4 ms·

Not disagreeing with the overall point, but summer camp? My grandma had us spend the summer reading and solving exercises of the following grade's textbooks. A

by euyyn 10y ago

Not disagreeing with the overall point, but summer camp? My grandma had us spend the summer reading and solving exercises of the following grade's textbooks. A trip would have meant to stop learning.

Broken_Hippo 10y ago
Yes, summer camp. For example, I spent 2 weeks at a college between 11th and 12th grade taking a graphic design thing - and earned college credit for doing so. I got introduced to plenty I didn't have access to and thoroughly enjoyed the time. Now, my family hasn't been rich by any means, but they wouldn't have been able to afford such a thing just a few years prior. The same goes for after school activities - or even just a trip with the French club to France or Canada. When you are poor, these things are out of reach.
- euyyn 10y ago
  Huh, interesting. Where I'm from, summer camp is spending time with the Boy Scouts, or volunteering, or literally camping. American movies don't paint a very different picture, so I wasn't aware of "go to college"-kind of camps.
- cgriswald 10y ago
  It doesn't even have to be summer camp. Until I could get a job and drive myself, I had trouble even finding transportation to and from extracurriculars, which made my experience at my very good public high school quite a bit less than that of my peers. I also ended up dropping a zero hour AP class, because there was no bus service for classes that early. Any time things like summer camp came up, I just tuned out, because I knew it wasn't going to happen for me. As an adult, I can see that, in some cases, I could have made something happen if I had really wanted it. But as a child, I had the mentality "that's not for me" and could not have even begun to figure out how to make it happen, because I wasn't just poor, but lacked any real support at home. (I was babysitting, but I fell into the poor person trap of spending money to feel better. All my cash went straight to comic books and soda.)

by euyyn 10y ago

Not disagreeing with the overall point, but summer camp? My grandma had us spend the summer reading and solving exercises of the following grade's textbooks. A trip would have meant to stop learning.

Broken_Hippo 10y ago

Yes, summer camp. For example, I spent 2 weeks at a college between 11th and 12th grade taking a graphic design thing - and earned college credit for doing so. I got introduced to plenty I didn't have access to and thoroughly enjoyed the time. Now, my family hasn't been rich by any means, but they wouldn't have been able to afford such a thing just a few years prior. The same goes for after school activities - or even just a trip with the French club to France or Canada. When you are poor, these things are out of reach.

euyyn 10y ago
Huh, interesting. Where I'm from, summer camp is spending time with the Boy Scouts, or volunteering, or literally camping. American movies don't paint a very different picture, so I wasn't aware of "go to college"-kind of camps.
cgriswald 10y ago
It doesn't even have to be summer camp. Until I could get a job and drive myself, I had trouble even finding transportation to and from extracurriculars, which made my experience at my very good public high school quite a bit less than that of my peers. I also ended up dropping a zero hour AP class, because there was no bus service for classes that early. Any time things like summer camp came up, I just tuned out, because I knew it wasn't going to happen for me. As an adult, I can see that, in some cases, I could have made something happen if I had really wanted it. But as a child, I had the mentality "that's not for me" and could not have even begun to figure out how to make it happen, because I wasn't just poor, but lacked any real support at home. (I was babysitting, but I fell into the poor person trap of spending money to feel better. All my cash went straight to comic books and soda.)