David Brooks' column summing up the latest research by Bob Putnam created a quite a commotion this week. Brooks summed up Putnam's findings,

Putnam’s data verifies what many of us have seen anecdotally, that the children of the more affluent and less affluent are raised in starkly different ways and have different opportunities. Decades ago, college-graduate parents and high-school-graduate parents invested similarly in their children. Recently, more affluent parents have invested much more in their children’s futures while less affluent parents have not.

Rich parents are investing more time and money in their kids than less affluent parents. Less affluent kids are more pessemistic, isolated, and uninvolved than wealthy kids. 

Putnam had discussed this study at the Aspen Idea Self Love Festival. Here's a short video of this panel. I would like to read the research itself. Trying to find it. 

Helaine Olen rightly points out that Putnam's research confirms the findings of Annette Lareau. 

All these unequal childrearing and opportunities for kids have a real impact. (In another minute, I have to go back to figuring out how many rich kids are at Harvard. Answer: lots.) Brooks offers weak suggestion for reform.