First of all, I believe that social stratification plays a crucial role in determining whether children reach out to the higher levels of education in their future lives or not. I do not think it is a high probability that children who come from extremely poor families can always get the chance to continue with their education. This is especially true in societies which have sharp income inequalities between various social categories. In addition to the huge gap between classes, culture is a determining factor in placing us where we stand in the educational world or the work environment.
I can honestly say that if it were not for my parents’ high profile in terms of education background and sufficient income sum, I would not be studying where I am today. It is because of the fact that throughout my primary school years, I had the chance to observe my classmates and see what is happening around me at that time. I remember that the most successful students in our classroom usually had parents who have a good educational and financial background.
On the other hand, children of working class families were often those that were among the least successful and prospective students. I even believe that our primary school teacher did not pay so much attention to those less lucky students. Unfortunately, there were both bright stars and pale leaves in our classroom. Those who answered the questions eagerly and correctly took more attention from our classroom teacher. I have no idea about what our teacher said to those children’s parents at the parent-teacher conferences, yet I do hope that the teacher was promoting a hopeful future for their children as well. The reason why I am telling this is that I really felt the need for some care from our teacher to those less fortunate students in my primary school years. Otherwise, I would not like to think about any teacher in that sense ever.
I was one of the lucky crew to have really caring parents. Of course, I used to be a child with a sense of self-autonomy to study sufficiently for my classes and to improve myself as a person. However, I cannot ignore the way my parents handled with me to raise me as good as they did. For instance, as my father was a teacher himself, he used to help me with my homework, and also he bought lots of books for me to study and to read. Also, my dad was also my teacher at my 6th grade, and he had accomplished to form a classroom library by the agreement of all the parents. Thus, in my opinion, education background largely affects the way how parents take care of their children.
If we come to my university years, I can say that METU offers its students unique opportunities to develop oneself in many areas. For this purpose, there are many student clubs which aims to bring together various students with similar interests, passions etc. Also, the atmosphere here at METU is inspiring for students who wish to fulfill their full potential. Apart from a wide range of activities and social groups students can join in, our university also offers us a peaceful atmosphere. I admit that before I came to METU, I believed that there would be ideological conflicts most of the time, and I was a little bit scared of that. Nevertheless, I saw in time that all people are free in pursuing their own way and standing for their cause. There is no restricting element that suppresses anyone in our campus. Rather, students are encouraged to be critical-thinkers who will make a great difference in our country’s future. I believe that I am part of this culture and I am really proud of this.
In the case of favoring students with higher cultural capital, I should say that it is actually the opposite of this. For example, no teacher ever asks us personal questions like our parents’ job etc. There is always a professional and an academic environment at our university. Therefore, our teachers value all students regardless of their background. Even if some students may be a little ignorant when they are in their first year, our teachers eventually guide all the students to be self-improving and curious individuals who will be great contributors to the science or to other fields somehow in the future. Our teachers especially inform and support us to apply for MA degrees or scholarship programmes so as to broaden our horizon as much as they can. I am very much assured that the only and most crucial thing we focus on at our university is effort and enlightenment rather than cultural or economical biases.
Also, I know that less fortunate students who are academically successful are granted special bursaries to be awarded for their success. However, as I said before, those students at METU are the lucky ones who could make it happen and succeed no matter what hardship they might have encountered before. Injustice in our society still exists, and private schools are there for the kids of rich parents who would not succeed but for money. Fortunately, METU hugs people no matter how rich, elite or culturally more sophisticated they are. Let’s hope that all the aristocratic values disappear, and love and equality prevail the world.
Fatma Şeyma KOÇ
4th grade student teacher
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