Summary Of Unequal Childhoods

In her book, Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life, Annette Lareau argues out that the influences of social class, as well as race, result in unequal childhoods (Lareau 1). To understand this, it is necessary to infer from the book and assess the manner in which race and social class tend to shape the life of a family. The way in which a family lives can be almost entirely be predetermined by the social class and race of said family. As the scholar demonstrates, each race and social class usually has its own unique way of child upbringing based on circumstances. To affirm this, the different examples that the scholar presents in the book could be used. For example: in ethnic households, parents are usually strong believers in physical …show more content…
Drawing from the American society, there are several social classes. For each class, there are unique pathways of lives followed and these usually influence both the educational and work outcomes. To account for this, the case of the poor, working class people could be used. For these, the scholar indicates that most children dropped out of high school or had not attended post-high school institutions. For these, their children are likely to follow the trend. They might not go past the education level that their parents reached (Lareau 3). This is a different case for the children of those within the middle class. For this category of people, there is a possibility that they attended college following an extensive preparatory process of investigating the various institutions. There is also a possibility that they received greater support and involvement during the process of making decisions. Their children are likely to pursue education leading to a better profession due to such an experience. In this regard, the children from the poorer working class families and those from the middle-class families are unequal. The latter are determined to pursue professional career courses while the former are …show more content…
Therefore, it would necessitate a person to go a step further and explore the book to discover how the inequality is produced. One way that the author of the book reports as leading to childhood inequality based on social class is the form of parenting style adopted. From her study, she established two forms of parenting styles, and these include concerted cultivation and accomplishment of natural growth. From the scholar’s point of view, whereas middle-class parents prefer concerted cultivation, both poor and working-class parents practice the accomplishment of natural growth parenting. Reporting on the accomplishment of natural growth, the scholar advances that children are availed with long stretches of leisure time, child-initiated play, distinct boundaries between children and adults, alongside daily interactions with the relatives (Lareau 3). Adding to this context, the scholar reveals that the poor and the working-class parents lead what she calls a “childlike” life as opposed to their middle-class counterparts, and this is because they usually have control over the leisure time of their children and autonomy from adults. In stark contrast, middle-class children do not usually have a chance to experience similar expansive leisure time or even relationships with their relatives. While this is the case, middle-class children are presented with the fundamental