Success

I listened to a presentation at AERA by Michael Corbett, a sociologist from Acadia Univeristy in Nova Scotia. He has looked at rurality as a sense of place. He talked about changes and the changes that rural youth must anticipate and adapt to during emerging adulthood. He made a point that really made me think. He said that most recently he is wondering if it isn’t that working class families aren’t serious about higher education, but that in fact they might be more serious and see higher education as a way to get a better career and make more money. They may put pressure on their children to know what it is they want to do and then pursue that career path through education. When the children can’t live up to those expectations, they may not follow through at all. In contrast, the more well off parents may be encouraging the period of emerging adulthood and may push their kids to go to college to explore and find themselves, versus knowing from the start.