Includes bibliographical references (p. 313-323) and index.

1. Concerted Cultivation and the Accomplishment of Natural Growth

2. Social Structure and Daily Life

Part I. The Organization of Daily Life

3. The Hectic Pace of Concerted Cultivation / Garrett Tallinger

4. A Child's Pace / Tyrec Taylor

5. Children's Play Is for Children / Katie Brindle

Part II. Language Use

6. Developing a Child / Alexander Williams

7. Language as a Conduit for Social Life / Harold McAllister

Part III. Families and Institutions

8. Concerted Cultivation in Organizational Spheres / Stacey Marshall

9. Concerted Cultivation Gone Awry / Melanie Handlon

10. Letting Educators Lead the Way / Wendy Driver

11. Beating with a Belt, Fearing "the School" / Little Billy Yanelli

12. The Power and Limits of Social Class

Annette Lareau is the Stanley I. Sheerr Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. She is faculty member in the Department of Sociology with a secondary appointment in the Graduate School of Education. Lareau is the author of Home Advantage: Social Class and Parental Intervention in Elementary Education (1989; second edition, 2000), and coeditor of Social Class: How Does it Work? (2009); and Education Research on Trial: Policy Reform and the Call for Scientific Rigor (2009); and Journeys through Ethnography: Realistic Accounts of Fieldwork (1996).