Did you spend more time in piano lessons or watching TV when you were growing up? The answer may depend largely on your social class.
Sociologist Annette Lareau addressed the idea of class differences in child-rearing practices during an event held by the Penn Education Society last night in Houston Hall. About 30 people, including both students and educators, attended the informal discussion.
Lareau, who just came to Penn as a Sociology professor last fall, uses ethnographic methods to study the lives of black and white children and their family lives. She gathered data in the early '90s by sitting in on classrooms, observing recesses and visiting homes.
Although she said her presence in homes elicited some awkwardness at first, she eventually assumed a role somewhere between family dog and pie-bearing guest.
In her book Unequal Childhoods, she summarizes her findings about the cultural logic of child rearing among different classes and races.
"Field work is a little like stumbling in the dark," Lareau noted.
What she stumbled upon was a striking difference in parenting techniques between middle-class and working-class families.
"All parents want their kids to be happy and healthy," she stressed.
However, class has an effect on organization of daily life, language use and interventions on the part of parents, she found.
Middle-class parents tend to exhibit "concerted cultivation" - they are more likely to view their children as projects and enroll them in activities which are educational and encourage the development of various skills.
Conversely, the children of working-class parents show a pattern of "accomplishment of natural growth" and receive less structure outside the classroom.
Both practices are "equally legitimate forms of child rearing," Lareau said, each with its own set of advantages and disadvantages.
Unequal Childhoods has had a significant impact on the field of sociology, according to Carmen McCrink, a former University professor and currently a second Master's candidate in the Graduate School of Education. She said she has used Lareau's book in many of her courses, calling it "eye-opening and transformational."
"Race, inequality and education are topics many Penn students are interested," wrote College senior and Penn Education Society board member Abby Emerson in an e-mail. She added that Lareau is considered a lead researcher in those fields. "We're really fortunate to have her here at Penn."
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