Moving Up without Losing Your Way: The Ethical Costs of Upward Mobility

by Jennifer Morton

The ethical and emotional tolls paid by disadvantaged college students seeking upward mobility and what educators can do to help these students flourish

Upward mobility through the path of higher education has been an article of faith for generations of working-class, low-income, and immigrant college students. While we know this path usually entails financial sacrifices and hard work, very little attention has been paid to the deep personal compromises such students have to make as they enter worlds vastly different from their own. Measuring the true cost of higher education for those from disadvantaged backgrounds, Moving Up without Losing Your Way looks at the ethical dilemmas of upward mobility―the broken ties with family and friends, the severed connections with former communities, and the loss of identity―faced by students as they strive to earn a successful place in society.

Drawing upon philosophy, social science, personal stories, and interviews, Jennifer Morton reframes the college experience, factoring in not just educational and career opportunities but also essential relationships with family, friends, and community. Finding that student strivers tend to give up the latter for the former, negating their sense of self, Morton seeks to reverse this course. She urges educators to empower students with a new narrative of upward mobility―one that honestly situates ethical costs in historical, social, and economic contexts and that allows students to make informed decisions for themselves.

A powerful work with practical implications, Moving Up without Losing Your Way paves a hopeful road so that students might achieve social mobility while retaining their best selves.

Genres: Nonfiction, Education, Philosophy, Sociology, School, Audiobook, College

192 pages, Hardcover

Published September 17, 2019

Reviews

[Holli · Rating 5 out of 5]

No one tells first generation students that aspiring in school to better their lives comes with ethical tradeoffs in the form of losing community, relationships and identity. The narrative of using education to better oneself and move up the social ladder completely leaves out the social costs these students suffer.

I wish I had this book when I started grad school. As a first generation student myself, it would have given me the tools to contextualize the changes in my life. I would have had a method of comprehending why the social dynamics back home were shifting so dramatically and why relationships were becoming so strained seemingly without cause. I was not prepared for the social trade offs.

[jeremiah]

The first-generation and low-income college student experience is a socioeconomic issue that has only just started to receive the rigorous philosophical reflection it demands. Morton's account of the ethical costs of upwardly mobile first-generation college students gets so much right. For example, as a first-generation college student myself, my parents never discussed ideas or current events with me. Reading the humanities was my own way of escaping my working class upbringing and the means of cultivating a new sense of self. However, when I finally did make it to college, I experienced "culture shock": I was extremely quiet in my seminars, since I realized that I had entered a world which many of my peers were prepared for by virtue of coming from families wealthier and better educated than mine. Everyone seemed to speak about complex ideas with the professors with such ease and familiarity. My verbal speech, on the other hand, was barely grammatical and my long pauses between words obscured any intelligibility, as was once pointed out to me. I thought I was an admissions mistake. Soon I strove to adopt the values and practices of the socioeconomic class with which I was now primarily engaged. After all, it was the world I'd dreamed for a long time of entering. However, it came with a cost: I distanced myself further from my working class background, home didn't seem like home anymore, and my parents couldn't understand the kind of life to which I aspired. (While I'm now a PhD student, this is true to this day, although I think I've finally gotten them to understand what "Philosophy" is.) Moreover, it was an emotional struggle to get my family to glimpse the value of the education I wanted and for them to take the immense financial risk required to make it happen. It speaks to their character as parents that they risked so much for me to pursue something they themselves barely understood.

Anyway, to see a professional academic philosopher examine the various ways first-generation college students navigate loyalties between their 'home' and 'new' communities and the ethical risks such navigation involves was a validating experience. There's also wonderful discussion here about the ways in which first-generation college students can challenge the class structure that disadvantaged them. In sum, as Morton nicely puts it, "for many students the process of upward mobility requires far more than perseverance: it also requires brutal decisions and painful sacrifices, threatens their relationships with those who matter most to them, and destabilizes their sense of identity and belonging. The story of upward mobility isn't just one of gains; it is also one of losses." While there is still much more to be said about this topic, I'm grateful for the rich groundwork Morton lays out in this book.

