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Home Advantage: Social Class and Parental Intervention in Elementary Education 2nd ed. Edition

by
Annette Lareau (Author)
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Annette Lareau (Author)
4 out of 5 stars 7 customer reviews
ISBN-13: 858-0000746013
ISBN-10: 0742501450
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers; 2nd ed. edition (July 26, 2000)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0742501450
  • ISBN-13: 978-0742501454
  • Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 0.7 x 9.1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #663,626 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 starsStatus group membership counts!
By not a natural on May 22, 2009
Format: Hardcover
This is a very good ethnography which compares two elementary schools, one predominately working class and the other predominately upper middle class, in California. Contrary to the pernicious stereotypes which many of us entertain, Lareau found that working class parents are just as interested in education for their children as upper middle class parents. However, working class parents are predisposed to defer to the judgment of teachers, guidance counselors, and other school officials, whom they regard as professionals with special skills and insights. As a result, poor grades, assignment to a devalued group, and stern discipline for real or imagined misbehavior go unchallenged.

By sharp contrast, upper middle class parents have tacitly adopted the motto "my kid -- right or wrong, smart or stupid, hardworking or lazy -- he or she will succeed." Upper middle class parents are effectively instrusive, well connected, and tend to regard teachers as pseudo-professionals, their social inferiors.

Having read Lareau's account, it's easy to see why other ethnographers have found upper middle class resistance to the elimination of curriculum tracking. Upper middle class parents know how to work the system to secure advantages for their children.

Some readers may judge that the quality of Lareau's ethnography would be improved had she spent as much time with working class parents as with upper middle class parents. However, the upper middle class parents were purposefully ubiquitous, while the working class parents were respectfully remote. Thus, this seeming deficiency may reasonably be construed as but a reflection of the way the world works.
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3.0 out of 5 starsMaybe a 3.5
By Garrett M. Imeson on October 26, 2004
Format: Paperback
In "Home Advantage," Annette Lareau examines the question of who gets ahead in public schooling and what causes social reproduction. Specifically, she looks to connect the social institutions of the home, the school and the occupation to see how each affects the children at a young age.

To examine this question, she goes to two schools (Prescott and Colton are the aliases). Prescott consists of mainly upper-middle class families, while Colton consists of lower-class families. Lareau finds that teachers at both schools ask the same thing of parents however, the Prescott parents become much more actively involved (to the point of annoyance in some cases) than do Colton parents. She raises the question of why this is so.

She refers to one sociologist throughout the book (Pierre Bordieu) and uses his term of "cultural capital" quite frequently.

The issue appears to boil down (at least in Lareau's mind) to two main causes (however, the problem is too complex to be narrowed down that greatly). These causes are confidence and the "cultural captial" of each family. The Colton families usually were either high school graduates or drop outs and felt intimidated by the teachers expertise while the Prescott families felt that the teachers were the equals (if not, their superiors) and felt comfortable confronting teachers about problems they felt with their children. Besides this Lareau addresses cultural capital and the linkages between home, school and work in the book.

While this above is all fine, there were two major problems with the book. One was the glaring errors in the book (talking about typos and stuff here), this really didn't detract from the substance of the book but I (being nit-picky like I am) found this annoying and distracting.Read more ›
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5.0 out of 5 starsHome Advantage
By Woodley Lamousnery on October 3, 2013
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
I picked up on "Home Advantage" after reading and enjoying "Unequal childhoods" by the same author. This book serves as the prequel. Familiar Readers can expect Annette to conduct a study at a small town in northern California on primary school children. She observes, interviews, and questions parents and teachers about the children picked for the study, seeking to know how social class influences parent's role in their child's first years of school.

The book is interesting in a way because I got to learn the involvements and interventions that is done by parents of different social class standing during the first years of their child's education. I believe the comparison of middle and working classes is the greatest component of this book, because it offers a chance to see both worlds on how the each family of the two different social classes work out and carry their own ideology with the involvement in their child's critical primitive years in education.
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5.0 out of 5 starsPriceless collection piece for any scholar
By The Davester on June 17, 2015
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
A must read for any students. As an ivy leaguer I was both impressed and left attenuated by the sheer information drawn out in Lareau's book. I found the book very insightful. One may think they know what there is to about child rearing, however, there is, as they say in lay terms, more than meets the eye. Plus Lareau teaches at Penn :) Go QUAKERS!
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