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! :)

Upbringing and Its Affects!

In class, the idea about people's morals and who they are as a person stem from their upbringing is always brought up. I have always been very interested in how people were raised and if it truly affects them and in what ways. For example, how do some parents raise a genius? Or what went wrong in the upbringing of children who become killers?

So I want to know..... How did your parents raise you? Was it a very structured environment or more of a day by day experiment? Were there any specific instances that you can remember where their discipline or lack thereof had a major affect on your life? Do you still apply the morals you were taught as a child to your life now? Do you believe that your upbringing has shaped who you are today? If yes, then how? Expand on this topic in any way that you would like, I'm just interested in what you have to say :)

Marriage...

Since I have been hearing about so many weddings going on lately, I wanted to ask you all about marriage and if you think it is important part of family and society. In my anthropology class we are learning about how marriage binds not only two people together, but two families together. It is a key part of the social structure in many cultures because it establishes social relationships that are the foundation for families and households.

So, I was wondering what your opinions on marriage are. Do you agree that it is a vital part of society and social structures? Do you think that we could exist in a society without marriage? What does marriage mean to you and your family? Can you be as close with your relatives by marriage as you are with your blood relatives?

Create the Booklist

So, most of us (if not all) chose to take this class because we liked the booklist. Moreover, we even got to contribute to it with our choices with our group project books.
This is the question that I pose to you: what is your favorite story (book) about family? Think of it this way, if you got to pick what was on the booklist, which one would you absolutely HAVE to include? Also, please tell us why you like it/ selected it. Plus, how it relates to family, either in general or to yours specifically.
I hope you have fun with this post and I can't wait to see the booklist that you guys create!

Siblings

When I was younger, I was always jealous of my mom because she is one of six children. There are three brothers and three sisters. I only have my younger brother. When they all got together it seemed like they had so much fun, there was so much going on, and they got along so well, it seemed like my one brother was incredibly boring. In recent years however, my brother and I have gotten over that automatic dislike and constant bickering, and I realized that because it's just me and my brother, it just makes us more tightly bonded.

So I was wondering who has one sibling, or more, or none at all. Do you get along? Fight all the time? (Any ridiculous sibling rivalry stories?!) Do you know each other? Or are you complete strangers? If you don't have any siblings, do you feel like you are missing out? Do you like being an only child? Does that make you closer with your parents? Or are you more independant? Do your friends act as your siblings? Let's talk about feelings! Haha o.O (sorry, that was awkward, but I couldn't think of how to end the post...) Now stop laughing at my awkwardness and go post!

To what extent does appearance affect you?

In Frankenstein, Victor creates a "monster"-- a hideous being who repulses everyone he meets.
This makes me curious. If by some birth defect, your brother was born just as hideous as we all picture Frankenstein's "monster", how would you react? Would you love him just as you would were he born beautiful? Would you stand up for him against bullies that torment him? Would your relationship with him be any different than if he were handsome? Why or why not?
On a different note, what if you had no familial bond whatsoever with someone this hideous? If you saw someone that fits this description regularly, would you take the time to get to know him? Or would you avoid him? Would it be any different with this stranger than with a brother who has the same condition?
Feel free to be completely honest- blunt even. I am truly curious as to how you all believe you would respond. I can't wait to hear your opinions!

Family Troubles

I wasn't too sure what to start a blog about, I'm not too good at these things, however, I want to talk about troubles in families. It seems in my family whenever one of us has a problem it becomes the problem of our whole family, and everyone tries to sort it out and help out in whatever way they can. This kind of relates to Antigone because her problem becomes that of her sister, even though she doesn't want it to.
I want to ask, how does your family unit respond to problems? As a whole? Or is it a fend for yourself type of deal?

Family embarassing?

Hey guys!

So I'm deciding to be pretty random. I'm not going to ask your opinion about books we've been reading in class or really anything we've talked about in class. There is something I have always wondered because it happened so many times with my friends growing up, particularly with my best friend, a girl named Stephanie. Stephanie's dad always made the funniest jokes and the rest of her friends and I thought he was hilarious. However, when he made one of his hilarious jokes steph always got really embarassed and was like "dad, god!" This happened with a lot of my friends parents or other family members.

So my questions for you are do we get embarassed by family members simply because they are related to us? Or did you never experience this because all your friends think their parents are really cool? I would also love to hear some of the crazy things members of your family do because lets face it, we all have someone who we think does particularly strange stuff.

Participation and Tips, Rubrics, etc.

Hi, class!

Just a few housekeeping reminders to help you strive toward excellence in class:

Participation: On days where the activity takes up most of class time, you will be able to earn more participation points as long as you are actively engaged in your groups. However, this does not mean that you don't have to talk in class discussion. So this is just a reminder of how important talking in class discussion is especially if we give you the chance to talk and add to the conversation. Making only one or two comments in class does not mean you are going to earn full participation points or that you are done discussing for the day. You need to be engaged throughout the entire class.

Tips and Rubrics: I am going to be emailing you more tips on writing and rubrics. Please check for those in your inbox and if you do not get these attachments, please let me know.

