10. In a setting where the television was virtually always on, and was only casually attended to, this action by Amy appeared to be an effort to gain her grandmom’s attention. Grandmom did not appear to define Amy’s action as disrespectful.
11. I am surprised that no one is watching. Occasionally, I crane my neck up and around to watch the girls from my spot on the floor.
12. She suggested that Katie use her birthday money to purchase dark shoes to complete the outfit.
13. This family was particularly vulnerable to intervention by state officials as their routine child-rearing practices sometimes violated prevailing standards. As I discuss briefly in Appendix A, the field-workers and I found visits to this family more difficult than the visits to other families.
PART II: LANGUAGE USE
1. Shirley Brice Heath, Ways with Words.
CHAPTER 6: DEVELOPING A CHILD
1. As I explain in Appendix A, Alexander did not attend school where the classroom observations for this study were conducted. Instead, an acquaintance consulted the directory for the private school her daughter attends and supplied me with the addresses of the two Black families with children in the fourth grade. I sent the Williams family a letter. After a series of meetings (and my compliance with their request to see a copy of my previous book and my résumé), they agreed to be in the study. Because of this difference in recruitment, we do not have data from classroom observations or parent-teacher conferences for this family.
2. This is not to suggest that parent-child talking is the only pathway to academic success. There is compelling evidence of academic achievement in immigrant populations, for example, where this kind of cultivation of language skills is limited. Still, even here, the social origins of the immigrants appear to matter in children’s educational experiences. (See, for example, Alejandro Portes and Dag MacLeod, “Educational Progress of Children of Immigrants.”) In addition, some middle-class children have learning disabilities, differ in achievement motivation, and are subject to other mediating factors that impede school success. Thus, extensive reasoning at home does not ensure school success. The argument is that it can provide a key advantage. Research linking family background to differences in reading levels and aptitude test scores also supports this position. See Betty Hart and Todd Risley, Meaningful Differences.
3. See Betty Hart and Todd Risley, Meaningful Differences, as well as Shirley Brice Heath, Ways with Words. See also Jonathan B. Imber, “Doctor No Longer Knows Best.”
4. Not all adults, of course, comply with these special requests. Children also vary, in part by temperament, in how gregarious and assertive they are.
5. The Suzuki method is labor intensive. Beginning at age four, children are required to listen to music an average of one hour a day. Both the child and the parents also are expected to practice daily and to attend every scheduled lesson.
6. Basil Bernstein, Class, Codes, and Control.
7. Christina commented, “I like the fact that the two coaches are young guys, but they are not coaching them. Look at the other coach, how he’s talking to his team from the sideline.” Terry, sounding angry, says, “Those guys would not know what strategy was if it smacked them in the face. Look at them—their team is losing and they’re sitting on the bench, laughing.” By the second half, it was evident that Alex’s team was not going to win. The parents, especially Terry, quieted down considerably.
8. The field-worker was astounded by Alex’s knowledge. He wrote in the field notes, “I lost it (the thread of the conversation after Alex mentioned copyright). I was impressed that he knew about copyright laws.”
9. See also findings reported by Jennifer Hochschild in her book Facing Up to the American Dream.
10. By the time this interview took place, the observation period had ended, and Alexander was in fifth grade.
11. For discussions of Black middle-class adults managing racial encounters in public, see especially Joe Feagin and Melvin P. Sikes, Living with Racism.
12. Note that although she is clearly distracted, Ms. Williams automatically transforms her interaction with her son into an educative moment, by stressing the difference between $1,500 and $15,000.
13. Ms. Williams never indicated to the field-worker why she did not want to use one of her many credit cards. Her sense of privacy was keen. Many of our visits with the family took place during events that occurred outside the home. While other families in the study often volunteered exactly what they were doing on various weekends, Ms. Williams preferred to say they would “be away” or that a time “was not good.” In general, the Williams family did not volunteer information that other families in the study routinely discussed. We sought to be sensitive to family members’ preferences, despite the very intrusive nature of the field-work. We did not probe for details of matters only tangentially related to our research interests. As a result, we never determined the source of the problem here.
14. I have frequented the same store and have paid for my purchases with checks. I am white and middle-aged. One of the clerks, an older woman, often would look at my checks suspiciously and ask, “Have you written checks here before?” Neither she nor any other clerk has ever refused one of my checks, however. Nor have I ever seen a sign posted in the store to indicate that checks are not accepted.
15. Not all parents readily provide health-care professionals with accurate information. We observed a pattern of silent resistance or defiance directed toward medical personnel by (mainly) working-class and poor parents.
16. Not all physicians invite the kind of participation from children that this one did, but even when professionals were less open, we saw this mother and others actively seek to monitor and intervene in their children’s experiences.
17. At the car show, Alex gave a different selection when he told the fieldworker his three favorites. Mr. Williams noticed.
18. The field-worker noted, “This is an affectionate family, not an aggressive affection as in the poor families.” He objected, however, to the display: “I was glad to see the unity in the family but . . . it was not developmentally appropriate. They are either on the extreme of too old or too young.”
19. Many psychologists also insist that this kind of confusion over parent-child roles is harmful for children. For complaints see Paul Kropp, I’ll Be the Parent, You Be the Child, and Dana Chidekel, Parents in Charge.
CHAPTER 7: LANGUAGE AS A CONDUIT FOR SOCIAL LIFE
1. On Father’s Day weekend, for example, Harold took the bus across town by himself and visited. With help from his grandmother, he made his father breakfast.
2. The family also has a German shepherd, Luke, who stays in the front yard, tied to a tree. He does not come in the house. Family members pet and talk to Luke as they come and go. He is the only dog on the block.
3. Since the study was completed, a major welfare reform was passed, changing the terms of public assistance for poor families.
4. Other researchers have described similar sorts of economies among the poor. See Kathy Edin and Laura Lein, Making Ends Meet, and Susan Holloway et al., Through My Own Eyes.