The Elite Student Experience of Gaining Capital
Individuals from varying class backgrounds are able to structure their free time in distinct ways based on the difference in resources they have at their disposal. A high-school-aged individual in the working class, for example, may have childcare responsibilities while their parents are at work or may be required to get an after-school job to cover their personal expenses and to help support their family. This may take time away from engaging in extracurricular activities and studying for school. Additionally, when money is tight, these individuals will be far less able to take unpaid opportunities like internships. In all, the necessity to spend one’s free time working a paid job or helping with household tasks may impede a lower-class student’s ability to develop social and cultural capital.
Individuals from the upper classes, though, are often awarded a far greater degree of flexibility when it comes to their free time because they have less of a responsibility to help with household tasks or to earn money. Free of these financial burdens, high schoolers in the upper classes are able to spend their time after school studying, engaging in sports and clubs, hanging out with their friends, and taking career exposure opportunities like internships. Given their ability to develop their well-roundedness as a result of their far greater amount of free time, individuals in the upper class are able to accumulate valuable forms of social and cultural capital which put them in a more advantageous position for admission to university and entrance into the job market.
This ability for high schoolers in the upper class to spend free time on activities besides paid work was highly apparent in the interviews with students at Everdeen, an elite school in Australia. In an interview with a male high school student, the interviewer inquired about the student’s previous job experience such as a summer job. The boy replies that he has never had a job, although he has had work experience. This work experience is in the form of short-term internships for which he did not receive compensation. One internship, he explains, was at an eye and ear hospital and the other was at a stockbroking firm. Acknowledging that these are two very different things, he further explains that he does not know what he wants to do for university or a job yet, so he is just exploring his options.
Never having a job after school or over school vacation also allowed him to develop various other skills that he otherwise would not have been able to if there were more time and monetary constraints. Beyond having the opportunity and the flexibility to engage in internships, this interviewee also participated on a club rowing team, played multiple instruments, and traveled internationally with his family. Not only do these opportunities require a time commitment, which is time that could be spent working for a wage, they also cost significant sums of money. Therefore, the ability to spend one’s free time throughout high school on extracurricular activities and travel as opposed to household tasks and employment is a uniquely upper-class experience.
The trend among Everdeen students of not ever having worked a job is echoed by a female student also in year 11. When asked if she has a job, she responds by saying no, she does not, because she hasn’t ever had much spare time. Similar to the male interviewee, she goes on to explain that she spends a lot of her free time playing sports, specifically soccer, going out to eat with her friends, and traveling internationally with her family. Additionally, she mentions that she regularly volunteers her time, as her “house,” a school organization, frequently sponsors clothing drives, charity events, and mission trips.
Based on the two student examples from Everdeen combined with my previous knowledge of financial mobility among different social classes, it appears as though access to opportunities to build capital and elite status are available at higher rates to those who already hold dominant positions in society. Again, this is largely due to differences in their responsibility to earn money and provide help around the house as well as differences in their capacity to devote funds to extra-curricular opportunities. Through the growth of their capital, members of the elite class are likely able to further their elite position in society while those who face factors limiting their acquisition of capital, such as needing to spend time throughout high school completing domestic tasks or earning money, are often excluded from this elite status.
