There are several examples described in the book. I was a band-o, so I guess I had this covered, but outside of that I was never one for extracurriculars. I didn't realize that with cuts to funding, esp. I probably wouldn't have been in band if it had cost my parents extra money, which means I would have just stayed in my room and played The Wall and Dark Side of the Moon an extra million times instead. Are we promoting college for all knowing that a certain percentage will be consigned to crappy service jobs?
Ones that will probably pay so low that they will require tax payer funded benefits? Demographically this appears to be what they are saying. I guess it doesn't sound very populist to say they have upper-middle class values, but I think that's what they are actually getting at. I hate rich kids. Bryan Alexander hosted a readalong of this book on his blog , where there has been thoughtful ongoing discussion chapter by chapter. He also talked about the book on the 30th episode of the Reading Envy Podcast.
The best discussions are in those two locations. The book is well worth the read if you are interested in socioeconomic topics, particularly if you work with kids in any way. I read it from the perspective of changing demographics at my own institution, more because I wanted to be presente Bryan Alexander hosted a readalong of this book on his blog , where there has been thoughtful ongoing discussion chapter by chapter. I read it from the perspective of changing demographics at my own institution, more because I wanted to be presented with creative solutions that I could adapt to my own situation.
Unfortunately, I think Putnam is not as strong on solutions as he is on discussing the data and changes. I suspect someone else may need to take his ideas forward with stronger or more feasible solutions. Basic summary comes late in chapter 5: Mar 18, Caren rated it really liked it Shelves: The widening gap between upper and lower income levels in the USA has been cause for a lot of research and discussion. Putnam's book considers one aspect of inequality: He begins with changes in his own home town of Port Clinton, Ohio, looking at how children from disparate backgrounds in his youth, the s, compare to kids gro The widening gap between upper and lower income levels in the USA has been cause for a lot of research and discussion.
He begins with changes in his own home town of Port Clinton, Ohio, looking at how children from disparate backgrounds in his youth, the s, compare to kids growing up there now. His view then widens to other areas of the USA, always comparing children from lower economic and education-level families and children from families whose parents are more highly educated and with comfortable incomes. Putnam was growing up and he is now in his 70s , residents of his town thought of all of the kids in town as "our kids" and those from families with fewer resources were mentored and helped by other community members.
In other words, all of the children were seen as the future of the town, all of them were "our kids". He acknowledges that racism certainly was a problem in the town of his youth, but even the two African-American children in his graduating class achieved great leaps beyond the level of their parents, both earning graduate degrees. Fast forward to his town today, where those children at the bottom are very often from single-parent families, living on the edge in dangerous neighborhoods and with no prospect of rising above that level.
Putnams's highly regarded previous book, "Bowling Alone", he decried the waning of "social capital". In a way, this book continues that lament. He is a professor of public policy at Harvard, so this sort of broad overview which considers the ramifications of continuing on this trajectory would seem to be his specialty. He feels so strongly about the threat of continuing on this path that he openly says he timed the book which he thinks could be his last to coincide with the next presidential election. He believes it should become the top talking point.
This book is engaging, with its stories of real people, even while being a piece of rigorous research by an academic with roughly 80 pages of notes and a twenty-page section at the end that details how he went about his research. It is clear he meant it to reach the widest possible audience. He explores, with actual families as examples, how the family and parenting, schooling, and community affect what sorts of opportunities are open to kids of different classes. He says in the section that explains his methodology that he tried to find a "quartet" of people in varied areas of the country.
The quartet would consist of a girl and her mother, and a boy and his father. For some of the poorer kids, this had to be modified, since some of the fathers were not around. He noted that the way poorer, less educated parents raise their kids is very different from the more economically advantaged families.
Here is an observation, from page Upper-class parents have more egalitarian relations with their children and are more likely to use reasoning and guilt for discipline, whereas lower-class parents are more likely to use physical punishment, like whipping. The ubiquitous correlation between poverty and child development both cognitive and socioemotional is, in fact, largely explained by differences in parenting styles, including cognitive stimulation such as frequency of reading and social engagement such as involvement in extracurricular activities In particular, parental reading controlling for many other factors, including maternal education, verbal ability, and warmth fosters child development.
