Cultural Capital - working class kids

[MommaGee]

I keep hearing the value of cultural capital being talked about on threads and how important it is so I'm wondering what kind of things I should be doing to give my WC kids more cultural capital and keep up with thier wealthier counterparts? DS is 7.

Foreign travel is currently a no die to medical issues.

We currently

• Visit the Art Galleries near us regularly
• Take up art and family play sessions at these galleries.
• One after-school sport and one session booked at Commonwealth Games to watch it - altho he v much does it for fun, not talent
• Has been to the theatre with me several times to see stuff ike Pinocchio and Animal Farm
• Go to the cinema altho only for kids movies
• Is read to nightly and reads himself to sleep altho it's Dav Pilkey
• Family holidays in Wales are a mix of beach and casino as well as castles, mines etc
• He's not been to ballet but only because I can't find one suitable

What are we missing?

But asking someone why still implies your questioning it. There's absolutely nothing I've posted which should make you question a definitive statement about my class. But I still answered and got accused of being sneery

We use free apps and a cheap workbook for Spanish. A few quid for KS1 French workbook and some apps would set him in good stead.
After school music club starts at 4 at our state school.Perhaps you could suggest there might be interest in a Reception &KS1 group? Seems a shame to start it at KS2. It may be a time/ resources issue or perhaps they don't think there's any interest. Back in my day, recorder was on the curriculum. You'd do it from year 1 throughout primary. Such a shame it has been knocked off.

Piano lessons
French films with subtitles
Mandarin lessons
😬

I'm impressed you can get your DC to engage with culture at all. Mine baulks at any effort in that direction.

I have a great picture of him and his friend in the Tate gallery, in front of a Mondrian, and they are lying on the gallery floor trying to prise a penny out of a metal grate.

The way you write, the fact you're studying for a degree and are fretting over cultural capital all indicate you're actually more middle class than you think.

Exactly, I work with lots of families whee none of this is the normal. The ones who do manage to progress to the top universities often speaking of feeling out of place once there, partly because they lack cultural capital. This often knocks their confidence and they are less likely to apply for the most prestigious grad schemes.

That all sounds superb.

A few things I would do on top of all that would be to read and be seen reading by your child. Look up lists of classic English children's and adult literature and start ploughing through. Modern classics like AA Milne's Pooh stories are great, same goes for the Narnia series and Lord of the Rings. For you, look up PG Wodehouse, Evelyn Waugh and other 20th century writers/humorist as well as whatever your local librarian might recommend.

Don't neglect Greek mythology. Find a really good children's version.

Use phrases from literature in your everyday speech.

i think it's also worth seeing how you (and therefore dc) interact with different people. I'm always impressed when people make an effort to ask questions of others and bother to listen to responses. There's a family I know locally where the children do this so naturally as their parents always make an effort to be interested and I was jealous as my teens were in a grunting phase

I think the most significant factor is to do things with him.

Introduce him to some more challenging books and read them with him if necessary, perhaps start introducing some of the children's classics like EH Nesbit Five Children and It, The Hobbit, Paddington and more modern stuff like the Hiccup books. There are good audio books of these too.

You could also look at classic films - Charlotte's Web, Lassie, The Secret Garden and so on, but watch them with him. He will not only enjoy (hopefully) the film but talking about it with him afterwards is all part of the process.

You sound like you're doing a great job.

Being able to walk into an Art Gallery, Theatre, Concert Hall and feel at ease means he can make use of those places in the future.

Libraries are great places to visit ( and cheap ) Also good places for finding events and holiday programs your son could attend.

When we visit places we'll often take a walking tour and these are good as kids get a bit older. History and lots of stories combined with being out and about.

Parks sometimes run things like Bat Walks and nature , botanical events for kids. That is an area you could look into.

Are there any Arts Centres where your son could do pottery or painting or other arts activities? Place like this run holiday events. Same for a Drama or Theatre Club. Even doing Cubs and Scouts gets them out and about and thinking and doing new things.

Don't worry if he's particularly good or not at any of these things. It's the doing that's important.

One more thought and something you can do at home.
Family Board games. Monopoly, chequers, Chess, Rumikub, Scrabble. Jigsaws

Learn to take turns, make decisions, calculate, analyse and problem solve and just have fun together.

Sorry you are getting a hard time from some. Some very good ideas on here. One thing DH did was introduce DD to Studio Ghibli films. He started with My Neighbour Totoro about age 7 or 8. She got really into it and in time taught herself some Japanese online and after GCSE found a local charity who funded her to do a couple of weeks at a language school. See what foreign children’s films you can find to get him used to hearing other languages.

Learning about other cultures through food can be really interesting for small children. Pick a country, do some research together about the native diet and local special foods. Then plan a menu, cook (he can help if able) and enjoy. You could talk about the food, rate what you enjoyed/didn't enjoy, talk about how this is similar or different to your usual meals. Maybe design flags as place holders for that country or see if you can find any info about meal time customs .

He's 7 @Needmorelego . He's not swearing anywhere. But yes general point taken and thank you to the other posters who've been helpful or kind

I'm

We're a one form entry school in an area with not tons of spare cash so I think there's just a limit to what they can run. And it's covid stuff too, so they were out for tons of reception and year 1 with a curtailment on activities

I might see if he'll learn some Z Spanish with me at bedtime

Very good advice.

Sound like you are doing fine. No need to turn him into a MC kid.

If your child has any interest in a sport becoming a member of a proper club can be great for experiencing things like award evenings with speeches and the mayor popping in so your child meets a variety of people in formal and non formal ways.

@MommaGee apologies... I was being a bit sarcastic. Hope you aren't offended.
It sounds like you are doing a good job already. But you don't need to go over the top. My (probably a bit rude really - sorry 🙂) post was me thinking about several families I know that are the type that send the kids to extra curricular classes every day after school, cultural places on weekends, fancy holidays abroad etc but the children have never actually been to a regular supermarket (because the family orders everything for home delivery etc) !!

He's clearly not playing Fortnite enough
At least 4 hours a day more when it's raining 🤣🤣

There are some very helpful suggestions on here, I’ve enjoyed reading this.
The only thing I have to add really is vocabulary. Encourage him to use a range of words, learn a few ones and to actually apply them in every day conversation. We all fall into using the same few eg - good, nice etc but spoken and written language is very different, so exposure to speaking in a way which questions, and is informed will really help both academically and being able to hold your own in any company without feeling inferior. Plus, it’s free! And can be be about anything.

Maybe we both took each others posts as snipier than they were meant.

I might be able to pass for MC in here but I'm really not. I'm just well read 😁

You value his education enough to make an effort to aspire to improving ‘cultural capital’.
this is a big concept in pedagogy, where certain schools think that unless kids can quite Kipling poems they will not be able to keep up with privileged kids who went to private school.

please don’t fall into this way of thinking. We all come from different cultural backgrounds and we all have something to bring to the table.
you are doing enough just by daring and asking this question.

the kids who really get left behind are the ones whose parents have issue with schools, maybe justified by their personal experiences. Families who prioritise everything else over their kids education.

the only thing that really makes a missive difference to attainment is reading regularly from an early age. But this can even be listening to audiobooks.
because it develops language, critical thinking and vocabulary.

no idea where all my capital letters have gone!

@Ruthietuthie as a very middle class person who found herself surrounded by upper class /upper middle class people at university (and beyond) I agree with you entirely