Grant proposal response

Dr. Milkie's project focuses on the school factors affecting children's mental health and the school's role in ameliorating the effects of mental illness.
My first gut-clenching reaction to the proposal came early in the abstract with the sentence that begins "Although we know that children from lower socio-economic status (SES) and minority backgrounds exhibit more externalizing problems like hyperactivity, and internalizing behaviors like anxiety and depression. . ." How do we KNOW this???!!! It certainly doesn't fit with my experience as a classroom teacher. I saw many IEPs (Individualized Educational Plans) from students from a higher SES, and my impression is that they occurred with higher frequency in higher SES cohorts than they did in lower SES cohorts in the same schools.
I question the appropriateness of sociologists making what seem to me to be clinical diagnoses. This reaction probably comes from hours of in-service meetings where we, as teachers, we reminded NOT to attach medical labels to children's behaviors.

Stepping back from my reactions to that sentence, I did arrive at some questions:
How does SES influence the interpretation of behavior: medicate for hyperactivity or discipline for "bad behavior"? Is there a cultural difference in how behavior is interpreted? Does the family SES influence the diagnosis of a medical condition? I am inclined to believe that higher SES parents may be more aggressive in pursuing a medical "explanation" for behavior, rather than allowing their children to be labeled as behavior problems.

Dr. Milkie's research will look at factors in the school environment that aggravate or ameliorate mental health issues, and the access to treatment, particularly as they are affected by the SES of the community.
I wonder how much stress the difference between cultural expectations of appropriate behavior at home and at school places on children, particularly young ones. Behavioral and achievement standards in public education in America these days seem (to me) to be based on middle-class values and traditions, particularly white middle-class society. The structure of the institution itself harks back to the industrial era, when schools provided supervision of industrial workers' children while they were at work, and sought to provide them with the skills necessary to be good workers in industrial settings. (I could get into nuances of the history of education, but that's not my focus here. . .) Working class and poverty level families expect different behaviors and place a different value on education than do middle and upper class families. Yet the children are expected to conform to the school's standards of behavior and achievement, or their behaviors are considered aberrant and in need of discipline.
No, I am not advocating lower standards based on familial SES. But I would advocate a recognition of the need to help students-and parents!-bridge the cultural gap, and a recognition that these standards are cultural, not absolute.
I look forward to the class discussion on this one!