Before you read this post, be inspired by the words of this song!
Well, go ahead...click play! :-D
I hope you appreciated those lyrics just as much as I did! Now. Back to the topic at hand. My previous post on unequal childhoods reflect upon the difference between concerted cultivation and natural growth as it relates to a child's upbringing. As I read more into the text, Lareau further analyzes the effects of organized activities and leisure activities on a middle class child and on a poor/working class child, respectively.
Garrett is a white 10-year-old boy who comes from a middle class family and is involved in many organized activities like soccer, basketball, band, swim, and baseball. Tyrec is a black 9-year-old boy who comes from a working/poor class family and was involved in football but only for one season. If you read the text, you can see that Garrett's life was dictated and governed by his organized activities and Tyrec's life was less structured, where had more freedom in the ways in which he spent his time.
There was a distinct difference between a typical day in Garrett's after school life versus a typical day in Tyrec's after school life. Since Garrett was enrolled in multiple organized activities, he spent his time after school in either a practice or at a game. His family's life revolved around a calendar, which had the dates and times for each of his events, practices, and games. There was no "free time" for Garrett and if he did have free time, it would be spent playing catch in his family's backyard or playing word games with his mom, dad, and brothers.
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| Photo courtesy: elizabethtownyouthsoccer.com |
Lareau states that the many activities in which middle-class children participate in replicate key aspects in the workplace. These children routinely meet and learn to work with adults, they learn how to prioritize activities (Garrett may sometimes have a soccer game that may clash with a band practice. He would then make the decision on which event he will attend), and they are exposed to different environments and activities through travel.
Tyrec's after school time was less structured and was very much flexible. Tyrec loved to play outside with kids around the neighborhood. He would play with children his age, children younger than he was, and he sometimes hung around teenagers. His mom would set the boundaries for his activities (what time he should be home, how far he could play, etc.) and he would choose how active or inactive he would be engaged in those activities. When Tyrec was enrolled in football, he actually wanted to quit because he missed his free time with his friends.
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| Photo Courtesy: rickymastercoach.com |
Lareau states that because adults spend less time monitoring children's activities in a working class family, there is less emphasis on performance and more opportunities for children to pursue their own choices. These children would find many ways to entertain themselves, which showed creativity and independence, which are important life skills not available to Garrett. Tyrec needed no adult assistance and he had no trouble filling up his schedule with things to do, however; Tyrec was not exposed to as much organized rules that Garrett was accustomed to. Lareau concluded that organized activities involved in concerted cultivation had the potential to offer more payoff in the world of institutions than the spontaneous play involved in the accomplishment of natural growth.
These reports led me to reflect and ask these questions:
1. As an educator of a school in a low-income community, how can we expose our students to organized activities within school boundaries?
2. Some parents may feel that "kids will be kids" and should naturally learn the ways of the world through their own experiences. Some parents may not even have the funds to support organized activities. With these factors in mind, how might we empower or influence parents to incorporate the ways of concerted cultivation and organized activities throughout their lifestyles?
3. I myself was raised by natural growth but experienced organized activities throughout high school and college. Do you think that this can be an alternative to those families who cannot afford organized activities for their children?
Please leave your thoughts and comments below!!!
-Shelda Raymonvil
I think I'd like to push our thinking a little in terms of who defines what is organized activity and what isn't. I go back to the post I wrote earlier about hip-hop and how hip-hop was birthed from a community and from a group of people who didn't have extensive resources, and yet were able to produce an art form and and culture that altered the course of a generation. Of course there is value in kids playing organized sports and being a part of teams, but there is also value in recognizing that what happens in marginalized communities is valuable. The young girl practicing ballet at a local dance studio holds as much value as the young man learning to create his first piece of graffiti on the side his apartment building after school.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate Brandon's comment-- and I want to echo his response about the types of activities we consider to be organized. I absolutely believe that we must value self-expression in all forms, but I also think that there is great value in structure, and often structure is what is lacking in these communities Shelda writes about. Be it ballet, sports, or graffiti art, young people stand to gain from adults or mentors who provide these learning opportunities in a way that aids them in developing skills. That's not to say that students don't grow from self-guided experiences-- they do. But when we take what they are interested in doing (especially for middle schoolers, this often means expressing themselves) and create an organized way for them to pursue these interests, this is when we have built a culturally relevant way for students to spend their time.
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