[naomi · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think there was a lot of potential for Jennifer Morton to make this book incredibly interesting - diving deep into different stories from her students and applying those experiences to her arguments, even putting more of her own life into her book to showcase how upward mobility is not always as simple as it seems. However, she did not, so this book was extremely boring. Of course books formatted as essays are fine, but if she really wanted to get her point across to a larger audience, then writing it like that was not a good choice. I felt like I was reading the same sentence over and over again. Also, for a book that has the word "ethical" in the title, she was really just throwing the word around and not actually discussing the ethics of upward mobility. Just very repetitive and nothing groundbreaking at all. It could've been an article.

[Heidi · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book started out strong and was convicting for me as an educator. Morton argues convincingly that we need to be honest about the difficult choices that "strivers," those attempting to move up the socioeconomic ladder, will have to make. The story we like to tell ourselves is that any student who works hard enough can succeed and that college is the best stepping stone to success. However for first generation college students, there are many hidden ethical costs to pursuing a college degree. Students must often make hard choices between their obligations as a student and their obligations to their family and community. I see these struggles all the time as an adjunct instructor at a community college. Students are doing their best to juggle work, family, childcare, eldercare, and school, and yet get frustrated with themselves when they struggle in school. Often we make assumptions about cultural norms that students are automatically expected to know but that are not universal: things like how to participate in an American classroom, how to seek out help during office hours, how to argue with your teachers(!) if you feel something is unfair, or how to identify if a course if poorly taught and advocate for yourself and your classmates.

I was hoping to get more guidance as to what I can do as a teacher to help guide students as they make tough choices about their education and career. This book was a helpful starting point for how to have those conversations and for ideas on how to support my students, but it is only a starting point. I would have liked to have been able to read more interviews with students to get a better understanding of the variety of student experiences, but this book reads more as an argumentative essay than as a study of the challenges strivers face.

That being said, I still appreciate this book as a starting point for conversations on how we can better support students and improve higher education to be more inclusive to students from a variety of backgrounds.

[Grant · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was always taught that if I wanted to succeed, I would have to sacrifice. And there was never any question that such sacrifices would be viewed positively. After all, it was almost always a question of discipline.

--To succeed academically, you sacrifice TV time, video game time, non-productive socializing.
--To succeed athletically, you give up unhealthy foods (and TV time, video games, etc.)

What I never thought about is how privileged a perspective this is. For those who come from economically depressed backgrounds, achieving academically often involves many costly sacrifices. Even achieving the goals of upward mobility can in itself be a sacrifice that separates "strivers" from the communities that produced them.

Through dozens of case studies, the author does a fantastic job describing all of the different ways these strivers are forced to make difficult decisions that are rarely experienced by people from middle-class backgrounds.

While not a long book, the seemingly endless examples do get a little bit repetitive as the author offers up one example after another, each with a slightly different slant on the myriad problems of upward mobility. But the result is an extremely thorough introduction to an ethical conversation that should be on the mind of all teachers/administrators in higher education.

[Heather King · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone in higher ed should read this book. Morton’s perspective as a philosopher (as well as being an immigrant and first gen) provides a compelling focus for her exploration of the hard choices students navigate and ways faculty can support them with candor and compassion. Her suggestions about values reflections that will support learning are particularly pragmatic.

[Jacklynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciate the perspective the author is bringing and think it should be considered more often, but the book is really academically written and is repetitive. I read it because of their interview on Hidden Brain and recommend that podcast episode!

