1. I was aware of my gender and ability at a very early age. My School would have a line for boys and a line for girls when we would walk gown the halls. We would also sit boy/girl for school assemblies. Similar to gender I was aware of my abilities at an early age. By first grade it was clear to me that our math and reading groups we divided by their abilities. For me it was more difficult to be aware of class race and ethnicity. I went to a private school so everyone wore the same uniform making it harder to determine class. Although I was aware of race and differences in race and ethnicity I don’t think I fully understood the differences until high school. Every person in my grade school was of the race and ethnicity. We often had group discussions on race but diversity is difficult to understand when you are not immersed in it.
2. I was aware of my gender and ability by the first grade. I started learning more about class in about the 6th grade. Ethnicity and race was not totally clear to me until high school.
3. Gender was often used to divide the class. My first grade classroom had a list of jobs that the class took turns working. The teacher would assign a boy and a girl to each position. Race was a subject that I understood in theory but was never used in real life. Since the teachers did this I never felt oppressed. My class of 90 students had 88 white students and 2 Asian students who were adopted into the white culture. My school did do a good job of talking about racism as well as strengths of all racial groups. However, without diversity in the classroom we never had the view of a minority first hand in our classroom. I never felt oppressed by race partly because everyone looked like me. I was aware of class in the 8th grade. I lived in an upper class suburb. Being one of 8 children we all had to help out. I worked at a country club starting in the summer before the 7th grade. Many of my schoolmates’ parents were member of that club. I would see some of my friends from school at the club but I felt different for them because of the parents. One time I ran up to a friend from school to say high and her mother referred to me as “the help”. That was when I understood class. In the 8th grade the class trip was to Washington D.C. The cost was $800. I was one of a very few who was unable to attend the 8th grade trip which really made me feel left out. Ethnicity never really made me feel oppressed. Going to a private school everyone had the same general background and religion. I did feel oppressed by ability because of the different reading and math groups starting in the first grade. I was always in the low ability group. All through my 8 years at my grade school those groups never changed. I always felt that everyone knew that I was in the low ability group.
4. Many factors influenced my social identity. Being in a family with 8 children I always had someone who would play with me and some else who was mad at me. I always felt accepted in my family. School was another story. Making friends was and is still difficult for me. I think that this may have been from my ability groups at school. I always felt stupid. Although I was involved in sports and other social activities I always felt left out of the group. I had a difficult time with social identity until I realized that it is not the number of friends that you have. A close friendship with just 1 friend is enough for me to feel accepted.
5. When someone feels different from the group because of race, gender, ability or class can make a person very isolated. This isolation is so intense because it can not be changed. When a person is discriminated because of factors that can not be changed they do not feel like they belong to any group. In a P.E. class my gym teacher once separated the class by the brand of gym shoes we were wearing. Everyone jumped up to find other classmates with Reebok or Nike shoes. I stood up and could not find anyone with purple zips like I had. I remember trying to hide my feet. Sometimes being female, black, white, or poor makes people feel left out.