Analysis Of How We Are Ruining America By David Brooks

The book Unequal Childhoods describes observations made by Annette Lareau to shed light on the significance of social class and how it affects student’s learning. Lareau presents her observations by highlighting the two dominant ways of parenting that ultimately affect how successful students become as they transition into adulthood. These styles of parenting consist of Concerted Cultivation where parents put through kids through structured activities, and Accomplishment of Natural Growth where unrestrictive freedom and directives are exercised (20-22).

Lubrano explains how middle-class children understand the importance of receiving higher education, while working-class children fail to see the purpose of preparing for a higher level in the short term. According to Lubrano, “Middle-class kids are groomed for another life” (534). Author Patrick Finn states, “Working-class kids see no such connection, understand no future life for which digesting Shakespeare might be of value” (534). In answering this question, Lubrano must look at the various circumstances that account for the poor performances among working-class individuals, the supportive relationships middle-class students have with their parents and teachers, and how children of working-class parents struggle when preparing for later life. In the address, Alfred Lubrano must address the difference in treatment between working-class and middle-class children attending

As a first generation child whose parents immigrated from another country, I was fortunate enough to receive excellent education and opportunities that was not offered to them. During that era, those privileges may have been difficult to obtain due to racial segregation, poor living circumstances, and/or lack of time and commitment due to work. As of today, these issues are no longer a major problem. Although, education has never been better and opportunities have been even more achievable, David Brooks argues that the upper/middle classes are preventing the lower class from “joining their ranks” because of the egocentric methods that modern day families now utilize to their advantage. In his New York Times editorial “How We Are Ruining America,” Brooks explains how we (as the upper/middle class) have been ruining America by preventing the lower class from receiving the same privileges. Brooks then elaborates his argument by giving several examples like: improved parent supervision and planning, zoning restrictions, cultural codes, and even gives a personal experience. Even though Brooks provided a substantial amount of evidence, he mostly utilizes his powerful tone and writing skills to support his argument.

Lareau, in Unequal Childhoods, focuses on socioeconomic status and how that affects outcomes in the education system and the workplace. While examining middle-class, working-class and poor families, Lareau witnessed differing logics of parenting, which could greatly determine a child’s future success. Working-class and poor families allow their children an accomplishment of natural growth, whereas middle-class parents prepare their children through concerted cultivation. The latter provides children with a sense of entitlement, as parents encourage them to negotiate and challenge those in authority. Parents almost overwhelm their children with organized activities, as we witnessed in the life of Garrett Tallinger. Due to his parents and their economic and cultural capital, Garrett was not only able to learn in an educational setting, but through differing activities, equipping him with several skills to be successful in the world. Lareau suggests these extra skills allow children to “think of themselves as special and as entitled to receive certain kinds of services from adults” (39). Adults in the school system are in favor of these skills through concerted cultivation, and Bourdieu seems to suggest that schools can often misrecognize these skills as natural talent/abilities when it’s merely cultivated through capital. This then leads to inequalities in the education system and academic attainments.

Some reasons for high school student academic failure, which range from drug use to individual student insecurity, can be plainly traced to the nature of adolescence. Social acceptance and a desire to belong to a crowd are placed above academics in the minds of teens. When academic underachievement is the norm, devoted students may come under ridicule as being "nerds" or "teacher's pets". There is a difficulty, therefore, in getting students to become motivated. How do you propose to motivate a group of students who feel that they cannot jeopardize their social status for doing well in school? Other reasons for academic failure range from student feelings of

In the 1997 article, “Public Goods, Private Goods: The American Struggle over Educational Goals” by David Labaree, Labaree describes three goals that have been at the core of educational conflicts over the years. The first goal mentioned is democratic equality, which is meant to create good citizens and enable educational access to all. The second goal is social efficiency, which creates workers and is viewed by taxpayers and employers as a goal to prepare students for market roles. Lastly is the third goal of social mobility, where individual success for attractive market roles is the main purpose. This primary goal of education has been ever fluctuating. The argument of this essay is that social mobility has now triumphed over democratic equality and social efficiency as the primary goal of education due to parents. This view of social mobility by parents is negative to due its numerous consequences, significantly the growing disparity between the wealthy and the underprivileged, and additionally, the health of children, their behavior, and the degree to which they learn educational material are all affected.

Julie Lythcott-Haims explains to us all what a perfect child is; straight A student, fabulous test scores, gets homework done without parents asking them to do it… She has the right idea, the right mindset of a parent, every parent wants their child to succeed in life. The way that parents are parenting their children is messing them up. They don’t have a chance to become themselves, they are too focused on whether they did good on that test that they were stressing about for a week, they are too worried about getting the best grade to be able to get accepted into the biggest name colleges around. The parents become too consumed with hovering over their children making sure that they are doing flawlessly in school, the parents are directing their every single move they make. The children then began to think that their parents love comes from the good grades. Then they start making this checklist; Good grades, what they want to be when they grow up, get accepted into good colleges, great SAT scores, the right GPA, the jock of the sports team.

