28. Kingston, therefore, does not deny the existence of inequality: “Beyond question, huge inequalities exist and Americans recognize them.” Nevertheless, in his book The Classless Society, he is particularly adamant in asserting that cultural habits—as manifest in family life or childrearing, for example—are not associated with different economic groups: “My thesis is that groups of people having a common economic position—what are commonly designated as ‘classes’—do not significantly share distinct, life-defining experiences” (p. 1).
29. Jan Pakulski and Malcolm Waters, The Death of Class, p. 4.
30. For examples within this tradition see Paul Willis, Learning to Labour, and Basil Bernstein, Class, Codes, and Control.
31. It is true, of course, that people do not generally see themselves as anything but middle class. Nevertheless, I am not asserting that powerful patterns of class-consciousness exist.
32. My debt to Bourdieu is enormous, especially regarding his preoccupation in the transmission of advantage. Although some have critiqued his model of social reproduction for being overly deterministic, a close reading of his theoretical ideas makes clear that Bourdieu sees a great deal of indeterminacy in how life trajectories unfold (see Marlis Buchman’s book The Script of Life for a particularly lucid description of Bourdieu’s model). Still, there is one key way that I have parted company with Bourdieu. As Elliot Weininger has noted in his article “Class and Causation in Bourdieu,” Bourdieu has a gradational (rather than categorical) conception of class structure. In addition, Bourdieu is deeply interested in fractions or divisions within a social class, an issue that space (and sample size) does not permit me to develop here.
CHAPTER 3: THE HECTIC PACE OF CONCERTED CULTIVATION
1. Recent national data also suggest that children of highly educated parents have more organized activities and busier schedules. See especially Sandra L. Hofferth and John F. Sandberg, “Changes in American Children’s Time, 1981–1997,” as well as Elliot Weininger and Annette Lareau, “Children’s Participation in Organized Activities and the Gender Dynamic of the ‘Time Bind.’” There are also a number of older studies on children’s organized leisure activities, including the classic piece by Janet Lever, “Sex Differences in the Complexity of Children’s Play”; Elliot Medrich et al., The Serious Business of Growing Up; and Gary Alan Fine, With the Boys.
2. See David M. Halbfinger, “Our Town,” wherein parents report spending almost $6,000 annually on hockey alone.
3. As with many American households, the Tallingers had accumulated debt and had limited savings. For a more detailed discussion of the Tallingers’ financial situation (as well as the Yanelli, Driver, and Greeley families), see the dissertation by Patricia Berhau, Class and the Experiences of Consumers.
4. See Gai Ingham Berlage’s paper, “Are Children’s Competitive Team Sports Teaching Corporate Values?” for a study of fathers of children on hockey and soccer travel teams. Fathers expressed the belief that their son’s participation would increase “teamwork” and “self-discipline.” Still, the actual impact on their work careers is unclear, and a study of college athletes, James Shulman and William Bowen, The Game of Life, challenges some of these assumptions about the long-term effects of athletic participation.
5. See Melvin Kohn and Carmi Schooler, Work and Personality.
6. Perhaps in recognition of this reality, Intercounty soccer team organizers require team members to sign a document pledging to make this activity their priority.
7. Mr. Tallinger believes in the value of spanking, however. With Sam in particular, he uses spanking as a threat. For a detailed look at the role of reasoning in concerted cultivation, see Chapter 6.
CHAPTER 4: A CHILD’S PACE
1. Elijah Anderson documents the importance of complying with codes of respect, particularly in children’s relations with adults. See his book Code of the Street.
2. We did not observe middle-class Black children use such terms; rather they called adults by their first names. We also did not observe poor and working-class white children automatically use honorific terms with adults, which is suggestive of a difference across racial groups in this aspect of family life within working-class and poor families.
3. During their four-year separation, Ms. Taylor and Mr. Taylor reconciled at one point. They lived together again for eighteen months before splitting up a second time.
4. Tyrec’s closest friends, the boys we observed him play with daily, all are Black. In an interview, however, his mother reported that he has three good friends who are white.
5. It is unclear the degree to which Tyrec wanted to sign up again. What is salient here is that the mother was “praying” that he would not want to do so. Unlike in the middle-class families, there was no presumption of children being involved in organizations and activities. For a discussion of the crucial role of mothers in screening programs before allowing children to participate in recreational services, see Dennis R. Howard and Robert Madrigal, “Who Makes the Decision: The Parent or the Child?”
CHAPTER 5: CHILDREN’S PLAY IS FOR CHILDREN
1. C. Wright Mills, The Sociological Imagination.
2. Although the Brindles have moved frequently in the past (Jenna, who went to school only through tenth grade, attended twenty different schools), they have been in their current neighborhood for more than two years, and Katie has been in the same elementary school for four years.
3. Although the person was never caught, Ms. Brindle suspects a neighbor in the apartment building where they lived previously. The man was the father of one of Katie’s playmates.
4. John is schizophrenic and cannot work; Ryan is illiterate but he is employed.
5. Unlike Black families from similar economic circumstances, the Brindles lived in a neighborhood that housed families from varying economic circumstances. Overall, Massey and Denton, American Apartheid, have shown poor white families do not experience the same form of hyper-segregation as Black families.
6. For a discussion of poor mothers’ efforts to make ends meet as they grocery shop, see Marjorie DeVault, Feeding the Family, especially the chapter on “provisioning.”
7. She is less direct with Katie, but with her, too, there are special, affectionate rituals. For example, when Katie is away from home (typically, at her grandmother’s house) and calls her mother on the telephone, Ms. Brindle says in a warm and loving tone, “I love you,” and, “I miss you too.” In addition, she and Katie have developed a ritual to make it easier to say good-bye. They count to three together, “Okay, one, two, three,” and hang up at the exact same moment. Ms. Brindle explains, “[Katie] doesn’t like to hang up and so we count together.”
8. Middle-class parents are especially likely to stop what they are doing to watch a child if the child specifically requests that they do so. Although some may ask for a temporary delay before the start of the performance they are supposed to watch, few of these parents simply refuse their children’s requests.
9. Katie does draw adult attention when she demonstrates her ability to cry on command: “[Katie] scrunches up her face and begins to make fake sobs; she—in an agitated and very persuasive way—begins to frantically run her hands through her hair; she throws her entire body on the couch and the sobs get louder.” This acting stint prompts comments from the adults, but not ones aimed at cultivating Katie’s talents: Ryan says, “That is some job—especially the hands and the hair.” . . . [His mother remarks,] “Oh yeah, she really does a job there.” (Uncle John continues to show no affect of any kind.) See Shirley Brice Heath, Ways with Words, for a discussion of viewing adults, rather than children, as appropriate conversation partners.