working class and education

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Warning over unconscious bias against working-class pupils in English schools

Social mobility expert says mindset in many schools requires children to be ‘middle-class clones’ to succeed

Schools in England must do more to challenge unconscious bias in the classroom against children from working-class backgrounds, according to the UK’s first professor of social mobility.

Lee Elliot Major, writing in a new book, blames a mindset in education that treats working-class children as “inferior” and requires them to become “middle-class clones” in order to succeed in school.

To help level the education playing field, Elliot Major says lessons should celebrate working-class achievement and feature figures such as Stormzy, Tracey Emin, the 19th-century palaeontologist Mary Anning and the scientist Michael Faraday.

He also suggests pupils from low-income families should be referred to as “under-resourced” rather than “disadvantaged”, as he says the term can lead to unconscious bias and lower expectations for these children.

“The book comes from frustration,” Elliot Major said. “I’ve been working in this field over many years and we are seeing the gap between pupils from under-resourced backgrounds and their more privileged counterparts widening in the post-pandemic era.

“For all the efforts that we’ve made, we still see these incredibly stark divides in education between the education haves and have nots.”

On changing the language used to describe pupils, Elliot Major said: “The problem with terming a child as ‘disadvantaged’ is that it is a binary classification, leading to a crude demarcation between who is or who is not ‘advantaged’.

“It immediately invites us into the trap of deficit thinking, implying there is something wrong with children that we apparently need to solve. It focuses our minds on individuals, when facing hardship or poverty is about the circumstances individuals find themselves in.”

Elliot Major also argues that social class is missing from the debate about diversity in education. “It’s almost become a taboo subject in many schools, but we know from research that it has a profound impact on children’s life chances.”

The book, which is co-authored by Emily Briant, teacher and doctoral studen, argues that middle-class advantages are “baked into” the education system. Even exam questions can be loaded with assumptions that disadvantage children from working-class backgrounds.

In recent years, GCSE papers in maths and modern languages have tested candidates’ ability with questions about trips to the theatre and skiing holidays. “Pupils who have experienced the stage or slopes are much more likely to be able to infer the answer than those who haven’t, whatever their proficiency in maths or languages may be,” said Elliot Major, who works at Exeter University.

The book, Equity in Education: Levelling the playing field of learning (published by John Catt Educational), also cites studies that show teachers may act differently towards children from working-class backgrounds, showing less warmth, giving less eye contact and lower-quality feedback.

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It makes a number of practical recommendations for schools, including staff sessions to reflect on subconscious biases that may be creating barriers for some children, a “deep listening campaign” to understand the community the school serves, and measures to “poverty proof” the school day, helping families access food, uniforms, school trips and after school clubs.

Elliot Major was the first in his family to go to university and has devoted his career to improving the education and life chances of under-resourced children and young people, working previously as chief executive of the Sutton Trust, which campaigns for greater social mobility through education.

“Current government approaches to education aren’t working,” he said. “Children from low-income homes are still falling behind their more privileged peers in school.

“Efforts have focused on turning children from working-class backgrounds into middle-class clones armed with the traits needed to prosper in a middle-class system, rather than asking whether the system itself might be changed to make it welcoming to those from all backgrounds. We need a rethink; we need to find out what every child can offer, what we need to change, and how we can work together.”

Geoff Barton, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “Lee Elliot Major is a fantastic champion for social justice and his call that we must do more to confront social class biases in the classroom will be of great interest. There is, of course, a great deal of work that goes on already in schools and colleges to level the education playing field, but there is clearly much more to do.”

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Middle- and upper-class students feel more accustomed to the cultural norms and independence found within colleges and universities, said USC expert Sarah Townsend. (Illustration/Diana Molleda, iStock)

Want to help working-class students succeed in college? Embrace their values

Emphasizing teamwork and community can help low-income and first-generation college students feel like they belong, according to research by USC’s Sarah Townsend and colleagues.

For students from working-class backgrounds, going to college can feel a bit like taking their shoes off in someone else’s house.

People who always kick off their shoes at home might be tempted to do the same when visiting an acquaintance, said Sarah Townsend , an assistant professor at the USC Marshall School of Business. But if everyone else keeps their footwear on, it can feel awkward and confusing.

“You don’t feel comfortable keeping your shoes on, because that doesn’t feel right to you,” Townsend said. “But at the same time, other people might think it’s weird if you took them off.”

Institutions like colleges and universities operate in much the same way, she said. They have certain cultural norms — a set of shared expectations and ways of behaving. And those norms reflect the values of the middle and upper-middle class, which typically stress independence.

In contrast, working-class norms embrace interdependence — working together, building relationships and balancing individual desires with the needs of the collective. So when working-class students arrive at college, often living on their own for the first time, it can seem like the rules changed on them without warning.

“It’s this cultural mismatch that has a big effect,” Townsend said. “When working-class students have struggles, they can end up thinking, ‘Oh, I must not belong here,’ as opposed to, ‘Well, I’m having these struggles because of my experiences before coming to school, and I just need different strategies for how to be successful here.’”

Townsend studies that cultural divide in higher education and seeks ways to combat it. And she has discovered that simple changes by university leaders — like using language that reflects an interdependent culture in welcome letters to newly admitted students — can help those with working-class roots adjust to college life.

“It helps people feel like they fit in better, that they belong,” she said. “It also helps them feel this sense of empowerment, that they can succeed at USC or elsewhere, and do things in the way they want to do them.”

To support working-class students, colleges should value teamwork and interdependence

Townsend recalls her own admission letter from Stanford University, where she earned undergraduate and master’s degrees in psychology. It featured phrases that spoke to an independent worldview, like “Your advisor is your compass, but you set the direction.”

It stood out to the young undergrad, whose mother didn’t attend college and whose father was a first-generation student, meaning neither of his parents had completed a university degree.

So in a later experiment, Townsend worked with longtime collaborator Nicole Stephens from Northwestern University and other colleagues to test whether changing college admission materials to embrace working-class ideals could affect academic performance.

