Argumentative Scenarios Agree/Disagree/Strongly Agree/Strongly Disagree

Directions  Read the statement and its accompanying quotation.  Decide whether you agree, disagree, strongly agree, or strongly disagree.  After you state your position, state two or three major claims (reasons) to support your argument.  Later, anticipate what your opposition will say, and identify a counterclaim. The scenario on the next slide deals with social class

It is better for parents to be actively involved in their child’s life and closely manage the child’s activities and education. “Lareau calls the middle-class parenting style ‘concerted cultivation.’ It’s an attempt to actively ‘foster and assess a child’s talents, opinions, and skills.’ Poor parents tend to follow, by contrast, a strategy of ‘accomplishment of natural growth.’ They see their responsibility to care for their children but to let them grow and develop on their own. Lareau stresses that one style isn’t morally better than the other. The poor children were, to her mind, often better behaved, less whiny, more creative,…and had a well-developed sense of independence” (Gladwell 104). This looks like middle- class parenting!