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[parispundit]

And the point of all this is?

 I do have an impression, based on purely anecdotal evidence, that Ph.Ds in the 30-40 year-old bracket are not only more likely to have at least one college-graduate parent, like all other Americans of that generation, but far more likely than those of us who are older to have at lest one academic parent. I think we are more of a caste than we used to be - another trend common in the rest of the society.

This would not bother me if only the rest of country would agree we are an aristocracy, as opposed to a bunch of lazy, dreaming, wackos.

Could someone who knows how to do one of these things start a new survey with 2 questions: I do/do not have a parent with a Ph.D.; I am over/under 40.

[onthefringe]

This would not bother me if only the rest of country would agree we are an aristocracy, as opposed to a bunch of lazy, dreaming, wackos.

Most revolutions would see this as a distinction without a difference!

[hipgeek]

This would not bother me if only the rest of country would agree we are an aristocracy, as opposed to a bunch of lazy, dreaming, wackos.

Most revolutions would see this as a distinction without a difference!

Zing!

[fiona]

As noted on another thread, I am an elitist poophead.

The Fiona

[blackadder]

My mom at the age of 70 earned her Ed.D one year after me. :) Very proud of her!
Dad has a PhD.

If I'm aristocracy can I request a raise? Something that coincides more with an upper SES income???

[profreader]

Let's see ... my mother has a Ph.D; my father had a B.S. (in geology), but after a career as a commercial pilot, taught for a number of years at an aeronautical university. Stepfather has an M.D.; my sister has a Ph.D and my brother a master's and a J.D. Me? An M.F.A. I often joke that I'm one of the few people in the family who isn't a doctor of one sort or another. A few Ph.Ds among my mother's and father's siblings & in-laws. Until writing this all out, I hadn't really realized how much of the family is in academia. Most of them are in the sciences though, unlike me.

[icicles]

One person asked upthread whether we should count parents' education that changed over time or the parents' education at the time of birth. As I read, I kept this question in mind and noticed how many people on here had parents who went back to school for degrees while they were alive. I think that is significant, and shows that education was valued in the home. In many cases, even parents who have had some college can disparage education--by badmouthing school in general or the "uselessness" of homework, for instance--and create a negative attitude about school. I would like to read a study of the effect of parents' return to school on their children's educational perspectives. A parent who goes back for a GED is teaching a significant lesson about values that parents with a bad attitude and a BA may not teach.

I am the only person in my family with a PhD. A second cousin has an MA that she got for a teaching pay bump. Those are the only advanced degrees. Neither of my parents has a college degree but both finished high school. My mother got a certificate to work in the medical field. My father dropped out of college but tells everyone he graduated. Had either gone back for a class or two in recent years, I feel that they would have understood me a bit better. My father knows he is supposed to respect what I do but doesn't; my mother just rolled her eyes and shrugged her shoulders dismissively when I would try to talk to her about my life. Most of my family thinks my PhD means I think I'm better than everyone else, and I think that's fairly common in working-class families without much exposure to anyone with a PhD.

As I was growing up, I had a couple of friends who had professor parents--including one whose mother was a prof in a STEM department. That at least showed me that it was possible for a normal person, and a woman, to be a college professor.

[punchnpie]

I would like to read a study of the effect of parents' return to school on their children's educational perspectives.

My mother taught elementary school and went back for masters with 3 little kids at home and 2 teens. She completed it very quickly, unlike some of her peers who took years. I guess what I learned from this is that you can do it (school, obviously, but pretty much anything) if you want to. I don't have patience for people who can't deal with school pressures and then moan about it. Either quit or suck it up and deal with it.

I also got a pretty nice lesson in snobbery from my step-father, a JD, who continually put my mother down for being 'just' a school teacher while also stopping her from going to law school or getting a PhD, which is what she wanted to do while she was young enough to do it. Ba$tard.

[spork]

I may have posted on this thread before, but . . .

One traditional definition of "aristocracy" is a class that acquires its wealth from the past or present labor of others. I do not fit that definition. In fact, when factoring in inflation, I make almost exactly the same income that my father did forty years ago. I have a PhD, my father had a high school diploma.

I should have become a plumber or a contractor. I'd have a summer house and a boat by now.

[profreader]

One person asked upthread whether we should count parents' education that changed over time or the parents' education at the time of birth. As I read, I kept this question in mind and noticed how many people on here had parents who went back to school for degrees while they were alive.

My mother went back to school for her master's and Ph.D after my parents divorced. She did this while working full time and raising three children (at the time 9. 7 and 5). The summer when she was finishing up, we went to stay with various relatives until she was through.

She went on to become a faculty member at her Ph.D institution (a public R1), where she proposed and ran a large federal (military) project which went on for 15 years. She was supervising staff worldwide. I didn't realize the true impressiveness of this until much later ... all I knew is that when mom was downstairs typing out her dissertation on her electric typewriter, it was better to be upstairs reading quietly than jumping around making a ruckus. (Luckily, we were all readers.)

Looking back, I can't imagine the stress she must have been under getting all that done in such a short amount of time. She has been a great role model for me and my siblings.

[parispundit]

I may have posted on this thread before, but . . .

One traditional definition of "aristocracy" is a class that acquires its wealth from the past or present labor of others. I do not fit that definition. In fact, when factoring in inflation, I make almost exactly the same income that my father did forty years ago. I have a PhD, my father had a high school diploma.

I should have become a plumber or a contractor. I'd have a summer house and a boat by now.

Yes, but a much better definition is a group with hereditary high status, which does not necessarily go with high wealth.

[fraggles]

Dad stopped going to school at 13 to work so he could leave his country for the US. Mom didn't finish high school but eventually got a GED. My brother and sister both have MAs, and I have a Ph.D.

[compdoc]

My folks got married in the early 60s. My father was in college at the time and my mother was in high school.

My dad finished college and got a JD. He was working full-time, going to school full-time, and doing extracurricular activities like editor of the law review. He went straight through (once they got married).

My mother finished high school when I was two. She started college when I was nine. She probably earned about 130 hours, but due to constant moving for dad's job, would often have to repeat a course. I think she had anatomy and physiology at four schools.

My dad's folks had a third grade education (That happened because the family that took her in when her folks died lied to truancy folks about how old grama was and didn't get caught until three years before she was legally allowed to quit school.) and an eighth grade education. Three of their six kids have terminal degrees. Of their 17 grandchildren, 15 have bachelor's and of those 6 have terminal degrees.

My mom's folks both earned Master's degrees from Berkeley in the 30s. None of their three children graduated from college. Half of their six grandchildren have college degrees. Two have terminal degrees.

[prytania3]

f*** this. Are you part of the aristocracy. I had a freaking pony.