Class confronts life of poor through 'fictional families'
By Tom Clark
Assistant News Editor

Imagine being a single mother with two children, living off food stamps and the sporadic child support you receive from an elusive ex-husband. For many students, this situation may seem almost unreal – something far from their lives on campus.

The 45 students in assistant professor Angela Hattery’s sociology class, Social Inequality, have recently completed a three-month study of various social groups and the effects of social stratification in the Winston-Salem community.

The students divided into groups and were assigned fictional families living in Winston-Salem whose lifestyles would be designed around their individual situations. The six different groups ranged from an upper class, two-parent family to a single mother and her children on welfare.

Students researched local employment, financial needs, housing, transportation, childcare, schools, entertainment and food. The fictional families’ lifestyles were built around their financial situation and students needed to work out a successful plan that would allow the families to function as best as possible with their given resources.

“The project makes the issues of social classes more real,” Hattery said. “Social class isn’t just about the kind of car you drive. I want them to see that social class and income level affect the house you live in, the school your kids attend, the food you can afford to buy.”

Students spent much of their time going out into the Winston-Salem community and connecting their fictional families to the real world. Students had to find real jobs, real housing and real childcare, with documentation to prove that their choices would accommodate each family’s needs and resources.

Each group will present their designed lifestyle Nov. 30. Students will be able to view each others research and compare each of the social classes presented. Hattery said her students will gain much from the forum, “recognizing that most students have limited experience with social classes other than their own.”

One of the highlights of the presentation will be comparing the week’s-worth of groceries that each group bought to sustain their family, based on the typical lifestyle and budget set by the specific social class. Each student donated money to be used for groceries for their fictional families and pooled their money together.

During a heated class this past Monday, students debated how much of the money should go to each group to buy groceries for one week. According to Hattery, emotions ran high as each fictional family fought for their share of the “economy” so that they could survive.

Senior Laura Teeter, who was a member of the welfare family group, which only received $50 for groceries, was surprised by the students’ reactions when the money was divided up. Each family defended their position on why they should get their proposed amount of food money, but in the process several of the groups’ budgets were cut. “It made us feel that the richer people were just out to help themselves,” she said.

After the presentations Nov. 30, the students will take their groceries to Samaritan Ministries, a homeless shelter that each of the students spent a night in during the semester.

Most of the sociology students are pleased with the outcome of the projects.

“The stratification project made us all very appreciative for what we have and that we’ve never had to go through anything like that,” Teeter said. “I feel I’ve gained a whole new perspective. We’re learning life.”

Some of the upper class families gained a different perspective after completing their project.

“One theme from Dr. Hattery’s class is ‘We don’t grow by knowing all the answers, but rather by living and struggling with the questions.’ I think the social stratification group project will once again force us to think about difficult and uncomfortable issues,” said senior Kristin Zipple, who was in a group whose fictional family was the most affluent.

“I don’t think it will be easy to see how much lower class families have to struggle to live day-to-day. I imagine the grave inequalities in our social class system will be painfully obvious when the details about the families are placed side by side on (Nov. 30). (The project) has given us a glimpse into a life very different from what the norm at Wake Forest is,” Zipple said.