[Nuri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Morton writes an exceptionally compelling narrative about "strivers" that lose their connection to family, community, maybe even identity, as they move up the socio-economic ladder. She calls it the ethical costs, which should not be exacted as a condition for a better life. She also explained the phenomena of codeswitch. Many of us have at least once in our life have done it. It's a fascinating human behaviour to which I wish Morton devoted more explanation. Perhaps some of her themes are much written about in other sociology books. The personal stories that Morton tells, especially of her students, are illuminating. I wish that she compiled more of those stories (difficult as they may be due to confidentiality), and tell a more diverse and longitudinal narrative. Under the heading methodology, Morton stated that she conducted interviews with 28 strivers, but upon reading her book I can only recall the stories of half a dozen. So what was said in all 28 cases? This book may have been more enriching if Morton diligently documented their stories and teased out the parallels and contradictions in a systematic way. On the other hand, Morton devotes a lot of pages describing the ongoing challenges faced by the low-income, inner-city, racialized, immigrant population. All of this is true, but her writing style and content on this matter are repetitive, to the point that I start to expect the obvious and just want to turn the page. Interspersing the argument with some data and testimonies would give it more power.

Morton's big criticism of the current college education system in America is that the promise of education (as that of the defunct promise of the American dream) ignores the true cost of upward mobility for low-income students. Why do some smart young adults from low-income communities not apply to top private universities, even when there is generous financial aid? Monton does a huge service in explaining one aspect of this dilemma. If we can't grapple with this, we are far from discussing inequality in general in the country.

[Christa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book. As someone who has worked in higher education for 10+ years, I am admittedly burnt out on conversations about at-risk students, barriers, and obstacles to student success. Not because these issues are not important, but because we seem to have the same conversations over and over again, and haven't found many good strategies to address those barriers.

Morton offers a new perspective on student success and the complex emotional landscape students who commit to the holy grail - upper mobility through education - must grapple with. Morton's research examines the emotional and social toll that is exacted on students, their families, and communities through the interpersonal sacrifices they must make to pursue education and improve their circumstances. Incorporating personal accounts from her students, her research is both informative and relatable. It also offers support professionals, teachers, and administrators in higher education a different way to think about student success that extends beyond financial or academic needs and incorporates the emotional and psychological challenges that are inextricably tied to the willful struggle to change one's life.

[Sharad Pandian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jennifer Morton's argument is that for students from disadvantaged backgrounds, apart from the economic and cultural barriers that prevent them from using education for social mobility, there are also often "ethical costs" such transitions involve, costs to "relationships with family and friends, our connection to our communities, and our sense of identity" (4). As someone who was a first-generation student from Peru, she has credibility in discussing these issues, and by drawing from her experience teaching and interviewing students at CCNY (the "Harvard of the poor"), she produces an insightful examination of issues involved. This is not sociology - the interviews are more for inspiration and clarity - but she draws extensively from sociological studies, making it a philosophical study that's actually useful and relevant, instead of well-meaning but insipid armchair thought.

She doesn't see her role as providing answers to difficult questions (there's too much contextual variation, plus students ultimately need to make decisions themselves). Instead she wishes to advocate for these "strivers" to be "clear-eyed" about what's at stake, what costs they can expect, and what they should take upon themselves (both immediately and in the long-term). Her ultimate goal seems to be to help "craft an honest, alternative narrative of upward mobility" (124).

This clear-eyed ethical narrative is characterized by three central features: it is honest about the ethical trade-offs involved in striving, it clearly situates these choices in a specific socioeconomic and historical context, and it is ethical in that it encourages strivers to reflect on what is valuable and meaningful to them and on the impact they want to make on the world. (121)

This narrative provides not answers, but rather a framework that can help strivers confront the questions they will face in a reflective way. Such an approach involves putting together all of the elements we have discussed thus far: recognizing those aspects of one’s life that are valuable and meaningful but might be undermined in the process of moving up, situating those costs in the proper socioeconomic context in a way that recognizes the extent to which they disproportionately burden strivers, navigating the competing pressures on one’s identity that upward mobility creates, and resisting one’s complicity in a society that is unfairly structured so as to compound the hurdles already faced by those who are most disadvantaged. (124)

An example to illustrate:

