Exploring the Impact of Class, Race, and Family Life on Childhood Experiences: Unequal Childhoods

Rebecca Clark: Was pleased with the book in the description of it

United States on Mar 26, 2023

Tim K: Endlessly fascinating. As a teacher at a high poverty school, I often engage in conversations with colleagues about student engagement and parental involvement, and a key piece of the conversation has been missing: social class. Very few of us have seriously considered the specific impacts social class has on students in schools.

'Unequal Childhoods' has filled a necessary gap in my understanding of why poor- and working-class students struggle with maneuvering through institutions (schools being a big one). I've always been told these students don't know how to "do school," and this book provides important insights into why that is true.

Highly recommended for everyone but even more so for educators.

United States on May 30, 2020

Violet Flame: The author and her research assistants follow the families written about in the book for 10 years looking at how their different child rearing practices affects their children's outcomes. The focus is primarily on the use of language in communication with the children and the use of language on behalf of the children in regard to schooling and other important instutions. Additionally parental involvement as it relates to connecting children to organized activities is analyzed. Not surprisingly the more verbal parents who confidently interacted with their children's schools and placed their children in formal activities had children who succeeded educationally and career-wise over those who did not. These children developed the verbal and social skills that lead to success in our society. Unfortunately, the children whose parents did not do those were less likely to thrive.

Obvious yes but very interesting when you drive into the detailed case studies. Mentioned but could have been emphasized more is that the parents who were less verbal had less education themselves and in the families studied, far less money to spend on extracurricular developmental activities. These...

United States on Jan 20, 2020

Amazon Customer: This book is an interesting read. I normally don't read a lot but this particular book was one that really caught my eye. It was a required novel for one of my classes but it ended up being one that I enjoyed thoroughly. It explains how kids from different environments are raised with parenting styles polar opposite from each other.

United States on Dec 20, 2018

KateM416: I greatly enjoyed this book. It stood out from the other books assigned in my graduate sociology program because it was very accessible, rather than strictly academic. It has had a lasting effect on how I think of childhood education and how that education affects the rest of people's lives. I've since given it to a long-time public school teacher who also found it very interesting. I did find some parts a bit repetitive and believe it could have been edited a bit more to remove the redundant parts. I just skimmed those parts and they did not take away from the content of the book. I also very much appreciated the 10-year followup. I would recommend it to everyone and believe it will be eye-opening for many people who work with children (and those that don't!).

United States on Feb 07, 2018

Amazon Customer: Very interesting book!

Canada on Sep 07, 2017

Amazon Customer: Very interesting!

United Kingdom on Jun 20, 2016

Vanessa P: Really interesting book and arrived in perfect conditions

Canada on Oct 08, 2015

Starswirl the Bearded: This book should be required reading for all politicians, educators, parents and voters.

I stumbled across 'Unequal Childhoods', while reading 'Outliers', by Malcolm Gladwell: he uses examples from Lareau to support the central argument of his book (that unusually successful people have almost always benefited from unusually fortunate opportunities - quite often including an unusually high level of parental investment. While it may sound obvious, it goes against everything I was taught to believe as a child: that succeeding is largely due to one's own effort).

Lareau's book is actually very different than Gladwell's. It introduces us to children from different economic backgrounds and their families, following them for over a decade while bringing every individual to life. We're given an engaging insight into the daily routine of our protagonists; though Lareau makes sharp comparisons of parenting styles between socioeconomic classes, these are incorporated naturally into the narrative.

On one level this is a very high quality piece of research - but it never feels dry or lifeless. To the contrary, it's a compelling read; avoiding an academic writing style in...

United Kingdom on Jan 11, 2013