Analysis Of Putnam's 'Schooling'

The fourth chapter in Putnam’s Our Kids is titled “Schooling”, and it focuses on how education plays into class inequality. The argument is that while schools do not cause the opportunity gap between poor kids and rich kids, but the schools allow it to grow. Putnam claims, “schools as sites probably widen the class gap,” (182). How the schools act as these sites, is based strongly on the physical segregation of rich people from poor people. Putnam refers to this segregation as “residential sorting”, and states that, “residential sorting by income [...] has shunted high-income and low-income students into separate schools,” (163). Rich parents want their kids in the best schools, with the best teachers and the best peers, and are able to afford
He points out the differences between upper class and lower class family life; upper class have more successful marriages and are better prepared the bear children, and so their children are better off than the lower class children (61-79). But his assumptions of the upper class are broad and could be easily disproven by many families across America, and simply having less money does not make lower class families worse than upper class. Putnam then goes into parenting differences across the classes. He states that higher class parents are more likely to spend more money, time, and energy on their children, and thusly are being parented more positively than the lower class who are likely to spend less (109-134). Again, Putnam’s assumptions, while seemingly proven by data, can still be thought of as too broad to that just because upper class have more to spend on their children, that they provide better parenting. Many lower class parents who might be doing an excellent job parenting, even better than some upper class parents, seem to be discredited or overlooked. Putnam’s last few points about the opportunity gap are reflected in the schools (160-190) and communities (206-226). Simply put, due to where they can afford to live and go to school, upper class kids have far more social support and more
The most noticeable is Putnam’s use of personal stories and statistical data. He organizes the chapters by introducing the idea of the chapter, then delving into two different stories, one upper class and one lower class, to bring real, relatable people in to support his claims. After getting his reader’s attention with interesting stories, he then delves into the statistical data, including percentages, bar graphs, scissor graphs, and scatter plots, all of them reinforcing issues brought to attention through the personal stories. This organization and differing types of support tap into the reader’s emotions and logical awareness, likely effectively persuading many readers in his favor. Another strength is in chapter six, where Putnam give suggested solutions to the problems he has presented. He gives many diverse suggestions, individually giving answers to how to fix the problems presented in each other the chapters. His list give courses of action for improving family life, parenting, schooling, and communities for lower class people. Putnam is thorough and detailed, satisfying his reader’s concern for how to mend the opportunity gap caused by class