Concerted Cultivation Education Essay Research Paper

CONCERTED CULTIVATION
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Concerted Cultivation
Introduction
Concerted cultivation refers to a type of life through which children experience concerning their upbringing. Under this process, children from well-off families get to experience organized activities and lifestyles influenced by their parents (Vincent & Ball, 2007, 1062). Consequently, such children experience some sense of entitlement as they grow up due to their upbringing. On the other hand, children brought up from humble beginnings tend to experience a different type of upbringing. Children, in this case, do not have organized leisure activities but are somewhat free to interact with their peers without supervision. This process is referred to as natural growth in which parents develop strict measures regarding their children’s behavior in their homes.
These differences in upbringing by parents show a vital distinction on parent’s views of children. On one hand, parents from the middle-class seek the opinions and thoughts of their children in their lives, hence the children can openly question decisions by adults. On the other hand, lower-class parents depict a clear line between adults and children hence do not incorporate the idea of eliciting the opinions or thoughts of their children when making decisions. Therefore, concerted cultivation profoundly affects the interactions of children with institutions such as schools, peers, and society at large as they grow and develop (Matsuoka, 2019). Social class, cultural capital, and education thus form a considerable part in developing the behavior of children during their development.
Factors affecting concerted cultivation
Concerted cultivation is mainly influenced by a parent’s abilities economically, socially, and culturally. These differences may be due to adequate opportunities that provide the right opportunities for some parents to use this system to raise their children actively. Furthermore, parents without such knowledge or financial capabilities may not get the opportunity to practice such parenting on their children. Factors that contribute to concerted cultivation include but not limited to social class, inequalities in education and cultural capital.
Social Class
Society today is built on a system of stratification based on social class, with the privileged being higher up on the hierarchy. Such perks in social class come with privileges for those well off in the society in terms of wealth. However, problems with such stratification include the concentration of people at lower levels, thus raising rates of inequality in such a community. These inequalities thus present the differences in which the middle-class and working-class experience. While the middle-class have better financial capacities that allow them to enjoy certain privileges and luxuries, the working-class does not have such opportunities. Consequently, children from a higher social class tend to get opportunities to enjoy the benefits of concerted cultivation due to their parent’s social class.
According to Lareau (2011), parents from the middle-class raise their children differently from those from lower-class families. Parents innately practice cultural cultivation in the middle class due to the level of involvement in structured activities that their children participate in daily. For instance, such children may be picked/dropped to and from school by their parents, taken to band recitals or soccer practice before going home (Lareau, 2011). These activities become engrained in the child’s mind and impact their development, thus playing a role in their transition to adulthood. From a young age, they can interact freely with their parents through debates with aspects such as discipline, based on negotiation and mutual understanding. Therefore, this develops these children in such a way that ensures they can still maintain their social class in adulthood while imparting skills required to navigate bureaucracy as well as challenge authority.
On the other hand, children from working-class or poor backgrounds tend to have unstructured interactions daily. This type of system, commonly known as natural growth, ensures that they grow without strict supervision from the parents. However, parents are more strict with children in this case, with no opportunities presented for discussions or compromise (Vincent & Maxwell, 2016, 270). Parents understand their role as primary caregivers, thus perform such duties as required with little regard to their children’s opinions or thoughts (Lareau, 2011). Therefore, such children grow up naturally with their free time spent interacting with peers or extended family members. Such parenting believes that adults possess the moral authority of the decisions made in the family. Children thus have to follow such rules and decisions without question hence ensuring adherence to these standards. Social class constraints thus create conditions in which the parents struggle to provide for their children, thus the lack of opportunities to practice concerted cultivation.
Inequalities in Education
Education plays an essential role as a universal activity that supposedly plays the role of an equalizing institution. Children of different backgrounds who get to learn at the same school are exposed to education to enable them to further prepare for the future. However, inequalities in education prove to disadvantage children from impoverished backgrounds (Matsuoka, 2019, 166). Most education systems aim at preparing children for concerted cultivation with the values of ...