Life Chances and The Pygmalion Effect

1. Do you think that the ways these concepts are applied to society and education are accurate or inaccurate (or somewhere in between)?  If the answer is different depending on the venue, explain that too.  Be sure to provide examples in your answer.
I do think that these two concepts are applied to society and education accurately. I know that for my own personal life my life chances would have been drastically different if I had been raised by my other parent. My parents divorced when I was in first grade and my brother and I lived with one parent while the other moved back to a smaller town where we had first lived. If I would have moved with that parent my life, I am almost 100% sure, would not be the same today. Even though both parents loved me one was able to provide for me a more stable life with not as many challenges. I still had to work hard at school and had a job from the time I could start working but everyday life was just easier. I had less obstacles with this parent than I would have had with my other parent. I think that my physical and mental health would have not been as strong if I had moved. I think that the expectations for me would have been less if I had been with the other parent. I was able to see from a pretty young age that education was important and if I wanted to have a career and a family I needed to focus on my education and making the best decisions possible. 
I think that when we look at the elementary schools in our town that there are some pretty clear examples of these two concepts at work. The life chances kids have at one school are not exactly the same ones that kids have at others.
 2. In what ways, if any, can the two ideas be linked or can they affect each other?
When thinking about the definition from Wikipedia for The Pygmalion Effect, The Pygmalion effect is a form of self-fulfilling prophecy, and, in this respect, people will internalize their negative label, and those with positive labels succeed accordingly. Within sociology, the effect is often cited with regard to education and social class, I think that the idea of life chances is linked directly to it. It seems that it would be appropriate to say that if a child feels that their chances in life are limited because of what has happened in their education up to this point and their social class that they would then not expect for many great things to happen to them. We know that this doesn't always have to be the case but many times it is. 
3. In what ways, if any, do these phenomena manifest themselves in your classroom or among the students you work most closely with?
I try to set high expectations for all of my students. I know that some might need modifications or accommodations to meet these expectations. In first grade it can be as simple as not helping them open their snack after they have tried it once. I keep telling them try again, try again and most of the time they can get it. It seems many times they are so used to someone else doing everything for them that they don't ever give it any effort. As an educator I believe that we are responsible for the whole child, so I want them to know that they can do something even when it might be hard at first. I don't want them to think that's it's okay to give up after the first try-even on getting their snack open as silly as that may sound. I want them to learn grit from being in my classroom. When it comes to academics I try to instill that same effort. I keep telling them they can do and when it seems like they have tried the best they can and are still having difficulty I will step in and provide some guidance. We do a lot of celebrating then when the next time they do it on their own or with less support from me. I want to be their to push them to do their very best when maybe no one else is.
At the school I teach at we are at around 65% free/reduced lunch. After reading the research about life chances it is clear that many of my students will face challenges when it comes to completing their education, obtaining employment and sustaining positive physical and mental health. I'm hopeful that the C3 initiative has components in place to help students work through some of the challenges they are facing even as young adults. I came across a paper that discussed the the term disconnected as it relates to young adults in their economic and social perspectives. The paper titled, Connected by 25: Improving the Life Chances of the Country's Most Vulnerable 14-24 Year Olds gave a lot of information about helping these young people form connections that would help them work through some of the obstacles they might face.
At the same time we know that what we do in the early years is so important for a child's academic and social success. This is where my passion is. I want families, all families, to have many enriching opportunities for their young children. There are great programs available in our town but many of them cost and others may just not be something that all families can get to or be part of for various reasons. I would like to help change that in our community. I think with the combination of more parenting classes available along with enriching opportunities for children, we can start to have a positive impact on life chances.
4. What, if anything, does this mean for you? 
All of this information means a lot to me. It makes me feel a bit overwhelmed at what is expected of me as a teacher but at the same time excited to help in any possible way. I like the fact that I am more aware of these two phenomena and how they impact my daily job and my own personal life. The research on life chances I read was just amazing and I'm excited to really dig into it to help with finding ways to guide parents to provide the very best for their child from the moment they know they are going to have a child to the time when that child sets foot in a classroom.