American Dream In Crisis

Great Essays
AP Government Book Assignment
By Tristan P. Myers
“Our Kids, The American Dream In Crisis”
By Robert D. Putnam

“Our Kids, The American Dream in Crisis,” is an interesting piece of text that compares past and present day life stories of multiple teenage children along with their families’ outlooks of the American Dream. Using both quantitative and qualitative data, author Robert D. Putnam provides an analysis that we could all relate to.
Robert D. Putnam immediately informs the reader the prime reason for writing this book. Putnam writes, “...in modern America one barrier would loom much larger than it did back then: class origins. The nationwide increase in class inequality – how the class based opportunity among young people has widened in
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He successfully used quantitative and qualitative analysis to validate his thesis. In every chapter, Putnam provided the reader with emotion-filled depictions of the people he interviewed. Putnam applied a type of methodological research termed qualitative analysis. In this analysis, he studied personal information such as family style, past experiences, neighborhood location, and financial situation. After qualitative data, Putnam uses a new type of methodological research labeled quantitative analysis. Throughout the book, he had several graphs, charts, and statistics relating to the discussion which assisted in understanding his …show more content…
I agree with the author that the socioeconomic makeup of a school plays an important role, but the school I attend, Logan High School, has many reasons to justify that it does not follow his generalization. First of all, there is only one school system in our county. With many schools for pre-school, elementary, and middle school, the socioeconomic makeup is dispersed throughout the schools. However, having only a single high school in the school system causes a different scenario. The socioeconomic makeup is shown through groups within the physical school building in contrast to separate schools or school systems. Because of these various groups within the same school, all students experience and interact with multiple types of socioeconomic statuses throughout the school day. Noticing the socioeconomic differences between groups is more easily achieved through extra-curricular activities. For example, athletics may draw more people from an affluent section, yet band brings more diversity from the socioeconomic spectrum. It is a terrific place that accepts all and promotes social interaction. Unlike some who interact with people from a single socioeconomic class, many students in our school learn to collaborate with a wide array of people through activities such as band, theatre, or art

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