For example, the fact that childcare is expensive and difficult to procure in this country means that some strivers find themselves having to choose between providing childcare for their families and graduating on time. A hopeless response to this situation would be to decide that such a striver will ultimately fail to graduate and therefore might as well not try. A delusionally optimistic response would be to encourage this striver to go to college and work hard to achieve her goals without acknowledging what she might be giving up by choosing that path. The ethical narrative, by contrast, points to a middle road: it helps the striver to acknowledge the potential ethical costs of going to college—how her relationship with her family might be impacted by the decisions she will have to make in order to succeed in that path—but also the potential gains—a college degree will enable her to access opportunities that are likely otherwise unavailable to her family. The ethical narrative also requires that she understand the ways in which a lack of access to quality childcare plays a role in the challenges she faces and how others who are born into more fortunate circumstances are not subject to the same challenges. This broadens her perspective. She can now consider the role she could play in bringing more quality childcare to people growing up in communities like hers once she has attained a measure of socioeconomic success. This contribution might be as simple as voting for candidates who make this one of their policy priorities, or it might involve a much more profound grassroots engagement with this issue. It is here that she can find hope not just for herself, but for others like her. Hope becomes more than an empty promise; it is born from an honest assessment of the challenges she faces and the sacrifices she will have to make. From the reflection at the heart of the ethical narrative, the striver can see her life more clearly. And from that clarity is born a more honest version of a hopeful narrative. (148)

Why we should care about this:

I am not suggesting that a clear-eyed ethical narrative will eliminate the feelings of conflict and struggle that strivers are liable to experience on the path of upward mobility, though some might take comfort from the clarity they have gained. Nor am I suggesting that this narrative will minimize the ethical costs strivers face, though it might help some thread the delicate needle between their two worlds. Nor am I suggesting that such a narrative would dramatically alter a striver’s situation, though it may encourage strivers to act in ways that play a role in making our society more just in the long run. The reason to embrace a clear-eyed ethical narrative is simple— it is more honest. It is more truthful in its recognition that in the path of upward mobility there is the potential for loss, that what might be lost is genuinely valuable, and that the responsibility for that loss extends far beyond individual students, their families, or their communities. (148-9)

[Shua McLean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lot of it feels like common sense, having lived this experience but it's an accurate and insightful telling.

[Enkuush · Rating 3 out of 5]

this was okay, very repetitive though and the writer's perspectives were often not anything groundbreaking… also barely any real analysis or real life examples. if you're interested in such topics read Anthony Jack's The Privileged Poor instead, it is much better.

[Cassandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great alternative to Hillbilly Elegy - this is a book written by a professor who immigrated to the US and now teaches a lot of first time college students from low SES backgrounds. Morton treats her students with the utmost kindness, understanding what few members of academia admit - that the unwritten and unspoken rules of higher education are written and spoken but only to select few. Kid who enter college as the first in their family or from low SES backgrounds not only struggle because they don't hail from great high schools but continue to struggle to support themselves and their families and to stay connected to their communities of origin. Morton draws comparisons between the cultural shift required to be upwardly mobile in the US and the cultural shift required to move to another country - but she admits - even as an immigrant she was prepared for and almost groomed to give up parts of her culture and come to America whereas a lot of low SES kids were not. Many work tirelessly to give themselves opportunities their families, parents, neighbors, siblings never had - only to realize that they aren't totally comfortable in middle class circles either. We spend a lot of time trying to "cure" poverty and render the hierarchies inherent in this country as "classless" or "equal" and we focus a ton of time on how to improve the academic environment for kids from poor backgrounds but Morton outlines the real problem - and it is a cultural one. It is not so simple as giving poor kids textbooks and good math tutors - these kids are capable of learning math. What they do face are additional cultural barriers and challenges - keeping the lights on long enough to care about math and being a representative for their entire communities. Morton carefully outlines story after story of students navigating dual cultural worlds. This isn't a pity party for poor kids - and in many ways Morton treats her students with dignity and honesty - recognizing that the sacrifices they make are more extreme than other students but never denying that they are somewhat inevitable. Her book does not provide us with a total solution - class straddling students and professionals may always struggle to achieve and maintain upward mobility - but her compassion and understanding are needed antidotes in a culture that vacillates between outright condescension of the lower classes and degrading pity for them. Depending on who you talk to - the lower classes are insolent freeloaders who have only themselves to blame or pitiful victims of evil corporations and government with no agency of their own. What's missing here - is what Morton provides - a view of lower class folks, especially lower class college students - as human beings. Colleges have long ago abandoned a lot of these kids - courting rich kids and their donor parents, hiring sous chefs to work in residence hall eateries, installing spas in dorms and turning college into a five star party hotel instead of an institution of higher learning, all the while cutting scholarship programs that help and support poor kids and letting the federal government foot a big part of the bill. Meanwhile poor kids who do attend college attend less selective ones than richer kids, and see less of a benefit from education overall and still end up making less than their peers. They are less likely to graduate but if they do, they are more likely to have student debt. This should be required reading for every professor or administrator involved with first year students and minority students.

