I have lived a privileged life, despite the fact that I have made various choices throughout my life which have presented me with challenges, and some real struggles along the way. I grew up in a home where both of my parents worked to support our family. I was raised to work hard, appreciate what we had and be grateful for the blessings. I feel that everyone would benefit from an education that was more gender fair, multiculturally equitable, socioeconomically aware and globally informed, therefore, it would be helpful if schools looked into their curricula and shifted some of the information to meet these goals. I feel like this is a complicated subject because I have had to train myself to look at systems and patterns in social life as well as understand a person's individual experiences. It feels uncomfortable at times to look at yourself systemically, and then see the oppression that other people have experienced as a result of the systemic patterns in our lives. I feel like some of the readings on privilege make the reader feel accused, and that will make change a little harder to achieve when people are made to feel defensive. Now that I am more aware of my privilege, I feel I can understand others' lack of privilege and I will be more supportive of diversity and inclusion in the future.
