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Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis
Review
Carly Carter
Political Science 150-03, American Government in Politics
February 23, 2016
The “American Dream”for decades has been something that America trumpets as our success, but is it still something that is attainable? When our country was taking off during the second industrial revolution in the early nineteen hundreds, immigrants had the ability to come to America, make a living, and succeed; in recent years this dream has come into question as social mobility is much lower now than it previously was.Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis by Robert D. Putnam is a critique on the way capitalism in our society has deterred Americans from their ability to achieve the “American Dream”.
Putnam argues that the financial factors within families, parenting, schooling, and the communities of children have a large impact into what social class those children will one day grow into. Putnam stresses that the problem of the diminishing “American dream” must be solved through partisan support since the issues of our nation have merit on both sides of the political system.
The first thing that Putnam argues is that family structure in recent years have become increasingly varied. According to Putnam, “economic hardship is an important precursor for the breakdown of the working class family: divorce rates and non-marital birth rates both skyrocketed” when he studied the aftermath of an economic collapse.[1] Putnam in his discussion on families notes that one significant problem is divorce, which he points to this being a significant source of distress among children. Having a parent leave is painful for a child, and even more when it is not the parent’s choice in cases like imprisonment. According to Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis, the “risk of having a parent imprisoned by the time they reached 14 rose significantly between the birth cohort of 1978…and the birth cohort of 1990.”[2] The children who have had a parent taken from them wind up going significantly less far in life in terms of education and in terms of their careers. The anecdotal evidence of Kayla who “remains troubled psychologically, displaying classic symptoms of depression” is one of many examples of the lasting effects on the cognitive and social development of children.[3] Children from broken homes also tend to follow their parents’ footsteps and have broken homes as well.
Parenting is very closely linked to families in this book. Families with a two parent home will have parents that constantly interact with their child and the “[c]ognitive stimulation by parents is essential for optimal learning.”[4] Because education in this book is so important, or rather necessary, for more social mobility in the future, this shows some significance in why the “American dream” is not as attainable now.
Parenting styles very extremely among the different class levels; one study referenced in Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis stated that “parents with less than a high school education endorse obedience over self-reliance.”[5] This idea is problematic when it causes parents to resort to physical violence on the children being disciplined, overall causing stagnation in development.
Schooling and Community in this book, like Family and Parenting are tied very closely together. Poor schools are often determined by how they are districted, and because “poor Americans are increasingly living in separate neighborhoods… [it follows that] high-income and low-income students [are shunted] into separate schools.”[6]Because there is segregation based on school data, it only serves to increase the gap because parents will want to live closer to better schools, creating demand, raising property value, and creating a cycle that excludes people of lower income because there isa striking difference academically between students of high-income families in school performance. This phenomenon is because of various circumstances, so schools with mostly low-income students will perform poorly compared to schools with mostly high-income students.
College is also increasingly harder to afford because of such increased demand, and therefore easier for people with the means to afford, which is why “of all rich kids, 89 percent had enrolled in college within two years of high school compared to only 46 percent of all poor kids.”[7]This education gap leads to the social networks of their future. College graduates are more likely to “’know’ all sorts of people” and allow their children to know them as well, leading to more opportunities in the future for these children.[8]
Putnam argues as he closes the book with a list of things that we can do over time to create more social mobility in the years to come and argues that some of the ideas are more partisan; however I disagree. It seems to me that a lot of these reforms are incredibly democratic and even socialistic ideas. Having government programs give money to poor families, supporting parents with children, allowing for uniform pre-school education, investing money into poorer schools, implementing workplace readiness classes in high school, and several other ideas all follow socialist ideology.
There are parts of Robert D. Putnam’s work that I disagree with. We as human beings are creatures that are built to adapt, and that is what we have been for centuries. We have existed with various types of family units, and although the 1950’s nuclear family is no longer as common, I do not think that it will ultimately be detrimental to the social mobility of the child in years to come. I think that we did not necessarily reach more single parent households through a cycle of poverty, but rather "a combination of a changing economy, rising education, job opportunities and independence of woman, a decline in gender discrimination and a rise since the 1960s of the welfare state."[9] These things might create some turbulence now because they are different, but this change is something that we are already adapting to with the introduction of more day care and early childhood education centers.