[James Schisler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most people don't understand the searing feeling that comes as one realizes "my life will be fundamentally different from that of my parents". And even fewer people talk about that feeling, the way it sneaks up on you at times you should be celebrating, the guilt, the shame, the distance. But Morton's narrative here picks at this a little bit, and validates the hollowness and the feeling that something irreplaceable has been sacrificed.

I identify with the "strivers" Morton discussed here- first generation and low income students pushing to improve their life by earning a college degree. On top of this, working with these students is my job. So I'm deeply, intimately familiar with the costs that people bear to make it to and through college. This book stands out because I've never seen or heard anyone discuss those costs. By analyzing these costs in an ethical framework, Morton offers a unified narrative and lens to look through.

Ultimately, Morton lands on suggesting that those who seek to support strivers in minimizing the harm of the ethical costs they pay should focus on creating a "clear eyed ethical narrative" that the strivers can fall back on for guidance. This narrative should include a sense of what is at the core of the person crafting it, and a sense of what they are willing to sacrifice in pursuit of "moving up" . Such a narrative is obviously valuable, and Morton is making an intensely valuable contribution in identifying this as a strategy for keeping the ethical costs manageable. But, somehow, it falls a bit flat. I don't know what I'd feel was more rounded- I didn't come into this book looking for policy changes, of course. This feels like an idea and a strategy in need of supplementing strategies that collectively maximize the impacts of each other.

Regardless, I found this to be an insightful, thought provoking read, and I expect many college administrators would as well. And I would recommend this work to anyone who hopes to better understand the lives of those at the bottom of our hierarchy who strive to make their way through college.

[Anh Tran · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars. This book was largely anecdotal and not really a study on the ethical costs. It could've been shorter but she does make some good points but there wasn't a lot that was new for me. This book is more about what people should do once they've made it, not people still in the process.

The book talks about the hidden costs for students from poor/working class background who are trying to move up in life. More than the cost of tuition, time, and sweat these students put into getting an education, the ethical costs may also mean losing their family, culture, and community. It talks about code-switching and while sometimes it is necessary to code-switch in order to be professional/fit in, it is not good to have separate identities in the long run and there needs to be a balance. There is also the danger of people who have made it and then perpetuate the same system that make it hard for others like them to thrive in. Her argument is that as people achieve upward mobility, they should find ways make the system more accessible to others. This book is more geared towards people who have already made it, not people still in the process.



Quotes:

"When the ways in which we have structured access to opportunities incentivize those unfortunate enough to be born into poverty to disvalue family, friendship, and community, it is time to change those social structures"

"The experience of upward mobility is complicated in part because it is sometimes difficult to tell why or how one is changing"

[Seung · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok I'm sure I listened to this book last year or the year before. But I don't remember much of it. Going to give it another listen as the topic is fascinating and oft ignored. We prioritize education as the great equalizer. Having worked with students from disadvantaged backgrounds and being one from myself, that is what we’re told by our teachers. If you were a kid from poverty and you got a full ride from an Ivy League vs paying tuition and room at the local state school, which one would you choose? But what about the culture shock? And being forced to lose one’s authenticity and culture. I think I gave this book 3 stars when I initially read it; but maybe some books aren’t read until the right time (or reread). I think the ETHICAL question the author poses is important: what’s the point in moving up or gaining the world if you lose your soul in the process? During my 4 years in school and a couple after away from home, I lost out on spending time with my mom. But I also realized that my experiences growing up were abnormal and “wrong”. I shouldn’t have done this or my friends should have done this… but we lacked resources and did the best we could. I left my community (it also got gentrified) and I rarely go back because I changed how I should spend my free time. Going to listen to this book again in my downtime and come back with a deeper lens.

