (do we still use that expression?).  Mom wanted to become a teacher but couldn't afford teacher's college, so she went to nursing school.  She was also the oldest child of Polish immigrants, so their high expectations for her were in turn placed on me.  Dad wanted to become a minister but instead became a psychologist (MA) who started out doing addictions counselling with inmates. My older sister had difficulty academically, so I became the overachiever of the two children, and the only family member to get a PhD.  My parents considered me overeducated, I believe.

[glowdart]

I think there's going to be some generational skewing here, too, in part due to the adjustments to the GI Bill made in the 60s and 70s and the major programs started in the 60s (Pell Grants, Guaranteed Student Loans, Teachers Corps, etc.).  

Traditional-aged junior faculty & grad students can easily have parents who were in Vietnam or taking advantage of the other programs.  

[llanfair]

Mom was a child of the Depression, so her mother wanted all her kids to go to university.  Mom has a Bachelor's and got halfway through an MSW before us kids came along.  Dad has a B.Sc.EE (Engineering) from a teacher's family, and they all went to university, too.

Probably the biggest reason I went to university was that I just assumed it was what you did - but at least part of the reason is that I grew up a block away from MyUni, and my best friends' parents were all professors there.

[neutralname]

Distribution of what?  Parental education?  What's that got to do with income or class?  These days I have only a faint idea what the concept of 'class' refers to, except in the phrase "classy broad."

My mother was from quite a wealthy family -- I'm not sure where the money came from, but it was accumulated some time back.  Her father drank much of it away.  She left school at about 16, but then the Germans were occupying her country for much of her childhood, so her education was disrupted. 

My father's family was easily identifiable as lower middle class.  You could tell that from their accents, what TV they watched, and what time they had lunch, tea and supper. 

[elsie]

My mother desperately wanted her bachelor's degree, but in 1945, the money wasn't there, so she went to secretarial school instead. Dad was a clerk in the navy at the end of the war, processing the discharge papers of soldiers. When he himself was discharged, he went to the same secretarial school and later took college courses in accounting.

[slinger]

Definitely not.

Both parents finished high school before I was born.  My mom started college the same time I did.  In fact, she skipped her graduation ceremony to attend mine.  Mom is American-born daughter of two immigrants. I grew up poor.  She's got a BS in History and is now taking master's courses in info tech.  She started at local CC, earned a full scholarship to local private BIGU and is doing her master's courses at local public even BIGGERU. I've got a BS and MNS. Dad never went back, never wanted to.  Generation-wise, I'm 30, mom is 50, dad is 57.

And I'm most certainly NOT the only working-class academic I know. 

[antiphon1]

In my family, the determining factor seemed to be the expectation of attainment.  Everyone finished high school.  Period.  It's just what you do.  Mom's family (DAR material) didn't value higher education, so very few members on that side of the family have much more than certificate training beyond high school.  Dad's family (the immigrants) encouraged all the children to enroll in college.  Some of them graduated and went on for higher degrees, some of them didn't finish the bachelors, but everyone went to college.  My parents attended college, but didn't finish.  While all my siblings attended college, I'm the only one to complete more than one degree.

[ms_turtle]

My dad (90) finished 8th grade and called it done. Aside from the years spent in WWII, he was a lifelong farmer. Mom (83) finished high school and attended secretarial school for a bit. All but one kid (there are 5 of us) earned an undergraduate degree. Brother #3 also has an MS and then there is me with a PhD.