October 5, 2022
Moving Up Without Losing Your Way:
The Ethical Costs of Upward Mobility
Jennifer Morton
Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Pennsylvania
Minutes of the Fifth Meeting of the 81st Year
President John Cotton convened the fifth meeting of the Old Guard’s 81st year at the Springdale Golf Club on October 5, 2022. He also led the invocation. Anthony Glockler read the minutes of the previous meeting. John reminded members who want to bring guests that they can either sign up at the end of each meeting or notify Dermot Gately by email. Sixty-four members attended the meeting. No guests attended. John announced that Springdale would be closed on Wednesdays in January and February. The Old Guard would have to either have Zoom meetings or find an alternate venue for meetings during that time.
George Bustin introduced our speaker, Jennifer Morton, whose topic was, “Moving Up Without Losing Your Way: The Ethical Costs of Upward Mobility.” Dr. Morton is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania and a senior fellow at the Center for Ethics and Education at the University of Wisconsin. She previously held positions at the University of North Carolina, the City College of New York (CUNY), and Swarthmore College. She received her Ph.D. from Stanford and her A.B. from Princeton.
Dr. Morton summarized central principles presented in her recently published book, Moving Up Without Losing Your Way: The Ethical Costs of Upward Mobility.
Her research and book examine the ethical and personal dilemmas of upward mobility faced by students working to earn a successful place in society. Higher education has been the path to success for generations of working-class, low-income, and immigrant students. However, in addition to the financial challenges and hard work expended for success, there are what Dr. Morton terms “ethical costs”: broken ties with family and friends, severed connections with former communities, and loss of identity. Unlike material sacrifices, these are not replaceable once success is achieved.
There is currently skepticism about the concept of upward mobility. Dr. Morton quoted Raj Chetti, an economist at Harvard: 90% of children born in the 1940s grew up to earn more than their parents. That figure is now only 50%, and upward mobility has more to do with zip code than effort or talent.
Dr. Morton used the term “striver” for a first generation or low-income college student. She wove case studies of strivers she taught at CUNY and the University of South Carolina through her discussion of the challenges of upward mobility. When she was teaching at CUNY, she became aware that there were events transpiring in strivers’ lives that interfered with their studies but weren’t apparent to professors. For example, Sandra, a bright, motivated Latina, suddenly began to fail academically and ultimately explained that she was dealing with “family drama.” This phrase, Dr. Morton came to learn, was code used by strivers for a range of family and community issues that demanded attention from them in the form of money, child care, elder care, and other support.
Another striver profile was of Todd, who grew up in a majority minority neighborhood outside Atlanta and attended a neighborhood school with a low graduation rate and high rate of teacher turnover. When a teacher was stabbed, Todd’s mother sent him to a magnet school in another town that had a very different culture. His classmates were from middle- and upper-class families and were largely college-bound. He worked his way through college and is now a diplomat. However, this came at a cost. He became distanced from his family and yet felt disconnected culturally from his classmates and later, his coworkers.
Dr. Morton argued that we should empower strivers with the knowledge they need to help themselves make informed decisions about ethical trade-offs required for upward mobility. Universities should also be aware of these issues and the socioeconomic, cultural, and financial factors that amplify them.
During the Q & A, an Old Guard member who is a mentor to an international student through the Davis International Center at Princeton, described her relationship with that student. Dr. Morton applauded such programs, emphasizing strivers’ needs to find connections in the community not tied to academics. Another person related his experience with communities that pressure students to stay near home because they don’t want young talent to leave their communities, Dr. Morton stated that some students themselves choose to go to local colleges and not distance themselves from families and friends.
Respectfully submitted,
Ann Schmidt
George Bustin introduced our speaker, Jennifer Morton, whose topic was, “Moving Up Without Losing Your Way: The Ethical Costs of Upward Mobility.” Dr. Morton is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania and a senior fellow at the Center for Ethics and Education at the University of Wisconsin. She previously held positions at the University of North Carolina, the City College of New York (CUNY), and Swarthmore College. She received her Ph.D. from Stanford and her A.B. from Princeton.
Dr. Morton summarized central principles presented in her recently published book, Moving Up Without Losing Your Way: The Ethical Costs of Upward Mobility.
Her research and book examine the ethical and personal dilemmas of upward mobility faced by students working to earn a successful place in society. Higher education has been the path to success for generations of working-class, low-income, and immigrant students. However, in addition to the financial challenges and hard work expended for success, there are what Dr. Morton terms “ethical costs”: broken ties with family and friends, severed connections with former communities, and loss of identity. Unlike material sacrifices, these are not replaceable once success is achieved.
There is currently skepticism about the concept of upward mobility. Dr. Morton quoted Raj Chetti, an economist at Harvard: 90% of children born in the 1940s grew up to earn more than their parents. That figure is now only 50%, and upward mobility has more to do with zip code than effort or talent.
Dr. Morton used the term “striver” for a first generation or low-income college student. She wove case studies of strivers she taught at CUNY and the University of South Carolina through her discussion of the challenges of upward mobility. When she was teaching at CUNY, she became aware that there were events transpiring in strivers’ lives that interfered with their studies but weren’t apparent to professors. For example, Sandra, a bright, motivated Latina, suddenly began to fail academically and ultimately explained that she was dealing with “family drama.” This phrase, Dr. Morton came to learn, was code used by strivers for a range of family and community issues that demanded attention from them in the form of money, child care, elder care, and other support.
Another striver profile was of Todd, who grew up in a majority minority neighborhood outside Atlanta and attended a neighborhood school with a low graduation rate and high rate of teacher turnover. When a teacher was stabbed, Todd’s mother sent him to a magnet school in another town that had a very different culture. His classmates were from middle- and upper-class families and were largely college-bound. He worked his way through college and is now a diplomat. However, this came at a cost. He became distanced from his family and yet felt disconnected culturally from his classmates and later, his coworkers.
Dr. Morton argued that we should empower strivers with the knowledge they need to help themselves make informed decisions about ethical trade-offs required for upward mobility. Universities should also be aware of these issues and the socioeconomic, cultural, and financial factors that amplify them.
During the Q & A, an Old Guard member who is a mentor to an international student through the Davis International Center at Princeton, described her relationship with that student. Dr. Morton applauded such programs, emphasizing strivers’ needs to find connections in the community not tied to academics. Another person related his experience with communities that pressure students to stay near home because they don’t want young talent to leave their communities, Dr. Morton stated that some students themselves choose to go to local colleges and not distance themselves from families and friends.
Respectfully submitted,
Ann Schmidt