The researchers had students read a welcome letter, then perform tests and mental exercises. They found that working-class students did better when the college was framed as interdependent, using language that emphasized learning as part of a community, connecting with other students and professors and participating in collaborative research.

“It’s about relationships and roles, adjusting to other people and working together, rather than the independent idea of paving your own path,” Townsend said.

Visualizing success and having peer role models can help working-class students thrive

Another effective way to boost performance among low-income and first-generation students involves helping them visualize a successful career. In an experiment, Townsend and her colleagues asked students to think about either their past or their future. Then participants role-played asking a professor for help during a one-on-one meeting and completed an academic test.

Women from low-income backgrounds who envisioned success in their future were more confident during their mock interaction with the professor. They also attempted to answer more questions on the difficult timed test, leading to better performance.

“Certain students may benefit from strategies that remind them to visualize their successful futures prior to any difficult and important task that they might otherwise be likely to avoid,” the researchers wrote in a paper describing the project.

In a similar vein, showing college students that their peers have achieved success despite facing challenges can increase confidence about their own future. In another experiment , working-class students read stories written by juniors or seniors from similar backgrounds who had struggled when they first came to college. The stories described how they overcame those obstacles by developing new strategies, like asking an academic advisor for guidance.

The researchers then followed the study participants through their first two years of college. They earned higher grades than students who didn’t read about their peers finding success. Townsend believes that hearing those personal stories had boosted their confidence and encouraged them to seek resources that would help them prosper.

“It helped them see these aren’t idiosyncratic experiences,” she said. “There are other people here who have been in the same boat and have learned to figure things out.”

Creating an inclusive culture helps ensure all students can succeed

Through her Culture, Diversity, and Psychophysiology Lab at USC Marshall, Townsend is continuing her exploration of the cultural divide in higher education, including the effects of race and ethnicity. She is hopeful that her research results will encourage more college leaders to consider strategies that reduce the achievement gap between working-class students and those from more advantaged backgrounds.

And she emphasized that universities don’t have to choose between independent or interdependent approaches. They can value and embrace both sets of cultural norms without sacrificing the effectiveness of their message or making one group feel unwelcome.

“That’s certainly an easy route to having what I would call inclusive cultural norms, where you can clearly be successful in a lot of different ways,” she said. “Then everyone could feel comfortable and that they belong.”

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Working Class Explained: Definition, Compensation, Job Examples

What Is the Working Class?

"Working class" is a socioeconomic term used to describe persons in a social class marked by jobs that provide low pay, require limited skill, or physical labor. Typically, working-class jobs have reduced education requirements. Unemployed persons or those supported by a social welfare program are often included in the working class.

Key Takeaways

• Working class is a socioeconomic term describing persons in a social class marked by jobs that provide low pay and require limited skill.
• Typically, working-class jobs have reduced education requirements.
• Today, most working-class jobs are found in the services sector and include clerical, retail sales, and low-skill manual labor vocations.

Understanding the Working Class

While "working class" is typically associated with manual labor and limited education, blue collar workers are vital to every economy. Economists in the United States generally define "working class" as adults without a college degree. Many members of the working class are also defined as middle-class. 

Sociologists such as Dennis Gilbert and Joseph Kahl, who was a sociology professor at Cornell University and the author of the 1957 textbook The American Class Structure,   identified the working class as the most populous class in America.

Other sociologists such as William Thompson, Joseph Hickey and James Henslin say the lower middle class is largest. In the class models devised by these sociologists, the working class comprises between 30% to 35% of the population, roughly the same number in the lower middle class. According to Dennis Gilbert, the working class comprises those between the 25th and 55th percentile of society.

Karl Marx described the working class as the "proletariat", and that it was the working class who ultimately created the goods and provided the services that created a society's wealth. Marxists and socialists define the working class as those who have nothing to sell but their labor-power and skills. In that sense, the working class  includes both white and blue-collar workers , manual and menial workers of all types, excluding only individuals who derive their income from business ownership and the labor of others.

Types of Working Class Jobs

Working-class jobs today are quite different than the working-class jobs in the 1950s and 1960s. Americans working in factories and industrial jobs have been on the decline for many years. Today, most working-class jobs are found in the services sector and typically include: 

• Clerical jobs
• Food industry positions
• Retail sales
• Low-skill manual labor vocations
• Low-level white-collar workers

Oftentimes working-class jobs pay less than $15 per hour, and some of those jobs do not include health benefits. In America, the demographics surrounding the working-class population is becoming more diverse. Approximately 59% of the working-class population is comprised of white Americans, down from 88% in the 1940s. African-Americans account for 14% while Hispanics currently represent 21% of the working class in the U.S.   

History of the Working Class in Europe

In feudal Europe, most were part of the laboring class; a group made up of different professions, trades, and occupations. A lawyer, craftsman, and peasant, for example, were all members–neither members of the aristocracy or religious elite. Similar hierarchies existed outside Europe in other pre-industrial societies.

The social position of these laboring classes was viewed as ordained by natural law and common religious belief. Peasants challenged this perception during the German Peasants' War. In the late 18th century, under the influence of the Enlightenment, a changing Europe could not be reconciled with the idea of a changeless god-created social order. Wealthy members of societies at that time tried to keep the working class subdued, claiming moral and ethical superiority.

Joseph Kahl. " The American Class Structure ." Rinehart, 1957.

Center for American Progress Action Fund. " What Everyone Should Know About America’s Diverse Working Class ." Accessed Sep. 3, 2020.

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What Is the Working Class?

Definition and Examples of Working Class

How does the working class work, diversity in the working class, criticism of the working class, what it means for working-class workers.

Reza Estakhrian / Getty Images

“ Working class ” typically refers to a subsection of the labor force that works in the service or industrial sectors and does not hold a four-year college degree.

