Social Class In Tillie Olsen's I Stand Here Ironing

In The Merits of Meritocracy, by David Brooks, Brooks discusses the lives of middle-class children growing up in America. He opens up with an anecdote about his daughter, to lead into one of his main points: middle-class children have busy and protected childhood, filled with many opportunities supervised by adults (193). For instance, his daughter has four different helmets for biking, pogo sticking, skateboarding, and playing baseball (193). She is a prime example of how the middle-class is presented with opportunities and busy lives; because of this, Brooks claims the general middle-class parent fears their child is too spoiled by abundance, and will never have to commit to one thing (194). Another large fear Brooks states they have, is

Sociologist Annette Lareau wrote Unequal Childhoods, a book that looks at the way social class affects and influences the styles of parenting within family households. Although at first glance, one might view Lareau’s book as merely that, Lareau breaks down how parenting styles differ between middle and working-class families and how certain choices may structure a child’s future. In Lareau’s study, twelve families were examined and observed using a technique known as Participant observation. This is where a researcher and their respective team, spends time observing subjects and their everyday activities. Lareau studied children, all around the age of ten, from each of the twelve families.

Often when people decide to have children, they think of their circumstances whether they are fit for it or capable of raising a child. For some people they have no control and in this case Jeanette Walls’ memoir, “The Glass Castle,” is a crucial example of the struggle she faces growing up in poverty. Jeanette Walls was not only faced with living under the conditions of poverty, she also had to deal with the chaos and neglect from her parent’s lifestyle. Although Jeanette Walls parents were irresponsible and selfish one thing Jeanette’s Walls parents managed to do right was instilling good qualities and well-raised independent adults. Not only did Jeanette Wall’s suffer drastically from poverty, she had to deal with the constant battle of

Primary education, Supplemental tutoring, summer camps, secondary education, family activities, higher education, first full-time job, subsequent employment, present employment with the age of the person, present residence, second residences"(pp.336-340). He lets you look into the life of different people, some from upper-class families and some from lower class families. The reader can see for themselves that the way they are brought up, whether it is from and upper-class family or lower-class family, it affects them. It

While both styles of parenting have their benefits and weaknesses, the educational system of the United States is built predominantly on middle class values and Concerted Cultivation. Consequently, this may negatively affect how children who aren’t familiar with this upbringing navigate their already complex academic and home lives. This imbalance within the student population can put some students farther ahead and at the same time neglect students who don’t have the resources they need to keep up with their peers. Lareau refers to this as “transmission of differential advantages to children”. She states the benefits the advantages that middle-class homes typically offer:

Writer Gregory Mantsios in his article “Class in America”, talks about these things, and how wide the gap is between the rich and the poor and also discusses how the rich continue to get richer, while the poor continue to get poorer. Mantsios gives his readers the profiles and backgrounds of three hard-working Americans, two of them are white males, whose family background as well as education played a role in their success, while the other person is a black woman who is just above the poverty line despite her work as a nurse’s aide. Through these profiles, Mantsios article shows exactly how sex, race and shows how your parental and educational background of a person can play a role in the things that you achieve. Mantsios also talks about one’s performance in school and the level of school completed can suggest whether or not class that person may belong in.

She also talks about how middle class parenting differs from the other social class. The middle class parents mostly dominate the lives of their children while the working class parents cannot concentrate that much on their kids. She also brought a name for this phenomena called “Concerted Cultivation”.

Lareau, in Unequal Childhoods, focuses on socioeconomic status and how that affects outcomes in the education system and the workplace. While examining middle-class, working-class and poor families, Lareau witnessed differing logics of parenting, which could greatly determine a child’s future success. Working-class and poor families allow their children an accomplishment of natural growth, whereas middle-class parents prepare their children through concerted cultivation. The latter provides children with a sense of entitlement, as parents encourage them to negotiate and challenge those in authority. Parents almost overwhelm their children with organized activities, as we witnessed in the life of Garrett Tallinger. Due to his parents and their economic and cultural capital, Garrett was not only able to learn in an educational setting, but through differing activities, equipping him with several skills to be successful in the world. Lareau suggests these extra skills allow children to “think of themselves as special and as entitled to receive certain kinds of services from adults” (39). Adults in the school system are in favor of these skills through concerted cultivation, and Bourdieu seems to suggest that schools can often misrecognize these skills as natural talent/abilities when it’s merely cultivated through capital. This then leads to inequalities in the education system and academic attainments.

