Sociology 3945: Worksheet--"People Like Us," part II

1. Where is Dana from both in terms of geography and social class?

2. How does she have to change as she moves back and forth between her new job in Washington, D.C. and her original home in Morgantown, Kentucky?

3. What is the basis for status at Anderson High School?

4. How do the kids at the top of the status system feel about their position? How do they feel about the people who aren't included in their group?

5. How do people who aren't part of the top group feel about the Anderson status system?

Sociology 3945: Groups--"People Like Us," part II

1. Dana says that since she left Morgantown to go to college at Antioch, she has had to get used to being uncomfortable, to never really being in her niche? Do you think she will continue to feel that way? Is upward social mobility worth this price?

2. The narrator says: "In every town, big or small, there's a place where social divisions are cast at an early age, where people struggle with questions of what they can achieve in life, where the running drama of who's in and who's out is performed on da daily basis. It's the high school." Is that the way you experienced high school?

3. What is it that determines the relative prestige and power of different cliques at Anderson High School? How do you become part of the most prestigious clique? Was your high school similar or quite different? Explain.

4. Do you see the social stratification system at Anderson as a reflection of race and ethnic discrimination? Social class discrimination? Do you believe that the people with formal power in the school system--school board, school superintendent, priincipal, etc. should accept this system of social stratification as inevitable? If not, how could they intervene?