Privilege

I admit it.  I have a chip on my shoulder about privilege.  I grew up being told both that I had privilege and so I'd better use it for good, and that privilege and the people who have it usually suck.  But I'm thinking, what if the job I can find is at a school with very privileged kids?  I can't go around dismissing my students as spoiled brats.  So what I need to do is do what my parents did for me--challenge the students that they have privilege, so they ought to use that privilege for good.

I think just having a diverse course pack, which I am already planning on, will help.  I don't want to stray too far into pure social justice, since I am an English teacher, not a Social Studies teacher.  But I can assign them to read an article about privilege, or an article like the one Shari gave us about the pool incident--just something current so discrimination doesn't feel historical, and assign them a debate or an essay on the subject.

Those are my thoughts so far.  Let me know if you have further ideas