Further Readings on Class Inequality

I wanted to share with everyone some interesting readings/videos about class inequality that I had previously encountered. As demonstrated by today's class, I think everyone brings to the table some really fascinating and nuanced perspectives about this topic - so I hope these resources will be helpful. 

First, Annette Lareau, a Sociologist at Penn, has a book called Unequal Childhoods that I encountered during a sociology course. I highly recommend the book, as it truly changed how I thought about the role of the family in social class. It's fairly long (I only read some portions of it), but if you find yourself really interested in the American class system, I would still recommend it. 

From Amazon: Class does make a difference in the lives and futures of American children. Drawing on in-depth observations of black and white middle-class, working-class, and poor families, Unequal Childhoods explores this fact, offering a picture of childhood today. Here are the frenetic families managing their children's hectic schedules of "leisure" activities; and here are families with plenty of time but little economic security. Lareau shows how middle-class parents, whether black or white, engage in a process of "concerted cultivation" designed to draw out children's talents and skills, while working-class and poor families rely on "the accomplishment of natural growth," in which a child's development unfolds spontaneously―as long as basic comfort, food, and shelter are provided. Each of these approaches to childrearing brings its own benefits and its own drawbacks. In identifying and analyzing differences between the two, Lareau demonstrates the power, and limits, of social class in shaping the lives of America's children.

The first edition of Unequal Childhoods was an instant classic, portraying in riveting detail the unexpected ways in which social class influences parenting in white and African American families. A decade later, Annette Lareau has revisited the same families and interviewed the original subjects to examine the impact of social class in the transition to adulthood.

Secondly, I recommend "Savage Inequalities" by Jonathan Kozol which focuses on the disparities of education found in St. Louis, MO, and East St. Louis, IL (two very different places). It also discusses the intersection of race and class with these disparities. 

Here is a PDF: http://www.csun.edu/~rdavids/301fall08/301readings/Kozol%20Savage%20Inequalities.pdf

From Amazon: In 1988, Jonathan Kozol set off to spend time with children in the American public education system. For two years, he visited schools in neighborhoods across the country, from Illinois to Washington, D.C., and from New York to San Antonio. He spoke with teachers, principals, superintendents, and, most important, children. What he found was devastating. Not only were schools for rich and poor blatantly unequal, the gulf between the two extremes was widening—and it has widened since. The urban schools he visited were overcrowded and understaffed, and lacked the basic elements of learning—including books and, all too often, classrooms for the students.

 
In Savage Inequalities, Kozol delivers a searing examination of the extremes of wealth and poverty and calls into question the reality of equal opportunity in our nation’s schools.

Third, I recommend the documentary "Poor Us" by PBS. The documentary chronicles the history of poverty in human civilization. It covers a lot of ground fairly quickly and is really good for an overarching view of class inequality from a historical perspective. 

Fourth, I recommend "A Tale of Two Schools" which further discusses how class/race (and social context, largely) determines access to educational opportunity. It echoes a lot of the discussion we had today. 

From the video description: A TALE OF TWO SCHOOLS: Race and Education on Long Island, was produced for ERASE Racism by award-winning filmmaker David Van Taylor, Vice President of Lumiere Productions. It follows three high school senior boys: one African American student from a black district and an interracial pair of friends from a diverse, majority-white district. The film shows, in vivid human terms, how context determines educational experiences and outcomes—irrespective of the student's motivation and aptitude.

The goal of ERASE Racism's education equity campaign is to achieve high performing and racially integrated public schools throughout Long Island. Our research shows that the region is failing to provide the best education to all its students.