My favorite part of the book is when Gladwell analyzes the children and their intelligence, whether it be practical, analytical, or both. Malcolm Gladwell speaks largely about children and how and where they were raised. What I find very interesting is when Gladwell mentions the study sociologist Annette Lareau made where she visited the twelve families. Whichever of the two parenting “philosophies” parents use depends on their social class. The higher, wealthy parents interacted more with their children and always kept them busy in classes, making the children grow up to learn to speak up and become more independent. The poor parents did not question authority and for the most part, did not let their children reason and negotiate with them. It is clear why, statistically speaking, wealthy children become more successful. The way these rich children are shown how to deal with others stick with them for the rest of their lives, meaning they will always have the characteristics of a leader, whereas the poor children were never even exposed to these traits.
This part of the novel was truly eye opening, due to the fact that most people, including myself, do not believe that there is a huge difference in parenting when in regard of social status. This novel taught me that money does matter, but that does not mean it has to. I think that parents are not aware of how different children are brought up because of money differences. I think that this part of the book stood out to me because one day I will become a parent and I will have the freedom of raising my children the way I want. Even if my family has a lower income than most, I will be able to raise my children the way wealthy parents raise their family. Generating a low income does not mean that you have to raise your children with the same mentality. I believe that this cycle should end. Middle Class parents need to teach their children to be more assertive and how to receive respect from authority. If this cycle is not broken, these middle class families will always only be middle class families. I also realized how big of an impact parents have on children. Most parents believe that their own lifestyle choices do not affect their children, but they do. With this in mind, parents need to be careful in how they bring up their children. What a person learns early on affects how successful they will be in the real word.
I liked this part of the book as well. I think, however, that a lot of people actually do understand that there is a difference in parenting based on social class. I at least believed there was one so these statistics didn't shock me. Of course you social status/income status will impact how you are with your children because they are brought up in the environment you surround them in.
ReplyDeleteI agree, but I believe that people do not know that there is a significant difference in parenting based on social classes. I believe this is why we do have these huge differences. If more people knew how different rich people raise their children. People should be more aware of this, which is why I thought this book was such an eye-opener.
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