Child development specialists Jane Waldfogel and Elizabeth Washbrook have found that differences in parentingespecially maternal sensitivity and nurturance, but also provision of books, library visits, and the likeis the single most important factor explaining differences in school readiness between rich kids and poor kids, as measured by literacy, mathematics, and language test scores at age four. Studies of how children actually spend their days suggest that the most important part of the answer is TV Children with well educated parents With the spread of the Internet, TV is being gradually replaced by Web-based entertainment, but the basic fact remains: He quotes Laura Bush as saying, in , "If you don't know how long you're going to keep your job, or how long you're going to keep your house, you have less energy to invest in your kids.
Under conditions of scarcity, they write, the brain's ability to grasp, manage, and solve problems falters, like a computer slowed down by too many open apps, leaving us less efficient and less effective than we would be under conditions of abundance. What we usually understand as an impoverished parent's lack of skills, care, patience, tolerance, attention, and dedication can actually be attributed to the fact that the parent's mind is functioning under a heavy load. The last chapter of the book is titled "What is to be done? On page he says: For economic productivity and growth, our country needs as much talent as we can find, and we certainly can't afford to waste it.
The opportunity gap imposes on all of us both real costs and what economists term 'opportunity costs'. Even if we harden our hearts and simply leave these poor kids to fend for themselves, we will still have to reckon with the lion's share of these costs, because these kids will not be contributing to the national economy. Here is an exchange with one of his poorer subjects from pages Do you ever vote? Do you know if your parents are involved in politics, or if they get involved in stuff? I don't talk to them about it. Are you involved in political stuff or community stuff?
Are you interested in watching the news? It gets old after a while. Somebody shot somebody, or somebody robbed somebody. I'm not that interested. Are you excited about the election coming up? Do you think you'll vote? Nah, I don't care. Do you have a party that you like? They all kind of suck. Are your parents involved in politics at all?
Putnam points out that this apathy has ramifications for democracy: Government under such circumstances might not be very democratic, but at least it would be stable. But under severe economic or international pressuressuch as the pressures that overwhelmed Europe and America in the sthat 'inert' mass might suddenly prove highly volatile and open to manipulation by antidemocratic demagogues at the ideological extremes.
He speaks about ways to affect family formation and structure, about early childhood development programs and instruction in effective parenting, about changing the residential segregation based on income inequality of public schools, of getting kids into extracurricular activities by getting rid of "pay-for-play" programs, and of studying how our country approached these very same challenges in the past. He encourages readers to move past the individualist mindset that has threaded its way through this country's history, and turn to more communitarian values, quoting a city manager from Boston as saying: Mar 16, Marks54 rated it liked it.
This is a report of Putnam's latest study on inequality in education in America. Qualitative interview results for a selected set of respondents which is then supplemented by summaries of current results from larger sample statistical studies. It is a timely book that is easy to read. The results - that inequality is currently being driven by class rather than racial divisions - are reasonable and well presented.
While I enjoyed the book, I did not find it outstanding. I have read much of the re This is a report of Putnam's latest study on inequality in education in America. I have read much of the research covered in the book and there is little new here. Moreover, the framework that Putnam develops lumps together the situations of the upper middle class and the super rich top 1 percent. This is a major gap and the study neglects the richness open to a more complete theoretical approach, such as that pursued by Piketty.
While painting a plausible picture, however, there is also little new in terms policy recommendations. There is also the tension that comes from focusing on individual cases and thus presenting pictures that can be deconstructed in terms of the choices of individuals. While there are always choices, the structural pressures on the disadvantaged are if anything downplayed and thus the state of the crisis posed by inequality is less rather than more developed.
It is, if anything, too rosy of a picture. To be fair to Putnam and his RA, they appear to realize this issue in their final chapter on methods, although it is unclear what was done with this recognition. I also enjoyed the cross-generational analysis that starts off the book. The author is also careful in presenting his methods and showing how this study passes muster for social science norms.
It is a capably done study. It is the contribution that concerns me. Still, the publicity that the book has received is good and the book is worth reading. Mar 09, Esil rated it really liked it Shelves: Thank you to the Publisher and Netgalley for an opportunity to read Our Kids.
