The slide showed educational attainment and poverty level. It created quite a reaction from the audience, especially since it showed that 1% of Whites who had a Master’s degree were living at poverty level. One person jokingly pointed to the 1% on the slide and stated, "That’s us." Participants asked if the lecturer could explain the 1%. One person responded "some people are poor on purpose," citing that some families choose to perform community service in other countries.

I was hoping that a discussion would spur from these comments and the slide. What I found particularly interesting is that participants did not question the figures for the other ethnic groups. No one had asked why the corresponding Black and Latino sections of the slide showed 0%. Nothing was mentioned about the corresponding Asian section of the slide that reflected 3-4% of the population that held a Master’s degree and were living at poverty level. No one, including myself, compared the different data for other levels of educational attainment (e.g. Blacks v. Latinos v. Whites v. Asians at the Bachelor degree, Associate degree, or high school diploma levels).

During break, I spoke to the person who stated that some people are poor on purpose about some of my thoughts for reasons why people were living at poverty level. My main thoughts at the time were that disability played a role, not enough African American and Latinos received Masters degrees (something that we need to improve), and that Asians may have received their graduate degrees from other countries and are not fluent enough in English to attain high paying jobs.

Later on, I delved into career decisions that may play a factor in salary. Even professors in fields such as foreign languages and classics get paid very little. One can simply look to Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) data to find out salary information for postsecondary institutions.

I would have been extremely interested in learning more about what others thought about the slide. In this instance, I realized the importance of peer effects. While I had my own thoughts on this slide, I may not have covered all of the possibilities. I feel that peer effects enhance our understanding of issues in our personal and professional lives and that all can benefit from a diversity of viewpoints.