Unequal Childhoods
Page 6
In terms of income and wealth, the richest 10 percent of families in our society own almost 80 percent of all real estate (other than family homes), more than 90 percent of all securities (stocks and bonds) and about 60 percent of all the money in bank accounts.14 One widely used indicator of inequality in income is the child poverty rate, a rate that is heavily dependent on social policy. (There are many more poor children in the United States than in most Western European countries.)15 In the United States, one-fifth of all children live below the poverty level, and the figure is approximately twice as high for Black children.16 The distribution of income and wealth became even more heavily concentrated in the hands of a few during the last decades of the twentieth century.17 Still, during the study period, one-seventh of Black Americans were making over fifty thousand dollars annually.18
Educational accomplishments are also lopsided. In the United States, just under one-quarter of all adults have completed a bachelor’s degree; the figure is a bit higher for individuals in their twenties. More than 10 percent of high school students drop out.19 Even among younger people, for whom college education is becoming increasingly common, a clear majority (from two-thirds to three-quarters) do not graduate.20 Although some studies show that, after taking into account parents’ social position, Black youth are more likely to pursue higher education than whites, overall levels of educational attainment are far lower for Black children.21 Substantial stratification also exists within higher education, ranging from community colleges to elite universities. The more elite the school, the more richly graduates are rewarded.22
Moreover, there has been a profound shift in the U.S. and world economies, with a decline in “good jobs” with high wages, pensions, health benefits, and stability, and a rise in “bad jobs” with relatively low wages, no benefits, little opportunity for career promotion, and lack of stability.23 In the lives of most people, these separate threads—their educational attainment, what kind of job they get, and how much money they earn—are all tightly interwoven. Together, these factors constitute parents’ social position or social structural location.
Many studies have demonstrated that parents’ social structural location has profound implications for their children’s life chances. Before kindergarten, for example, children of highly educated parents are much more likely to exhibit “educational readiness” skills, such as knowing their letters, identifying colors, counting up to twenty, and being able to write their first names.24 Schooling helps, and during the school year the gap in children’s performance narrows quite a bit (but widens again during the summer). Children of highly educated mothers continue to outperform children of less educated mothers throughout their school careers. By the time young people take the SAT examinations for admission to college, the gap is dramatic, averaging 150 points (relative to an average score of 500 points) between children of parents who are high school dropouts and those with parents who have a graduate degree.25 There are also differences in other aspects of children’s school performance according to their parents’ social structural location. 26 Many studies demonstrate the crucial role of educational success in determining occupational success. Parents’ social class position predicts children’s school success and thus their ultimate life chances.27
UNDERSTANDING INEQUALITY
Many people in the United States hold the view that the society is, in fundamental ways, open. They believe that individuals carve out their life paths by drawing on their personal stores of hard work, effort, and talent. All children are seen as having approximately equal life chances. Or, if children’s life chances appear to differ, this is seen as due to differences in raw talent, initiative, aspirations, and effort. This perspective directly rebuffs the thesis that the social structural location of the family systematically shapes children’s life experiences and life outcomes. Rather, the outcomes individuals achieve over the course of their lifetime are seen as their own responsibility.
A second perspective, held by some social scientists, recognizes the existence of important forms of social inequality. Differences in parents’ educational levels, occupational experiences, income, and other factors are all duly noted. Yet these social scientists, such as Paul Kingston, in his book The Classless Society, argue that inequalities of this sort are best understood as a series of disparate patterns. In other words, these scholars adopt a gradational approach. They see it as helpful to focus on differences within the society as a matter of degree. Put strongly, sharply defined categories of social class are useless in understanding “life-defining experiences” within the family. In addition, Kingston and others do not believe that these gradational differences cohere across spheres. Instead, they see haphazard patterns, results here and there, but no clear, definitive, overarching pattern. 28 Kingston is joined in this approach by those who stress the lack of “class consciousness” or “class identification” on the part of those who are similarly situated within the economic domain. Taking a historical perspective, these authors assert that “the communal aspects of class, class subcultures and milieu, have long since disappeared.”29 These social scientists are simply not persuaded that there are recognizable, categorical differences by social class.
One problem with these claims, however, is that the studies on which they draw have been fragmented and overly specialized, asking precise but small questions. In assessing the common linkages, researchers have drawn on multiple studies that they put together in an ill-fitting, jigsawpuzzle form of explanation. What is needed is research that is less narrow. Specifically, studies are required that investigate wide swaths of social life in order to determine how social class makes a substantial difference in children’s lives and also acknowledge those areas of life that may be largely immune to class influence. In short, we need a more holistic picture that accurately reflects both the permeability and impermeability of the home-to-class forces. And, such research needs to be conceptually guided but nonetheless open to the possibility of erring in its expectations.
