[danielford]

> We didn't know how to talk or study or dress or think the way our peers did. It took me years to learn.

Please tell me everything about this. I teach at a community college and my students come from the middle class, the working class, and the place I can't see.

[bpchaps]

Not OP, but I'm not sure I follow your question. Are you asking to learn context about problems outside of your own class?

I was raised in a lower/middle/working class area and went to its local community college and could probably comment. Much of what OP described matches very closely to my own experiences.