Unequal Childhoods

by Annette Lareau

7. The phrase originated with Horace Mann. For classic works in educational history, see David Tyack, The One Best System; Michael Katz, Class, Bureaucracy, and Schools.

  8. The role of gender was not a focus of either the original study or the follow-up. It is important to note, however, that gender, like race, played an important role, as many other studies have shown as well. For instance, Katie Brindle and Wendy Driver both took greater responsibility for their unplanned pregnancies and were more involved in child rearing than were the young men who fathered the children. See, among others, Kathryn Edin and Maria Kefalas, Promises I Can Keep; Julie Bettie, Women without Class. For a critical assessment of Unequal Childhoods on this issue see Hae Yeon Choo and Myra Marx Ferree, “Practicing Intersectionality in Sociological Research.”

  9. In Tracking Inequality, Samuel Lucas shows that in contemporary high schools, students rather than school staff are responsible for course selection. It takes considerable knowledge to negotiate the college application process successfully. Since colleges require specific (and complex) course preparation, having middle-class parents who supervise high school course selection is a considerable advantage. See U.S. Department of Education, “Academic Preparation for College,” for evidence of how parents’ education shapes high school course selection. A similar pattern also exists in studies of college access. Individuals must know what questions to ask to determine if a school is a good fit, compile a list of schools likely to show interest, make the right choice among colleges that potentially “fit,” fill out financial aid forms properly, and learn various new systems at the new institution (e.g., registration, housing, financial aid, and course registration). See U.S. Department of Education, “First-Generation College Students”; Patricia McDonough, Choosing Colleges; Janice Bloom, “(Mis)Reading Social Class in the Journey towards College”; Mitchell Stevens, Creating a Class.

  10. See especially p. 244.

  11. See, among others, Michèle Lamont, Dignity of Working Men and Money, Manners, and Morals; Marianne Cooper, Doing Security in Insecure Times; Jay MacLeod, Ain’t No Making It; Alfred Lubrano, Limbo; Jennifer A. Reich, Fixing Families; Lois Weis, The Way Class Works; David Grusky and Szonja Szelényi, The Inequality Reader; Fiona Devine, Class Practices; Adam Howard and Ruben Gaztambide-Fernandez, Educating Elites; Erik Olin Wright, Approaches to Class Analysis; Annette Lareau and Dalton Conley, Social Class.

  12. The first edition discusses only nine of the twelve families studied. The Greeley and Irwin families had been selected as “deviant cases” (see the section on Recruiting the Families in Appendix A). However, as noted in Appendix A, the data from these two deviant cases supported the general thesis rather than providing significant additional insight, so adding chapters on these families would not have significantly enhanced Unequal Childhoods. A chapter on Tara Carroll’s family was dropped in the production phase in order to shorten the book. (The chapter, slated to be in Part I, described a deeply religious African American family living in poverty; it highlighted the separate worlds of adults and children in the accomplishment of natural growth.)

  Readers interested in details of the transitions to adulthood of the children of these families can find them in Annette Lareau and Elliot B. Weininger, “Concerted Cultivation Continues,” which provides an extensive discussion of Tara Carroll’s college application process and describes the education experiences of Jessica Irwin and Karl Greeley. Briefly, Tara made energetic efforts to enroll in college, but after a short stint in community college she stopped attending. Jessica persisted further; she attended a local four-year public college where she had a full scholarship. In both cases, as in Wendy Driver’s family, the working-class and poor parents had limited knowledge of higher education and therefore turned over responsibility for the college application process to educational professionals. Thus, the relationship between the family and colleges echoed the pattern of accomplishment of natural growth that had been evident in earlier years.

  13. See, for example, Richard A. Settersten Jr., Frank F. Furstenberg Jr., and Rubén G. Rumbaut, On the Frontier of Adulthood.

  14. See Chapter 14 for further discussion of the research methodology, including a detailed description of the process of finding, contacting, and re-interviewing the original study participants. Chapter 14 also closely examines the families’ reactions to the book.

  15. In the presentation of quotes, I have eliminated false starts and filler words, such as “um,” “like,” “you know,” in instances where doing so seemed not to change the speaker’s meaning. In a few instances I have reordered speech for clarity when it did not alter the speaker’s original meaning.

