Longitudinal studies using qualitative methods are rare.17 I was pleased that, after considerable effort, I was able to reach all twelve young people, as well as to triangulate their information with separate interviews with other family members. Yet, as I elaborate in Chapter 14, the data set for the follow-up study has important limitations, particularly compared to the original study: there are no observational data; there are no interviews with key educators; there are no independent confirmations of the reports provided by the family members; and the reports of all interviewees are retrospective. These data constraints shape the results. For instance, it was not possible during a two-hour interview to assess how the youths used language in their daily lives. Since class differences in language use is a key theme in the original study, the inability to study it during the follow-up interviews is a limitation. Also, although I briefly discuss the young adults’ reflections on their organized activities, this topic commands considerably less space than in the original study.
SECTION 2. A DECADE LATER:
PORTRAITS OF THE YOUNG ADULTS
Youths from Middle-Class Families
Melanie Handlon (white, middle-class) and I talk in the conference room at the church where her mother still works as secretary. Melanie wears a crisp shirt and blue jeans. Her blond hair is swept into a pony tail, her fingernail polish is a brilliant red, and her full makeup is skillfully applied. She smiles broadly and although her manner is shy, she seems confident.
Schoolwork, a torment for Melanie as a fourth-grader, continued to challenge her in middle and high school. She recalls seventh grade as “horrible.” The year ended with an official recommendation that she be retained (a proposal Melanie’s parents rejected). As an eighth-grader, she was diagnosed as having an Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) learning disability. In high school, she took special education classes but still found academic work quite difficult. At various points, she wanted to drop out. During the years she was a cheerleader, though, Melanie flourished. She says she “loved” cheerleading; she eventually became the squad captain.
Despite her mother’s urging, Melanie refused to enroll in an SAT preparation course; when she took the exam, she received a combined score of 1060 [1575].18 She applied to two state colleges. Although she was turned down by her first-choice school, she was accepted at Millersville, a four-year state university her older brother had attended. Melanie declined to go. She says this school is too far away (a five-hour drive from home); also, she thinks it is a social wasteland. “There’s really nothing to do there,” she explains. “Like, the biggest thing is a Wal-Mart.” She decided to work rather than go to college. She is living at home. She says she enjoys “the closeness that we [family members] have,” adding, “I mean, I can talk to them about anything.” Her first job, at a coffee shop, lasted two weeks. She did not like the hours (her workday started at 5 A.M.), and she had no coworkers for company. She quit, electing to try community college. Her mother helped her register. Problems arose when Melanie learned that she was required to take non-credit remedial courses in English and math. The classes were “boring,” she says. She stopped attending but failed to formally withdraw despite repeated reminders from her mother on the subject, so she received failing grades in her record.
At the time that I interview her, her plans are in flux. A few months later, however, her father tells me that she has begun a cosmetology program which she “loves.” Regarding the future, what she “honestly” wants is “to be a stay-at-home mom until my kids are in school.” In this realm, her hopes and dreams are clear. She would like to have four children and she would like to marry sooner rather than later. “I don’t want to wait till I’m thirty to get married. So hopefully, I’ll find that one guy.” She has had some boyfriends, but so far no serious contenders.
Stacey Marshall (African American, middle-class) and I meet at her family home the summer after her freshman year at University of Maryland, College Park. Stacey’s nearly six-foot (5 feet 11 inches) body is thin, but athletic looking. Dressed casually in shorts and a T-shirt, and wearing no makeup, she appears younger than her nineteen years. She is busy, juggling basketball practice with two summer jobs (camp counselor and part-time waitress at a local diner). She is still sociable, confirming her mother’s description of her as a “people-person,” an upbeat, “everything’s fine” person.
Stacey’s love of gymnastics continued beyond elementary school. But a sudden growth spurt made her, at age twelve, taller than the sixteen-year-old gymnasts. That, combined with her relatively late start in gymnastics, prompted her coach to counsel strongly against any further involvement in competitive gymnastics. This left Stacey deeply discouraged. Initially resistant, she gradually began playing basketball, a sport her older sister, Fern, enjoyed. Stacey discovered that her gymnastics training made her unusually adept at weaving around players to make a shot. “Even to this day,” she tells me, “people say that you can see my gymnastics background [in my game].” She and Fern played together on their high school’s basketball team, which won a state championship.
In high school, with her mother continuing to carefully oversee her education, Stacey took some honors-level courses but resisted Advanced Placement classes. Her grades were “A’s and B’s.” She took an SAT preparation course and sat for the exam once, earning a (combined) score of 1060 [1590].19 As a senior, Stacey was recruited by the basketball coach at Columbia University. Although the coach expressed some concern about Stacey’s relatively low (for an Ivy League school) SAT score, she was admitted to Columbia. Given the Marshalls’ six-figure annual income, however, she qualified for little financial aid. Her parents ruled Columbia out when they learned that the family’s contribution would be at least $15,000 per year. Since this school was Stacey’s heart’s desire, she was deeply disappointed by her parents’ decision. She says she is still “bitter” about it.
Stacey describes her first year at University of Maryland (where her four-year scholarship covers tuition, room and board, and books) positively, however. She liked her roommates and enjoyed playing on the basketball team, despite the long hours and arduous workouts. She found her classes challenging, particularly biology, in which she got two C’s (but she brought her GPA [grade point average] up to 2.8 by earning a good grade in a photography course offered in the summer). Her problems with biology have not prompted her to change her long-standing goal of becoming a pediatric surgeon.
Stacey and her high school boyfriend broke up; she has not replaced him. She tells me she has no immediate plans for marriage or kids. She wants to get her career established first. She hopes I will be able to come to one of her college team’s games to see her play basketball.
Garrett Tallinger (white, middle-class) and I meet in his cramped dorm room at Villanova University (a small Catholic school in the northeast). Now 6 feet 5 inches, Garrett towers over me, but the quiet, low-key manner that characterized him as a fourth-grader remains. Villanova awarded Garrett a four-year basketball scholarship that fully covers the annual private-school tuition, room and board, books, and miscellaneous fees.
Soccer and basketball dominated much of Garrett’s childhood. When he was in eighth grade, the Tallingers moved several hundred miles away from the town where he had grown up. Soccer was a relatively underdeveloped sport in the new location. That, plus a series of mishaps and conflicts (including that the soccer playoffs conflicted with other commitments and high school basketball and soccer were offered at the same time, forcing players to choose between the two) led to basketball being the preferred option for him. He made the high school varsity basketball team as a freshman. He recalls that when the coach told him he would be part of the starting line-up for the team’s first game of the season, the news made him feel “the most excited I’ve ever been.”