Social Class and Parents in Public and Private Families...

In his textbook, Public and Private Families: An Introduction, Andrew J. Cherlin discusses the differences across social classes in how parents raise children. Social class is an ordering of all persons in a society according to their degrees of economic resources, prestige, and privilege. All sociologists agree that income and wealth are important factors in determining social class. The social class consists of a four class model: upper-class, middle-class, working-class, and lower-class. In the discussion of social class and child rearing, Cherlin focuses on the middle, working, and lower classes. The middle-class have fixed, pleasant incomes and live well above the subsistence level, while the working-class have incomes†¦show more content†¦Middle-class families used a concerted cultivation approach, where they put in a lot of time and commitment to enhance their children’s talents, curiosity, opinions, and skills. Alexander Williams, a son of a black middle-class family attends a non- segregated private school with an after school program. His extra-curricular activities included guitar lessons and photography instruction, and his Saturday mornings consisted of an 8:15am private piano lesson and afterwards church choir for several hours. Alexander’s mother believes that it is her responsibility to help cultivate her son’s talents; she sees the extra-curricular activities as way to develop important life skills. She gives an example of how Sports give Alexander the opportunity to learn how to be competitive and accept both defeat and victory. Alexander’s father believes his son’s rich experiences will make him a better citizen, husband, father, and better student (Cherlin Reader). From looking at Alexander’s lifestyle it can be recognized that he has been blessed with a lot of privileged life chances. German sociologist Max Webber included the idea of life chances in the concept of social class. Life chances are the opportunities that people have to provide themselves with favorable living conditions (Cherlin 2012). Alexander’s family is a neo-traditional family, which is a style of family life centeredShow MoreRelatedPublic And Private Families By Andrew J Cherlin1309 Words   |  6 PagesThe first eight chapters we reviewed from the book Public and Private Families: An Introduction gives us a foundation in comparing and studying the family from a sociologist’s view. Written by Andrew J Cherlin, a Sociology Professor at Johns Hopkins University. As a class we discussed several key points taken from these chapters and reflected how these concepts pertain to our life whether it be our family directly or observations of other family dynamics. I found Cherlin’s first chapters to beRead More The Impact of Gender on Family Life Essay example2341 Words   |  10 PagesConceiving of gender as a social construction rather than a biologically assigned identity helps explain historical fluctuations in men’s and women’s practices and in culturally bound definitions of appropriate male and female behavior. Hansen argues that an individual’s gendered behavior is influenced by culturally constructed notions of what is appropriate for good mothers or good fathers or good people to do when caring for children (Hansen 7). The perception of American families as â€Å"small, self-reliantRead MoreThe Namesake2573 Words   |  11 PagesIndian family, the Ganguli’s, are moving to New England and are trying to stay engulfed in their unique cultural identity. Ashoke Ganguli brings his new wife, Ashima, to a strange new world, leaving her lonely and confused of a culture outside of her own. Ashima needs to learn to love a man she does not know, to customize herself to a country she is unfamiliar with, and to hold true to her values in a culture foreign to her traditional beliefs. In this paper I will inform the reader of the Family structure