  16. I interviewed Katie Brindle in her own apartment, Melanie Handlon at the church where her mother was working, Harold McAllister at his brother’s apartment (where Harold was living), and Garrett Tallinger in his college dorm room.

  17. See Michael Burawoy “Revisits”; Linda Burton, Diane Purvin, and Raymond Garrett-Peters, “Longitudinal Ethnography”; Nancy Scheper-Hughes, “Ire in Ireland”; Jay MacLeod, Ain’t No Making It. See also the compelling series of British Up movies (7 Up, 14 Up, etc.) produced by Michael Apted, beginning in 1964, and discussed by Michael Burawoy, “Public Ethnography as Film,” and others in the journal Ethnography.

  18. The SAT scoring system changed in 2005. The scores presented in this chapter reflect the old system—the one in place at the time the kids in the study took the test with the maximum of 1600, followed by a rough approximation of the equivalent new scores in brackets. The new test consists of three parts with a maximum of 800 each for a total of 2400.

  19. It is surprising that Stacey’s score was relatively low—and identical to Melanie’s score. Recall, however, that Stacey never tested well; even in third grade this was a concern. Also, Melanie’s third grade teacher never was convinced that Melanie had a learning disability. Mr. and Mrs. Handlon, however, told me that Melanie was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder.

  20. For a discussion of the rise in incarceration, see Bruce Western, Punishment and Inequality. In 2008 approximately 23% of African American high school dropouts were in jail or juvenile detention; for whites the figure was 7%. Dropouts also have much higher rates of unemployment: while 13% of college graduates and 32% of high school graduates were unemployed in 2008, the figure for high school dropouts 16 to 24 years of age was 54%. Black high school dropouts had an unemployment rate of 64%. See Sam Dillon, “Study Finds High Rates of Imprisonment among Dropouts.”

  21. See Robert Haveman and Timothy Smeeding, “The Role of Higher Education in Social Mobility”; U.S. Department of Education, “Academic Preparation for College”; U.S. Department of Education, “First-Generation College Students”; Future of Children, America’s High Schools.

  22. With the exception of per pupil expenditure, which is from 2006, all other data on the schools in this section are from 2001–2, which was the senior year of high school for the youth. In the case of Lower Richmond, the Common Core of Data reported a senior class enrollment that was 58% of the number of students who had entered the school as freshman. But some of the “missing” students may have transferred to other high schools. It is difficult to estimate the number who dropped out. See John H. Tyler and Magnus Lofstrom, “Finishing High School”; John H. Tyler, “The Economic Benefits of a GED.”

  23. See Mitchell Stevens, Creating a Class, for a discussion of how differences in high school guidance systems have implications for college, particularly the recruitment of students by college admission officers.

  24. As sociologists and economists have shown, informal social networks are crucial for job access. See Mark Granovetter, “Strength of Weak Ties”; Matthew O. Jackson, Social and Economic Networks.

  25. Neither Garrett nor Stacey discussed their college athletic scholarship when asked this question in the interview. I was surprised that two of the middle-class youth in my study ended up with athletic scholarships. It raises questions, of course, of the representativ
eness of the sample in terms of the children’s participation in organized activities; this question is taken up in Chapter 15. Still, there are signs that many middle-class youth are active in organized sports. Indeed, in their book The Game of Life, James L. Shulman and William G. Bowen found that approximately one-third of students in the liberal arts colleges in their sample were involved in athletics. These students are overwhelmingly from middle-class families. In the Tallinger family, the youngest boy also received an athletic scholarship (to a relatively small Division 1 college), but the middle child, Spencer, never was active in sports. He attended a military college.

