Unequal Childhoods

by Annette Lareau

  The neighborhoods surrounding Swan School are predominantly white, but Black families are present as well and Black students constitute almost 10 percent of the school population (with less than 5 percent Asian and Hispanic students). A “multicultural” theme predominates, with quilts, posters, assemblies, and curricula devoted to the topic. Despite this close attention to multiculturalism, the emphasis on diversity is largely symbolic since, unlike at Lower Richmond, here nearly all students, educators, administrators, and service personnel are white.

  Parents and district administrators are strongly positive in how they view the school and the district. At back-to-school night, the assistant superintendent stressed the “special feeling” apparent at Swan and underscored the district’s interest in hearing from parents. He provided his telephone number and encouraged audience members to call. Teachers at Swan have access to more supplies than do their counterparts at Lower Richmond; there is a photocopier for their use and ample paper and art materials. Referrals to special education are less common and less bureaucratic. Parents must formally agree (by signing a permission form) to have their children tested for learning problems, but the paperwork generally takes weeks, not months, to be processed. At Swan, most children in the fourth grade, including the low achievers, perform at grade level; in reading, many of the students are two or three years above grade level. Although both Lower Richmond and Swan offer computer training, art, music, choir, and gym, the character of the coursework, supplies, and instruction at Swan is more elaborate. For example, at Lower Richmond, the students enjoyed making art projects out of Popsicle sticks. At Swan, the children used square pieces of white cloth and dark black ink to make banners with Japanese characters on them. The choir at Lower Richmond is open to whomever attends practices; the children perform at local nursing homes. The choir at Swan is “select”; children must audition for their positions. With the help of an extensive fund-raising effort, the choir traveled by bus to the Midwest to perform in a competition, and, as a result of arrangements made by the music teacher, the children also visited a recording studio during the school year. Finally, parent participation is far greater at Swan than at Lower Richmond. The two schools are comparably sized, but the Swan PTA meetings attract ten times more participants than those at Lower Richmond, and the suburban organization raises (and spends) significantly larger sums. For example, the Swan PTA spent around $3,000 annually to provide supplemental school assemblies. They sponsored “artists in residence” as well as puppet shows, plays, and other professional performances. They also helped out with the annual school fair, which is a much more elaborate event than Lower Richmond’s.

  Still, parents and educators at Swan complained of problems, albeit different ones from those that plagued Lower Richmond. Economic security generally is not an issue. Most children come from families where both parents are employed outside the home, often as professionals, such as lawyers, social workers, accountants, managers, teachers, and insurance executives. Many mothers work full time outside the home. Some teachers at the school worry that the children do not receive sufficient attention at home because their parents are “too busy.” Ms. Nettles, noting that during the first few weeks of the school year ten of her twenty-six students did not do their homework, comments:

  I have been here seven years, and it has been getting worse. There are changes in family life; more two parents working and single-parent families. Parents come home and for obvious reasons they don’t want to deal with it [homework] to make sure it happens.

  Parents also often have an exaggerated sense of their children’s accomplishments. For instance, they describe their children as “being bored” with schoolwork when, from the teacher’s perspective, these children have not mastered the material. In addition, parents can be quick to criticize teachers. As this third-grade teacher reports, the mother of a high-achieving student was outraged to learn that her daughter’s grade had been read aloud:

  She came in one day [to complain] because I had read Chloe’s grade [aloud] as an eighty-six and Chloe was humiliated—because Chloe does not get eighty-sixes.

  The teacher feels that the mother does not have an accurate view of her daughter’s performance:

  Chloe is very, very bright and in the addition and subtraction pretest she got a fifty-eight. Her mother was telling me how bored she was. “Chloe has done this and knows it so well.” I showed her the fifty-eight. Well, she was absolutely shocked.

  Parents watch teachers closely and do not hesitate to intervene on their children’s behalf. As one third-grade teacher reported, “Mothers are influenced by the PTA. [The principal] himself has said that he thinks the PTA is trouble. You know, it’s a close-knit little group.” Parents’ robust sense of entitlement is evident to the teachers, as this Swan teacher makes clear:

  These parents, so many of them, are so self-centered, not all of them, but some, and it’s being transmitted to their children. And it’s almost like, “You owe me something. Now, what can you do for me?” . . . or, “You owe an explanation for what you’re doing.” You almost feel at times that you have to defend yourself in some cases.

  Clashes between parents and teachers occur now and again. The choir teacher, for example, felt parents who chatted in the back of the room during choir performances were being rude. She included on the inside of the program a list of recommended behaviors for parents who attended the daytime performance, but after parents complained, the principal removed the guidelines. It is not unusual for parents whose children do not initially qualify for the gifted program (at Swan the cutoff is an IQ of 125) to have them tested privately; if the children then score high enough for entry, the parents will insist they be enrolled. To reduce problems, the principal (who parents feel is sometimes too supportive of teachers) engages in preemptive strikes, such as sending letters home to ask parents to respect educators’ professional judgments in assigning children to specific classrooms for the next school year:

  The principal did state in a letter to the parents that, you know, all factors are taken into consideration but to please respect his judgment and the teachers’ as to placement for next year. Because it can get out of hand, the requests. It really can.

