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This book tells a story about the surprising ways in which a religious upbringing shapes the academic pathways for teens of different gender and class backgrounds. It shows how the attitudes and outlook of Christian teens who organize their life around their belief in God carries over to the academic realm. On the one hand, religious teens--especially working-class boys--earn better grades and complete more years of college than their non-religious peers. On the other hand, middle-upper class teens--especially girls--wind up choosing to attend less selective colleges than their peers with similar grades.
List of contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- Chapter 1: Living for God
- Chapter 2: Remarkable Report Cards
- Chapter 3: A Domino Effect
- Chapter 4: Gods Guardrails
- Chapter 5: Unexpected Destinations
- Chapter 6: The Road Less Taken
- Conclusion
- Appendix: A Methodological Overview
- References
About the author
Ilana M. Horwitz is an Assistant Professor and Fields-Rayant Chair of Contemporary Jewish Life at Tulane University. She holds a PhD from Stanford University. Her research examines how life course patterns vary based on reli
Summary
The surprising ways in which a religious upbringing shapes the academic lives of teens
It's widely acknowledged that American parents from different class backgrounds take different approaches to raising their children. Upper and middle-class parents invest considerable time facilitating their children's activities, while working class and poor families take a more hands-off approach. These different strategies influence how children approach school. But missing from the discussion is the fact that millions of parents on both sides of the class divide are raising their children to listen to God. What impact does a religious upbringing have on their academic trajectories?
Drawing on 10 years of survey data with over 3,000 teenagers and over 200 interviews, God, Grades, and Graduation offers a revealing and at times surprising account of how teenagers' religious upbringing influences their educational pathways from high school to college. Dr. Ilana M. Horwitz estimates that approximately one out of every four students in American schools are raised with religious restraint. These students orient their life around God so deeply that it alters how they see themselves and how they behave, inside and outside of church.
This book takes us inside the lives of these teenagers to discover why they achieve higher grades than their peers, why they are more likely to graduate from college, and why boys from lower middle-class families particularly benefit from religious restraint. But readers also learn how for middle-upper class kids--and for girls especially--religious restraint recalibrates their academic ambitions after graduation, leading them to question the value of attending a selective college despite their stellar grades in high school. By illuminating the far-reaching effects of the childrearing logic of religious restraint, God, Grades and Graduation offers a compelling new narrative about the role of religion in academic outcomes and educational inequality.
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Sharp, engaging, and extremely well-presented, Dr. Horwitz's work offers a much needed, impressively rigorous analysis of the surprising intersections of religiosity and education in the USA. Both as a parent and a professor, I found this book fascinating.
