Some days it feels like all Northshore teenagers do is complain about living here. Whether it’s bemoaning over “entitled white kids and their Jeeps” or lamenting over the unnecessary construction project.
A New Trier student’s favorite pastime isn’t using Daddy’s plastic or tailgating at lacrosse games; it’s complaining about the overabundance of wealth in their lives.
It’s painfully ironic, and wholly uncalled for, to wail over our success as though it is the bane of our existences.
Because the truth is, no matter how much we want to deny it, our wealth contributes to our success. I know, I sound entitled, too, right now, but maybe this injecting of entitlement into Northshore kids isn’t the double-edged sword we’ve made it out to be.
Think about it, has college ever been in question? Or is it simply assumed you’ll go on to higher learning some day? This assumption of success, of education, of wealth, of placing first in state championships or class rankings comes from our overabundant expenditures.
Maybe this sounds exaggerated, but bear with me for a minute.
Why is it that, usually, the poorer the community, the higher the dropout rate? Is it because low-income students don’t participate in as many sports as we do? Do they not study as much? Do they not care as much? Perhaps those questions have some fact to them.
According to the U.S. Department of Education, only 20% of low-income students qualify for college. To put that into perspective, 98% of New Trier students attend college.
Financially, this actually makes sense. Students growing up in low-income families don’t have the opportunities wealthier students do. They don’t have Grade A facilities or access to the newest, $150 textbooks that also happen to be online and, did I mention, come with a workbook and a CD?
But it’s not just about the physical presence of money or even the academic accessories that come with it. Sometimes, it’s just about the mindset.
Often, we forget how our financial cushioning operates as a safe zone for studying.
Think about it, without the privilege of having a house spouse, access to a car, or even the ability to safely bike around town, many of us would no longer be able to attend extracurricular clubs, sports practices, study sessions, or even get to school on time.
On top of all the luxuries money brings, people tend to only focus on the negative personality traits that money often associates itself with.
Of course too much cash and too much entitlement can leave a person shallow and ultimately lacking in character.
But if you can find that balance- of wealth and an honest upbringing, then you’ll finally arrive in the prestigious “bubble,” where the expectation of greatness of attending college, of holding a job, of living a debt free life- is infused into the students not as entitlement, but as determination.
A parent that tells them it is their destiny to be great and so they will work to make it so. Not because their money is binding, but because that’s just what they watched their parents do, and their friends do, and their teachers do, and ultimately, that’s what the culture of wealth instills.
It teaches us how to maintain our affluent lifestyle as we become adults; it teaches us the moneyed, physical value of a college degree.
And really, without our financial safety net, there isn’t much separating us and the poorer communities trying to teach their children the same thing.