A Harvard professor and author took to the stage Wednesday to lecture to the OU community on the “opportunity gap” in America.
Robert Putnam spoke at Meacham Auditorium Jan. 20 about society being separated on an economic and social level throughout the country.
Putnam has written 14 books on the biggest social issues facing our world today. The book "Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis", is an OU One Campus, One Book selection. He also received the National Humanities Medal in 2012.
Putnam used his expertise to give a lecture on the disadvantages that poor children are currently facing.
The lecture shed some light on how the next generation of children in America are negatively affected by society’s split along class lines. Putnam used his own hometown of Port Clinton, Ohio, to show the discrepancies between rich and poor children in education and early development in life. He told the story of disadvantaged mother Mary Sue to illustrate the growing rate of child poverty over the last few decades.
Everything from family dinners to socialization through sports plays a significant role in childhood development, Putnam said. The lack of time available to parents in working class families has put a strain on the social development of poor kids in America.
In his lecture, Putnam outlined that society needs to recognize the disadvantages of growing up poor and how the gap between the rich and the poor is continuing to widen.
Putnam said America has changed its mindset recently with statements like, “It’s not my kid.” Putnam believes that in order for us to change the current narrative of poor kids in America, we must begin to recognize and try to change the circumstances that result in a lack of opportunities for these children in our communities.
