Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: There is growing evidence of the importance of social class in children's lives, including the rhythm of daily routines. Yet, social scientists have often taken middle-class child rearing patterns as a given. They have then critically assessed child rearing practices of poor and working-class families as deficient. This paper draws from a broader ethnographic study of black and white children from middle-class, working-class, and poor families. Focusing on the case of a fourth-grade girl from a poor black family, I seek to critically assess dominant patterns of child rearing in middle-class homes while still acknowledging institutional benefits that may accrue to middle-class children.