I usually read fiction and mysteries with an occasional foray into history and memoirs so this was not within the scope of my usual reading. But the description was really interesting and I am glad I took the chance. Through a combination of personal stories and an extensive review of recent research, Putnam describes the growing economic gap between rich and poor, with an emphasis on the declining opportunities for up Thank you to the Publisher and Netgalley for an opportunity to read Our Kids.
Through a combination of personal stories and an extensive review of recent research, Putnam describes the growing economic gap between rich and poor, with an emphasis on the declining opportunities for upward mobility. He looks at a variety of factors, including changing trends in schools, families and communities that have the effect of making it harder for poorer kids to develop the skills -- including soft skills like savvy and resilience -- to move up the economic ladder.
The personal stories are very powerful, making this a book that at times I found hard to put down. And the trends Putnam described really resonated for me -- even from the Canadian side of the border. Things I thought of as idiosyncratic aspects of my childhood and my kids' experience growing up turn out not to be so idiosyncratic. Perhaps the weakest aspect of the book are the solutions Putnam proposes at the end -- but realistically it's hard to fault him for not proposing a magic bullet solution to such a complex problem.
This was a very readable and thought provoking book. I recommend it even if it takes you out of your comfort zone. View all 3 comments. Dec 08, Veronica rated it it was amazing Shelves: Ye olde importance of 'weak ties', growth trend in college premium, collective efficacy in wealthier neighborhoods, class gap in adolescent obesity, extracurricular importance to upward mobility. Studies of how children actually spend their days suggest that the most important part of the answer is TV, just as Darleen said when we asked about family dinners.
Children with well educated parents spend less time watching TV and more time reading and studying compared to children of less educated parents.
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Oct 12, Vance rated it liked it. Robert Putnam provides another interesting read that hits on timely issues to tackle how the American Dream is in crisis. For example, our lack of social capital continues to affect our actions and contributes to a breakdown in the fabric of society. Putnam finds that the big opportunity gap is based on the socioeconomic status of the privileged versus underprivileged. He brings up the issue of income inequality quite often and how that relates the education system and other institutional issues.
Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis by Robert D. Putnam
The problems identified deal with the breakdowns in the family, income inequality, lack of education, and lack of networking. His solutions are broad and vague, but they tend to revolve around more government intervention: While I enjoyed the book, I give it 3 stars because of the lack of specificity in the solutions and the lack of consideration of government programs leading to these socioeconomic problems that then contribute to social ills.
Without understanding the effect welfare has had on these incentives, there is a lack of understanding of an appropriate solution. Therefore, in my view he over-emphasizes government solutions for the social ills he identifies that would actually make the situation worse because those solutions are already part of the problem.
Mar 30, farmwifetwo rated it it was ok Shelves: Through the use of stereotypes and previously done research the authors try to write a book about the disparities of income gaps and offer no real solutions. Apr 13, Yannis Theocharis rated it it was amazing. I was very much looking forward to reading this book. I was not disappointed and I can strongly recommend it. As always, Putnam has a lot to say and delivers in style. The book is basically a description of socia I was very much looking forward to reading this book.
The book is basically a description of social change thought a large collection of "Scissor graphs" showing increasing class gaps when it comes to how various factors family background and stability, residential segregation, education, school quality and community affect socioeconomic mobility. Around these graphs, Putnam has elegantly wrapped text stemming from interviews conducted with people from different social backgrounds in various parts of the country painting a dire picture about the state of inequality of opportunity in America; a condition that makes upward mobility not just harder than it used to be in the baby boomer generation but often impossible or even something one would contemplate.
Putnam's hope is that his readers will be able to at least get an idea of how the other half lives.. Putnam is extra cautious to point out that most of his warnings and developments he describes are based on correlations - as only few of the studies he includes in the book have randomised experimental designs "proving" causality - yet the overall picture - whether causal or not - is plausible.
This is in many ways a heartbreaking book, although if you have seen "The Wire" you will be no stranger to the lives of those whose terrifying experiences with violence, gangs, parental abuse, drugs, and so on are narrated in this book through their own words. You will certainly not be a stranger to the consequences either - at least if you've been following the news.
