Unequal Childhoods - Annette Lareau [184]
Ms. Handlon appeared to feel ashamed that her daughter was not attending a four-year residential college.53 She wished that she had intervened more.54 Hence, as other research suggests, being middle-class did not guarantee that children would become college graduates.55
Parents’ reports in the follow-up interviews indicate that they experienced the most pain when their children were in the process of aborting their educational careers. Over time, all the parents seem to have successfully adjusted their expectations. Most were proud of their children, pleased by how they were doing, and grateful to see them moving steadily into independent, adult lives. Yet nationally, and among the Unequal Childhoods families, working-class and poor children were less likely to graduate from high school and enroll in college. As a result, their parents were much more likely to experience heartbreak over educational disappointments than were middle-class parents.
For their part, the working-class and poor youths showed a striking awareness of the sacrifices their parents had made on their behalf and a knowledge of the burdens these sacrifices entailed. Tyrec knew his parents had borrowed money for his education, and he revealed a sense that at the very least, he owed them a greater commitment to his studies. Katie, who was frank about her disapproval of her mother’s continued drinking, nevertheless told me that she was “proud” of her mother for getting off welfare. Some of the young adults were helping their parents financially. When Wendy was in high school, she held two jobs. The money she earned mainly paid for her own expenses, but she also sometimes gave her mother money to help with family bills. Harold noted that he “loves [his] Mom” and said he “would do anything” for her. He regularly gave her money, often $20 a couple of times per month or whenever she asked. Hence, while middle-class parents were transferring economic resources to their young adults, the working-class and poor young adults were often transferring resources to their parents. The middle-class youth also loved their families, and some were effusive about their parents. Garrett, for instance, glowed as he talked about how wonderful his mom and dad are. The significant difference between these young people and those in working-class and poor families lies in the fact that middle-class youths were much less aware of how much their parents had done on their behalf.
The Importance of Class-Based Cultural Repertoires
Does social class matter in American society? Let us assume, for the sake of argument, that it does not. If that is so, then young people’s educational and work outcomes should be the result of their own aspirations, abilities, efforts, perseverance, and imagination.56 If class position is of little importance, then as the members of each new generation reach young adulthood, they should be poised for a fresh start at the race for success, all facing the same opportunity to “find their way” toward a comfortable and fulfilling life, based on their own innate talents. This is the American dream. The American reality is different. A key finding of Unequal Childhoods is that class does matter. In real life, the educational and work outcomes of young people are closely tied to the class position of their parents. Because social class is a significant force, existing social inequality gets reproduced over time, regardless of each new generation’s aspirations, talent, effort, and imagination.57
Unequal Childhoods used qualitative methods to study the rituals of daily life that families experience and the influence of these rituals on the development of youths’ life chances. The results of the follow-up study provide further support for the argument that a pattern of social inequality is being reproduced. Parents’ cultural practices play a role.58 The commitment to concerted cultivation, whereby parents actively fostered and developed children’s talents and skills did not, it turns out, wane