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A review by vdikovit
Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life by Annette Lareau
4.0
Through Unequal Childhoods, Annette Lareau sheds light on the many implications class has on an individual's upbringing, their skills in different settings, and their potential professional/academic fate. It's the most narrative, interesting textbook I've ever read.
Some kernels:
Middle class children spend a lot of time per week in adult-organized activities, e.g. soccer team, ballet class, learning piano.
- These children are frequently around adults, and develop a level of comfort around them, as well as a sense of entitlement to attention. They learn to advocate for themselves and customize institutional situations to fit their needs.
- Spending so much time in prescheduled activities helps the children to learn to prioritize (they still have to complete school homework, and often choose one activity over another due to overlapping schedules). Knowing how to prioritize is a skill often required or desired in employment situations with quickly changing organizational needs. So middle class children are set up to understand a basic need in the working world.
- On the other hand, so much time spent in predetermined activities means these children can be easily bored in an unexpected gap of free time.
- Still, the activities in and of themselves are educational and develop the children's talents, curiosities, and broaden their horizons.
- The significant time middle class children spend developing themselves can mean one child's schedule can seriously dictate that of a sibling, which can lead to stress and antagonistic sibling rivalry. Spending time with extended family is a lesser priority, which can lead to loving, but distant extended family relationships.
- Middle class parents encourage their children to expand on thoughts, provide evidence to back up claims and opinions, and in general develop their language skills. The ability to express oneself and argue a point is widely respected (much more so than violence) and helps individuals to gain employment and recognition within that employment later on in life.
Working class and poor kids spend a lot of time with extended family, siblings, and neighborhood children in self-organized play.
- Spending so much time in the absence of adults helps children to develop independence, leadership skills, and autonomy. They have ample freedom to pursue their own interests. Without adult-issued directives, children naturally exhibit creativity and energy in self-organized play.
- Spending time among neighborhood children, siblings, and cousins means these children have contact with a range of ages in their free time (not to mention that they develop very close ties with their siblings and family). They swim in a diverse pool of experiences and maturity levels, possible becoming comfortable as mentors to younger children and deferring to older children in times of uncertainty. Their middle class counterparts mostly spend time with adults or peers, with little experience in between.
- Working class and poor parents, while managing significant financial worries, prioritize keeping their children safe, fed, healthy, and clean over "concerted cultivation" like developing their children's exhibited talents. These children may not develop a talent until much later than their middle class counterparts, resulting in a talent/experience gap that may be long-term.
- Working class and poor parents tend to defer to the expertise of a teacher or doctor, in any situation, rather than attempt requesting customization for their child and risk worsening the situation. Long term, the children do not learn to advocate for themselves in professional settings, nor do they benefit from customization as they develop. In contrast, Middle class parents are consistently involved in their children's school and other development and frequently intervene on their children's behalf.
"There are signs that middle-class children benefit, in ways that are invisible to them and to their parents, from the degree of similarity between the cultural repertoires in the home and those standards adopted by institutions." (p. 237)
I had never looked at the world in this way. I think the concept that we all start the race with different levels of a head start is true. Some people are born knuckleheads, but have a rich dad, and they can just become president.
Some kernels:
Middle class children spend a lot of time per week in adult-organized activities, e.g. soccer team, ballet class, learning piano.
- These children are frequently around adults, and develop a level of comfort around them, as well as a sense of entitlement to attention. They learn to advocate for themselves and customize institutional situations to fit their needs.
- Spending so much time in prescheduled activities helps the children to learn to prioritize (they still have to complete school homework, and often choose one activity over another due to overlapping schedules). Knowing how to prioritize is a skill often required or desired in employment situations with quickly changing organizational needs. So middle class children are set up to understand a basic need in the working world.
- On the other hand, so much time spent in predetermined activities means these children can be easily bored in an unexpected gap of free time.
- Still, the activities in and of themselves are educational and develop the children's talents, curiosities, and broaden their horizons.
- The significant time middle class children spend developing themselves can mean one child's schedule can seriously dictate that of a sibling, which can lead to stress and antagonistic sibling rivalry. Spending time with extended family is a lesser priority, which can lead to loving, but distant extended family relationships.
- Middle class parents encourage their children to expand on thoughts, provide evidence to back up claims and opinions, and in general develop their language skills. The ability to express oneself and argue a point is widely respected (much more so than violence) and helps individuals to gain employment and recognition within that employment later on in life.
Working class and poor kids spend a lot of time with extended family, siblings, and neighborhood children in self-organized play.
- Spending so much time in the absence of adults helps children to develop independence, leadership skills, and autonomy. They have ample freedom to pursue their own interests. Without adult-issued directives, children naturally exhibit creativity and energy in self-organized play.
- Spending time among neighborhood children, siblings, and cousins means these children have contact with a range of ages in their free time (not to mention that they develop very close ties with their siblings and family). They swim in a diverse pool of experiences and maturity levels, possible becoming comfortable as mentors to younger children and deferring to older children in times of uncertainty. Their middle class counterparts mostly spend time with adults or peers, with little experience in between.
- Working class and poor parents, while managing significant financial worries, prioritize keeping their children safe, fed, healthy, and clean over "concerted cultivation" like developing their children's exhibited talents. These children may not develop a talent until much later than their middle class counterparts, resulting in a talent/experience gap that may be long-term.
- Working class and poor parents tend to defer to the expertise of a teacher or doctor, in any situation, rather than attempt requesting customization for their child and risk worsening the situation. Long term, the children do not learn to advocate for themselves in professional settings, nor do they benefit from customization as they develop. In contrast, Middle class parents are consistently involved in their children's school and other development and frequently intervene on their children's behalf.
"There are signs that middle-class children benefit, in ways that are invisible to them and to their parents, from the degree of similarity between the cultural repertoires in the home and those standards adopted by institutions." (p. 237)
I had never looked at the world in this way. I think the concept that we all start the race with different levels of a head start is true. Some people are born knuckleheads, but have a rich dad, and they can just become president.