Key Takeaways

• While there is no universal definition of “working class,” the term commonly refers to workers in the service sector who hold less than a four-year college degree.
• Historically predominately white and male, the U.S. working class has become increasingly diverse in recent decades.
• Some common challenges the working class may face include wage stagnation, declining worker power, and meeting the rising cost of living.

The term “working class” often typically describes members of the labor force that hold a service-type occupation and do not hold a bachelor’s degree. Common working class occupations include restaurant employees, auto mechanics, construction workers, and other service-type workers.

• Alternate name : Blue-collar workers

Defining the working class is highly subjective and can vary by the analyst. Common indicators of membership in the working class include certain levels of annual household income, net worth, and education. 

For example, let’s say a researcher classifies working-class workers as those who do not hold a college degree and are between the ages of 18 and 64 years old. Sally, who is 33 years old, works as a grocery store clerk, and did not go to college would be considered a member of the working class.

Many analysts use education level as an indicator of membership in the working class since educational credentials typically do not fluctuate as frequently as income . 

For example, two employees may have the same degree and hold the same position within a company. However, one employee may not identify as working class because they have worked for the company for 10 years and make 50% more than the other employee.

Researchers rely on other indicators, such as net worth, the type of job, or how much autonomy an individual holds in their job position, as well.

Generally, the working class works jobs in food and retail, blue-collar work, caregiving, or some type of cubicle position. Some common examples of working-class occupations can include:

• Factory workers
• Restaurant workers
• Nursing home staff
• Automotive professionals
• Delivery services

In 2015, the retail industry employed more working-class adults than the manufacturing, minor, and construction industries combined. That same year, the health care industry also experienced a notable increase in working-class jobs.

The racial diversity makeup of the working class has evolved over the years. Around the 1940s, white workers comprised 88% of the working-class labor force. In 2015, this figure dropped to 58.9%, while African Americans and Hispanic Americans made up 13.7% and 20.9% of the working-class labor force respectively. The number of working-class women also increased, comprising 45.6% of the working class in 2015—it was less than 30% in 1940.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that the working class, ages 18 to 64 years old, will become the majority people of color by 2032.

As mentioned, there is no universal definition of the working class. Since education, income, occupation, and other factors can vary by the individual, it can be difficult to accurately measure the size and characteristics of the working class.

Some say retirement can skew the data if the analyst uses education as a working class indicator. A retired American, for example, may have not held a four-year college degree but do not identify as working class because they are not actually working. 

Some analysts may still consider those who do not hold college degrees and are unemployed as part of the working class.

In some cases, researchers may choose to avoid using the term “working class” altogether and instead classify individuals by lower, middle, and upper class.

Working-class workers between the ages of 25 and 54, on average, are more likely to report a concern regarding their financial situation.

Some say wage stagnation is a significant factor that affects the financial health of working-class workers, who may not share in the wealth they generate. The rising cost of living exacerbates these financial concerns among working-class workers.

Some organizations advocate for laws that increase working power by making it easier to unionize in an effort to increase the quality of industrial jobs. More full employment opportunities, increased public employment, and apprenticeships can potentially also ease the struggles of the working class.

Economic Policy Institute. " People of Color Will be a Majority of the American Working Class in 2032 ." Accessed Nov. 29, 2021.

Center for American Progress Action Fund. " What Everyone Should Know About America’s Diverse Working Class ." Nov. 29, 2021. 

Demos. " Understanding the Working Class ." Accessed Nov. 29, 2021.

Class Matters. " Working Definitions ." Accessed Nov. 29, 2021.

Felix Dzerzhinsky

Communist Morality

Source : “Communist Morality,” published by Progress, Moscow, c. 1963; Transcribed : by Rasmus M.

From a Prison Diary

April 30, 1908.

... Where lies the way out of the hell of present-day life, in which the wolfish law of exploitation, oppression and violence holds sway? The way out lies in the idea of a life which is based on harmony, a full life enjoyed by the whole of society, by all mankind; the way out is in the idea of socialism, the idea of solidarity of the working people. This idea is already approaching realisation, the people are ready to receive it with open arms. The time for it has already arrived. The ranks of the advocates of this idea must be united and the banner carried aloft so that the people see it and follow it. And today this is the most urgent of the tasks of Social-Democracy, of the tasks of the small handful that survives.

Socialism should cease to be only the scientific prevision of the future. It should become the torch that kindles indomitable faith and energy in the hearts of people....

May 10, 1908

... It would not be worthwhile living if the star of socialism, the star of the future were not shining down on mankind. For the “ego” cannot live if in itself it does not contain the rest of the world and the people. Such is the nature of this “ego.”...

May 21, 1908

... It is necessary to instil in the masses our own confidence in the inevitable bankruptcy of evil, so that they will be left with no doubt, so that they will come through this moment in serried ranks, prepared for battle. This is the task of the theoreticians. But the tasks of the others are to lay bare and show up this evil, to lay bare the sufferings and torments of the masses and of the individual fighters torn from their midst by the enemy, to give them the meaning they actually have and which gives them the strength to bear everything courageously, without wavering. Only in this way is it possible to instil in the masses courage and understanding of the need for struggle. Those who influence the mind and those who put confidence in victory into the heart and mind are both needed. Scientists and poets, teachers and propagandists are needed. I recall the booklet “From the Battlefield” published by the “Proletariat" [1] Party, which described the sufferings of the people, the steadfastness and courage they displayed in the struggle, and the tremendous influence it had. How I would wish such a booklet to appear now! But now it is more difficult to collect and compare facts, because they cover so much ground and there are so many of them. But, on the other hand, there are greater opportunities and possibilities now. If someone would undertake this work, or at least only the guidance of this work, then in a year or two such book could appear. It would reflect not only our sufferings and our doctrine, but also that longing for a full and real life for the sake of which man would readily endure suffering and sacrifice....

