Question

The Life Course Perspective focuses on human agency in making choices. People have personal power to act on the social and cultural worlds in which they move, including institutions like schools, hospitals, the police, etc.

How do concerted cultivation and accomplishment of natural growth strategies shape children's sense of personal power? What might be a drawback of each strategy and an advantage?

Which strategy is most like the caregiving strategy is most experienced as a child or have personally employed as a parent? What was an advantage you enjoyed because of this strategy?

Answer 1

Concerted cultivation and accomplishment of natural growth strategies adopt different strategies and play different roles in shaping children's personal view of real world and relationship with the rest of the world. Both the strategies shape their sense of personal power in varied formats.

Concerted cultivation

Concerted cultivation aims at fostering the activities and opportunities for their children. This involves nurturing their children's talents and deliberate stimulation of their development. This strategy is more organized in its nature which focuses entirely on each possible dimension of child's development wherein opinions, thoughts, feelings of children are elicited to enhance their sense of responsibility and entitlement. They are made to realize how their opinions matter and will be listened to. This kind of strategy is observed to be adopted by middle-class families wherein parents are more likely to involve themselves with children and their activities through active interaction.

How do this strategy shape children's sense of personal power?

This strategy instill a "sense of entitlement" in children that they have right to pursue their individual differences by some techniques-

• They are taught by their parents to direct their communication patterns especially with authority figures and can actively manage instructions in institutional settings.
• Here, children are trained with real-world skills that is observed to benefit them in employment interviews.
• They are more familiar with abstract concepts.
• They can make "rules" to work in their favor by negotiation skills and have their desires accommodated in professional settings.
• They are trained to act for themselves and gain advantages out of situations.

Hence, they gain a "sense of personal power" over the situations they face and adjust them to their convenience, preferences and desires by customizing interactions with their skills.

Advantages of this strategy

• Facilitates develop "sense of entitlement" among children.
• Prepare them for real world situations and manage them through their trained skill-set.
• More interactions with parents promote development of larger vocabularies and verbal skills.
• More comfort with authority figures, acceptance of authority and holding meaningful conversations with them.
• Having control over themselves on a disciplinary level and responsibility to voice their opinions in an organised fashion.

Drawbacks

• They exercise lesser control over their leisure time since most of their activities are governed by their parents.
• Children reared in this way find lesser leisure time of their own.
• They miss out on 'kin' relationships as they are left with no extra time to meet their relatives.
• Difficulty organizing their time during weekends as an adult.
• They find it uncomfortable to hang out with adults in non obtrusive manner.

Accomplishment of natural growth

Conversely, accomplishment of natural growth is an unorganized strategy which is directive in nature wherein there are clear boundaries drawn between children and adults. This strategy is practiced naturally in working class families wherein it is difficult for parents to provide basic amenities crucial for child rearing such as food, safe and secure place and neighborhood to live, school and such. Sustaining natural growth is hard for parents and hence, is viewed as an "accomplishment to foster natural growth".

How do this strategy provide a sense of personal power?

This practice of child rearing instill a "sense of autonomy" by-

• Since parents in this class do not focus on engaging their children in organized leisure activities (swimming classes, judo etc.) due to financial constraints, children here, have more sense of control over their leisure time.
• They can exercise their freedom of choice to spend their time in which leisure activity.
• They can initiate child play and choose their friends/playmates mostly from the people who live by.
• Children are free to go out and manage their own time.

Advantages

• Long stretches of leisure time.
• Daily interactions with relatives.
• Autonomy from adults.
• Know how to organize their hours as an adult and exercise autonomy.
• Power to initiate activities on their own.

Drawbacks

• Gain an emerging sense of distance, distrust and frustration in institutional experiences.
• They miss out on catching verbal skills necessary to meet real-world expectations.
• Poor non verbal skills such as maintaining eye contact and firm hand shake.
• less likely to customize interactions as per their preferences.
• Parents exert on powerlessness and frustration in face of difficult situations and hence, lag behind to make rules work in their favor.
• Sense of constraint develops.
• Accept authorities and resist them covertly which never works in their benefit.

I personally have experienced strategy of accomplishment of natural growth which has created good memories of child play and my power to exert control over those situations. It has help me develop perseverance and learn combating frustration in odd situations. Those good memories now energize me with high spirits when I am facing my lows and hardships to evoke a ray of hope and create a meaningful life. Hence, exercise my control over life's situations.

(Hope it helps. Please give your feedback.)