Fascinating article in yesterday’s Cape Cod Times about how kids from upper middle class families outcompete kids from working class families over time.
The article summarizes the findings of sociologist Annette Lareau, from her 2003 book “Unequal Childhoods”.
Unfortunately, this book isn’t available from the local library, so the questions these findings raised will remain unanswered for the moment.
For example, Lareau claims that the children she met from working class families “were not as well prepared for the world of organizations and adulthood”. Mentioning interactions with teachers and medical professionals in particular, she claims “Middle-class kids felt entitled to individual treatment when entering the wider world, but working-class kids felt constrained and tongue-tied”.
I’ve certainly seen this myself in dealing with people in the trades, and in watching interactions in doctors’ offices.
Still, I challenge whether verbal and in particular conversational ability alone are necessarily predictors of success.
I compare the lifestyles and financial security of college grads with technical degrees who are barely getting by versus skilled craftsmen (gender-specific term intentional) with their own businesses, nice houses and soccer mom wives or live-in girlfriends.
Being in the trades is no picnic. It beats up your body, and oftentimes, people punt on health insurance and other necessities that white collar office workers take for granted. The work is often unpleasant – plumbing, for example – and sometimes dangerous.
On the other hand, how do you offshore a plumbing job?
The article, by David Brooks of the New York Times, is a thought-provoking read, and even though it’s outdated, the book might be worth tracking down at some point, maybe during summer vacation in the year 2007 or 2008.