Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis with Robert D. Putnam

Robert D. Putnam's research on community and social capital changed the way we think about the choral field, and his new research on society's growing income gap and its effect on children has implications for choruses as well. Over the last several decades young people from college-educated homes and those from high-school educated homes have diverged on many factors predicting life success:  Two-parent homes, parental investments of time and money, test scores, physical health, participation in extracurricular and religious activities, school quality, college entrance and completion.  Kids from low-income homes of all races are increasingly adrift from family, school, church, and community institutions, in a perfect storm with multiple causes: economic insecurity and stress, the collapse of the working class family, and the unraveling fabric in low-income neighborhoods.  This problem poses serious economic, social, political and moral challenges.