In The Hunger Games, Katness lives in District 12, the coal mining district. Each of the 12 districts produces a certain resource for the Capital and there is a very limited range of professions available to people in these districts. Katness' father was a coal miner and most children expect to also be involved in this industry when they turn 18. Schools in the region exist mainly as a means of propaganda distribution by the Capital, not to teach and prepare students for further education or different professions. While it is true there are merchants and townspeople at a social class above Katness, most of the district is composed of members of what Katness calls the Seam. The Seam is composed of poor and hungry coalmining families.
Within District 12 there are harsh lines of socioeconomic class between members of the Seam and townspeople, however there are even harsher lines between districts. What your skill set is depends on where you have grown up. People in District 4 know how to fish because they live on the coast and people in District 3 know how to create mechanical things because they produce electronics for the Capital. People in District 8 mainly produce textiles, so they work in factories their whole lives (the revolution starts in the factories).
Two children from each district are chosen to compete in the hunger games, which are basically events held each year where children from each district fight to the death to reestablish Capital control after the districts rebelled decades before the book takes place. In the hunger games, the idea is that each child has an equal chance of winnning when that is not the case at all. To begin with the children are chosen from between the ages of 12 to 17 so there is an immediate disadvantage to 12 year olds. Other advantages fall to children of wealthier districts who are well-fed and trained to compete in the games. For children of District 12 who are often malnourished and without knowledge of weapons, the games are equivalent to a death sentence.
In my mind, The Hunger Games is similar to the result of different kinds of upbringing depicted in Unequal Childhoods. Districts that have the resources and ability to do so train their children to suceed in the games while parents in less wealthy districts also want their children to succeed but simply do not have the resources or knowledge to prepare their children the way that other districts can. It isn't that the children in poor districts aren't learning anything since they often come to the games with skills unique to their districts. It is just that they are not trained the way wealthier districts are.
One other thing I thought was interesting was the hint in the book that where you are born determines you as a person. For the people in the Capital, the games are a source of entertainment and throughout the book Katness writes them off as frivolous for worrying about their own entertainment when she is likely to die. After she gets to know her prep team, she acutualy thinks "I feel bad about how I go around feeling so superior to them. Who knows who I would be or what I would talk about if I'd been raised in the Capital?"
The Hunger Games are definitely written for young adults and are pretty quick reads. However I think there are a lot of interesting concepts and ways to interpret the story. In my political science class we will likely be talking more about the revolution described in the final book.
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