Lareau Culture Of Poverty Thesis

Lareau’s piece studies the child-rearing styles of middle class and working class families. Lareau, much like Pierre Bourdieu, attempts to acknowledge a more fluid array of factors that contribute to an individual’s class than Moynihan’s culture of poverty thesis. While at times Lareau’s approach allows readers to draw conclusions that align with Moynihan’s thesis, more often her findings directly disprove major facets of the culture of poverty thesis. The culture of poverty thesis suggests that, although societal systems may have a role in creating impoverished circumstances, within the working class group there are widespread and pervasive attitudes and behavioral patterns that kept people from entering other social classes. If one whole-heartedly

In her chapters on Garret Tallinger and Tyrec Taylor Lareau is careful to point out that both Garret’s father and Tyrec’s mother try their best to attend their sons’ sporting events. Both Garret’s parents and Tyrec’s mother live hectic lives but both are concerned with their children’s happiness. It was a great stress on Tyrec’s mother to attend and afford Tyrec’s football, but she sacrificed so that her son could be happy. Unlike the references to “broken homes” made by the Moynihan report, Lareau highlights many of the virtues that are apparent in the lifestyle of the Taylor house, despite their lack of a live-in father. In some cases, she points out ways in which the working class families have better sibling and extended family relationships than those in middle class families. While it may be said that a specific culture, or as Lareau would say habitus, has arisen within the Taylor household, this culture is not inextricably linked to poverty nor is it one that is trapping the Taylor children within their social class. Lareau’s observations are not specifically collected to fit an assumed “culture of poverty”. For example, she observed that working class children had a more developed awareness of their parent’s sacrifices. This awareness arguably would compel individuals to try to escape poverty, rather than being a component of the Moynihan Report’s culture of