TABLE 1. TYPOLOGY OF DIFFERENCES IN CHILD REARING
In this study, the research assistants and I followed a small number of families around in an intensive fashion to get a sense of the rhythms of their everyday lives. On the basis of the data collected, I develop the claim that common economic position in the society, defined in terms of social class membership, is closely tied to differences in the cultural logic of child-rearing. Following a well-established Western European tradition, I provide a categorical analysis, grouping families into the social categories of middle class, working class, and poor. 30 (See Table C1, Appendix C for details on how these categories were defined in this study.) I see this approach as more valuable than the gradational analysis often adopted by American scholars.31 In addition, I demonstrate that class differences in family life cut across a number of different and distinct spheres, which are usually not analyzed together by social scientists.
In particular, I delineate a pattern of concerted cultivation in middle-class families and a pattern of the accomplishment of natural growth in working-class and poor families. Table 1 provides an overview of the main points of the book. It indicates that concerted cultivation entails an emphasis on children’s structured activities, language development and reasoning in the home, and active intervention in schooling. By contrast, the accomplishment of natural growth describes a form of child rearing in which children “hang out” and play, often with relatives, are given clear directives from parents with limited negotiation, and are granted more autonomy to manage their own affairs in institutions outside of the home. These patterns help us unpack the mechanisms through which social class conveys an advantage in daily life. In addressing these important issues, I have been guided heavily by the work of the late Pierre Bourdieu (see Appendix B for a brief exposition of his theoretical ideas).32
Despite these differences in social structural experiences, some important aspects of children’s lives are not differentiated by class, including watching fav
orite television shows, having meals at fast food restaurants such as McDonald’s, taking an interest in specific dolls and action figures, and eagerly anticipating Halloween and important family holidays. As I show in subsequent chapters, all parents (regardless of social class) face the task of getting children up, dressed, fed, and transported to school, and getting them medical attention when sick. Thus, some experiences are threaded through the lives of all families. Nevertheless, social class differences influence the very pace and rhythm of daily life. The next chapter, which examines the life of Garrett Tallinger, shows how middle-class parents’ efforts to develop their children’s talents through organized leisure activities can create a frenetic family life.
PART I
Organization of Daily Life
SOCIAL CLASS DIFFERENCES IN CHILDREN’S life experiences can be seen in the details of life. In our study, the pace of life was different for middle-class families compared to working-class and poor families. In the middle class, life was hectic. Parents were racing from activity to activity. In families with more than one child, parents often juggled conflicts between children’s activities. In these families, economic resources for food, clothing, shelter, transportation, children’s activities, and other routine expenses were in ample supply. Of course, some parents often felt short of money. At times they were not able to enjoy the vacations that they would have liked. But, as I show, families routinely spent hundreds and even thousands of dollars per year promoting children’s activities.
Because there were so many children’s activities, and because they were accorded so much importance, children’s activities determined the schedule for the entire family. Siblings tagged along, sometimes willingly and sometimes not. Adults’ leisure time was absorbed by children’s activities. Children also spent much of their time in the company of adults or being directed by adults. They also had informal free time, but generally it was sandwiched between structured activities. In the organization of daily life, children’s interests and activities were treated as matters of consequence.
In working-class and poor families, the organization of daily life differed from that of middle-class families. Here, there was economic strain not felt by many middle-class families. Particularly in poor families, it took enormous labor to get family members through the day, as mothers scrimped to make food last until they were able to buy more, waited for buses that didn’t come, carried children’s laundry out to public washers, got young children up, fed, dressed, and ready for school and oversaw children’s daily lives. Children were aware of the economic strain. Money matters were frequently discussed.
Although money was in short supply, children’s lives were more relaxed and, more importantly, the pace of life was slower. Children played with other children outside of the house. They frequently played with their cousins. Some children had organized activities, but they were far fewer than in middle-class families. Other times, children wanted to be in organized activities, but economic constraints, compounded by lack of transportation, made participation prohibitive. When children sought to display their budding talents and pursue activities more informally around the house, adults often treated children’s interests as inconsequential. In addition, since they were not riding around in cars with parents going to organized activities or being directed by adults in structured activities, children in working-class and poor families had more autonomy from adults. Working-class and poor children had long stretches of free time during which they watched television and played with relatives and friends in the neighborhood, creating ways to occupy themselves. In these activities, there was more of a separation between adults’ worlds and children’s worlds.