This country’s education system was built on the back of meritocracy and was created to function as an objective measure of a child’s performance and their intelligence. It was the gateway to the American Dream, and provided everyone with an equal chance of success in America. It was a place of not only intellectual, but also personal growth. In her essay “From Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work,” Anyon argues that this is no longer the case. Anyon’s study concludes that from the fifth grade, students in poorer communities are groomed to succeed in low-class, blue collar jobs, while children in wealthy communities are prepared for more desirable careers. Anyon analyzes four different types of schools that all varied based on

The American Dream is becoming less attainable, and now resembles a myth that Americans can only hope to achieve. In Robert Putnam’s Our Kids: The American Dream Crisis,the author begins his book by analyzing his own hometown, then branches out to other locations in showing the growing disparity within communities and families. Putman portrays the growing class differences through statistics and narratives on actual people. In this essay I will evaluate Putnam’s book and apply it to the actions of the Democratic and Republican parties during the 2016 Presidential Election, and outline two objections I have relating to Putnam’s arguments.

In Jay McLeod’s influential book, Ain’t No Makin’ It (2009), he discovers new sociological theories and social reproduction through his research over many years. Through social reproduction McLeod shows us how education’s role gets passed down from one generation to the next from class inequality. He claims that aspirations/lack of aspirations is being reproduced. He deeply examines two resident groups of male youths that have opposing views on what their aspirations are in life. McLeod also deciphers what the American Dream is according to them. “The American Dream is held out as a genuine prospect for anyone with the drive to achieve it” (McLeod 2009: 3).

We need to start thinking of our students as sentient beings capable of an incredibly diverse spectrum of individuality, rather than yet another cog in a never ending machine. For years, we have been oppressed by desires of others, as well as their established social norms. We have become slaves to the way we perceive our society to work, That we must complete work by deadlines, that we must become another's idea of a human being. This world has been established that most all people must complete tasks they never wanted to do. However, it has become that the younger generation of the population has taken much of this obligation. For each day for a student is begun before even the sun chooses to rise, Then, leads to eight hours in an establishment created of dark brick, promising years of pain and suffering through massive workloads of things that may have been intriguing, had they not been presented in such a dull and uninteresting manner. Once this task has been completed, we return to their home where hours of chores and homework await them. Then, each night, they climb into bed, each day bearing more difficultly than the last. This cycle continues for years, the only escape from this cycle being graduating from another brick establishment that has taken all money that one could ever hope to have, and attempting to find a job that might be what you want to do. It is time that we break out of this miserable cycle. This life was meant to be enjoyed by all and to be enjoyed to the fullest. This idea has been broken and shattered beyond recognition, but it still remains. The idea that we can be exactly who we want to be, without having to sell our souls to do so still lingers on, shining, yet unattainable just as a star. We simply must be the glue that binds the broken pieces of this

Johnson, H. B. (2014). The American dream and the power of wealth: Choosing schools and inheriting inequality in the land of opportunity. Routledge.

In t.v. shows the display how rich kids are the talk of the party, everyone evese rich kids and if someone wasn’t rich the where kick to the curb or even bullied. According to the news page on University Herland, they did a study on how the kids that had parents that made over 160,000 are found to be more likely to be depressed and have high anxiety. The reason why they found kids that had the rich parent to be depressed and have high anxiety is because their parents thrust unnecessary pressure on them to succeed. “Suniya Luthar, the psychologist from Arizona State University said that majority of the children are unable to fulfill their parent's demands.” We see the same type of behavior in Catcher In The Rye, the main character, Holden

All families want their children to be happy, healthy, and grow. Social classes make a difference in how parents go about meeting this goal. In Annette Lareau book, Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life, she promotes middle class parents as concerted cultivation. Middle class parents encourage their children’s talents, opinions, and skills. For example, engaging their children in organized activities and closely monitoring children’s experiences in school. According to Lareau, middle class children gain an emerging sense of entitlement through this pattern of converted cultivation. This causes a focus on children’s individual development. There are signs that the middle class children gain advantages from the experience of concerted cultivation. However, the working class and poor children do not gain this advantage.

Brown (1997) argues that middle class families impose values onto their children regarding education from a young age; they place high importance on educational qualifications as they are aware that the job market is becoming increasingly competitive (cited Ball and Vincent, 2001). This suggests that middle-class pupils value school and try to get as much as they can out of it, thus have higher levels of attainment than working-class pupils.