Changing Perspectives

I can't believe that the end of the semester is here. I hope you all got as much out of the class as I did. Now that we've moved through an entire semester together, I am interested to know if your perspectives have changed. Specifically, do you view your family and your own role in it differently? Has the class changed the presumptions you had about other people and your first impressions? When I took this class four years ago, I remember feeling like I had everyone figured out, but after listening to their personal family stories, I realized my assumptions were often off base. Did going into the text and hearing classmate's stories influence your perceptions about other people and how their backgrounds shape who they are? Thank you all for your openness and honesty in class. It was a joy to be present with you all through this experience! :)

Wrap Up

Hi, everyone!

To wrap up the class for our final blog, I'd like to ask you about the class as a whole. What did you learn/gain from this course? What text did you like best? What did you like best overall? Least? Would you change anything about this class?

Have at it! :)

The Glass Castle

I wanted to continue here where our discussion left off yesterday because it didn't seem like everyone got to share all of their ideas. So, which parent did you like least? Why or why not? What scene was a sort of "tipping" point for your disdain toward either parent? Both parents? Why do you think Jeannette, despite everything, never condemned her parents?

Our debate yesterday was filled with a lot of discussion over the neglect of the Walls children. Jeanette and her siblings were having to take care of themselves at a young age. They were always hungry and never had a permanent home. As parents, what did Rose Mary and Rex "owe" their children? What do you think parents, in general, are obligated to give their children? Do children "owe" anything back to their parents?

Overall what did you think of The Glass Castle? Did you like or dislike the memoir? Why or why not?

What a great memoir to end our reading list! :)

Each time period seems to have certain expectations for the family. We talked in class about how Mr. Clutter’s role as the father (man of the house) who had absolute control over his family was the accepted norm of his time period. However, in today’s society, we might have different norms, which would lead us to judge Mr. Clutter’s role differently.

So my question has to do with the family and today’s society. What kind of standards do we have today in regards to the family? Are there certain components society deems necessary to be considered a family? Are there any expectations in our time for a family to have a certain structure? (Does a family have to have a mother, father, and children?) What are the expectations for each role (parents—father and mother—and children) in the family? Lastly, how have the expectations about family changed up to now?

Looking forward to reading your responses :).

Conflicting Beliefs

In class we talked about our different cultural beliefs and how they may have been influenced when we came into contact with people of different cultures or belief systems. I was wondering if any of you have had this kind of experience within your own families. What I mean is, have you ever had a belief that conflicted with one of your family member's beliefs?

It can be anything like if you have conflicting political or religious views from any of your family members or if you have a parent or grandparent with racist, homophobic, or just outdated views that you disagree with. How did/do you deal with these conflicting ideologies within your own family?

In class yesterday, much of the discussion was about Scout and the absence of a mother figure in her life. We all agreed that this absence changed the family dynamics and probably played a large part in molding Scout's overall personality etc. So, I was wondering if there are any absences of important family figures in your lives? How have these absences changed your upbringing or effected who you are as a person? How would your lives be different if that figure had been there?

Keep in mind that this doesn't just apply to parents... maybe some of you are an only child, how has your life been different without siblings? Or maybe your grandparents died or live far away and you never really got to know them, how has this absence influenced your family? Looking forward to reading your comments!!

Different Parents for Different Kids

Okay, so to tie into the whole theme of family I want to know if you guys think it's true that your parents are different parents for each of their children. For instance, usually the firstborn is the "experiment child" and the baby of the family is the most spoiled and gets away with almost anything. I also want to know if you have any personal stories about this topic. Were you ever allowed or not allowed to do something that one of your other siblings did or didn't get to do? The idea of this concept is that even though you technically have the same parents as your brothers and sisters you don't really have the same parents. So since each child is different from their siblings it makes sense that parents would be differ in how they raise each child right? I just want to know what you guys think or if you have any stories that relate to this! :)