  The level of involvement among Swan parents is strikingly higher than at Lower Richmond, but parents who are active at the school complain that it is a constant struggle to recruit enough volunteers for events such as “Donuts with Dad,” the annual third-grade luncheon with mothers, the luncheon put on for teachers by the parents’ group, and the all-school spring fair.8

  Thus, daily life is not always smooth at Swan School. Parents complain about teachers; teachers complain about parents. Recruiting parent volunteers to staff the many school functions is arduous. Still, overall, this school enjoys many social structural resources not available at Lower Richmond. Salaries are higher, there is no teacher shortage, classroom supplies are ample, and the teachers can make photocopies of educational materials. Although the resources are already more than those available at Lower Richmond, they are further amplified by the robust contributions of the PTA. This organization raises thousands of dollars, enabling the school to offer a professional-quality arts and music program.

  In sum, between the two target schools, there are important differences in key structural resources, including physical facilities, educational supplies, teacher salaries, and supplemental financing and volunteer efforts contributed by parents.9 If social class did not matter, these differences would be randomly distributed. They are not. Across the country, communities where the average social class position of parents is higher have vastly more favorable public school systems.10

  ESTABLISHED PROFESSIONAL PRACTICES AND INSTITUTIONAL STANDARDS

  While there were differences between the schools, there were also similarities. Elementary schools in America have many shared elements, including for example, the organization of the school day. Educators at Lower Richmond and Swan Schools also appeared to share similar vis
ions of what constitutes appropriate and desirable childhood experiences. They agreed, in broad terms, on the proper role of families in promoting children’s educational development. These premises were not simply expressions of the educators’ personal beliefs. Instead they echoed a body of cultural practices that have gained widespread acceptance among professionals.11

  The teachers in this study generally supported practices of concerted cultivation, with an emphasis on the development of the child through organized activities, development of vocabulary through reasoning and reading, and active parent involvement in schooling and other institutions outside of the home. Educators selectively praised children during the school day, expressed their approval and disapproval of parents in informal conversations with the research assistants and me during our classroom observations, and conformed to established school and district practices that encoded particular approaches to child rearing. Teachers also followed concerted cultivation in raising their own children. As I show next, within the confines of a limited sample, there is a striking level of agreement between educators at Lower Richmond and Swan schools.

  THE VALUE OF CULTIVATING THE CHILD

  Educators were quite supportive of parents’ efforts to cultivate their children’s talents and skills through out-of-school activities. In interviews, teachers at both schools reported viewing children’s organized activities as helpful:

  They all need some physical activity. I think the activities are good, because physical activity can stimulate the mind. The music lessons help with the concentration. I think that it is good to have outside activities.

  There is an awful lot going on in the world. The wider variety you expose them to—you never know if you have a future playwright in the group or not. It is just something that they can enjoy and participate in, even if it is not their occupation. They just need to be aware and to talk about the different talents and occupations.

  In their interactions with children, teachers also express approval, as in this fourth-grade classroom:

  [The Monday following Thanksgiving, Ms. Nettles asked the children to describe what they did for Thanksgiving.] Garrett Tallinger volunteered, “My soccer team won a tournament.” Ms. Nettles says, “Your soccer team won a tournament this weekend?” Garrett nods. Ms. Nettles says, “You must be very proud.”

  At both schools, children’s out-of-school activities routinely spill into classroom life. In Ms. Nettles’ classroom, students are required to keep a journal in class. Children’s activities are a common theme, as field notes from October 11 show:

  Five of the five boys talked about soccer games. One said that “after the game I am mad because we lose.” Two of the four girls talked about playing soccer.

  At Lower Richmond, Wendy Driver proudly describes her dance recital to her third-grade teacher, Ms. Green, as the children are getting ready to line up for recess. She also brought in her trophy to show Ms. Green and her classmates. Adults give organized events such as tournaments and dance recitals more weight than informal play by children, such as playing ball in the yard or watching television. When children volunteer to teachers that they watched particular television shows or that they played an informal game with cousins the previous day, teachers did not express the same level of interest or approval that they do when the children reveal their involvement in an organized activity.

  Teachers also promote the concerted cultivation of their own children through a busy schedule of organized activities. Lower Richmond teacher Ms. Stanton had a daughter enrolled in a fourth-grade suburban school relatively close to Swan School. Her daughter’s program of activities is similar to that of the other middle-class children in this study: art lessons, dance lessons, music lessons, Sunday school, youth church choir, and horseback riding were regular weekly events. Another third-grade teacher reported that she has all of her children enrolled in Catholic instruction (CCD), Scouts, Little League, piano lessons, and swim team. Through their actions at home, teachers demonstrate their commitment to the logic of child rearing of concerted cultivation.