In sum, there were social class differences in the number of organized activities, pace of family life, economic strain of family life, time spent in informal play, interest on the part of adults in children’s activities, domination by children’s activities of adult lives, and the amount of autonomy children had from adults. To be sure, other things also mattered in addition to social class. Gender differences were particularly striking. Girls and boys enjoyed different types of activities. Girls had more sedentary lives compared to boys. They also played closer to home. Race also played a role, particularly as racial segregation of residential neighborhoods divided children into racially segregated informal play groups (although race did not influence the number of activities children had).
Part I takes us through the lives of three families to illuminate these issues. First, it provides a close look at one middle-class family to show the life of Garrett Tallinger, a white middle-class boy. (Although I selected a white middle-class boy for this chapter, at some level, the decision was arbitrary. Any of the other middle-class children we observed, including the Black middle-class boy and the Black middle-class girl, could have this place in the book.) Then, I seek to show that there are important differences between the lives of middle-class children and working-class and poor children. I also discuss differences between working-class and poor families, as well as highlight differences in the experiences of boys and girls. In particular, I compare the life of Garrett with two other children: a Black working-class boy, Tyrec Taylor, and a white girl from a poor family, Katie Brindle. Although each chapter provides some basic information about each child, each chapter also seeks to highlight particular dimensions in social class differences. In particular, Chapter 4 portrays a less hectic life that emphasizes the importance of informal play with fewer organized activities (Tyrec Taylor), and Chapter 5 discusses economic strain and the treatment of children’s activities as inconsequential (Katie Brindle). Both Chapters 4 and 5 highlight the autonomy of children from adults. While these chapters seek to offer an in-depth portrait of selected families, the tables in Appendix C offer an overview of the schedule of organized activities for the twelve families we visited as well as a summary for the eighty-eight children with whose families we conducted interviews.
CHAPTER 3
The Hectic Pace of
Concerted Cultivation:
Garrett Tallinger
(One Wednesday in May, Don Tallinger arrives home from work. It’s about 10:00 P.M.) Don wanders over to [the] phone and stands in front of the calendar, looking to see what is written in on it. When he discovers that the next evening is blank except for “Mary” [the field-worker], Don emulates the way weight lifters celebrate a victory as he [silently] lifts both arms above his chest with fists clenched. (He has a slight smile as he does this.)
Mr. Tallinger’s elation over an evening with no prior commitments is testimony to his family’s hectic pace. His reaction highlights the degree to which the concerted cultivation of children controls adults’ leisure time. Both Don Tallinger and his wife, Louise, work full time in professional jobs with travel requirements. Their three children, Garrett (a fourth-grader), Spencer (a second-grader), and Sam (a preschooler), are enrolled in a variety of activities. On any given weeknight or weekend day, one, two, or sometimes all three of the boys have events, often at different times and in different parts of town. Organized sports are a top priority for the family. The Tallingers’ Christmas card, which shows the three boys standing in their front yard on a crisp-looking fall day, captures the central role accorded to organized sports. Garrett, Spencer, and Sam are dressed in their soccer uniforms—shiny blue-and-white shorts and shirts—and each boy has one foot poised on his own soccer ball. All are smiling broadly.
This chapter focuses on the organization of daily life in the middle-class Tallinger family. This family’s busy schedule is not unique; it is one we found repeated, with variations, in many middle-class homes.1 The Tallingers and others like them are committed to child-rearing strategies that favor the individual development of each child, sometimes at the expense of family time and group needs. By encouraging involvement in activities outside the home, middle-class parents position their children to receive more than an education in how to play soccer, baseball, or piano. These young sports enthusiasts and b
udding musicians acquire skills and dispositions that help them navigate the institutional world. They learn to think of themselves as special and as entitled to receive certain kinds of services from adults. They also acquire a valuable set of white-collar work skills, including how to set priorities, manage an itinerary, shake hands with strangers, and work on a team. They do so at a cost, however.
Compared to their working-class and poor counterparts, the middle-class children we observed are more competitive with and hostile toward their siblings, and they have much weaker ties with extended family members. Ironically, the greater the number of activities children are involved in, the fewer opportunities they have for face-to-face interaction with members of their own family. In the Tallinger household, except for times when they share meals (this occurs only once every few days), parents and children are rarely all together in the same room. Since both Mr. and Ms. Tallinger work, getting the children to their many and separate activities requires divvying up transportation responsibilities. Rather than go to a practice or game as a family, the Tallingers are more likely to each take a car and shepherd one (or two) of the children to a given event. During activities, children spend most of the time away from their parents. They are across the soccer field or in the middle of the basketball court; and in the Tallinger boys’ cases, age differences further divide the siblings. They never play together on the same team.