A Family Prepares for College

One of the infamous cliches of American culture has to do with the measured progress of its immigrant families. What these people want, it is said, is to make life better for their children. Each generation rests easy, it is also said, knowing that their children and grandchildren have opportunities the parents and grandparents never knew. At the center of this generational assessment of progress is education, and particularly college; for admission to college in many families remains the ultimate measure of family success and status. Simply put, there are families who report the college admission letter to be the indelible benchmark of acceptance into America. In some respects, it stands as a peculiar notion, inasmuch as contemporary America reveals an omnipresent anti-intellectualism. Even more, populist ideologies often advance the sentiment that so-called prestigious schools are no better than state universities and community colleges, in the same way that designer jeans are no better than the standard fare. For this reason, certain schools have come to be called designer schools. Still, having one's child admitted to one of the socalled elite institutions may alter the perceived destiny of families, or at least the perceived destinies of certain family members. Thus tangible and intangible rewards earmarked for parents arrive in those infamous thick envelopes addressed to graduating high-school seniors. Many years ago I began studying the lives of families living in poverty as well as in so-called working-class conditions. Among the questions I had for them were what they wanted from America, and what kept them from getting it. As the work essentially followed an ethnographic

Mathematics education · Pedagogy · Psychology · Youth Education and Societal Dynamics

• Applying to College

  Open Access•William G Tierney•Qualitative Inquiry•2009

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