  Still, teachers complain about children being overscheduled and about concerted cultivation diminishing children’s school experience through exhaustion or absence. As a teacher at Swan complained:

  Soccer will take precedence over homework, regularly . . . Sometimes they would go on weekend trips. They would play soccer, would be up late, and they would be tired. I like sports, but when it interferes with what the children need to do for their academics, I think it needs to be looked at again.

  You can’t fight City Hall. It’s their child and they have a right to do it. Tommy Daniels was on three one-week vacations with his family this year. Then she [his mother] is concerned about his progress in math! Hey, keep him in school.

  Teachers also support parents’ efforts to develop their children’s vocabulary. They all encourage parents to read to children, take children to the library, buy children books, and make sure that the children read at home. Ms. Bernstein, a fourth-grade teacher at Lower Richmond, gave her students a homework assignment of at least ten minutes of reading each night. When Ms. Stanton, who also teaches fourth grade, made a list of Christmas gifts that parents might give their children, she included books. At Swan, Ms. Nettles has a bulletin board where she lists the books that her students have read recently outside of class.

  Teachers said relatively little to parents directly about the value of reasoning with children (as opposed to giving them directives). Still, there were numerous indications that educators at both Lower Richmond and Swan strongly prefer verbal interactions oriented to reasoning over directives. In their classroom interactions, these educators, like their counterparts nationwide, often use reasoning with the children, particularly in lessons. As teachers answer questions with questions12 they seek to develop children’s reasoning capacities in routine interactions. In addition, educators are generally (although not uniformly) supportive of parents’ use of “time outs” as a form of discipline.

  INTERVENTIONS IN INSTITUTIONS

  Teachers want parent involvement in schooling, especially parental supervision of homework. At Swan School, children must have their parents sign their homework book daily. Teachers interpret a failure to show up for a parent-teacher conference as a sign that parents do not value schooling—even though at Lower Richmond the conferences were scheduled on relatively short notice and without parents’ input regarding their assigned time slot. In emphasizing parental intervention in education, these educators mirror practices common in the profession.13 Still, educators are selective in the kind of parent involvement they prefer, as this Lower Richmond fourth-grade teacher indicates:

  An unsupportive parent is one who is antagonistic with the teacher. I’ve had situations like that. And it makes the job virtually impossible. If you have a problem with the child, the parent is not supportive of you or the school’s position. And [then] the child is at odds with you and they fight you tooth and nail and they basically say, “I don’t have to listen to you; [I] don’t have to do what you say.”

  A third-grade teacher from Swan School uses strikingly similar terms in expressing her concern:

  [Parents have] gotten this attitude now where they question so much. The children see and hear this. Then they come to your classroom with an attitude. Not many, but you can sure pick it up right away. Some of them are very surly . . . I think a lot of it comes from home.

  Although educators want parents to offer them positive and deferential support, they also feel strongly that parents should respond to their requests for educational assistance. Ms. Bernstein is frustrated by how few parents actually read to their children:

  The [parents] want them to do well in school. They all say that they want their kids to do their homework. They always say that, but they don’t know how to accomplish it in many situations . . . They want to . . . They want to. But do they ever sit down and read to their child? But they mean well.

  Educators at both schools belie
ve parents should take a leadership role in solving their children’s educational problems. They complain about parents who do not take children’s problems “seriously” enough to initiate contact with educators. In short, educators want contradictory behaviors from parents: deference and support, but also assertive leadership when children had educational problems.

  Moreover, by law, educators are required to intervene if a family violates state standards for child rearing. Some child-rearing practices that were commonplace throughout society in earlier historical periods (e.g., vigorously beating children) are now condemned. Regardless of their personal opinion, educators are bound by the law to turn a child over to authorities if, for example, she shows up at school with red welts on her body from being disciplined. As I show in subsequent chapters, this legal requirement put working-class and poor families in the study at risk for intervention by school officials in a way that middle-class families were not.

  In sum, there is a paradox in the institutions that children and their families encounter. On the one hand, there are profound differences in the quality of services provided by institutions. On the other hand, institutions accept and promote the same standards regarding cultural repertoires. Thus, teachers placed a shared emphasis on the cultivation of children’s talents through organized activities, the importance of parental development of children’s vocabulary, and the importance of responsive and positive parental participation in schooling. As we shall see, these standards privileged the cultural practices of middle-class families over those of their working-class and poor counterparts. This pattern made it more comfortable, and easier at times, for middle-class children and their parents to achieve their wishes.

  INEQUALITY

  The differences in the quality of school life in Lower Richmond and Swan schools are part of a more general pattern of inequality in the broader society. A relatively small number of people, and institutions such as schools, in the population have considerably more assets than others. For example, across families, key resources are unequally distributed. Parents’ income and wealth, educational accomplishments, and quality of work life all vary dramatically. If inequality were not a powerful force in the United States, then these coveted resources would be distributed in a much more equitable fashion.