What I like is that within the stories narrated - even the most depressing and heartbreaking - there is almost always a glimmer of hope reflected in the humanity and efforts of people who inspired, supported, helped, and loved others without asking for anything in exchange.
The kind of stories that reinstate your trust in humanity. Yet, as the book shows, they are not enough. It is political will that can reverse these patterns if they can be reversed , and that is the subject of the last chapter about "what is to be done", in my view the weakest of the book. And a final note. I am not expecting Putnam, a Harvard academic, to say clearly that what he describes is class struggle of a modern kind although he clearly says that the differences are no longer race-based but class-based and there are clear and massive class differences within different races , but in reality that is precisely what he is talking about.
And in many ways it is precisely the outcome of policy decisions made during a certain period and expanded strengthening the disastrous effects especially towards the poorest during the rise and spread of neoliberalism. Although again Putnam does not want to push the political point as far as I would have liked or he pushes it in a rather subtle way, some may argue , much of the neoliberal policies advanced over the last decades as well as the absence of responsible policies -regardless of ideological origin- for the most vulnerable clusters of society have had a destructive effect of American society, tearing the social fabric apart.
This much is clear. There are those who see kids as Our Kids and those who complain about "those kids. Looking at the basic systems that suppo "If our kids are in trouble--my kids, our kids, anyone's kidswe all have a responsibility to look after them. Looking at the basic systems that support American kids, Families, Parents, Schools and Communities, he finds much that has improved in recent years, but growing gaps of support between prosperous families and those in need. Each chapter includes cases studies of young people and parents from both sides of the tracks.
Putnam uses their experiences to emphasize researched findings about effective parenting, successful schools and meaningful community supports. For example, one chapter that surprised me was the chapter on parenting. Educated parents whom Putnam describes as having a BA degree or higher tend to nurture and motivate their children through vision, whereas High School and under-educated parents, tend to emphasize conformity and discipline.
The morning after reading this, I was caring for the children of a close high school friend, who did not go on to complete college. If my kids are bad, I'm more interested in learning why! As a teacher, I'm going to use the lessons learned here in the way I interact with my own students. Putnam emphasizes how church pastors and teachers can have outsized influences in the lives of kids who may not have necessary support from home.
In fact, he shows ways that all Americans, of many career types, can have a genuine impact on Our Kids for many generations to come. Sep 01, Kathryn rated it it was amazing Shelves: The non-fiction genre is not a favorite of mine -- it doesn't even rank in the top ten -- but I was compelled to read this book by my sister-in-law, a recently retired, highly-respected public school teacher, who slid it into my hands the last time I saw her and told me she had already purchased four more copies for her grown children. The book is about an opportunity gap that has emerged over the past five or six decades between children born to educated and uneducated parents.
Putnam and his Ha The non-fiction genre is not a favorite of mine -- it doesn't even rank in the top ten -- but I was compelled to read this book by my sister-in-law, a recently retired, highly-respected public school teacher, who slid it into my hands the last time I saw her and told me she had already purchased four more copies for her grown children. Putnam and his Harvard team have pulled together and analyzed hundreds of studies referenced in 84 pages of notes at the back of the book which I only felt the need to consult once or twice and they have humanized the data by including some of the stories they heard while interviewing upper and lower class families in Ohio, Oregon, California, Georgia, and Pennsylvania.
The result is an academic book that does not stray too far or often over the line into overly pedantic. I had a hard time falling asleep in the week I spent reading this book. Putnam has been called "the most influential academic in the world" by The Sunday Times of London. I hope and pray that is true in this case. Mar 21, Bri girlwithabookblog. For more reviews visit, http: Putnam, but as someone who works in the education field, has a background in family, youth, and educational sociology, and is a frequent reader of nonfiction, I must strongly disagree with the bubble of positivity surrounding this book.
I concede that this book is likely not meant for people who are already interested in and informed of these topics, but is rather meant to serve as an introduction to the general public of the troubling conditions that surround young people who are trying to advance themselves within society. However, the tone that Putnam adopts within his book is incredibly condescending. Within the work, he highlights the different life and education experiences that typically occur for youth in different economic classes, ranging from upper-middle class families to those who are living below the poverty line.
