Using material from item A and elsewhere, Assess the view that working-class children under-achieve because they are culturally deprived. (20 marks)

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

One of the major causes of underachievement is the lack of economic capital, proposed by Pierre Bourdieu (1984), that a working class family possess. As item A states, ‘sociologists claim that factors outside the school, such as parental attitudes and parental income, are the main causes of working class underachievement.’ Children who belong to a working class background may not be able to afford the necessary equipment or meet the

In this essay, I will assess the strengths and limitations of unstructured interviews for investigating the effect of material deprivation on educational achievement by using Item B and my own knowledge. Material deprivation is the idea that a lack of money leads to disadvantages, Item B gives an example of ‘low household income, poor housing and a lack of work space in the home.’

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:

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”.

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.

| There are also important class inequalities between children, for example, poor mothers are more likely to have low birth-weight babies, which is linked to delayed physical and intellectual development. Also, children born into poor families are more likely to die in infancy or childhood, suffer longstanding illnesses, fall behind in school, or to be placed on the child protection register

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.

According to Bynner and Joshi (1999) class differences have persisted since the late 1950’s. It can be seen that all studies carried out by various theorist came to the same conclusion that middle class pupils tend to do a lot better than working class in terms of educational achievement. Pupils from middle class backgrounds tend to pass more exams, stay on at school for longer and are five times more likely to go to university. This gap in achievement widens with age as right from nursery school to university, processes like labelling or the self fulfilling prophecy take

For example, the home of a pupil is a primary agent in their socialisation and education and this therefore has the biggest impact on the pupil so when at school they will either be handicapped or at an advantage from their upbringing. For example, Modood argued that some ethnic minorities have higher levels of cultural capital, despite often being from a working-class background. Many Indians and Asians originate from working-class backgrounds even though they end up with middle class jobs. These parents therefore place particularly high values on educational success and contain the knowledge and understanding of education to motivate their children and help them to succeed.

In the article “Culture of Success”, Brink Lindsey is quite equivocal; first Lindsey claims that low income is affecting education, but based on the surveys and research conducted he invalidates, his claims. Apart from low income, the main reason which Lindsey considers is lack of parental education, working for long hours to support the family and because of this they, do not involve more in their child's life, and do not give the motivation to develop

Socioeconomic Status is where a particular person or group of people stand in regards to social class. The main measurement that determines one's socioeconomic status is level of education, occupation and income. Although it may not be considered a factor in child development, socioeconomic status can actually play a huge role in determining what kind of adolescent a child develops into. It can influence a child’s morals, self-esteem, grades and many more aspects of a child's life. Socioeconomic status can play a role in determining where a person resides, the occupation they end up getting, their education and their income as well. So, although one’s socioeconomic status is technically made up of these aspects, one can be born into a low socioeconomic status which could result in them continuing to have one throughout their life. It is a cycle that one must break in order to change the outcome. Low socioeconomic status can result in child poverty. Child poverty over the years has risen and fallen but has remained consistently apparent in America. Child poverty can have detrimental effects on developing children and adolescents. It may influence the way they are raised, taught, cared for and many more aspects of the child's life which are important for successful development. Low socioeconomic status can determine how well children and adolescents develop and the type of person they develop into, including

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,

Social class background has a powerful influence on a child’s chances of success in the education system. Children from middle-class families on average perform better than children from working-class families and the gap between middle and working class educational achievement gets bigger as children get older. Internal factors, also known as school factors, these are factors inside the education system, such as a students subcultures, teacher labeling and language codes also affect a child’s achievement in education.