Working Class Children Must Learn to be Middle Class to Get on in Life (2/18-20)

Working class children must learn to be middle class to get on in life

When thinking of poor and working class individuals in light of Unequal Childhoods a serious institution to consider in the socialization of children is the school. When thinking on this subject I happened across the article I have attached. In this article the Education Secretary of Great Brittain, Michael Gove, argues in a pretty similar line of reasoning to Annette Lareau. Both insist that the lower classes lack cultural capital. Lareau offers examples of shaking the hand of an adult male and Gove discusses the fact that lower class children are as comfortable in common business settings such as restaurants. Both the article and the book both address the fact that often people are unappreciative of how and why these inequalities are taking place. As the article discusses near the end this unawareness can lead to false assumptions on how to deal with the problem.  These factors culminate in unsuccessful policies and prejudice views of the lower classes, not to mention severe inequality.  To seriously address these problems, we as a society must further study these inequalities and push for implementation to amend them as swiftly as possible.