However, what really irked me is when the author would write calls to action with an air of assumption that anyone reading the book helms from something above a working class background. When this happened, it seemed to me like Putnam sometimes lost sense of the humanity of the populations that he doesn't personally identify as and assumed that anyone reading his book would be of the same social social class as him.
Because of this, I felt like the calls to action were particularly alienating. The main argument Putnam makes throughout the book is that class influences a child's success in the American schooling system and subsequent career and education trajectory more than race does. While I agree that class is incredibly influential on these outcomes, race can also greatly impact how children are treated by their peers, community, and educators, and this cannot be brushed aside as easily as Putnam makes it seem.
I wish Putnam had spent more time digging into how the intersection of race and class can impact certain children, but he seemed to cherry pick stories that supported his main thesis instead of looking to include a representation of different experiences. Aforementioned alienation aside, I guess Our Kids can serve as a good introduction to how social and education inequality affects young people for a reader who is completely new to these topics.
I partly think he did this in order to enact a larger call to action and a greater sense of shared responsibility with the assumed upper-middle class audience who is reading the book, but it fell flat for me. Below, I've included two quotes that I found particularly troubling in order to provide examples of why this book rubbed me the wrong way. They are only included in this review because I feel like they can help potential readers decide whether or not this is a book they would like to read. Because of growing class segregation in America, fewer and fewer successful people and even fewer of our children have much idea how the other half lives.
So we are less empathetic than we should be to the plight of less privileged kids. Mar 30, Nick Klagge rated it liked it. I picked this up after reading a review, having enjoyed his book "Bowling Alone. That's not necessarily a knock against it. The main thesis is that in mid-century America, there wasn't too much separation between the lives and life-chances of children raised in upper and lower class I picked this up after reading a review, having enjoyed his book "Bowling Alone. The main thesis is that in mid-century America, there wasn't too much separation between the lives and life-chances of children raised in upper and lower class families, but that over the last odd years, a wide gap has opened up.
Putnam presents a wide range of "scissors charts" showing the widening gap between classes in a variety of respects, including likelihood of being raised by two parents, access to early childcare, access to education, community support, etc. Virtually anything good you can think of for a kid. Although Putnam focuses on parental education as the key class indicator, he says that any of the indicators you might think of are, unsurprisingly, highly correlated. The evidence is quite convincing and I have no quibble with Putnam on that front. However, I'd make two criticisms of the book, which left me somewhat unsatisfied.
First, I would say he treats the midcentury situation as a sort of status quo, and spends the book trying to figure out what has gone wrong recently. This is understandable given that Putnam himself grew up in the midcentury era, so it is his point of reference, and given that the time series of data he works with generally begin in the midcentury era.
However, the work of Piketty has in my view quite convincingly shown, using very long time series of wealth and income data, that it was in fact the midcentury period of relative economic equality that was a historical anomaly, and that the current situation of high inequality and low mobility is the historical norm. That's not to say that we need to accept the current situation, but rather that the focus should be on what the special conditions were that created the midcentury situation as opposed to what's wrong today, per se.
They are related, but different, ways of asking the same question. I'm very surprised that Putnam didn't so much as mention Piketty as far as I remember. This brings me to my second criticism: I think Putnam soft-pedals the conclusion. Possibly because he doesn't take the long perspective of Piketty, his recommendations come across as surprisingly mild. Indeed, from the vantage point of a couple of weeks after having finished the book, I can barely remember what they were. I remember something about expanding the earned income tax credit and something about expanding formal mentoring programs for low-income kids.
On the face of it, I think that it is clear that this kind of tweaking is going to do nothing to solve the huge systemic problems that Putnam is documenting. I think only much more radical solutions would even stand a chance of working: I can't say I'm exactly surprised that Putnam doesn't go for this program.
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Though Bernie Sanders might! Very relevant to all of this is this piece, by one of my favorite internet writers: Those at the high end have too much incentive to defend their privilege and it is too easy for them to do so. Thus, the only way to give lower-class kids a good chance is to compress the income and wealth distribution, as happened in midcentury America due to a confluence of policies and other forces, and as happens in the Nordic states today as a matter of policy.