December 31, 1908

... I have matured in prison in torments of solitude, in torments of longing for the world and for life. And, in spite of this, doubt in the justness of our cause has never risen in my heart. And now, when perhaps for many years all hope is buried in torrents of blood, when they have been crucified on the gallows, when many thousands of fighters for freedom are languishing in dungeons or thrown out into snowbound Siberia – I feel proud. Already I see tremendous masses set in motion shattering the old system, masses among whom new forces are being trained for fresh struggles. I feel proud that I am with them, that 1 see, feel and understand them, and that I, too, have suffered much together with them. It is sometimes hard, at times even terrible, here in prison.... Yet, if I had to begin life all over again, I would begin it in the same way. And not out of a sense of duty, not because I had to. For me, it is an organic necessity.

...I curse neither my fate nor the many years in prison, for I know that all this is necessary in order to destroy the other vast prison which lies outside the walls of this horrible “pavilion.” This is not idle philosophising, not cold calculation, but the result of an indomitable desire for freedom, for a full life. Out there, comrades and | friends are drinking our health, and I, alone in my cell, am thinking of them: may they live on, may they forge the weapons and be worthy of the cause for which the struggle is being waged....

June 3, 1909

... To live – does it not mean to have indomitable faith in victory?

August 8, 1909

... In this connection [2] I am filled with apprehension. I shall go away, but this terrible life here will continue as before. This is strange and incomprehensible. It is not the horrors of this gloomy place that draw one to it, but the feeling for all the comrades, friends and unknown neighbours – strangers, yet at the same time near ones. Here we came to feel and realise how necessary is man to man, what man means to man. Here we learned to feel love not for women alone, we learned to be unashamed of our feelings and of our desire to give people happiness.

...And if here we long for flowers, we have also here learned to love people as we love flowers; and precisely here, where there is no desperate struggle for a crust of bread, and where there floats to the surface that which out there was of necessity concealed in the depths of the human heart. And for this reason we love this place of our execution, for here we made clear to ourselves that the struggle which brought us here is also the struggle for our personal happiness, for emancipation from the violence imposed on us, from the chains that drag us down.

From Letters to Relatives [3]

To a. e. bulhak [4], january 25 (13), 1898.

... How is your little Rudolph? He must have grown a lot – does he walk or talk? See that you bring him up so that he values honesty above all else; such a person feels happy in all circumstances of life!

September 19 (7), 1898

... And we, in exile, must now gain in strength, physically, mentally and morally, in order to be prepared when the time comes. True, there are few who envy us our lot, but we who see the bright future of our cause, who see and realise its might, realise that life has chosen us to be the fighters, we who are fighting for that better future would never, never exchange our position for philistine vegetating. We are least of all made despondent by unpleasant side of life, since our life consists in work for the cause which is above everyday trifles. Our cause was born not so long ago, but it will develop beyond bounds, it is immortal.

November 17 (5), 1898

... You say that our feelings seem to relate in greater measure to mankind as a whole than to individuals. Never believe that this is possible. People who say so are hypocrites: they are simply deceiving themselves and others. It is not possible only to feel for people in general, people in general is an abstraction, for what is concrete is the sum-total of individuals. In actual fact, feelings can only be aroused in relation to the concrete phenomenon and never in relation to an abstraction. A man can feel sympathy towards social misfortune only if he feels sympathy towards the misfortune of every individual....

October 21 (8), 1901

... I do not know how to hate by halves or to love by halves. I do not know how to give only half of my heart. I can give all my heart or I give nothing. I have drunk from the cup of life not only all the bitterness, but all the sweetness as well, and if anyone says to me: take a look at the wrinkles on your brow, at your emaciated body, at the life you now lead, take a look and recognise that life has broken you, then I would reply: life has not broken me but I have broken life, it has not taken everything from me, but I have taken everything from it with my whole being and spirit! Yes, indeed!

...I came to loathe wealth because I learned to love people, because with all the fibres of my being I see and feel that today ... people worship the golden calf which has turned human souls into the souls of beasts and driven love out of people’s hearts. Remember that there is a sacred spark in the soul of people like me ... a spark which gives a glow of happiness even at the stake.

...I love children passionately....When I think that terrible want, on the one hand, and excessive wealth, on the other, lead to the degeneration of these little ones ... I am glad for your children, that you are neither rich nor poor, that from childhood they will realise the need to work in order to live and this means that they will grow up into real people. For the children are the future! They must be strong in spirit and know from childhood how to face up to life....

But I have spirit enough for another thousand years or more.... Even here in prison I see how the undying flame burns: the flame is my heart and the hearts of my comrades suffering torments here

To A. E. and G. A. Bulhak [5]

Beginning of november 1901.

...No!! I am the same as I was before; what embittered me before, embitters me now; what I loved before, I love now; what gladdened me before, gladdens me now; as I acted before, so I act now; as I thought before, so I think now; as misfortunes and trials have not passed me by, so in the future they will not pass me by; my path remains the same; as I loathed evil before, so I loathe it now; as before, I am striving heart and soul so that there will be no injustice, crime, drunkenness, depravity, excessive | luxury, brothels where people sell body or soul or both together; so that there will be no oppression, fratricidal wars, national strife.... I would like my love to envelop all mankind, to warm it and cleanse it of the dirt of modern life....

... A tremendous task faces you: to’ educate and shape the minds of your children. Be vigilant! For parents are to a large extent morally responsible for whether their children are good or bad. I would like to write a great deal more about children, but I do not know how you will accept my advice, whether you might not regard this interference in your affairs as out of place. In any case, rest assured that I am guided here only by my love for your children. Kiss them heartily for me.... May they grow up healthy and cheerful, full of love for their parents and other people; may they grow up courageous and strong in spirit and body; may they never barter their conscience; may they be happier than we are and live to see the triumph of freedom, brotherhood and love....

To A. E. Bulhak

October 6 (september 23), 1902.

...I do not know why I love children more than anything else. When I meet them my ill humour immediately vanishes. I could never love a woman as I love them and I think I could never love my own children more than those that were not my own.... In particularly hard moments I dream that I have taken some child, a foundling, and am caring for it and we are both happy. I live for it, feel it near me, it loves me with the childish love in which there is nothing false; I feel the warmth of this love and I terribly want it near me. But these are only dreams. I cannot allow myself this, I have to be moving about all the time, and with a child I could not. Often, very often, it seems to me that even a mother does not love children as ardently as I do....