  26. Some advantages may be especially “taken for granted” and thus invisible to the respondents. For an assessment of the impact of organized activities on a variety of outcomes, see Katerina Bodovski and George Farkas, “ ‘Concerted Cultivation’ and Unequal Achievement in Elementary School”; Jacob Cheadle, “Educational Investment, Family Context, and Children’s Math and Reading Growth”; Elizabeth Covay and William Carbonaro, “After the Bell”; Susan Dumais, “Elementary School Students’ Extracurricular Activities”; Kimberly Maier, Timothy G. Ford, and Barbara Schneider, “Are Middle-Class Families Advantaging Their Children?”; and Jeremy Redford, Jennifer A. Johnson, and Julie Honnold, “Parenting Practices, Cultural Capital, and Educational Outcomes.” Although it is possible that the activities had more benefits than the young adults could articulate, it is hard to assess this issue without more observational data, multiple interviews, and a larger sample of middle-class youth who had been enrolled in organized activities. As a result, the second edition is primarily devoted to the relationships between families and institutions.

  27. In The Game of Life, Shulman and Bowen report a significant admission advantage for athletes; in some colleges the admission advantage is higher than the advantage from race or from “legacy” status. They report that 32% of male students at coed liberal arts colleges in 1989 were athletes (p. 33).

  28. See Lauren Rivera, “Ivies, Extracurriculars, and Exclusion.”

  29. See public health research on the likelihood of low-income youth being exposed to violence as well as the detrimental impact of that exposure on development: David Finkelhor et al., “The Victimization of Children and Youth.” Both Katie and Harold’s sister Alexis reported reoccurring patterns of domestic violence with their partners. The father of Harold’s older sister Lori’s kids is “locked up” for a drug-related violent episode.

  30. It is hard to assess these claims. But there have been documented cases of police harassment in this northeastern city as well as arrests of a handful of police officers for corruption.

  31. A discussion of the role of the police in communities is beyond the scope of this work, but see Alice Goffman, “On the Run”; Bruce Western, Punishment. Western summarizes the compelling evidence of racial discrimination in the experience of whites and Blacks in the criminal justice system. For evidence of racial discrimination in employment, see Devah Pager, Marked; Pager shows the difficulty convicted felons face in getting a job.

  32. Social psychologists suggest that this is common; people in lower-status positions tend to gather information about higher-status people, but higher-status people are less attuned to the actions of lower-status persons. See Susan T. Fiske, “Interpersonal Stratification.”

  33. In their book, The Hidden Injuries of Class, Richard Sennett and Jonathan Cobb argue that even working-class people who make good money yearn to have the respect awarded to the middle class. See also Lois Weis, Class Reunion.

  34. Conversely, research suggests that working-class youth blame only themselves for their failures. The youth in my study who dropped out of high school clearly “owned” the outcome as connected to their own dislike of school, lack of academic talent, and lack of comfort in educational settings. Thus, Billy Yanelli’s portrait differed somewhat from his mother’s assessment; he did not appear to see the situation as unfair. Instead, he appeared to see it as almost inevitable. For a longer discussion of Billy’s experience in high school, see the portrait posted online at www.ucpress.edu on the page for the book Unequal Childhoods. See also McLeod, Ain’t No Making It.

  35. Conceptually and technically one can separate these processes as a disposition to ask a question or gather information (which would be habitus) and a set of skills involving knowing what to ask and to intervene, as well as a set of skills involving knowing what to do that would result in a payoff in terms of children’s educational experiences (which would be forms of cultural capital). Such disposition and sets of skills usually go together. It is theoretically possible for a middle-class person to have the disposition to assertively control the process at every step of the way but lack the skills to be effectual. Likewise, it is possible for someone to have the skills and not the disposition. In my observations and interviews, however, I have rarely found such disjunctures.

  36. Or, as Katherine Mooney put it: “Kids like Wendy grew up expecting their parents’ help and support in certain areas but not in all areas. Kids like Stacey grew up expecting their parents’ intervention in every aspect of their lives, whether they asked for help or not” (emphasis in the original, personal communication, September 17, 2010). I am grateful to her for this point.

  37. See Stevens, Creating a Class, for a detailed account of how public schools differ in their preparation to receive admissions officers from a liberal arts college. See also Peter Cookson and Caroline Persell, Preparing for Power; Rubén Gaztambide-Fernández, Best of the Best; Jerome Karabel, The Chosen.