Apr 06, Jenni Link rated it really liked it. When I read 'Bowling Alone' years ago, it made a big impression on me. I was looking forward to this book - despite the depressing theme - both because of the previous one, and because I now work with a lot of young adults who are dealing with challenges that I could only imagine at their ages.
There is a lot of powerful information here. In other words, school has a negligible effect on that gap, even though richer kids typically go to much better schools. Almost everything comes down to your family and its connections: As income inequality grows, therefore, social mobility declines. The dragging ropes of low incomes, high-crime neighborhoods, divorce, etc.
Meanwhile, the ease allowed by high incomes, safe neighborhoods, reliable relationships, etc. So far, so convincing. However, I thought Dr. Putnam lapsed into "in my day, people were decent" nostalgia at times, acknowledging in passing that women and minorities may have had it harder then but still considering the 50s to be "the good old days. They are our kids. That was the last line of the book. I liked the interviews with people from different backgrounds and the statistics to support how much a divide there is between kids living in poverty and those who live in more stable economic conditions.
I wish there had been more action points besides asking the superintendent of your school district to stop the pay-to-play policy. I think more can be done at the local level to support families with the tools they need to help their children succeed. Dec 05, Ramille rated it did not like it Shelves: It's so hard to read non-fiction books you're not interested in. Well-researched, well written, and easy to understand. But it was very repetitive, very sentimental and anecdotal, painting an idyllic picture of the s. Jun 08, Nancy Brady rated it it was ok Shelves: Port Clinton, Ohio for one.
Also Atlanta, Georgia, etc. What a shame there is so much disparity! Apr 12, Amanda rated it liked it Shelves: There isn't anything new here, if you're a reasonably aware person, but the information is presented well. Should be required reading for all Republicans - not that I know any. Apr 10, SJ Loria rated it really liked it. Opportunity versus income equality, the books main ideas and why this matters but I'll start with the why, then jump back Why: This book is a wake up call. If we want to preserve the things that we love about our country we need to make changes, quickly.
This plays to our strengths, as innovation is as American in apple pie, but also to weakness of the human condition - it's always possible to ignore looming issue the climate change debate is a slight parallel. The silver lining in the storm Opportunity versus income equality, the books main ideas and why this matters but I'll start with the why, then jump back Why: The silver lining in the stormy cloud is it's possible to emerge even stronger if we approach this problem strategically and have an all hands on deck approach.
So we have ideological common ground. How far the gulf between belief and reality. Dostoevsky wrote that "love in action is a harsh thing compared to love in dreams," the same could be said of abstractions such as opportunity and dreams. It's far more difficult to actualize them than conjure them. Through a systemic analysis of data, supplemented by jarring maps, graphs, and powerful anecdotal stories, Robert Putnam shows that the American Dream is in crisis, and urges action before it is too late.
The main idea in this book is that since the s gender inequality has decreased significantly, racial inequality has decreased substantially, but class inequality has increased to levels unprecedented. If they continue, and if we do nothing to reverse the trends it has created, the fabric of our society and the economic security we enjoy could be jeopardized.
We are seeing a scissorizing of outcomes across almost any measure of well being, and two distinctly different Americas emerge as a middle class vanishes. It is closer to a Latin American Dream than we would like to admit. Here's an important caveat that the author makes early on. Inequality is a debate that is widespread, and typically falls into one of two categories - income or opportunity. Putnam address opportunity, and I think that's key. It's very politically charged to talk about income equality, redistribution, etc.
I think that debate quickly devolves into partisan bickering and not much in terms of solutions. But if you're talking about "opportunity" it's a purple issue, an issue people agree on, people agree that opportunity should be widespread. There's common ground here, along with the added bonus that opportunity is free, and that systemic tinkering can make it much more possible and effective. How did we get here? With such a large scale problem, it's hard to find one reason why this is happening.
Putnam organizes the main issues into the topics of family, community, and schools. The factors contributing to the emergence of two distinct Americas are lumped into these main categories. Families you see the emergence of the "neo-traditional" model two working, professional class parents, stable adult relationships, a lot of income devoted to child rearing versus the kaleidoscope of the working class the web of half siblings, out of wedlock births, unstable and impermanent adult relationships, grandparents raising children.