October 22 (9), 1905

...I should like so much to perceive the beauty in nature, in people, in what they create, to delight in them, to perfect myself, because beauty and goodness are like two sisters. The asceticism that has fallen to my lot is so alien to me. I would like to be a father and put into the soul of a young creature everything good that is on the earth, to see how the rays of my love for it would produce a luxuriant blossom of the human soul....

June 16 (3), 1913

. .. Like a flower, the human soul unconsciously imbibes the rays of the sun and longs eternally for it, for its light; it fades and shrivels when evil shades off the light Our vigour and faith in a better future for mankind is built on this striving of every human soul towards the sunlight, and so there should never be hopelessness.... The evil genius of mankind today is hypocrisy: love in words, but in practice – a merciless struggle to exist, to achieve so-called “happiness,” to make a career.... To be a ray of light for others, to irradiate light, is the greatest happiness a man can achieve. Then a man does not fear suffering or death, misfortune or need. Then a man ceases to fear death, although only then he does really learn to love life. Only then will he walk on the earth with his eyes open, seeing, hearing and understanding everything, only then will he emerge from his narrow shell into the light and feel the joys and sufferings of all mankind; only then will he be a real man.

To S. S. Dzerzhinskaya [6]

December 15 (2), 1913.

... Love for a child, like all great love, becomes creative and can give the child true and lasting happiness when it broadens the scope of life of the one who loves, makes him a more valuable person, and when it does not transform the person loved into an idol. Love which is showered on only one person and which derives from him alone all joy in life, making everything else a burden and torture, such love carries with it hell for both persons....

In order to save and enrich his soul, he must be taught to see and hear all he is already capable of seeing and hearing, so that his love for you becomes deep friendship and infinite trust....

January 19 (6), 1914

...Where there is love there should be trust...

...The man who believes in an idea and is alive cannot be useless if he does not himself renounce his idea. Only death, when it comes, will have its word to say about uselessness. But as long as there is a glimmer of life and the idea itself is alive, I shall dig the earth, do the roughest work, give everything I can. And the thought is soothing, makes it possible to endure the torment. A man must do his duty, follow his path to the end. And even when the eyes no longer see and are blind to the beauty of the world, the soul knows of this beauty and remains its servant. The torment of blindness remains, but there is something above this torment – there is faith in life, in people, there is freedom and the realisation of one’s constant duty....

March 16 (3), 1914

...When I think of all the misfortunes in life that lie in wait for a man, of the fact that a man is so often deprived of all he is most attached to, my thoughts again tell me that in life one has to love with all one’s heart and soul that which is not transitory, that which cannot be taken away from a man and thanks to which his attachment to individuals and things becomes possible....

Love for suffering, oppressed mankind, the eternal longing in the heart of everyone for beauty and happiness, strength and harmony, urges us to seek a way out and to find salvation here, in life itself, and shows us the way out. It opens a man’s heart not only to his near ones, it opens his eyes and ears and gives him gigantic strength and confidence in victory. Then misfortune becomes a source of happiness and strength, for then comes clear thought throwing light on a hitherto gloomy life. From that time onwards, each new misfortune is no longer a reason for withdrawal from life, a source of apathy and despondency, but again and again inspires a man to go on living, to struggle and to love. And when the time comes and a man’s own life comes to an end, he can go calmly, without despair, and not be afraid of death....

To S. S. Dzerzhinskaya

June 24 (11), 1914.

... I want to be worthy of the ideas you and I share. And it seems to me that every sign of weakness on my part, of longing for the end and peace, every hint of “I can’t go on” would be a betrayal and the renunciation of my feelings towards you and of that song of life that has always been and is still in me....

Yan [7] must not be a hot-house flower. He should have the whole dialectics of feelings, so as to be capable in life to fight for the truth and ideas. In his heart he should have something sacred that is broader and stronger than the sacred feeling for his mother or other people near and dear to him. He should know how to love the idea, that which links him with the masses, which will be a shining light in his life. He should understand that you and all who surround him, to whom he is attached, whom he loves, have something more sacred than the love for a child, the love for him, something sacred from which he and the love and affection for him derive. This sacred feeling is stronger than all other feelings, stronger because of its moral injunction: “This is how you should live, this is what you should be.” Awareness of this duty, as of every other connected with feelings, cannot be instilled by influencing the reason alone....

... To renounce the good things of life in order to fight for them together with those who are deprived of them, and to instil now a kind of asceticism in oneself. But my thoughts never leave me and I am sharing them with you. I am not an ascetic. It is just the dialectics of feelings, which springs from life itself and, it seems to me, from the life of the proletariat. And the point is that this dialectics should complete its cycle, so that it should contain the synthesis – the solution of contradictions. And so that this synthesis, being proletarian, should at the same time be “my” truth, the truth of “my” soul. One has to have the inner consciousness of the need to go to one’s death for the sake of life, to go to prison for the sake of freedom and to have the strength to go through all the hell of life with open eyes, feeling in one’s heart the great and exalted, paean of beauty, truth and happiness derived from that life....

February 17 (4), 1916

I love life as it really is, in its eternal movement, in its harmony, and in its terrible contradictions. And my eyes still see, my ears hear, my soul is receptive and my heart has not yet hardened. And the song of life sings in my heart.... And it seems to me that whoever hears this song in his heart will never curse his life, no matter what torments he has endured, will never exchange it for the other, peaceful, normal life. For this song is everything, this song of the love of life alone remains. Both here in prison, and out there in liberty, where there are now so many horrors, it lives and is eternal as the stars: the stars and all the beauty of nature give birth to it and carry it to human hearts, and these hearts sing out and strive eternally for resurrection....

To V. E. Dzerzhinsky [8]

September 11 (august 29), 1916.

