HOW SCHOOLS REALLY MATTER Why is that schools are viewed as the source of inequality?

- Schools with high income children tend to perform better than low income children - There are clear resource differences (Local tax revenues constitute a significant portion of the schools budget) - High resource schools, teachers encounter fewer children with behavioral problems and more parents engaged in their childrens education - Not every student comes from the same economic, social, or cultural resources - Some home environments complement what occurs at schools as parents help with homework, communicate with teachers, reinforce concepts, provide a safe and stable environment, and attend to childrens medical needs Sociologists concluded that schools play a minor role in explaining inequality, What is seasonal comparison research? - Study of the role of school and non-school influences, sociologist Barbara points out that during the summer children are influenced by non-school factors only - Want to observe the change between the non school period and the school period What were the results of the study? - High and low SES students gained academic skills at about the same rate during the nine-month academic year - Gaps in skills develop during the summer - Proving that schools were not the primary reason for group-level inequalitites - Schools are instead an equalizing force Do studies suggest that schools with year-long schedules (but the same number of teaching days or school exposure) overcome the so-called summer setback? Good solution? Do you guys feel that this gap widens during the summer and did your parents encourage you guys to study and do extra curriculars during the summer? In Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life what kind of child upbringing does she focus on? - Concerted Cultivation: a type of child upbringing when middle class parents have a greater presence in the lives of their children - Accomplishment of natural growth: focuses on the working class, child upbringing when working class parents favor letting there children play freely unlike the middle class who had their lives scheduled What does concerted cultivation focus on? - Parents focus on scheduling and participating in a variety of extracurricular activities and sports

Hectic lifestyle that requires a lot of dedication and discipline to stick to for both children and parents. - Encourage independence and for their children to ask questions - Put children in multiple leisure activities such as sports and learning to play instruments Who thinks that this describes their life? Why is this important in institutional settings? - Plays an especially important role in institutional settings where middle class children learn to question adults and address them as relative equals What are some benefits of concerted cultivation? - Achieve many useful experiences that will benefit on later on in life in the institutional setting and in the work force - Leads to a better work ethic - Sense of entitlement - Acquire a valuable set of white-collar work skills including how to set priorities, work on a team, etc. - Learn to question adults and address them as relative equals Why is it that working-class parents tend to lean towards natural growth? - Because of economic issues - Parents have to focus on providing basic needs - Family relatives have a greater presence in working class families and help to raise the children together - Parents speak to children with commands rather than discussions/requests - Free to try out new experiences and develop important social competencies - Learn how to strategize - Children especially boys learn how to negotiate open conflict during play, including how to defend themselves physically What are some examples that form a dominant set of cultural repertoires? - Talking with children - Developing educational interests - Playing active role in schools - Agreed on by most professionals What least to this separation in child rearing? - Society makes borders between classes - Unequal resources What are some of the outcomes due to theses differences in child rearing? - Verbal agility - Larger vocabulary - Comfort with authority figures - Familiarity with abstract concepts - Middle class children showed a sense of entitlement - Working class and poor children showed a sense of constraint o Accepted the actions of persons in authority