Read, Exploring Cultural and Social Capital: Impacts on Achievement (article attached) and the anecdotes about Peter and Richard, then respond to the following (apprx 500 words):
Based on the limited information you have, respond to the following:
1. Who will most likely end up with a better grade point average at the end of high school? Why?
2. Whose parents care more about education? What is your evidence?
3. Does one set of parents care more about one boy than the other? Explain your answer.
4. There is no mention of the parents’ incomes, but assuming both parents earned the same annual amount, would that change who would have the academic
advantage? Why, or why not?
5. If both Peter and Richard needed reference letters for summer jobs when they got to high school, who do you think would have more impressive letters? Why?
6. If both Peter and Richard got arrested for drunk driving while in high school, who would have a better chance of receiving a lighter punishment? Why?
7. How and why might the boys’ assumptions about school and gender be influenced by their home environments? Explain your answer.
8. What roles do cultural and social capital appear to be playing here? Explain your answer.
9. Once they become adults, will Richard definitely be more academically and financially successful than Peter? Explain your answer.
10. As educators, how can we apply what we have learned from this exercise to help equalize opportunities for students from various socioeconomic backgrounds?