... But in social life? I am entirely at one not only with my thoughts but with the masses, and together with them I must experience the struggle, the torment and the hopes. I have never lived with closed eyes, turned in on my own thoughts alone. I was never an idealist. I learned to know human hearts and it seemed to me that I felt every beat of those hearts.... I have lived in order to fulfil my mission and to be myself....

I must endure to the end all that I am destined to endure. It cannot be otherwise. And I am at peace. And although I do not know what awaits me ... my mind continues to draw pictures of the future which crown it all. I am, besides all else, an optimist

May 21, 1918

I am in the very thick of the struggle. The life of a soldier who knows no rest, for it is necessary to save our home. There is no time to think of my own people and myself. The work and the struggle are hellish. But in this struggle my heart remains alive, the same as before. All my time is one continual round of activity....

My thoughts force me to be merciless, and I have the firm win to follow my thoughts to the end...

The ring of enemies presses harder and harder round us, approaching the heart.... Each day forces us to resort to increasingly resolute measures. Now our greatest enemy faces us – stark famine. In order to get bread, it must be taken from those who have it and given to those who have none. The civil war must flare up on an unprecedented scale. I have been moved up to a position in the front line of fire and my will is to fight and to look with open eyes on all the danger of the grave situation and to be merciless myself....

August 29, 1918

...We are soldiers on active service. And I live by what stands ahead of me, for this demands the greatest attention and vigilance in order to win victory. My will is to win through and, although a smile is very rarely seen on my face, I am confident in the victory of the idea and the movement in which I live and work....

Here we have a dance of life and death – a moment of truly sanguinary struggle, titanic effort....

To A. E. Bulihak

April 15, 1919.

Today as before, love is everything for me. I hear and feel its song in my heart. This song calls to the struggle unbending will, to tireless work. And today my actions are determined only by the idea – the striving for justice. I am finding it difficult to write.... As a perpetual wanderer, I am always in motion, in the thick of the changes and of the creation of a new life.... I see the future, and I want and must take part in its creation – to be in the movement, like a stone hurled from a sling, until I reach the end – eternal rest. Have you ever thought what war in actual pictures is like? You have pushed aside pictures of human bodies torn by shells, of the wounded lying on the battlefield and the crows pecking out the eyes of men still living. You have pushed aside these terrible pictures which daily meet the eyes. You cannot understand A soldier of the revolution fighting so that there will be no more injustice on the earth, so that this war will not put millions upon millions of people at the mercy of the conquering rich. War is a horrible thing. The whole world of the rich has moved against us. The most unhappy, most ignorant people are the first to have risen up in defence of their rights – and they are repulsing the entire world....

From the Article ’Citizens! Railwaymen!’

December 6 1921.

. ..Wherever the scoundrel plants himself – in an office behind a green-baize desk or in a watchman’s hut – he will be discovered and brought before the court of the R[evolution] Tribunal, whose punitive hammer will fall with all the devastating might and anger of which it is capable, for there is no mercy for the deadly enemies of our revival. No circumstances will be taken into account when sentence is passed on people who take bribes. The sternest punishment awaits them.

At the same time, the Soviet Government calls on all honest citizens, in whom painful consciousness of the indelible shame and corrupting influence of bribes is alive, to give their in the seeking out and discovering bribe-taking scoundrels.

Be keen-eyed and vigilant! Proletarian hands should not and cannot be sullied by bribes!

From the Article "Waifs and the Vecheka" [9]

July 22, 1926.

I want to throw part of my own efforts and primarily the forces of the Vecheka to combat the problem of homeless children... Two considerations have prompted me to this conclusion. Firstly, this is a terrible calamity! For when you look at the children, you cannot fail to think – everything is for them! The fruits of the revolution are not for us, but for them. And yet, how many of them are crippled by the struggle and by want! It is necessary to rush at once to their rescue, as we would if we saw children drowning. The People’s Commissariat for Education cannot cope with the situation alone. Extensive assistance from the Soviet public is needed. A large committee must be set up under the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, with the immediate participation of the People’s Commissariat for Education, and including representatives from all departments and all organisations that can be useful in this work. I have already spoken to a few people. I would like to head the commission myself; I want the apparatus of the Vecheka to be actually included in the work. Here I am prompted by the second consideration: I think our apparatus is one of those that work most efficiently; it has branches everywhere. People reckon with it. They are rather afraid of it. And yet, even in such a thing as the salvation and provisioning of children, one meets with negligence and even pilfering! We are steadily going over to peace-time construction, and so the thought has struck me, why not use our militant apparatus to combat such a calamity as homelessness among children?...

From a Circular Letter to the Managements of Syndicates and Trusts and to Red Directors

June 19, 1924.

... One must not fear criticism, or gloss over shortcomings; on the contrary, it is necessary to help to make them known and to see nothing discreditable in doing so. Only he can be discredited who conceals his shortcomings, who is unwilling to fight against evils, that is, precisely the man who ought to be discredited. It is necessary to be able to see the truth and to imbibe it from the masses and from all who are taking part in production. There is nothing worse than self-praise and self-satisfaction. It is possible to go forward only when, step by step, evils are sought out and overcome. At the same time, an end must be put to our established practice of humouring the masses – the workers. It should be remembered that in our country the workers, like ourselves, are not yet cultured, that often their group interests outweigh the interests of the working class as a whole; often they do not sufficiently realise that only their own useful labour, the productivity of their labour, can create the communist state, maintain their Soviet power. Every economic manager should wage a struggle to win prestige, to win the confidence of the working masses, but the struggle for this confidence should on no account employ the instrument of demagogy, of humouring the masses, satisfying them to the detriment and at the expense of the state, of the interests of the alliance with the peasants, of parochial requirements. The path of demagogy is perhaps the most harmful path, lulling the masses, deflecting them from the main tasks of the working class in production, diminishing the sacrifices the working class has made and, in the final analysis, one which is harmful for our industry....

1. “Proletariat” – the first revolutionary workers’ party in Poland formed in the eighties of last century.

