Unequal Childhoods Annette Lareau /

Unequal Childhoods Annette Lareau / Unequal Childhoods In Lareau's (2003) book entitled Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life, the author discusses "concerted cultivation," a term that describes how middle class parents tend to raise their children. Concerted cultivation is when parents focus on developing their children's talents in a "concerted fashion" (2003). Lareau states that "organized activities, established and controlled by mothers and fathers, dominate the lives of middle-class children" by making sure that "their have…experiences… From this, a robust sense of entitlement takes root in the children" (2003).

Lareau notes that this concerted cultivation makes it so that this sense of entitlement starts to play a part in institutional settings (like schools, for example), "where middle-class children learn to question adults and address them as equals" (2003). This is quite different from parents who allow "natural growth" (2003) in their children to occur. These parents do not focus on concerted cultivation because, for them "the crucial responsibilities of parenthood do not lie in eliciting their children's feelings, opinions, and thoughts. Rather, they see a clear boundary between adults and children" (2003).

Lareau suggests that middle-class parents use concerted cultivation efforts to rear their children while lower-class parents, because they have more economic restraints, use natural growth efforts. Essentially, Lareau is saying that child-rearing patterns differ based on the social class of families and she suggests that those differences turn into advantages for the middle-class children and disadvantages for the lower-class children. Alexander Williams is one of the children documented in Lareau's book. Alexander is from an upper-middle-class family.

One of the main tactics that Alexander's parents use in parenting is using words -- language -- to discipline their son. Lareau (2003) notes, "This approach often leads to extensive negotiation, bargaining, and whining in the course of daily family life." Lareau (2003) suggested early on in the book that this method, which can be viewed as concerted cultivation because of its putting children on the same sort of level as an adult, can lead to a certain sense of entitlement in children.

Alexander's whining and negotiating is what his parents have taught him to do when it comes to living. In school, Alexander would probably be more likely to question authority figures, believing that they know just as much as teachers, etc. Lareau (2003) compares Alexander and his family to Harold McAllister's family who are poor. The author notes how the McAllister family uses language in a more functional manner. Lareau saw that in the McAllister family, children did not talk back to the adults (unlike Alexander).

If there was any sort of bad behavior, the McAllister parents threatened the children with punishment, sometimes physical, and thus the children were kept in their place. Interestingly enough, Lareau (2003) states that whining was more pervasive in the middle-class homes than in the lower-class homes. While whining can be viewed as a bad characteristic in a child, what Lareau (2003) states is that even though those middle-class children are illustrating irritating behavior, they are learning how to use language in a way that the lower-class children are not.

Not only that but those middle-class children are also learning a very important skill -- how to negotiate with adults. This skill, Lareau (2003) suggests, "might be useful in institutional encounters in the future." Alexander's extracurricular activities are extensive -- a testimony to the concerted cultivation theory. Alex takes piano lessons, goes to choir practice, participates in Sunday School and church choir, and also plays both baseball and soccer. Alexander also participates in school plays and concerts and in the summer goes to camp.

We can see form all of these activities that Alexander's parents are going out of their way to make sure that Alexander becomes an incredibly cultivated person. What is interesting about this way of parenting is that the parents are the ones who have to go out of their way to make sure that Alexander gets to all of his appointments, rehearsals and games on time. The parents are able to do this precisely because they are in an upper-middle-class economic level.

Parents such as the ones in the McAllister family would not be able to take off from work early to bring their children to piano, choir and other lessons. This, undoubtedly, gives children like Alexander an advantage when it comes to how he will be prepared for the world. Lareau (2003) states that the Williams' parenting technique "embraces the logic of concerted cultivation.

They consider Alexander's many commitments an essential component in his overall development." There are many consistencies between Lareau's theories and what she witnessed inside the homes of the families she visited. First of all, the language example, that in middle-class homes children tend to whine, negotiate, and bargain more with their parents while in lower-class homes children do not normally talk back to adults, seems to be quite true.

Lareau (2003) notes that in middle-class homes there is a lot of talking that is interrupted by some silence while in lower-class homes there is a lot of silence interrupted by some speech. In Harold McAllister's home, this is exemplified. In the McAllister home, there is also a lack of space, which means that Harold doesn't have any really clear private space (nobody does). Alexander, on the other hand, has a very clear private space that is designated just for him.

Harold does not ask for things like Alexander does either as there is a constant lack of money. While both mothers of Alexander and Harold want the best for their children, there is a definite difference in how Harold's mother views her role as a mother. She clearly sees her most important job as making sure that Harold is physically taken care of. Lareau (2003) notes that this is more common in lower-class families. Harold's mother does not focus on language and increasing.