Parent Involvement

By -
                 A few weeks ago I was trying to decide what topic to pick for my research project. I was torn between suicide and dysfunctional families, and after multiple conversations with my kids at work I have chosen parent/child relationships. Every child on my shift last Monday came to me individually, with an issue that was derived from their relationship with a parent. I didn't realize this until I found myself crying in the corner thinking about all the things they go through. I've concluded that no matter what the situation or issue is, they all  have one thing in common: They want to make their parent(s) proud, and they want their attention. I don't think society as a whole realizes the impact parents have on their children and their success.
                 In Prisoner B-3087, Yanek wants to make his father proud and looks up to him so much. It is Yanek's faith, taught from his father that keeps him going. In Speak, If Melinda's father would have called her back down stairs and had an actual conversation with her, would she still have lost her voice?  In Crank, Kristina's father does the drug with her and her mother is oblivious.  In Diary, Arnold is constantly reminding us that his father and tribe are drunks. However, it is his father's love and support that never turns Arnold against him. Parent's have flaws, addictions, and make mistakes. Rasing a child doesn't come with a manual and no one is perfect, but it is their responsibility to build a strong relationship with their child. A solid foundation is essential and critical for growth, and that solid foundation should start at home.
                 Some questions that drive this topic:
            1. How often do parents listen to their children? Not tell them, or ask them, but listen to them.
            2. How can we make parent's aware of the importance of their involvement without offending them?
            3. How many students in a classroom have a parent addicted to drugs/alcohol?
            4. How can schools incorporate character education, morals, and value into the curriculum?
            5. How can educators fill the void that student's have derived from parent involvement? 
             

Comments

  1. UnknownNovember 27, 2017 at 8:09 AM

    Yes! I love my parents to death but growing up their were some topics that I did not feel comfortable talking about with them. Now that I am a parent, my only hope is that my son and daughter will actually feel comfortable in coming to me with ALL their problems. I would like to do this without crossing that line of "I am your parent not your friend" type of deal. It is really hard, and like you mention, being a parent does not come with a manual (I wish it did sometimes)...

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownNovember 27, 2017 at 8:10 AM

    I love that you chose this topic Jess! Parent involvement is such a strong topic for a research paper. I definitely agree that parent involvement is overlooked in young adult literature. Since most of us are wanting to become teachers, i finding it very moving that you were so touched by each of their situations. You can probably incorporate most of the books on the syllabus to this topic, as we see most of them did not have strong family relationships in the story. I think this is also a touchy topic when it comes to some of the questions you chose to discuss, but they are definitely questions that need to be discussed! I feel like for that reason alone, some authors choose to leave it out when it in fact is what needs to be addressed.

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownNovember 27, 2017 at 8:10 AM

    Jess, I love that you decided to make a personal connection to what you plan to write about! Having that deep connection makes for a meaningful paper that you feel inspired to write, and just reading your post I feel inspired to read it. For additional questions, I was thinking:
    What about novels where the parents is absent altogether (be it from their lives or just the narrative)?
    How does adoption fit into this idea of parental involvement?
    And finally, can parents be too involved with their children, such as Kristina's father in "Crank"?

    Overall, I love your mindset and direction with this topic and I know you'll do well!

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownNovember 27, 2017 at 8:12 AM

    I love how much you are involved with your kids at work. Your passion for them really shows through in everything you talk about. I agree that parental involvement is HUGE and effects every single person. It is refreshing to hear the same thing from many different kids about wanting to make their parents proud. Everyone wants to make their parents proud, just no one talks about it. It is so crazy that you're able to pull all of these examples from all of our texts! It obviously shows the importance of parental involvement. I think that all of your questions are phenomenal and cover a lot of important topics involving parents. Awesome topic!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Growing Pains - The Symbolism of the Tree in Speak

By -
I have felt the paralyzing pain of internal disease. The kind of trauma that causes your mouth to curl in and swallow you whole. I, like so many other women, are walking the halls in Melinda’s shoes in “Speak.” I thought Laurie Anderson did a phenomenal job of twisting all of the tribulations a high school girl goes through, into the tree that Melinda is. Whether we’re as strong as an oak or weak as a bush, we have all gone through the disease that strikes Melinda from the inside out. Melinda is like a half-dead tree. Some parts of her strive to blossom and create beauty. Other parts are broken and diseased. Like a dead tree, Melinda needs to save herself and “cut off the damage, [so it] is possible for the tree to grow again” (187). The symbolism of a tree is significant in “Speak.” Trees reflect her growing process. In the beginning, Melinda is a sick and lifeless tree. Her view is negative and dark. She’s so far past repair, bursts of sunlight do her no good. Sunlight would be pe
Read more

How Starr Goes from Acting to Embracing in The Hate U Give

By -
In The Hate U Give, Starr Carter is caught between two worlds. She lives in a predominantly black neighborhood, but her father sends her and her brothers to a private school where she is surrounded by white people. She talks about acting differently depending on what group she is around, which can create some identity problems. She says on page 11, "Funny how it works with white kids though. It's dope to be black until it's hard to be black." When at Williamson, she sees white kids that think it's cool to engage in black culture, but she knows they don't understand what she goes through in her Garden Heights community. She witnessed her friend Natasha's death when she was 10 years old, and she sees gang activity in her community all the time. When she is among her black friends, like at the party, they tease her for hanging out with the white kids. This reminds me of a Drake song where he says, "I used to get teased for being black, and now I'm
Read more

Speak and the Symbolism of Nature

By Anonymous -
   Laurie Halse Anderson's,  Speak , dives into the murky, muddy waters of adolescent rape culture. When the book was published in 1999, rape was not a comfortable topic to discuss with adults, let alone teenagers. Anderson writes about Melinda Sordino and her freshman high school experience which is turning out to be rather negative. Soriano stands as a thriving young role model for struggling teenage girls all over the world. Although she isn't an outstanding student or have plenty of friends to juggle, through Melinda, other young women can see that it's completely normal and okay to struggle in high school not only academically, but socially and emotionally. One of my favorite parts of the novel isn't a super obvious quality. Throughout the novel, Melinda's attitude changes and grows with the coming of spring and through nature and art, she learns to move past her troubling end of summer experience and once again find the importance of her voice.    Melinda st
Read more