Abstract
Janet was a smart kid who grew up in the projects.1 She did well in school and was often taunted by her classmates for being a nerd. In fact, “book learning” was a favourite insult, “They believed that common sense exists in inverse proportion to academic instruction, a notion that found expression in cutting comments such as ‘The girl ain’t got nothin’ upstairs but book learning’ and ‘You got about as much common sense as a speck on a fly!’” (35–36). When Janet did in fact manage to find her way to college, however, she received a new unwanted identity – “project girl.”
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© 2012 Sense Publishers
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Hurst, A.L. (2012). Introduction and Methods. In: Hurst, A.L. (eds) College and the Working Class. Mobility Studies and Education, vol 3. SensePublishers. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6091-752-3_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6091-752-3_1
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