In most if not all cases, the class you are born into will determine how you will be raised, and who you will grow up to become. Whether you can speak up for yourself, if you are humble with what you have or you have a more hectic schedule or not, it all plays into what class you are from. No two childhoods are equal and Annette Lareau in her book, Unequal Childhoods explains why this is the case. I will be examining chapters four, five, and seven. These chapters examine poor and working children and teenagers and how their childhoods differ and relate to each other based on the class they were born in whether that be lower class to the poor. What can be learned from examining these three kids, Harold McAllister, Katie Brindle, and Tyrec Taylor is the advantages and disadvantages of having a childhood in the class of the poor or working class.

In comparison, another subculture, fatalism, was a belief that ‘whatever will be, will be’. This allows working-class children to lose self-belief and accept that they cannot improve their position through individual efforts. The third aspect of working-class subculture is the low value on education. Douglas argues that working-class parents show less incentive to help and encourage their children with their education and ultimately support them less. He believed that working-class parents placed less value on education and therefore were less likely to discuss their children’s progress with teachers. Correspondingly, Leon Feinstein (1998) found that working-class parents lack of interest was the main reason that their children were under-achieving and was a more important factor than financial factors. Feinstein argues that most middle-class parents provide obligatory motivation, discipline and support, thus they are more successful. Sugarman also argued that collectivism and present-time orientation acted as barriers to educational achievement. Collectivism occurs when a person values being a part of a group more than succeeding as an individual. Conversely, the middle-class infers that an individual should not be held back by

Regardless of social class most parents wish for their children to be happy, healthy, and successful; however, parents disagree on the best way to raise their children to be all of those things, which is when social class determines the parents’ child rearing method. Whether a child comes from a working class or middle class family affects the child’s development and socialization; and consequently the child’s future.

Lareau explains how different social class: middle class, working class, and lower class have individual parenting styles to discipline their child. Using the technique of naturalistic observations, the author analyzed that the relationship of children between their families and the extrinsic world differs by their social class. Each chapter takes the reader on a journey of one child’s experiences at home and in social institutions and how different parenting styles influence a child’s life at home and in the outside world. Through her study, the author discovered significant differences between each social classes, in regards to the practices of child-rearing. Lareau explains that how distinctive practices of child-rearing in different social classes can result in social class inequality.

David Goodman eked out a minimal living for his family by working for a tailor in a sweatshop. To help alleviate the family’s poverty, the children were urged to work as soon as they were old enough.

All families want their children to be happy, healthy, and grow. Social classes make a difference in how parents go about meeting this goal. In Annette Lareau book, Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life, she promotes middle class parents as concerted cultivation. Middle class parents encourage their children’s talents, opinions, and skills. For example, engaging their children in organized activities and closely monitoring children’s experiences in school. According to Lareau, middle class children gain an emerging sense of entitlement through this pattern of converted cultivation. This causes a focus on children’s individual development. There are signs that the middle class children gain advantages from the experience of concerted cultivation. However, the working class and poor children do not gain this advantage.

Another defining factor for social class is education especially since education is seen as an achievement toward the American Dream. (Lareau, 235). Younger generations seem to place more emphasis on achieving higher education and the occupational opportunities provided for those who are well-educated (Cherlin, 113). The socioeconomic stratification corresponds to those with differing levels of education such as upper/middle class individuals have a college education while working/lower class have some college and/or minimal high school education (Cherlin, 118-119). These individuals and their given circumstances based on education and income have different values and trends about marriage, family and socialization/rearing of children. (Cherlin, 114-117). Family inequality is then based on direct obtainment for individuals who are head of these households such as employment of fathers and mothers (Cherlin, 111), which in turn affects the childhood/family experience of child within the socioeconomic status of their parents. (Lareau,