This manifests itself in the kind of time that people spend with their kids, even verbal parenting models that balance discouragments versus discouraging statements. Here's a photo of that: The school chapter is interesting but a bit disappointing. After stating that the most effective use of resources are in preK and college time periods, Putnam focuses on the K12 which as statistics and my own experiences can attest to are horrific.
He's heavy on the causes, and light on the solutions when it comes to education. The best teachers are not going to agree to work in the lowest performing schools, that's unrealistic. And what can be done to improve college outcomes for the most promising students? The Extraordinary Institute, coming soon. My main issue with this book is that it does illustrate the extent of the problem, but it doesn't offer much of a comprehensive roadmap moving forward. There are vague generalities it will be expensive but few concrete do this now ideas. But maybe this book is an invitation to start ideas.
It provides a broad overview, and broad suggestions as to how to help, but it is specific on when to start - now.
When we discuss opportunity in America, our demographics demand that the conversation no longer be just black and white. When Putnam started his academic research, it was entirely possible to talk about just whites and blacks in this country. That time is no longer, now is the time to expand the debate. Too little of the Hispanic perspective is considered in this book. Overall, a powerful, informative read. Quotes "Equal numbers of men and women of the class of went off to college, but 88 percent of the men got a degree compared to 22 percent of the women!
In short, no gender winnowing at all until college, and then extreme gender winnowing. Gender inequality, very high in the s, has fallen sharply My classmates in the s and s benefited from exactly that happy state of affairs In the college-educated, upper third of American society, a "neo-traditional" marriage pattern has emerged.
It mirrors the s family in many respects, except that both partners now typically work outside of the home, they delay marriage and childbearing until their careers are under way, they divide domestic duties more evenly In the high-school educated, lower third of the population, by contract, a new, more kaleidoscopic pattern began to emerge in which childbearing became increasingly disconnected from marriage, and sexual partnerships became less durable Cherlin reports, "and the wages of women without college degrees have failed to grow.
Like Darleen, they often believe that mother basically involes "being there.
Correlation does not prove causation, of course, but mass incarceration has certainly removed a very large number of young fathers from poor neighborhoods, and the effects of their absence, on white and nonwhite kids alike, are known to be traumatic, leaving long-lasting scars But on average, children from single-parent families do worse in school and in life.
This, in turn, leaves them less able to solve problems, cope with adversity, and organize their lives. One important implication of this research is that skills acquired early in childhood are foundational and make later learning more efficient. Research has shown that so-called noncognitive skills grit, social sensitivity, optimism, self-control, conscientiousness, emotional stability are very important for life success.
They can lead to greater physical health, school success, college enrollment, employment, and lifetime earnings, and can lead people out of trouble and out of prison. These skills are at least as important as cognitive skills in predicting such measures of success, and may be even more important in our postindustrial future than in the preindustrial and industrial past. Increasingly, poor kids who go on to college are concentrated in community colleges These students are disproportionately from low-income backgrounds. A generation earlier, social class had played a smaller role, relative to academic ability, in predicting educational attainment.
The last fact is particularly hard to square with the idea at the heart of the American Dream: By contrast, people lower in the socioeconomic hierarchy lack such useful weak ties and instead rely heavily on family and neighbors for social support. What is different, however, are the family and community "airbags" that deploy to minimize the negative consequences of drugs and other misadventures among rich kids.
The same was true of books and the postage system; the point is that the Internet is not immune from that inequality in usage These kids are baffled about school practices, two and four year colleges, financial affairs, occupational opportunities, and even programs both public and private specifically designed to assist kids like them I had to race through this book because I bought it on Sunday afternoon and wanted to finish it before seeing a lecture by the author, Bob Putnam, on Monday afternoon.
The book's main points are pretty easy to follow, however, and so I don't think I missed much in rushing. Lots of things play a role in this, particularly the way that the rich are clustering together I had to race through this book because I bought it on Sunday afternoon and wanted to finish it before seeing a lecture by the author, Bob Putnam, on Monday afternoon. Lots of things play a role in this, particularly the way that the rich are clustering together literally, in terms of neighborhoods and schools, as well as metaphorically in terms of their attitudes towards child raising while the poor across the nation are falling victim to a variety of social pathologies, especially broken families.