[Mell Aguiar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, this book was great. It gets very repetitive, though, but that might be bc I’m familiar w the phenomenon. Nonetheless she is able to explain it super well in a way thats validating but also extremely depressing.

We’re presented with this idealistic view of the future in which we work hard, cut connections, and go to college for a degree + a good job far away from home, hence the whole “making it out the hood” thing. Lol

But ...... is it really that great ? Like she said, “ethical goods” (intrinsically good things that give our lives meaning) like relationships that you lose because of upward mobility aren’t just replaceable.

In the whole “striver” process these harsh realities remain repressed for as long as we can handle, as facing it is just too hard.

Ultimately you know ...... its time we address poverty from the get go instead of mitigating the effects of it later, as by then the damage is already done, that intergenerational shit w roots in economic depravity already passed on.

Thats a hard thing to admit bc it makes us question our trajectories too much, I guess.

I wonder if these huge structural issues will ever be addressed but thats not a very original thought haha.

Definitely recommend but it might leave you feeling slightly without hope

[Chris Boutté · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I first started learning about social psychology and behavioral economics, I realized how strong our group identity is when it comes to making decisions. Aside from a lack of resources and systemic issues that minorities and immigrants have to deal with, sometimes they’re held back by their group identity. As a recovering drug addict and alcoholic since 2012, I remember one of the challenges of getting sober was leaving behind my old friends who didn’t want to get clean. While this is much different than what minorities and immigrants deal with, it’s something that I continue to want to learn about and understand. Jennifer Morton did an incredible job discussing the challenges these groups face when they move up and advance in school, in college, and then in their careers. I feel it’s important that we all learn about the experiences of other people so we can not only empathize but come together to work towards solutions and help one another. If you want to learn about what different races and cultures struggle with when it comes to upward mobility, you definitely need this book.

[Braulio Valenzuela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Este tema me toca particularmente al ser yo mismo un "striver" que ha logrado moverse hacia arriba en la escalera socieconómica en mi adultez.

La tesis del libro habla sobre los costos morales de subir de clase social y económica, particularmente al buscar estudiar siendo una persona de escasos recursos o migrante.

El conflicto planteado es que buscar una mejor calidad de vida requiere dejar atrás cosas importantes para las identidades de las personas; sus familias, sus comunidades, sus comunidades, entre otras.

Es un tema muy bueno, un tema que también da para mucha conversación, sin embargo creo que el libro no está bueno. Yo conocí sobre este libro escuchando a la autora siendo entrevistada en el podcast Hidden Brain. Escucharla ahí me pareció fascinante y sus ideas muy provocadoras, pero leer el libro no me dio más de lo que yo ya había obtenido escuchándola en el podcast.

Muy interesante, bastante redundante, pero es una lectura que recomendaría para conocer más sobre el tema.

[Abby · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book did a good job of directing my attention to the costs of college attendance beyond the financial ones for first generation "strivers." Since I work with high school students across a range of circumstances, trying to help them understand some of the financial choices they will need to make in the next ten years, this was a good reminder that there are costs beyond paying tuition and student loans! Many years ago, I read "Unequal Childhoods," a book that was truly eye opening on differences in values/priorities in child rearing across socio-economic classes. I recognized many of the examples Morton presented on "ethical costs" from my earlier reading (and she does reference the book!) Morton's volume is very slim, and she raises lots of topics and moves on saying they are not "within her scope." I really appreciated the footnotes, and will certainly be doing some follow up reading on my own.

