Unequal Childhoods - Annette Lareau [227]
3. See Betty Hart and Todd Risley, Meaningful Differences, as well as Shirley Brice Heath, Ways with Words. See also Jonathan B. Imber, “Doctor No Longer Knows Best.”
4. Not all adults, of course, comply with these special requests. Children also vary, in part by temperament, in how gregarious and assertive they are.
5. The Suzuki method is labor intensive. Beginning at age four, children are required to listen to music an average of one hour a day. Both the child and the parents also are expected to practice daily and to attend every scheduled lesson.
6. Basil Bernstein, Class, Codes, and Control.
7. Christina commented, “I like the fact that the two coaches are young guys, but they are not coaching them. Look at the other coach, how he’s talking to his team from the sideline.” Terry, sounding angry, says, “Those guys would not know what strategy was if it smacked them in the face. Look at them—their team is losing and they’re sitting on the bench, laughing.” By the second half, it was evident that Alex’s team was not going to win. The parents, especially Terry, quieted down considerably.
8. The field-worker was astounded by Alex’s knowledge. He wrote in the field notes, “I lost it (the thread of the conversation after Alex mentioned copyright). I was impressed that he knew about copyright laws.”
9. See also findings reported by Jennifer Hochschild in her book Facing Up to the American Dream.
10. By the time this interview took place, the observation period had ended, and Alexander was in fifth grade.
11. For discussions of Black middle-class adults managing racial encounters in public, see especially Joe Feagin and Melvin P. Sikes, Living with Racism.
12. Note that although she is clearly distracted, Ms. Williams automatically transforms her interaction with her son into an educative moment, by stressing the difference between $1,500 and $15,000.
13. Ms. Williams never indicated to the field-worker why she did not want to use one of her many credit cards. Her sense of privacy was keen. Many of our visits with the family took place during events that occurred outside the home. While other families in the study often volunteered exactly what they were doing on various weekends, Ms. Williams preferred to say they would “be away” or that a time “was not good.” In general, the Williams family did not volunteer information that other families in the study routinely discussed. We sought to be sensitive to family members’ preferences, despite the very intrusive nature of the field-work. We did not probe for details of matters only tangentially related to our research interests. As a result, we never determined the source of the problem here.
14. I have frequented the same store and have paid for my purchases with checks. I am white and middle-aged. One of the clerks, an older woman, often would look at my checks suspiciously and ask, “Have you written checks here before?” Neither she nor any other clerk has ever refused one of my checks, however. Nor have I ever seen a sign posted in the store to indicate that checks are not accepted.
15. Not all parents readily provide health-care professionals with accurate information. We observed a pattern of silent resistance or defiance directed toward medical personnel by (mainly) working-class and poor parents.
16. Not all physicians invite the kind of participation from children that this one did, but even when professionals were less open, we saw this mother and others actively seek to monitor and intervene in their children’s experiences.
17. At the car show, Alex gave a different selection when he told the fieldworker his three favorites. Mr. Williams noticed.
18. The field-worker noted, “This is an affectionate family, not an aggressive affection