Analysis of Unequal Childhoods Annette Lareau

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Analysis of Unequal Childhoods Annette Lareau
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Family life intersects with other institutions

• Families attend temple/church/synagogue
• Children are sent to school
• Parents work in organizations
• Families share leisure together by attending
  organized events (Mariners games, movies)

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These points of intersection vary by social class

• Certain Mainline Protestant denominations
  (Episcopalian, Presbyterian) attended by the
  upper-middle class
• Children of the elite attend prep school
• Blue-collar vs. white collar work
• World Wrestling Federations Smackdown vs.
  Pacific Northwest Ballets The Nutcracker.

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Lareau Families also differ in childrearing
practices

• Different sets of cultural repertoires
• Natural Growth
• Concerted Cultivation

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Natural Growth

• Parent cares for child, but does so to support
  childs natural growth.
• Kids spend much of their non-school time in
  unstructured play with age mates.

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Concerted Cultivation

• Parents actively assess and foster childs
  talents, opinions, and skills
• This cultivation often permeates family life.
  Everyday gatherings seen as opportunities for
  further cultivation.

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Organization of Daily Life

• Natural Growth
• Kids hang out with peers or kin. Energetic,
  boisterous play is fine.
• Concerted Cultivation
• Kids involved in many leisure activities
  orchestrated and overseen by adults.
• Self-restraint is rewarded.

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Different views of the relationship between
childhood and adulthood

• These differences are partly the product of
  occupational differences between middle class and
  working class parents
• Middle class parents Childhood as a training
  ground for self-actualization as one becomes an
  adult. Emphasis on training for creative careers.
• Working class parents Adult work is not
  liberating or self-expressive, but often
  deadening.
• One is most fully him/herself away from work,
  with family.
• Childhood is a time to be free of lifes burdens
  not to prepare for them!

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Language Use

• NG Parents use directives Dont do that!
• Child Why not?
• Parent Because I said so!
• CC Child encouraged to pursue reasoning behind
  parents directives.
• Much bargaining between parent and child over
  constrained choice.

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Interventions in Institutions

• NG Dependence on institutions, but sense of
  powerlessness.
• Conflict between practices at home and at school.
• CC Criticisms and interventions on behalf of
  child.
• Example PTA involvement
• Child learns by example to adopt this role.

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Consequences

• NG Childs emerging sense of constraint when
  confronting social institutions. Alienation.
• CC Childs emerging sense of empowerment and
  entitlement.
• Learns how to see opportunities within
  institutional structures to get what he or she
  wants or to make change.

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These childrearing repertoires are tied to social
class

• Natural Growth Working class and poor children
• Concerted Cultivation Middle and Upper-Middle
  class
• Differences in child rearing practices lead to
  the transmission of differential advantages.

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Schools increasingly reward skills, talents
instilled via concerted cultivation

• Promptness, ability to follow directions is
  important in early grades.
• Later grades begin to emphasize creativity,
  thinking outside of the box.
• Private schools emphasize creativity,
  self-expression, out-of-box thinking far earlier
  in the curriculum.

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Have these class differences always existed?

• Lareau No far more pronounced today.
• Through early 20th century Important for all
  children to learn virtues of hard work.
• Baby Boom generation Much unstructured
  after-school play across classes.

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1980s Increased rationalization of daily life

• Prevalence of institutions and relations that
  emphasize competitive, contractual, efficient,
  maximizing and self-interested action.
• Aligned with more systematic, predictable, and
  regulated investment in childrens potential.
• Broader economic forces
• Globalization heightens competition for future
  jobs.
• Companies decry lack of soft skills among new
  job entrants.

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Also today, fewer opportunities for unstructured
play

• Parental concerns about neighborhood safety.
• Worries about latchkey children.
• Declining birth rates.
• Physical layout of suburban developments.

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A rising backlash against concerted cultivation?

• Parental revolt against hyperscheduling.
• Emerging phenomenon of rude, out-of-control kids
• TV Reality Show Nanny 911!
• Mr. Rogers emphasis on specialness of all
  children makes them feel too entitled to
  privileges.

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Solutions to the social capital gap?

• State-subsidized child allowances to reduce
  poverty.
• Vouchers for extracurricular activities.