Lower-Class Backgrounds

Examples of Lower-Class Backgrounds in the following topics:

• The Social Reproduction of Inequality

  • Working class students may begin to understand that they are in a double-bind: either they must strive to succeed, and in doing so abandon their own culture in order to absorb the school's middle class values, or they will fail to climb the social ladder.
  • The premise that education fosters equal opportunity is regarded as a myth, perpetuated to serve the interests of the dominant classes.
  • For example, working class students may begin to understand that they are in a double-bind: either they must strive to succeed, and in doing so abandon their own culture in order to absorb the school's middle class values, or they will fail.
  • Children from lower-class backgrounds face a much tougher time in school, where they must learn the standard curriculum as well as the hidden curriculum of middle class values.
  • On the other hand, for middle and especially upper-class children, maintaining their superior position in society requires little effort.

• Tracking Systems

  • Parents and peers may influence academic choices even more than guidance counselors by encouraging students with similar backgrounds (academic, vocational, ethnic, religious, or racial) to stay together.
  • However, the awareness by the student of being placed into a low track might lower self-esteem, counteracting this benefit.
  • When tracking is based not on ability but instead on student background, it becomes a form of segregation and discrimination.
  • Students in lower tracks may receive poorer quality instruction, with less-experienced teachers being assigned to low-track classes.
  • Some research suggests that students in lower tracks are more likely to drop out of school or participate in criminal activities.

• The Lower Middle Class

  • The lower-middle class are those with some education and comfortable salaries, but with socioeconomic statuses below the upper-middle class.
  • Primary school teachers are examples of members of the lower-middle class.
  • In American society, the middle class is often divided into the lower-middle class and upper-middle class.
  • The lower-middle class is among the largest social classes, rivaled only by the working class, and it is thought to be growing.
  • Primary school teachers are generally considered lower-middle class.

• The Lower Class

  • Store cashiers, seasonal farmhands, and tollbooth operators may all be considered members of the lower class.
  • The lower class in the United States refers to individuals who are at, or near, the lower end of the socioeconomic hierarchy.
  • As with all social classes in the United States, the lower class is loosely defined, and its boundaries and definitions are subject to debate.
  • Those who are employed in lower class occupations are often colloquially referred to as the working poor.
  • For all of these reasons, lower class households are the most economically vulnerable in the United States.

• Tracking and Within-School Effects

  • A 1992 study by Kulik and Kulik found that high-ability students in tracked classes achieved more highly than similar-ability students in non-tracked classes.
  • In other words, tracking can promote even higher achievement among high-achieving students, but it does little to improve the achievement of lower achieving students.
  • This may be particularly true since low-track classes tend to have higher proportions of low-income and minority students, while upper-track classes are often dominated by students from high socioeconomically backgrounds.
  • Students from more privileged backgrounds gain access to higher quality instruction in upper-level tracks, while, even within the same school, poorer students are relegated to lower-level, less challenging tracks.
  • Critics argue that tracking can promote even higher achievement among high-achieving students, but it does little to improve the achievement of lower achieving students.

• Intersections of Class, Race, and Gender

  • Economic class, in conjunction with race and gender, shape the opportunities, the privileges, and the inequalities experienced for individuals and groups.
  • In New Orleans, the roles of class, race, and gender were made apparent to the U.S. public.
  • Though the storm displaced hundreds of people from all backgrounds, classes, colors and gender ‘equally,' all were not affected the same.
  • In the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 for example, 60% of first class passengers survived, while only 24% of third class passengers survived.
  • One child in first class died, while 49 children in third class died.

• The Working Class

  • Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs (as measured by skill, education, and income), often extending to those who are unemployed or otherwise earning below-average incomes.
  • Since many members of the working class, as defined by academic models, are often identified in the vernacular as being middle class, there is considerable ambiguity over the term's meaning.
  • In the class models devised by sociologists, the working class comprises between 30 percent and 35 percent of the population, roughly the same percentage as the lower middle class.
  • Due to differences between middle and working-class cultures, working-class college students may face "culture shock" upon entering the post-secondary education system, with its "middle class" culture.
  • Explain how differences in class culture may affect working-class students who enter the post-secondary education system

• Social Class

  • Many Americans believe in a simple three-class model that includes upper class, the middle class, and the lower class or working class.
  • Thought of this way, once individuals identify as being within a class group they begin to adhere to the behaviors they expect of that class.
  • By adhering to class expectations, individuals create sharper distinctions between classes than may otherwise exist.
  • Sociologists studying class distinctions since the 1970s have found that social classes each have unique cultural traits.
  • Because individuals' social networks tend to be within their own class, they acculturate to, or learn the values and behaviors of, their own class.

• The Upper Middle Class

  • The upper-middle class refers to people within the middle class that have high educational attainment, high salaries, and high status jobs.
  • Sociologists use the term "upper-middle class" to refer to the social group consisting of higher-status members of the middle class.
  • This is in contrast to the term "lower-middle class," which is used for the group at the opposite end of the middle class stratum, and to the broader term "middle class. " There is considerable debate as to how to define the upper-middle class.
  • According to his definition, the middle class consists of an upper-middle class, made up of professionals distinguished by exceptionally high educational attainment and high economic security; and a lower-middle class, consisting of semi-professionals.
  • Moreover, members of the upper-middle class are generally more economically secure than their lower-middle class counterparts.

• Class Structure in the U.S.

  • Modern sociologists argue that in the vast majority of cases, people do not achieve the American Dream — instead, people born to poor parents are likely to stay within the lower class, and vice versa.
  • Many Americans recognize a simple three-tier model that includes the upper class, the middle class, and the lower or working class.
  • In this model, the upper class (3% of the population) is divided into upper-upper class (1% of the U.S. population, earning hundreds of millions to billions per year) and the lower-upper class (2%, earning millions per year).
  • The middle class (40%) is divided into upper-middle class (14%, earning $76,000 or more per year) and the lower-middle class (26%, earning $46,000 to $75,000 per year).
  • The lower class (27%) is divided into working poor (13%, earning $9000 to 18,000 per year) and underclass (14%, earning under $9000 per year).