Analysis Of The Book Our Kids

While reading the book, Our Kids it is easy to see that the main idea of the book is that income inequality has expanded over the years. This has made an economic divide in children over the years. The 1959 generation experienced a significant economic and educational change, but their children saw “no educational development beyond their parents.” (7-8). The book states, “That nationwide increase in class inequality – how the class-based opportunity gap among young people was widened in recent decades – is the subject of this book.” (19). Along with all of this, page twenty-nine talks about poor kids now are in much worse shape than their peers then. Though there is a positive when looking back at the years – the race and gender issues are getting less bad, but as mentioned, class is worsening. Putnam believes this happened because of “globalization, technological change and the subsequent increase on ‘returns to education’, de-unionization, superstar compensation, changing social norms, and post-Reagan public policy” (35). On page thirty-nine this book also talks about how education shows this issue and gap. It explains the gap as “increasing

This example was seen with Clara and Ricardo. The book talks about the importance of which school one attends, but also whom one goes to school with. Page 169 discusses anti-academic peers having huge impacts on students. So if an individual starts hanging out with a classmate who is uninterested in academics, that individual will most likely follow in that classmates steps. Along with this, extracurricular activities vary by economic class as well. Wealthier children have a better chance of getting advantages for college applications, social skills, and practical knowledge, as the book