2. The reference here is to the thoughts aroused in F. E. Dzerzhinsky by the confirmation of the sentence to exile him, which meant that he had to leave the prison.

3. Letters written between 1898 and 1916 in prison and exile, except for the letter dated October 6 (September 23), 1902.

4. Edmundovna Bulhak – F. E. Dzerzhinsky’s sister.

5. G. A. Bulhak – A. E. Bulhak’s husband.

6. Sofia Sigizmundovna Dzerzhinskaya – F. E. Dzerzhinsky’s wife.

7. F. E. Dzerzhinsky’s son.

8. Vladislav Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky – F. E. Dzerzhinsky’s brother.

9. The Vecheka (Cheka) – the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission to combat counter-revolution and sabotage. It was set up on the initiative of V.I. Lenin in December 1917, as an organ of the workers’ and peasants power, to defend the state security of the Soviet Republic.

Felix Dzerzhinsky Archive

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Edwards grills Department of Education secretary on the fairness of student loan cancellations for America's working class

U.S. Congressman Chuck Edwards (NC-11) today questioned Department of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona on the fairness of student loan cancellations for Western North Carolinians who did attend a university. Click  here  or below to watch Edwards’ remarks on student loan cancellations.

Excerpts from his questioning:

On the working class paying for others' college education: "Mr. Secretary, one of the things that I continually hear from folks in my district and from all around America is that Washington seems to have forgotten so much of the working class, and I see no better example of that than the student debt relief program that’s being suggested right now - where folks with dirt and grease under their fingernails are being asked to pay for folks' college education that wear a crest on their sport coat.

"I’m gonna give you a chance right now, in the time that I have left, to explain to that working class why this proposed program this debt relief program is fair and not turning its back, our back, on those folks that have calluses on their hands and really have built this country."

Follow-up: "I’m talking about the folks that are plunging toilets every day and cutting pipes and laying bricks, that didn’t have an opportunity to go to college and now we’re asking them to pay for the education of the folks that you’re trying to describe there. Those are different classes.

"So, tell the bricklayers and pipefitters out there right now, you have the floor for a minute and three seconds, why they should feel good about paying for these student debt relief programs."

On the lack of fairness in paying for a different class of individuals' education: "The parents of those children that are laying bricks and fitting pipes have already made their decision, they're into their career and they're being asked to pay for a different class of folks' education. I find that just tremendously unfair and I'll be anxious to go back and play your comments over to the folks back at home and see if you've convinced them."

More Alabama students are graduating high school ready for jobs: What’s working?

A labama education officials got good news Thursday about the graduating class of 2023: More students are graduating high school, and are doing so prepared for college and jobs.

The percentage of students graduating on-time, defined as graduating four years after being a first-time high school freshman, rose to 90%, up from 88.2% for the class of 2022. And the percentage of all students who are ready for college or a career was up, too: From 79% in 2022 to 84% in 2023.

Alabama State Superintendent Eric Mackey told board members that $10 million in state funding lawmakers provided to beef up college and career readiness offerings in schools made a difference.

“CCR grants came from a discussion of board members around this table,” Mackey said, “that if we’re going to require all of our students to have a CCR to graduate, we need to support our schools to get there. So let’s go ask the legislature for money.”

Lawmakers funded the grants last year, he said, and it looks like they’ll fund them for this year, too. The current supplemental education appropriation, HB144, shows a $17 million appropriation for the grants.

Assistant Superintendent Melissa Shields told board members that the state sends funding and support to high schools with large amounts of at-risk students.

Some schools are offering “twilight school,” or classes in the evenings, for students who need to work during the day. Others are offering childcare for students who are also parents, Shields said.

Instructional Services Coordinator Sean Stevens said the grants help schools implement new programming and push students forward.

“We were able to prioritize [grants] based on those schools that had a 15-point gap between their graduation rate in their college and career readiness rate,” Stevens said. “Many of those schools were able to receive close to $400,000.”

Schools used the grants in many different ways, he said.

“Those grants have been able to fund students going on college tours, business and industry tours and provided test prep for students and preparing the teachers in the building to help students with test prep.”

Grants were also used to pay for scholarships for dual enrollment and training for teachers to teach dual enrollment and Advanced Placement courses, he said.

Beginning with the class of 2026, all students must earn one of the following credentials that indicate the graduate is college or career ready in order to get a diploma:

• A benchmark score on the ACT college entrance exam,
• A qualifying score of three or higher on an Advanced Placement exam,
• A qualifying score of four or higher on an International Baccalaureate exam,
• Earning college credit while in high school,
• Earning silver or gold status on the ACT WorkKeys exam,
• Completing an in-school youth apprenticeship program,
• Earning a career technical industry credential listed on the compendium of valuable credentials of the Alabama Committee on Credentialing and Career Pathways,
• Attaining career and technical education completer status, or
• Being accepted into a branch of the military before graduation

District- and school-level graduation rates are not yet publicly available, according to education officials. Click here to see college and career readiness rates for the class of 2022 .

©2024 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit al.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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The unseen reason working-class students drop out from college.

It’s one of the most frustrating facts in education: Compared with peers from middle- and upper-class families, students from working-class families—those who are low-income or the first in their families to attend college—struggle to achieve in college. Even the most highly qualified working-class students receive lower GPAs and drop out more often than their middle- and upper-class peers. Since education is a powerful engine of social mobility, this persistent achievement gap means that the American dream remains out of reach for far too many working-class students.

What’s going on? To explain these dismal outcomes, policymakers often point to what working-class students lack. Many face real obstacles in terms of academic skills such as writing or math, and may need additional tutoring because they attended low quality high schools. Many also struggle with meeting their basic needs while in school: Recent surveys have found that 9 percent of college students in the U.S. do not have reliable housing, and, remarkably, half report anxiety about getting enough food.

Yet even when universities address these challenges, social class achievement gaps persist. As one survey found, even if you take prior academic preparation into account, you’ll still see achievement gaps. Similarly prepared students from different backgrounds fare differently after they reach the college gates. It’s clear that something deeper is also at work, and that something happens  during college .