  38. See Lareau and Weininger, “Concerted Cultivation Continues.”

  39. Research using participant-observation is usually restricted to a small sample. This limits the possibility of strong conclusions about how economic resources and cultural knowledge and interventions affect life chances. Although some of the middle-class families, including the Marshalls, felt stressed financially, they had more resources than the working-class or poor families. Even if Stacey had not received a full scholarship, it is very likely that she would have attended college. Both her parents were college graduates, Stacey’s grades were high, and she was highly motivated to attend. Other middle-class parents contributed significant sums to their children’s education. The Williamses paid Ivy League tuition, room, and board for Alexander. The Handlons paid $8,200 for Melanie’s 15-month course in cosmetology. Melanie now works at a low-cost-chain hair-cutting salon where, on a good day, she earns $80 in tips (she also receives a small salary). She hopes to open her own franchise; her parents seem willing to help with this venture, if they can afford it. Working-class families also helped their children with educational expenses. As noted elsewhere, Ms. Driver planned to get a second job to pay for Wendy’s college, and Tyrec’s parents covered many of his school expenses. Although it is very difficult to untangle economic and cultural factors, one possible thought experiment is to imagine the changes that could happen if a working-class or poor family won the lottery. The changes that could happen in the next few days or weeks could be reasonably tied to economic factors. It is unlikely, however, that working-class and poor families would be able to acquire knowledge about the inner workings of institutions such as schools or adopt middle-class practices in terms of the management of their children’s lives outside the home. Thus, there are signs that economic factors and cultural factors have some independence from one another.

  40. See Thomas A. DiPrete et al., “Segregation in Social Networks Based on Acquaintanceship and Trust,” for evidence that social networks in the United States are quite stratified, with people socializing with others in very similar social positions. Thus, it is hard for many working-class families to have access to informal knowledge widely shared in middle-class networks about educational institutions.

  41. Admission procedures vary enormously; some colleges, particularly nonselective ones, have a less rigid application timeline than more elite schools. Note that Wendy’s decision to not go to college was made in t
he summer. Her pregnancy did not occur until December of what would have been her freshman year in college, hence it did not figure into her decision.

  42. See chapter 6 in Annette Lareau, Home Advantage, for an analysis of how parents’ education, prestige, and income play a crucial role in facilitating parent involvement in schooling. See also Diane Reay, Gill Crozier, and David James, White Middle Class Identities and Urban Schooling. Janice Bloom found that even in a small school explicitly devoted to helping working-class youth apply to college, numerous challenges arose. Working-class youth and their parents sometimes had insufficient levels of knowledge and economic resources to manage aspects of the higher education application and process. One working-class student, for example, was accepted at an elite school and was awarded a financial aid package, but the “technology fee,” which came late in August, nearly derailed the student’s transition to college. Parents also tended not to differentiate between lists of items considered by the college to be optional (such as supplies for decorating a dorm room) and required items (such as course textbooks). They considered all the listed items requirements. (Bloom, personal communication, October 15, 2010).

  43. See Lareau and Cox, “Social Class and the Transition to Adulthood.”

  44. Many factors contributed to working-class and poor parents’ dependence on educators, including the lack of educational skills of the parents, the paucity of educational professionals in their informal networks, and limited economic resources to hire outside consultants. For a discussion of how social class shapes parent involvement in schooling see, among others, Lareau, Home Advantage.

  45. In Producing Success, Peter Demerath documents demands that parents place on teachers in an upper-middle-class community.

  46. Scott N. Brooks analyzes mentorship patterns in Black Men Can’t Shoot, his study of youth basketball. He shows that such transfers across high schools are common. Brooks also shows how older male coaches sponsor players. Brooks provides additional evidence of a city-wide ranking in basketball talent; this ranking supports Harold’s contention that he could have been seen as an outstanding player in the city without being on a high school team. Brooks also suggests, however, the importance of players being willing to defer to the expertise of the older coaches, comply with requests, and show signs of being “coachable.” It is not possible to assess Harold’s responsiveness to coaching directives. The National Collegiate Athletic Association, “Estimated Probability of Competing in Athletics Beyond the High School Interscholastic Level,” reports that 3% of high school seniors playing basketball will play ball in college. Only three out of 10,000 high school seniors will ultimately be recruited to professional basketball in the United States. For a more general discussion of sports and social patterns, see David Karen and Robert E. Washington’s collection, The Sport and Society Reader.