Why do kids outperform their parents in this rural California town? A sociologist looks for answers.
“The Union Pacific Railroad runs through the heart of Dixon, California, a small town among the agricultural plains between San Francisco and Sacramento. Like in many rural towns its size, some neighborhoods are better off than others. But surprisingly in Dixon, from a certain point of view, there is no wrong side of those tracks.
The teenagers of Dixon generally do better than their parents. This upward mobility, as it’s called, doesn’t grab the attention of sociologists and economists as often as the more depressing statistics associated with small towns plagued by poorer outcomes…”