Blog: Please remember for the blog that if your first post is the day before class, you can only earn half-points and if your first post is the day of class (after the blog is officially dead), it won't count and you will earn a zero for the week (if it is a second or third post or whatever, you just don't earn credit for it--you don't earn a zero or anything like that). If you earn four or more zeroes (which means you don't respond to the blog at all during those four weeks), then you will not be able to earn an A in class. Typically, I send reminder emails alerting you if you have earned three zeroes as a head's up. I have these policies in place so that each of you has the opportunity to respond to and engage with each other during the weekly blog discussion.

If you have questions about any of this, please email me or Holly. Excellent debate and discussion this week, gang! We appreciate your enthusiasm!

An Odyssey's End

The conclusion of the Odyssey is not what I expected it to be. Everything is restored to order sure, but what about the paddle and the final journey Odysseus must take? Also what about the divine intervention that just soothes away all of Odysseus' newly found concerns? Is the end satisfying to you? Do you think that it could have been ended differently? If you do, how? Or if not, why do you think that the ending is appropriate?

The Separating Bond

Me and my older brother used to fight ALOT. And most fights ended in either one of us bleeding and/or yelling at each other. Four days before my older brother moved to the dorms, we had a heart to heart. In less than twenty minutes, 15 years of contempt for each other evaporated as his departure quickly put things into perspective.

So my question isn't how a sibling leaving changes family dynamics, but rather, how and why does separation within a family either strengthen or weaken bonds? Do you start missing them less and less or more and more? In what situations does your perspective become true and how has this personally affected you?

The Ethics of REVENGE!!!!!!!!!!!

Hello everyone,

My post topic is the active revenge of an individual for a fallen family member. In The Odyssey the story of Agamemnon and his death by Aigisthos is told many times, and in most cases Orestes is honored for the manner in which he exacted revenge for his father. Also, Posiedon buffets and despises Odysseus for the attack on his son the Kyklops. Even Telemmakhos often questions if it his duty to exact revenge on the suitors for the manner in which they waste his family's land.

So, how does revenge fit in with the family structure? Should revenge be encouraged of avoided? If encouraged, under what circumstance and how should the revenge be employed? does the punishment have to fit the crime, or do you naturally escalate with revenge? Does a strong relationship matter in a revenge plot? Should revenge occur only if the law does not uphold its obligation? If it should be avoided, how do we remedy the situation in that case? Should those who seek revenge be punished? Will an absence of revenge encourage or discourage violence by the individual?

In short, is revenge a family obligation, or an individual crime?

Hey, first student post! Yay?

Okay, so I'm supposed to come up with a family-related topic to discuss this week...

We're still in the stage of getting to know each other, and part of that is to know where we all come from. Where people come from, in my experience, has a lot to do with their families. So, we've done the basics: how many people are in your family, where are you from, what is your heritage, etc.

Thing is, you can know all that stuff, but then all you know are some facts. Facts do not equal insight or understanding.

CHALLENGE TIEM, GAIZ.

Come up with one memory- one scene, if you will- that defines your family, and post about it. If that's too difficult, come up with one tradition or recurring activity that says a lot about who you guys are and what's important to you.
If you like, feel free to treat your one memory as creative writing. Or, if that is not your thing, don't. But have fun with it either way.

Also: if your family life's been bad, I realize you may not want to lay it out for us all to see. I apologize in advance for any discomfort and encourage you to just say "I am totes not comfortable with this, sorry" if you see fit.

Groups, Books, Themes

Hi, again!

The groups with their books and themes are below:

Group One: Dominic, Peter, Katrina, Amanda, Julie, Alise
Book: The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
Theme: Friends as family and family roles

Group Two: Katina, Bridget, Miranda, Christian, Megan
Book: The Pact, Jodi Picoult
Theme: Feuding families and familial obligation

Group Three: Ele, Ruth, Veronica, Kami, Amy
Book: In Cold Blood, Truman Capote
Theme: Familial influence

Blog Schedule

Hello, all,

The blog schedule is below:

September 1: Dominic and Amy
September 8: Peter and Veronica
September 15: Julie and Katina
September 22: Amanda and Megan
September 29: Ele and Kami
October 6: Christian
October 13: Fall Break; No Blog
October 20: Bridget
October 27: Katrina
November 3: Miranda
November 10: Ruth
November 17: Alise
November 23: Thanksgiving; No Blog
December 1: Kathryn and Holly

First week

Hi everyone!

I'm not much of a blogger, so if I'm here doing it, I know you students can also. Following in Kathryn's steps, I have some questions that I hope will help us all get to know each other a little better. Since this class is about family, I'd like to know about your families :) Specifically, how big is your family? Do you have siblings? Who did you grow up with? The second part of what I want to know has more to do with your family tree. Where did your family come from originally? What other countries or cultures are represented in your history? Feel free to share as much or as little as you want, since most of this information will come up again throughout the course.

Dig in guys, I can't wait.

Welcome!

Welcome, class, to the Legacy of the Family Story Blog!

I hope that you all were able to set up your accounts without much problem. The topic for this week to get us started will be created by me. Since it's the first week of class, I just want us all to get to know one another a little better. So, why did you sign up for this class? What do you hope to get out of the class? After our first class and reading the syllabus and getting an idea what's in store for you, what are some things you're excited about? What are some things you want to learn more about? What are you dreading? :)

Finally, what are you hoping to get out the honors program in general? Why are you taking honors? What does honors mean to you?

Okay, let the games begin...