Class notes week 3

February 5, 2013 

• learner is an active agent 

 effort and ability--->authority ----->merit and privilege --->conceded cultivation---->accomplishment or? natural growth 

questions of structure                   

and freedom

What is missing from this? 

• expectations/rituals (at home or at school) 
• intrinsic/extrinsic 
• different cultural logics 
• is it black or white? literally?
• to much stress in saying why it is important 
• came from different experiences of school and class 
• Can we generalize by class? Lareau say it is 
• all educative experiences but the payoff is different in our society 

Other ideas from the Lareau 

• how much does what a person wants matter? 
• How free is someone to define his or her own route? 
• How much does someone know what hey want?
• How are does opportunity condition desire? Different students have different experiences and how do those experiences shape what they want? 
• How much is choice a function of privilege? 
• Is it a privilege to not  know what you want? be able to experiment? Is it important to be able to "not know" ?
• How do we define our tracts? How do we use language to define our experiences? 

Believing Lareau                                                              

• she has different research team, more lenses 
• have seen coincides of race and class in school 
• mixed up poor and rich as white and black 

  Disbelieving Lareau 

• cultural differences of "treating the family dog" (what if they don't have a dog)
• How families would interact with field workers 
• fear of being wrong 
• margin of error in being witnessed, it can't be completely "natural" 
• ignores connection between class and race hierarchies 
• ignores 
• too black and white           
• she went against caution that her research could be mis used 
• can't identify with one or the other, both are involved in my life 
• women analysis a boy? gender?       

February 7th, 2013 

Terms for vocabulary and idea development:

• cultural capitol -helps people be placed in "higher tracks", not explicitly taught in school, 
• "private" and "public" 
• emphasis on academic achievement
• favoritism 
• expectation: who is "supposed" to succeed? 
• potential capability 
• gifted and talented
• Material realism: our ideologies are determined by "what you can put your hands on" and by your environment 
• convenience-more challenging to do domestic work when our transportation, roads, etc are difficult to use 
• "special" 
• "entitled" "constrained"  
• classes giving pride even if they shouldn't be in them? 
• "gate-keeping" 
• systems differ 
• parental advocacy, parental networks:knowledge of what to say and what to do (competent mother) 
• myth of meritocracy 
• unearned advantage-----> dominance vs. unearned entitlement 

 Barometer: 

• middle class parents desire to broaden their child's "work view" through activities comes from the perspective of white privilege
• knowing baroque from classical music at age nine makes you a better person, citizen and father
• the field workers have the responsibility to report physical abuse (when is it abuse and when is it punishment)