• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 1309 0

convey the depth of my gratitude to Elliot Weininger for his immeasurable contributions. I also owe a special debt to Amanda Cox for her conversations, coding work, and collaboration. Indeed, the separate essays I coauthored with Elliot Weininger and with Amanda Cox helped to develop many of the points I discuss here; Chapter 13, in particular, includes material from these joint works. Audiences at a number of institutions, especially George Mason University, the University of California San Diego, Northwestern University, Franklin and Marshall, Harvard University, the University of California Los Angeles, New York University, and the University of Pennsylvania, provided helpful feedback as I sought to develop the ideas presented here. Many others, including readers, also have helped me develop my thoughts. From lively exchanges to highly critical feedback, I have benefited particularly from the input of the following people: Michael Bader, Harry Brighouse, Jessica McCrory Calarco, Dalton Conley, Maia Cucchiara, Andrew Deener, Mitch Duneier, Frank Furstenberg, Flo Gelo, Michèle Lamont, Ralph LaRossa, Robin Leidner, Katherine McClelland, Bud Mehan, Vanessa Lopes Muñoz, Wes Shumar, Lisa Smulyan, Amy Steinbugler, Karolyn Tyson, Melissa Velez, Pamela Barnhouse Walters, Melissa Wilde, Julia Wrigley, Tina Wu, and my monthly reading group. My editor, Naomi Schneider, aided significantly in moving the project to closure.

It is common for students to be unaware of how much professors learn from them. Students in my courses at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Maryland have given me useful feedback. Andrew Cherlin and Arlie Hochschild both graciously had their graduate classes read the material, which produced many helpful comments. Shani Evans and April Yee provided valuable research assistance, as did Pamela Ellerman, Rebecca Holtz, and, especially, Alina Tulloch. M. Katherine Mooney also has played an exceptional role as friend, critical reader, and editor. As always, my children by marriage, Dillon and Rachel, helped to distract me from the demands of work. My husband, Samuel Freeman, provided laughter and comfort as the project inched forward. Finally, I am very grateful to the families in the study for their many contributions and their willingness, in most instances, to remain in conversation despite moments of difficulty.

Acknowledgments

I am very grateful to the children and their families who very graciously welcomed us into their lives, allowed us to follow them around, laughed at us and with us, and helped us understand them. Because of issues of confidentiality, I cannot name them. Nor do I feel I can adequately thank them. But without them this book would not exist. I am also indebted to the teachers and administrators at the schools we visited, especially the teachers who welcomed us into their classrooms. I also appreciate the numerous parents, coaches, dance teachers, and adults working with children who shared their experiences.

No one ever works alone in social science research. In this instance, since the project spanned a number of families as well as a number of years, I was blessed to have very talented assistance. I am deeply grateful to the field-workers, especially for how they gave themselves to the project in a wholehearted fashion. It was a lot to ask. The following research assistants did fieldwork with one or more of the twelve families: Mary Woods, Mimi Keller, Greg Seaton, Caitlin Howley, Robin Rogers-Dillon, Gillian Johns, Wendi Starr Brown, Mark Freeman, and Christine Paul. In addition, other research assistants helped carry out interviews: Karima Jefferies, Rashida Thomas, Kate Wilson, and at a late stage Mary Stricker, Janice Johnson, and Jennifer Murphy. Patricia Berhau played a special role with both her organizational talents and her formidable conceptual skills. She did everything: hired work-study students, talked on the phone with field-workers when I was out of town, and coded the data for all of the interviews. She also generously shared with me her interviews