This is my take, rather than Putnam's take. The reality is that the dysfunction is primarily social. There are economic aspects: There are also policy aspects: But the reality is that the economic hardship of the depression didn't lead to the same catastrophic collapses as we see today, and that the War on Drugs is only bad because it compounds the crisis in the family.
As a parent and teacher I passed this formula for success on to my children and students. The American Dream in Crisis" was a reality check for me. I now realize the formula for success that worked well for me now works for a smaller and smaller percentage of kids in our society. Robert Putnam has done our society a big favor by clearly establishing that "our kids" are facing some pretty tough challenges.
More importantly, he has started what needs to be a continuing discussion and even has some suggestions on where we can start to build solutions to the challenges "our kids" face. If you've been wondering why kids today seem to achieve less than their parents, then this is the book to read. If you're rich and don't care, then maybe it's not, but if the inequities of life DO concern you, then this will show the dirty underbelly of American disadvantage that has been steadily gaining ground over the past generation.
We can all watch the poor decisions made by parents of at-risk children, but this will take you into the inner workings of why the middle and lower classes are faltering and floundering and what can be done about it. Because, as the book correctly states, the greater the inequality that is permitted, the more violent, dangerous and uninhabitable our society becomes. America is becoming rigid. It is settling into immobile classes. This is precisely the opposite of the ideals of the nation and the opposite of the way it was just 60 years ago. Putnam explores it through the proxy of his own experience, and intensive sometimes horrifying interviews with people in key communities from coast to coast.
In his hometown, a rustbelt community, everyone in his generation did far better than their parents. Now, crime, poverty, underemployment, unemployment and minimal prospects for improvement are the rule. This even transcends race as the issue of the day. Blacks divide by class just as whites do. The upper classes live separate, relatively charmed lives of unlimited prospects and opportunities. The rest are lucky to make it through high school to a job of any kind.
Upward mobility is all but out of the question. Putnam examines the family, the community, the school and the support network. He finds unlimited proof that in every case. The upper classes are moving forward with ease, while the lower classes and the poor are trapped in a world of violence, debt, and lack of resources. There is all kinds of irony. The principle of scarcity means the more uncertain parents are about income, jobs, and housing, the less attention they can pay to their children. Despite being around more, the stress level and the frustration level mean less parental guidance, more violence and abuse, and of course that violence, being the norm, is carried on by the children.
Survival means keeping to yourself. This is the exact opposite of the 20th century, when neighbors kept watch, and everyone chipped in to help. Today, no good deed goes unpunished is the philosophical backstop of most Americans. Families no longer provide the boost they did to young minds. Working and poor classes have fewer dinners together, where events and issues get aired. Their children hear far fewer words, and spend less time in after school or any activities. While rich kids get more face time, poor kids get more screen time. This chasm was not a result of a hippie revolution in the 60s.
Family breakdown is a result of joblessness and lower expectations beginning in the 80s. Today, the poor and the working poor get married less often. They start families every time they start a new relationship, devoting less time to their children in total. Teen pregnancies are down significantly, but once out in the world, additional out of wedlock children are the norm.
In school, socio-economic status has become more important than test scores in determining who graduates from college. The numbers are stark. Marching band is totally out of the question unless you come from wealth. Equal access in school has become quaint history. And studies show gigantic gains in income, networks and long term health for those who do participate. Disengagement and retreat to social isolation affects the lower classes disproportionately. And disengagement is what the internet society is all about. The book is filled with dozens of ugly charts that all decline or point downward.
The result is a totally different America, dealing with unnecessary poverty, childhood poverty, additional taxpayer burden, lost competitiveness, lost earnings, lower consumer spending, lower growth, and of course, the dissolution of social cohesion. And near zero economic mobility for most. We are becoming two countries in the style of the kingdoms of old. Putnam points to himself, revealing he could not imagine what life is like for the lower classes, because his generation was mobile and escaped them.
It makes for a gripping, shocking, appalling read. There is too much to say about this important book. Read it and it will change you. How We Settled for the Illusion of Morality. It answers the questions about how all this could have happened here. It provides the provenance for Putnam's evidence. They make a complete pairing of the story.
Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis
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