What is interesting about this way of parenting is that the parents are the ones who have to go out of their way to make sure that Alexander gets to all of his appointments, rehearsals and games on time. The parents are able to do this precisely because they are in an upper-middle-class economic level. Parents such as the ones in the McAllister family would not be able to take off from work early to bring their children to piano, choir and other lessons. This, undoubtedly, gives children like Alexander an advantage when it comes to how he will be prepared for the world. Lareau (2003) states that the Williams' parenting technique "embraces the logic of concerted cultivation. They consider Alexander's many commitments an essential component in his overall development."
There are many consistencies between Lareau's theories and what she witnessed inside the homes of the families she visited. First of all, the language example, that in middle-class homes children tend to whine, negotiate, and bargain more with their parents while in lower-class homes children do not normally talk back to adults, seems to be quite true. Lareau (2003) notes that in middle-class homes there is a lot of talking that is interrupted by some silence while in lower-class homes there is a lot of silence interrupted by some speech. In Harold McAllister's home, this is exemplified.
In the McAllister home, there is also a lack of space, which means that Harold doesn't have any really clear private space (nobody does). Alexander, on the other hand, has a very clear private space that is designated just for him. Harold does not ask for things like Alexander does either as there is a constant lack of money. While both mothers of Alexander and Harold want the best for their children, there is a definite difference in how Harold's mother views...
236). Unequal Childhoods is a very enjoyable and interesting book to read. Despite the complexity of the issues she discusses, the author's language and style is accessible. The families and their activities are described in a straightforward, sympathetic way. Each chapter gives a new view of the thesis and explores the real lives of each of the twelve families. The reader gets to know them and to understand their attitudes
it's aspect of social capital: survival. Chapter 8: Children of middle class parents (like the Marshall family) can freely express themselves without worry of being punished; children of low income families usually are told what to do and only say what won't get them into trouble. Skills are passed along to children through parents' "overseeing, criticizing, and intervening in [children's] institutional lives. Chapter 9: Not much social capital is achieved in
Unequal Childhoods Critical Analysis Lareau's Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life reveals some of the root causes of social injustice and inequity in American society. The author's analysis is astute and relevant to current social trends. Taking a structuralist perspective allows Lareau to explore the patterns and normative behaviors within different income categories, to show how those patterns influence inter-generational disparities and perpetuate problems like economic disparity. The gap between rich
They gain a sense of distance, distrust, and constraint in their institutional experiences, a distrust that is common to White working class Italian households, and Black working class housing projects alike. Middle class children learn to regard leisure time as a time of skill building, to deal with strangers, even strange adults, to look these adults in the eye, and to comport themselves like members of the privileged class.
The different "isms" such as sexism, heterosexism, and racism are creating very real schisms -- in our minds, and between people. The chasms of communication that are created by hatred and misunderstanding are socially constructed. They can be socially deconstructed too. Such rifts occur between groups of people and between whole cultures. In some pockets of the United States, social conservatism threatens to erase the social progress made since the
For example, in discussing his childhood in "Southie" a poor neighborhood in Boston, Patrick MacDonald talks about the willful ignorance of the people in the neighborhood when he was a child. "They were all here now, all of my neighbors and friends who had died young from violence, drugs, and from the other deadly things we'd been taught didn't happen in Southie" (MacDonald, 1999, p.2). In other words, the
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