One problem that women still must overcome in the obstacle of parenthood, for both high and low income families, single parent or not, is the problem of maternity leave where "[the] US has polarized attitudes…because of how disparately couples treat work and family issues."[10] This time is crucial for mothers to have to bond with their child, and to be cut short can have serious effects for the mother and the child. The child can actually suffer developmentally if its mother is taken away too soon and that could contribute to the cycle of poverty illustrated in Putnam’s book.[11]
Another point that I find I disagree with in Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis is that race has very little to do with the decline in social mobility. The fact of the matter is that poverty and people of color are closely linked because of the systematic racism that has oppressed people of color for centuries. As this book specifically focuses on black people, leaving out indigenous and Asian people entirely, and speaking briefly about Latino children, it does not actively take into account the disadvantages experienced socially by a diverse group of people. In schools, race is a huge factor for limited social mobility since some schools are still seen by some as segregated.[12] There are still measures taken that directly affect majority black places like parts of Chicago where “Mayor Rahm Emanuel's push for sweeping school closings came to a climax…as his hand-picked board of education voted to shut down 49 elementary schools.”[13] These schools all had majority black base and thousands of children were forced into increasingly larger classes where they remain stuck with little chance in the future to move upward.[14]
One thing Putnam for the most part neglected was the fact that as we move into the digital age, more homework and classwork is being done on the internet and through devices that not all students have access to, and not all schools can provide.There is a "disparity in access to technology, between students who have high-speed Internet at home and an estimated five million families who are without it and who are struggling to keep up… 'This is what I call the homework gap, and it is the cruelest part of the digital divide.'"[15]There is attempt at increasing funding to aid in the closure of this gap, but many places are simply not investing in the future well-being of the nation because, as Putnam writes in his book, schools with less funding produce less able students, who then remain unable to climb through higher education.
Higher education is getting more expensive andone needs to achieve advanced levels ofeducation to truly succeed. If it is necessary to go through an expensive process to achieve a good job,many low-income, often first generation, students drop out for various financial reasons. Once a person drops out of college, they "earn little more than people do with no college education…many dropouts have taken on student loans, and with their low wages, they have difficulty paying off even small balances."[16] One way to keep this from happening is by “coaching” students through their first few years by helping with time management like “scal[ing] back on work hours to study more” so that the burden of work does not impact the person’s studies.[17]
There are also ways to keep students in college by continuing to have them apply for financial aid through their college years, and to seek advising to achieve this, and there are also a few grants to help low-income students.[18]Putnam talks in depth about community colleges, and although community colleges are ok, students will not be able to achieve success in life with just a community college degree. Most community colleges do not offer comprehensive programs for a large variety of fields, whereprivate and public universities do. Because of this, as a nation we need to focus on finding a way to make college more affordable.
Though Putnam ultimately argues that the future of the “American Dream” rests in the hands of both parties I ultimately have to disagree. The parties do not often agree, and in the case of what is best for our country it seems that our current version of capitalism is just outdated.[19] According to this reading and my analysis, it is time for a change that will lead America back to a place where dreamers are welcome and encouraged to move upwards socially.
Bibliography
Ahmed-Ullah, Noreen S., John Chase, and Bob Secter. "CPS Approves Largest School Closure
in Chicago's History." Chicago Tribune, May 23, 2013. Accessed February 22, 2016.
Bailey, Sarah P. "In the Paid Family Leave Debate, Pro-life, Pro-family Groups’ Own Policies
Are All over the Map." The Washington Post, November 30, 2015.
Dynarski, Susan. "How to Help More College Students Graduate." The New York Times,
February 19, 2016.
Harris, Elizabeth A. "School Segregation Persists in Gentrifying Neighborhoods, Maps Suggest."
The New York Times, December 15, 2015.
Kang, Cecilia. "Bridging a Digital Divide That Keeps Schoolchildren Behind." The New York
Times, February 22, 2016.
Porter, Eduardo. "Finding Common Political Ground on Poverty." The New York Times,
February 2, 2016.
Putnam, Robert D. Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis. New York: Simon & Schuster,
2015.
Schulte, Brigid. "Unlike in the 1950s, There Is No ‘typical’ U.S. Family Today." The
Washington Post, September 4, 2014.
[1]Robert PutnamOur Kids: The American Dream in Crisis (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2015),73.
[2] Ibid., 76.
[3] Ibid., 60.
[4] Ibid., 110.
[5]Ibid., 119.
[6] Ibid., 163.
[7] Ibid., 188.
[8] Ibid., 206.
[9]The Washington Post, September 4, 2014.
[10]The Washington post, November 30, 2015.
[11] Ibid., 3.
[12]New York Times, December 15, 2015.
[13]Chicago Tribune, May 23, 2013.
[14] Ibid., 1.
[15]The New York Times, February 22, 2016.
[16]The New York Times, February 19, 2016.
[17] Ibid., 4.
[18] Ibid., 5.
[19]The New York Times, February 2, 2016.