By Karen
Sternheimer

C.
Wright Mills famously described how “personal troubles” and “public issues” are related; understanding this relationship is essential for developing a sociological
imagination. 

Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon for a handful of students
to encounter serious “personal troubles” during the course of a semester. These
are not simply excuses to try and get an extension on an assignment, but
serious crises that may prevent them from continuing in my class—or with their
education entirely. Let’s consider how these “personal troubles” might be
linked with “public issues.”

One semester, I noticed that a student who had been very
interested in my class virtually stopped attending. She was completing the
major course assignments, but the quality of the work had declined since she
hadn’t been to class.

It’s really tempting to imagine that this student was simply
irresponsible, maybe a partier, or someone who didn’t take her education
seriously. But I later found out that something bigger was going on, more than
just her personal failure.

She eventually came to my office, practically in tears. She
was close to graduating and wanted to do well in my class. She would be the
first in her family to graduate from college, and wanted to be a role model for
her younger siblings. Then I found out why: she was trying to raise them on her
own. She had been raised in foster care, had “aged out” of the system, and was
trying to keep the family together.  With
no parents or older family members available, she had no emotional or financial
support.

She was panicking because once she was no longer a student
she would no longer be able to live in student housing and was facing the
prospect of becoming homeless at the end of the semester. In her words, she was
“freaking out.” On top of her very realistic fear of being homeless, the one
thing in life that she took pride in, that offered her a chance at a better
life, her education, seemed to become overwhelming.

Of course, for this student, these were very personal
troubles, one she felt embarrassed about and tried to keep private until she
needed to ask for help.

But they also reflect serious public issues. For one,
many minors go through the foster care system and turn 18 only to find minimal
if any support from pubic resources. According to this
report, as many as 30,000 young people a year may find themselves in
similar situations, and many struggle to find a place to live. While many of
other 18-year-olds live on their own, they usually have the option of moving
back in with their family if necessary, or at least receive the occasional loan
or care package, if not just someone to provide advice and support in tough
times.

Living in an expensive urban area is also a public issue,
one where housing can be difficult to obtain, and is very expensive. The median rent
for Los Angeles county is about $1050. (A student
earning California’s minimum wage of $8 an hour and working 20 hours a week is likely to earn
just under $700 a month before taxes and would likely need two roommates to
rent a one bedroom apartment at this price.)  When the “housing bubble”
burst, many people lost their homes or condominiums, leading them to flood the
rental market, driving up prices and competition in an already tight housing
market. This public issue weighed mightily on my student.

Moving to another lower-priced city might seem like a
solution to her private trouble, but understanding public issues would help us
understand why this might not be a good idea. First, her limited family ties
are in this area, as are her contacts for social services like case workers she
might still have from foster care. Moving to another city would also uproot her
from any friendship network she might have for support too.

Other students over the years have had other personal
troubles that are clearly linked with public issues: a student whose father
lost his job and due to poor health and medical bills became homeless, another
first generation college student whose single mother juggled multiple jobs and
needed her to continue caring for younger siblings which affected her ability
to continue with school.

Experiencing the death of a family member, especially a
grandparent, is not uncommon for traditional-aged college students, but the difficulty
is compounded if the grandparent is in another country and the student is
unable to participate in their culture’s traditional mourning rituals. With the
large number of international students studying in the U.S., this creates added
pressure for students who may already be struggling with being a foreign
student.

If you are a college student, you or people you know are
likely going through personal troubles linked with public issues, whether it is
struggling with the rising cost of tuition and accumulating debt or wondering
how you will fit into the broader labor market. Using your sociological
imagination will help you better understand why personal crises are often
rooted in social circumstances.