[Lucía Adelaida · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jennifer Morton even though less privileged than her peers in Higher Education was still very privileged in comparison to her peers in Peru. The Hidden Curriculum is a social phenomenon that thrives as a handicap to low income students all over the world. Latin America is no exception, in fact it there are more students part of the lower percentage, and the education they receive is little to none. She doesn’t speak to this specific social reality however she does clearly describe the ways it is just that much harder for striving “underprivileged” students to thrive in Higher Education, so their effort does not go unseen, because in their upbringing conditions, it is close to a miracle and a worth admiring accomplishment. She makes sure the culture one has from their own country is taken in as cultural capital despite the ethical cost in higher education being “leave that behind”.

[Tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5/5: Truly appreciated many of the concepts in this book related to the ethical cost of moving up for “strivers” as they enter environments with larger sets of privilege and social economic power.

This book was written as a Princeton pre-read for the freshman class a few years ago, I truly appreciate the debate and dialogue that it sparks for any student entering a top-tier institution.

Rating this a bit lower than 5 stars simply because some of the text did repeat itself quite frequently and seemed oriented towards an early college stage audience, that is the scope and totally reasonable! My preference would’ve been for slightly less repetition by way of concepts… although, all the concepts are with me as I think about what it means to support an advocate for marginalized and under-represented communities and spaces that are new to them.

[Jillian · Rating 2 out of 5]

The key point that the author offers various musings on is that socioeconomic mobility in a highly unequal country and world means that "strivers," or those crossing the socioeconomic, barriers face ethical tradeoffs regarding relationships with family, connection to a community, and one's sense of identity. I generally found this book unfocused. I appreciate the topic; however, I think the extent of the author's contributions could have been understood within an essay rather than a book. It is valuable as a conversation starter, but wouldn't recommend reading more then the intro / chapter 1.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such an important topic, and the book meets the importance of the topic by considering the myriad costs associated with upward mobility and even providing some smart suggestions for how, as administrators and instructors, we can work to mitigate them. Most important, Morton advocates realism and transparency when mentoring and teaching low income students. While this seems obvious, the examples she provides from her own experience illustrate how difficult it is to be frank and forthright alongside the importance of being so.

[Vivian · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was different to what I expected. I am still sifting through the arguments. I guess the main point was to identify that there are other ethical considerations of students going to college especially those from lower socioeconomic status. Perhaps this book failed to identify that higher education can look like various forms such as community college or trade school as traditional 4-year university might not be the best fit for everyone. I thought there would be more like what to consider when you are elevating yourself from your background as you grow a career. That’s ok.

[Keshawno Hanley · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s not the first time I’m reading work about the struggles and burdens that comes with upward mobility. However, to me this is the first time reading about this topic from a philosophical point of view. This gave me more understanding about the costs that strivers make and why this causes problems in their lives. It makes me wonder how these costs are experienced by people in different countries with a different educational system.

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid theoretical look at the costs and conflict borne by first generation and upwardly mobile students. Great questions for reflection abs guide to take an honest look at the trade offs to develop ones own ethical narrative. Leaves questions about implementation and higher Ed’s willingness to change(since most of their recent changes go against the advice outlined ).

[Jayme · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brings attention to a topic not much discussed - the ethical costs of upward mobility. While many of these costs are touched on in entertainment (books and movies), they are not specifically described or considered from the academic perspective. The book encourages faculty/staff/administrators to address these costs more directly in order to support first-generation college-attending students.

[Mylan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting conversation on the sacrifices students make in order to attend higher ed. While it was fairly repetitive at certain points, I enjoyed the interweaving of immigration vs. class mobility. It highlighted how reframing the story we tell ourselves and considering all costs is important to understand the experience of first gen students.

[Daniel Rodriguez · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty interesting read about the experience of first-generation students and students from other economically under-served communities. I think the book was a bit lacking of structure and at times the stories felt a bit ranty. Having worked in education, I also found that the book was not perhaps as revolutionary as the author hoped.