A very common question is whether or not a family's background determines the outcome and success of a child. Annette Lareau provides two different approaches to child rearing that are connected to families’ class background. Both approaches have strengths and weaknesses, but one child rearing approach provides opportunity for children to succeed in society.
One of the child rearing approaches is concerted cultivation. Concerted Cultivation is more used in middle-class families. This process of raising a child includes an abundance of structured, adult monitored, and organized, activities. A child who is raised with concerted cultivation will constantly have after school activities going on such as sports, music lessons, or tutoring. It…show more content… Compared to the concerted cultivation used by middle class families, the accomplishment of natural growth focuses less on structure for the children and more on family relationships. This type of child rearing is more commonly used in working class families because they have less opportunity and finances to provide an abundance of after school programs for their children.. Lareau describes the accomplishment of natural growth by stating,“The working-class and poor parents viewed children's development as unfolding spontaneously, as long as they were provided with comfort, food, shelter, and other basic support. I have called this cultural logic of child rearing the accomplishment of natural growth.”(Lareau, 238). The accomplishment of natural growth also relies on family to help raise each other’s children. Unlike concerted cultivation, children in working class families hang out with people who they are related to and who live in their neighborhood because they have a less likely opportunity to leave the neighborhood and meet other kids. Also, in accomplishment of natural growth children are not encouraged to question the rules of life. Parents do want their children to stand up for themselves, but not stand up to authority. Children in working class families also have a greater sense of creativity and imagination. Since not every single part of their day is planned out…show more content… Even though children from working class families can be more respectful, creative, and happy than middle class children, those qualities are not what it takes to succeed, unfortunately, in our society. Lareau explains, “In fact, it was the interweaving of life experiences and resources, including parents' economic resources, occupational conditions, and educational backgrounds, that seemed to be most important in leading middle-class parents to engage in concerted cultivation and working- class and poor families to engage in the accomplishment of natural growth. Still, the structural location of families did not determine their child-rearing practices” (Lareau, 250). According to her research, because of the dialect that parents of middle class families use and the way they teach their children to be entitled and confident is why they succeed later on in
