The Importance of Class-Based Cultural Repertoires

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
generations aspirations, talent, effort, and imagination.

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 followup study provide further support for the argument that a pattern of social inequality is being
reproduced.

Parents cultural practices play a role;

-The commitment to concerted cultivation, whereby parents actively fostered and developed childrens
talents and skills did not, it turns out, wane over time.
-Even as children became autonomous adolescents with drivers licenses, jobs, and dorm rooms, the
middle-class parents closely monitored and intervened in their lives.
-A few decades ago many similarly aged young people would have been married, with children of their
own. But the middle-class youth in this study, now nineteen to twenty-one years old, appeared to be
needy and, in crucial ways, still under the wing of their mothers and fathers.
- By contrast, although similarly aged, the working class and poor young adults appeared to be more
independent.

-Working-class and poor parents generally accepted that their children had become autonomous adults.
They offered help when that seemed possible, and they ached with disappointment when the dreams
they had held for their childrens futures grew increasingly unattainable.

What are the implications of this evidence of persisting patterns? For research on social stratification,
the follow-up study results suggest a need to broaden and reconceptualize our analysis of how social
class does, and does not, matter in daily life.

-Beyond an aspiration or a desire to see Stacey succeed, Ms. Marshall drew on many different class
resources as she sought to prepare her daughter for college. Recall Ms. Marshalls insistence that her
daughter enroll in a summer algebra course. In taking this action, Ms. Marshall defined herself as
capable of assessing her daughters educational needs; unlike Ms. Yanelli, she did not need to depend
on someone educated to tell her what to do. Ms. Marshall also determined a customized plan of
action to shore up the weakness she perceived in Staceys school performance. Unlike Ms. Driver, she
did not accept the generic academic plan offered to her daughter. Instead, she devised an approach that
would strengthen Staceys math skills before any serious problems developed. In so doing, Ms. Marshall
drew on a formidable amount of informal knowledge about how educational institutions function. This
informal knowledge was linked to her own educational and occupational experiences; it was not
routinely available to all parents. In addition, Ms. Marshalls plan of action was molded to match her
daughters temperament and needs. The impact of parental interventions that have this level of
complexityinvolving both customized action and long-term planningis very difficult for researchers
to isolate and measure. Indeed, in studies based on surveys, Staceys strong math performance in high
school would likely be interpreted as a matter of her own ability or her level of educational attainment.
The role this middle-class mother played in boosting and managing her daughters math skills
vanishes. It is hidden beneath unexamined assumptions regarding the effects of students natural ability
or hard work.

-High-achieving middle-class high school students often juggle demanding academic work and multiple
extracurricular activities, leaving them with little or no free time. While many enjoy the fast pace and
pressures, others are left joyless and alienated by the constant quest to succeed;
-Class position shaped the young adults relationships with their extended families. Among the workingclass and poor young adults, there were palpably deep connections and tight interweaving of kinship
and family life that were not apparent among the middle-class youths;
-Middle-class young adults seemed comfortable maintaining more physical and emotional distance from
their families than was common among their working-class and poor counterparts.

However, class-based cultural repertoires, interwoven with economic resources, continued to matter.
Even as the youth grew into adulthood and became more autonomous, class remained important.
-Middle-class parents and their children had much deeper and more detailed knowledge of the inner
workings of key institutional structures, such as high school curricula, college admission processes, and
professional job opportunities, than did working-class and poor parents and their children.
-Middle-class parents and kids also had more knowledge about and detailed understanding of the
strengths and weaknesses of their specific case, and of the options available, given their individual
situation.

-While all parents helped their children in many ways, middle-class parents adopted a concerted
cultivation stance that included close monitoring of their young adults circumstances as well as many
interventions.
-Some of the working-class and poor parents also sought to intervene, but these efforts were less
frequent and less successful.

SUMMING UP: CLASS AND THE TRANSITION TO ADULTHOOD

When they were ten years old, the middle-class youth seemed worldly, blas, and hard to impress. For
them, pizza parties were very common and thus no special treat. Spring concerts drew shrugs. Kids
readily complained to their parents about being bored when they were not occupied by an organized
activity.
Although the working class and poor children were the same age as the middle-class children, they
seemed younger, bouncier, and more childlike. They smiled broadly while on stage for the spring
concert, were ecstatic over a pizza party, and entertained themselves for hours on weekends and
evenings.

-Ten years later, the pattern had reversed: it was the middle-class youth who seemed younger. Now
college students, they were excited about the way the world was opening up for them. They had dreams
of traveling and visions of many different possible pathways. To be sure, most had experienced
setbacks.

Garrett had his heart broken by a girl;

Stacey was told that she would never compete in collegiate gymnastics;
Melanie was disappointed when a plan to live with a friend fell through.

-The middle-class youth seemed young and upbeat.

-By contrast, the working-class and poor youth were generally working full-time in jobs they did not
like, and they had various pressing responsibilities such as raising children, paying for food and
board, and making monthly car payments.
-Unlike the middle-class kids, who tended to have worked only at summer jobs, youths who had
dropped out of school, such as Harold, had already spent many years in the labor force. There were
many wonderful features about the lives of working-class and poor youth.

-Wendy loved being a mother.

-Billy was very excited about owning a car.
-Harold enjoyed hanging out with his brother and watching sports on their large-screen television.
- The working-class and poor youth remained optimisticthey still had hopes and dreamsbut they
had struggled in a way that the middle-class youth had not.

Moreover, as the children moved from fourth grade into adulthood, the power of class pushed their
lives in such different directions that I could not pose the same interview questions to the group as a
whole.

-Middle-class youths interviews were filled with questions about their college preparation classes,
college searches, college choice, and college adjustment. As these young people told their stories,
additional probing revealed that their parents had been an integral part of their transition to college.
-Working-class and poor youths interviews were filled with discussions of their difficulties in high
school, challenges at work, and uncertain future goals.

-Some working-class and poor youth had undertaken college searches and enrolled in community
college courses, but they had done so mainly on their own or with heavy involvement by teachers. Their
parents had more circumscribed roles. The follow-up study suggests that over time the gap that existed
between the families when the children were ten widened rather than narrowed.