We’ve spent years studying this phenomenon, and our research has identified an additional obstacle for working-class students that is often unseen, but plays a key role in fueling these disparities: a cultural mismatch between working-class students and the schools they attend. Many of these students report feeling like their college or university is not set up for students “like them,” or feeling like they are guests in someone else’s house. These experiences reflect a critical insight, one that colleges need to take into account if they want to help narrow America’s social class opportunity gap.

As sociologist Pierre Bourdieu observed, culture is a key mechanism for creating social class inequality—taken-for-granted cues and behaviors that may have nothing to do with people’s actual abilities, but become part of our institutional standards and get defined as merit. In higher education, for example, our research shows that universities tend to rely on standards of merit that reflect  independent  values, leading educators to assume that students should pave their own paths, be independent thinkers, challenge norms and rules, and feel comfortable expressing their personal preferences.

Decades of research in the social sciences shows that people from working-class communities tend to prioritize a different set of values, including being socially responsive, adjusting to others, and being part of a group — values of  interdependence . They do so, in part, because they have fewer material resources than people raised in middle- and upper-class contexts, and therefore have less choice, influence, and control over their lives. Without an economic safety net, they are often socialized to follow the rules and attend to others’ needs and interests. While middle- and upper-class families tend to raise their children with the promise that the “world is your oyster,” many working-class families are built around a different reality: “You can’t always get what you want.”

These divergent values can guide students’ experiences in college. When asked why they’re motivated to attend college, students from middle- and upper-class backgrounds tend to focus on goals that reflect universities’ standards of independence, such as exploring personal passions or making a mark on the world. By contrast, our research has found that working-class students more often focus on goals that reflect standards of interdependence, such as helping their families or giving back to their communities.   They often   enter educational settings with little experience focusing on themselves and exploring personal passions, and are instead more prepared to focus on others and contribute to a group. When working-class students don’t promote their individual interests like their middle-class peers have learned to do, they often get viewed as lesser or deficient.

This cultural mismatch between the university culture of independence and working-class norms of interdependence is consequential. In a series of experiments, we have found that exposing students to the university’s cultural standard of independence (e.g., pave your own path) can increase working-class students’ stress, reduce their sense of belonging and undermine performance. The college culture of independence can further undermine working-class students’ opportunity to succeed because it encourages students to take a narrow focus on individual responsibility. As a result, when facing setbacks, working-class students tend to believe that they—and they alone—are responsible, thinking, “I just don’t have what it takes” or “I must not be smart enough.” The emphasis on independence may also discourage them from seeking tutoring or mentoring, thinking that they need to figure things out on their own. In that sense, the university’s emphasis on independence can not only lead working-class students to be labeled deficient, but also create the very “deficiencies” that are so often assumed to characterize them.

What can policymakers and educators do to address social class gaps in students’ academic outcomes? The very idea of institution-student cultural mismatch contains the solution: when universities incorporate interdependence along with independence into their cultures, working-class students benefit. In our studies, we find that doing something as simple as revising a university welcome messageto include concepts of interdependence   (e.g., be part of a community) leads working-class students to perform just as well as their socioeconomically advantaged peers on an academic task. Universities should therefore consider changing their websites, orientation materials and student guidebooks to incorporate the value of interdependence.

Another simple fix is to promote more group learning. In ongoing research led by Andrea Dittmann, we are finding that asking students to work together interdependently on a problem-solving task can lead groups of working-class students to outperform groups of their socioeconomically advantaged peers. Universities should therefore emphasize the value of working in groups; promote a community of peers who can navigate college together; and connect all students to the support of advisors or mentors.

The fact that changing the university culture can close—or even reverse—social class achievement gaps challenges the idea that working-class students are deficient. Instead, it suggests that many students do not reach their potential because the university culture is, in fact, not set up for students like them.

In our research with Stanford University research scientist MarYam Hamedani, we’ve found that it can be transformational to teach working-class students this critical lesson: Their setbacks in college are not because of their individual deficiencies, but instead due to contextual factors such as differences in preparation. In one orientation program designed to convey this message, a working-class student discussed how his background—going to a less rigorous high school and not having college-educated parents—led him to have a difficult time adjusting to college and making the right decisions for his future career. From this student’s story, incoming students learn that this student’s challenges aren’t because he is individually deficient or incapable, but because he comes from a different social class context. In our intervention studies, we’ve shown that simply being offered this lesson increases working-class students’ willingness to seek help and improves their grades throughout college. And further, all students can benefit from incorporating more contextual ways of thinking in college.

Together, this work suggests that policymakers, educators and practitioners will have greater success promoting the achievement of working-class students if they take a hard look at the cultures of universities themselves. Bridging resource and skill gaps is a necessary first step to helping these students achieve, but if we truly want to level the playing field, we must expand the culture of higher education to include interdependence as well as independence. That’s the best way to ensure that working-class students are neither labeled—nor rendered—deficient by the university culture, and to make the American dream more accessible to those who need it the most.

Nicole Stephens is associate professor of Management and Organizations at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Sarah Townsend  is the Kenneth King Stonier Assistant Professor of Business Administration at the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business.

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• Victor Mukhin

Victor M. Mukhin was born in 1946 in the town of Orsk, Russia. In 1970 he graduated the Technological Institute in Leningrad. Victor M. Mukhin was directed to work to the scientific-industrial organization "Neorganika" (Elektrostal, Moscow region) where he is working during 47 years, at present as the head of the laboratory of carbon sorbents.     Victor M. Mukhin defended a Ph. D. thesis and a doctoral thesis at the Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology of Russia (in 1979 and 1997 accordingly). Professor of Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology of Russia. Scientific interests: production, investigation and application of active carbons, technological and ecological carbon-adsorptive processes, environmental protection, production of ecologically clean food.   

Title : Active carbons as nanoporous materials for solving of environmental problems

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