Unequal Childhoods - Annette Lareau [176]
In his interview, Mr. Yanelli noted that he had wanted Billy to go to college, but he was very proud that his son had “graduated.” The difference between a GED and a college diploma seemed relatively modest to Mr. Yanelli. The important fact was that Billy had a diploma.
With less detailed knowledge of educational institutions, working-class and poor parents were then unaware of what sorts of questions to pose or what criteria to use to sort and prioritize colleges that might be a good “fit” for their children. Furthermore, these parents (many of whom had not finished high school) turned over responsibility for education to the school, and to their children as they became adolescents. The less privileged parents did not assertively manage core aspects of their children’s school experience. Nor did they seem attuned to the gradations of academic status among the many public high schools in their urban district. For example, Ms. Brindle was concerned about her daughter’s physical safety and wanted her to stay close to home. She did not want Katie to go to a school 20 minutes away, in a different neighborhood. This school had a higher academic rank than the schools that Ms. Brindle directed her daughter to choose between. As Katie explained,
I wanted to go to [a prestigious academic high school]. But my mom said I could only take the Washington or Franklin [offers] because they were in the neighborhood.
Working-class and poor parents also lacked independent sources of information about schools; they were totally dependent on the recommendations of educators. Since the school district did not directly share key pieces of information with parents or students, it was easy for working-class and poor parents to be misinformed. For example, Mr. and Ms. Yanelli very much wanted Billy to attend Henry Vocational School, a highly respected magnet high school. Ms. Yanelli was stunned when she realized that she had not fully understood the admission procedures:
Henry was like the most decent school around here, but Henry wouldn’t accept him. And I thought it would go by [Billy’s grades in] eighth [grade], but it went by seventh.
The Yanelli family knew important pieces of information, namely that Billy would need to apply to high school and that Henry High School was more desirable than Lower Richmond High School. They also worked to make sure that the application was filled out and submitted. Nevertheless, Billy was not accepted, in part because the application relied on his seventh grade grades, which had been poor, rather than his significantly better eighth grade grades. Ms. Yanelli had misunderstood a critical element of the selection process. After he was turned down by Henry Vocational School, Billy’s options were limited; he went to Lower Richmond.
Similarly, information about the college admission process that was common knowledge to middle-class families was “shocking” and bewildering to working-class parents like Wendy’s, who had not gone to college themselves (nor had anyone in their immediate families). Wendy’s stepfather, Mack Fallon, appeared to believe that college application fees were refunded if the applicant was not admitted. Also, her mother misunderstood a key communication during a fall trip to Alvernia, a college to which Wendy was later admitted. Ms. Driver had driven her daughter to the campus for a visit and interview, both of which seemed to have gone very well:
It was really shocking because of the interview. The person we met with was very nice and looked at her grades and SATs and all that stuff . . . and when we left they said, “Well, we will see you in a couple months for [the] reception.” And we were ecstatic!
Their excitement over Wendy’s apparent acceptance to this college was short-lived, as Ms. Driver explained:
When we left we had to go down to the front desk. And they said, “We’ll be calling you.” And I said, “What do you mean, you’ll be calling me?” [They said,] “Well, we’ll give