Critical Issues in Education 2013

In Lareau’s Unequal Childhoods, she explores how children grow up and are treated differently because of class, gender, and sometimes race. 

The middle class children all underwent concerted cultivation. Their language was nurtured by their parents. They were taught to shake hands, look people in the eye, and to expect others to bend to their way of thinking. Their parents were always involved in their packed lives, and often had to give up much of their own lives in order to fully cultivate them. Most of their lives were scheduled, and without organized activities, many of them felt lost.

The working class or poor children all were left to natural development. Vocal exchanges are always short and to the point, with little done to encourage the children’s growth in language. Many of them lived in places where they could not look people in the eye, and they were taught to respect what elders said. If a parent said, “Jump,” they are expected to reply with something along the lines of, “How high?”. For many of their parents, it is enough work to make sure they go to school, do homework, and have food in their bellies. Anything extra is extra work and hassle they do not want to deal with. They have much free time, and their creativity allows them to fill that time with games and activities they organize. 

Annette Lareau Perpetuates Inequality Rather than Helping the Issue

“America may be the land of opportunity, but it is also a land of inequality. This book identifies the largely invisible but powerful ways that parents’ social class impacts children’s life experiences” (Lareau, Kindle Locations 299-300).

“I am a ‘conditioned’ being, capable of going beyond my own conditioning”

There were many times while I was reading The Pedagogy of Freedom, where I was nodding in agreement to many of the theoretical concepts discussed by Paulo Freire. The book may have seemed a bit excessive in really “hammering” the main points repeatedly, and some of the concepts could have benefited from more relatable examples to help the readers who struggled with abstractness of his thinking. However, personally I felt that the book really encompassed my perspectives on the pedagogy, duty and the responsibility of what it means to be a teacher.

February 12th, 2013 

How do you know the difference between abuse and discipline? 

Abuse                vs.                     Discipline 

types of Discipline: 

• Threats 
• writing lines
• spanking 

Similarities? 

cyclical/cultural 

Traditional vs. Progressive Discipline 

Lareau states her theoretical perspectives regarding the inequality of education and educational institutions which encompasses different philosophies of child rearing, psychology, and socioeconomic standings and their correlation to each other. According to Lareau, middle class families tend to employ the concerted cultivation approach, while lower income families tend to employ the accomplishment of natural growth approach. She seeks to prove how concerted cultivation leads to a sense of entitlement in children while the accomplishment of natural growth leads to a sense of constraint. Although Lareau attempts to validate both approaches, she notes the significant advantage of the concerted cultivation approach and how it prepares the student for the inevitable life ahead of dealing with the masses of faceless institutions (and how this advantage automatically places others at a disadvantage). While I feel Lareau's theories hold some truth, I find her approach extremely reactionary and her study blind to the other causes of disadvantages in the classroom. In many cases, her observations are skewed to fit her theory and her attempt to distinguish her theory as binary in nature often leaves out the dynamic aspect of family lives, child-rearing methods, and situations. Because of this, the significance of her theory is stunted.

McDermott and Varenne define culture as a term “that is generally taken to gloss the well-bound containers of coherence that mark off different kinds of people living in their various ways, each kind separated from the others by a particular version of coherence, a particular way of making sense and meaning,” (325). Reading McDermott and Varenne’s article on culture, and focusing on the wording of how they defined culture in the beginning--by emphasizing on "separating" people and identifying differences in one another-- I am curious as to how their perspectives would apply in the setting of my field placement at a school with students who have learning differences, as they call it.

The practice of right thinking, according to Freire, is grounded in a number of factors, one of which includes teaching by example.  When teachers engage in right thinking they are open to multiple answers, and are able to acknowledge and respect the autonomy and lived experiences of their students. Right thinking stands in opposition to the banking system of education because it recognizes that education is not the transferring of knowledge but the wonder of curiosity and discovery. In describing right thinking, Freire emphasized the importance of leading by example by saying “right thinking is right doing”, but what does it mean for educators to teach by example? How are authorities responsible for fostering right thinking?

February 5, 2013 

• learner is an active agent 

 effort and ability--->authority ----->merit and privilege --->conceded cultivation---->accomplishment or? natural growth 

questions of structure                   

and freedom

What is missing from this? 

• expectations/rituals (at home or at school) 
• intrinsic/extrinsic 
• different cultural logics 
• is it black or white? literally?
• to much stress in saying why it is important 
• came from different experiences of school and class 
• Can we generalize by class? Lareau say it is 
• all educative experiences but the payoff is different in our society 

Other ideas from the Lareau 

Reflective Writing in Response Groups #1

Critical Issues in Education

Table of Contents

1. Learning in the Island
2. The Great Escape: Immigrating to the United States
3. The Trouble with the Accent
4. Girls Inc.
5. Propellers: The Role of Mentors
6. Posse
7. Bryn Mawr

II. The Great Escape: Immigrating to the United States