Lareau (2003) found that while middle class kids generally flourished in school, working class kids had a gathering “sense of constraint” in school and other institutional settings. Far from blossoming or thriving in school, working class kids all too often merely survive school. I see the same thing today; for working class kids who want to “make it” in school, it is all about buckling down, not about blossoming or becoming. In this very different way, school does prepare working class kids for adulthood, but in their case it is to learn to dampen big dreams and get ready for a life of
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