8923对《Unequal Childhoods》的笔记(1)

第1页 Chapter 1

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Lareau Annette (2003) explored the different cultural logic of child rearing in family of middle class and working class. She termed cultural logic of middle class in child rearing as "concerted cultivation", while "accomplishment natural growth" is termed as the cultural logic of working class in child rearing. There are many distinction on parenting process and parenting outcome between both logic of child rearing. In middle class family, with stressing cultural logic of "concerted cultivation", parents dominate the life of children through organizing leisure activities. And parents persuade children with reasoning in order to foster sense of entitlement takes root in children. While in family of working-class, parents considered the responsibilities of parenthood as providing comfort, food, shelter and other basic support requires ongoing effort. A clear boundary was set between parent and children so that there is rare possibility for children to express their feeling, opinions, and thoughts.
Therefore, children in middle-class family and working-class family share different kind of childhood experiences. In middle-class family, children miss out on kin relationships and leisure time, but gain important institutional advantages, such like cognitive and social skills which could be valuable in the future life and work. As Lareau Annette pointed out that "there was quite bit more talking n in middle-class homes than in working-class and poor homes, leading to the development of greater verbal agility, larger vocabularies, more comfort with authority figures, and more familiarity with abstract concepts" (2003: 5). While in the working-class family, children have more "childlike" lives, with autonomy from adults and control the character of leisure time. Children have clear boundaries between adult and child.
With insisting different cultural logic of child rearing, the attitude toward on centered institution of society such as school are different in middle-class family and working-class family. With stressing concerted cultivation, parents considered centered institution of society such as school as firmly and decisively promote strategies in child rearing. Children of cultural logic of concerted cultivation gain a sense of entitlement. They learned to make the rules work in their own favor by enormous stress on reasoning and negotiation in the home.
While, in working-class family, children rearing at home is not aligned with the standards of institutions. Parents of working-class ignore children's school situation and they dismiss the school rules as unreasonable from time to time. Children under cultural logic of accomplishment natural growth emerged sense of distance, distrust, and constraint in their institutional experiences. Children of working-class family can hardly get used to interactions to suit their own preferences. They are unable to make the rules work in their favor.