| Abstract: | The transition from “home child” to “school child” is an important social milestone and encompasses a life period that has not received as much attention as it may deserve. Poor black children, who are those with the most social interaction disabilities, seem particularly vulnerable in the early part of this transition. A further complication is that “summer learning” helps mainly well-off children, and blacks in the population-at-large are less likely to be well off than whites. Although schools do seem to be making up for the dearth of academic socialization resources in many young children's households, and in this sense are most beneficial for those who need them most, more work is needed on why schools are not filling the bill as well for the neediest blacks as they are for the neediest whites. |
