Not too long ago, I used the phrase “Ivory Tower” when discussing higher education in my intro to sociology class. My students looked very confused, even more so than usual. Will this be on the exam? Does this have anything to do with elephants? I don’t know how many 19 year olds know this expression but for my working class students at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, Ivory Towers are part of another world. In their world, higher education is the stuff of dreams and where a two-year initiation might be the path to a better life.   I’m now part of their world and do my best to helping them realize on that journey. I was trained in, prepared for, and socialized to be part of the other world and my biggest challenge is revealing and reconciling, for myself and my students, the contradictions, expectations, and hidden privileges, inherent in the existence of both.