Jeannie Ludlow, the director of women’s studies, describes privilege as a “lack of oppression” – and this idea of privilege will be the focus of her workshop, “Where We Stand: Privilege in the Classroom.”

The workshop will be at 11:30 a.m. Friday in the Grand Ballroom of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union. 

The presentation will be looking at how the idea of privilege in the classroom can affect the learning process, and ways to work with diversity to enrich the learning experience. 

“The goal of critiquing privilege is to make it go away, to make things equal for everyone,” Ludlow said. “Until everything is equal for everyone we have this concept called privilege, because some people have things a little easier than others.”

She said what happens in a classroom setting is different people – including faculty members, the students and even guest speakers – come from different places and people behave as if none of that matters – which she said is not true. 

“We’re actually a very rich people in terms of diversity and experiences,” Ludlow said. “And I think that diversity makes us more interesting, and it makes knowledge more interesting.”

Ludlow said one thing she would be incorporating into her workshop would be an activity the audience could take back to their classrooms. 

The activity would require members to stand in a straight line. Statements are then read off and as they apply to each person, that person moves a step forward. 

“When you get done, you can see we aren’t all in a straight line,” Ludlow said. 

She said the activity is good to use in the classroom when a discussion begins to break down because of differences.

“If you’re sitting in class and things are starting to break down, one of the best things you can do is get people up and moving around, because it refocuses the energy,” Ludlow said.  “If you do this in your class, you can get the students to start thinking about and seeing how their different view points – rather than being at tension with one another – enriches your understanding about whatever you’re talking about.”

The idea for her doing a workshop based on white privilege came from a similar presentation she gave at last year’s EIUnity. 

Ludlow said she liked the notion of making privilege a known-topic, especially in classrooms. 

“The idea of talking about privilege in the classroom is talking about ways to welcome less-privileged voices to speak up and tell their perspective as well,” Ludlow said. 

Bob Galuski can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].