Reading the "Readings about Reading" has stirred in me a questioned I have grappled with for a long time. Statistically there is a correlation between socioeconomic status and reading skills. However, my family resides significantly below the poverty level and we all have high reading skills. My family background is lower middle class and as I have mentioned before, reading was not a priority among my family members. Out of 6 siblings I have one brother who reads informational books despite significant Dyslexia, and 1 sister who is an avid reader, though maybe not to my crazy level. The rest of my siblings rarely read, nor do my parents. My husbands family was always below the poverty level, but all 5 children are readers. They do have many of the other issues that are found with generational poverty, crime, drugs, alcoholism, multiple marriage and divorce, and things of that nature, but they ALL read, alot. The one defining factor, I believe is that their mother, my mother in-law, trained as a teacher before marriage and is a reader herself. She taught all of her children to read before they entered school, and encouraged reading as they grew up. My question boils down to environment over nurture where reading is concerned. Did their mother's influence concerning reading triumph, in this aspect, over the poverty issue. I will say that 4 out of the 5 children dropped out of high school and none of them attended college, despite both parents being college graduates.
With my own children I have not only tried to fan the fire of the love of reading, I have also tried to expose them to books that inspire character and reaching above your circumstances. I did not want to see my children sucked down many of the paths that their aunts and uncles, despite being raised in poverty. So far it seems to be working. My daughter Christen, 18, is heading off this week to move to La Grande to attend Eastern in the fall. All of my children are respectful and well thought of in our small community. It makes me wonder about the power of reading, and education. Yeats said "Education is not the filling of a bucket, but the lighting of a fire", if we can light the fire and build it big enough, will it help our nations children to make a better world? I do not know but I am going to continue my own small experiment here, hit me up in about 20 years and I'll tell you how it went!
Friday, June 29, 2012
A Rose for Emily
"As they recrossed the lawn, a window that had been dark was lighted and Miss Emily sat in it, the light behind her, and her upper right torso motionless as that of an idol. (Faulkner 31) This sentence caught me because it was the first overtones of something a bit sinister. It is during that part of the story when they talk about the smell, and as the men are sneaking away, here in a window sits Miss Emily. In my head it is a scene as you might see in one of the "Psycho" movies. Faulkner's description is vivid, and you get that chill as you imagine her in that window, lighted from behind. Later in the book he uses some similar imagery; "Now and then we would see her in one of the downstairs windows-she had evidently shut up the top floor of the house-like the carven torso of an idol in a niche, looking or not looking at us, we could never tell which." (Faulkner 34) Once again Faulkner describes her menacing presence at the window, using that same imagery of an idol. This time it is used right before the reveal, which is not a total reveal because all we know is a vague understanding of what happened, no details and none of the why's of the event. The narrative style Faulkner uses in the story allows you to follow the story, in jags and spurts, and has overtones of insanity but with none of the suspense devices common in other novels, but the sinister element is woven in, almost unnoticed until the reveal.
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Introduction
My name is Jennifer but most people call me mom! I have 9 children and all of their friends also call me mom! When the children and I were involved with a re-enactment/ muzzle-loaders club we all received trail names and mine was "Trail Mom", but you can all call me Jennifer. I am a Business and Health Promotion major and a Health Studies minor. I live on a farm/ranch in Grant County Oregon. I live in a very remote location and drive an hour just to buy gas or attend church, serious shopping or medical care is 2 hours away. My children and I raise milk goats and cows, pigs, chickens and other fowl, and always seem to have way too many dogs and cats. For fun we take walks, swim in the river, play board games, and make music. We produce much of our own food which is the point of living out here, even though I have been known to claim it is to keep my daughters away from boys. I have more hobbies than you can shake a stick at. I am a certified information junkie and bibliophile. I home educated my children for 18 years, but last year when I chose to attend EOU online many of them began attending the local public school, one hour away and they are enjoying it. My husband is in end stage kidney failure and a recent addition to the Oregon transplant list.
I entered first grade not even knowing my alphabet and I remember my teachers exasperation about it, however by the end of the year I was reading so advanced that I had my own reading group. I am a reader from a family of non-readers, neither of my parents read and most of my siblings aren't too keen on it either, I have a sister that has never read a book that wasn't assigned! My mother was never taught phonics and it always made reading hard for her. I remember that when it became clear that my little brother's teacher was not teaching phonics, my mother assigned me, then 15, to teach him. I have taught many people, young and old, to read since then. Mom was always concerned that I was "addicted" to reading and used to take my books away for days at a time if she felt I was reading too much. I cannot count the number of whippings I received for being caught reading in the bathroom with the door locked or hiding under the covers with a flashlight in the wee hours. The worst reading related whipping though was when she caught me reading my first romance novel. She hid it in her bedside table where I continued to sneak in and read it until I finished it. Today I read on average of a novel a day, even while attending full time, in part because I read incredibly rapidly. In fiction I can be found reading western, action adventure, chick lit, murder mysteries, fantasy and romance. Probably romance is my most common fictional read. In non-fiction I read books that interest me and I have rarely found any that don't. On the dresser at the foot of my bed you will find my current reading or to-read stacks, books on autism ( I have a 13 year old with ASD), health and fitness, history, alternative building and energy, and cheese making, also the latest Stephanie Plum novel. I own more books than Imelda Marcos had shoes. Currently the bulk of my book collection resides in an unused single wide on my property, and the children laugh about my books needing their own house! My children are almost all readers, and I have always read to them. The three youngest boys 9, 7, and 5, are currently enjoying the Narnia series as our bedtime read, and we just finished the Harry Potter series.
My 18 year old daughter Christen is currently reading "Eragon" by Christopher Paolini and "The Mediator" Series by Meg Cabot, both for the 5th time. She reads primarily fantasy. She says she reads because "it's better than real life". She was the first in my family to purchase an e-reader but she is currently jealous of my Kindle Fire. My 82 year old mother in-law is currently reading "The Intellectual Devotional of American History" because it is informational, and she learns more about America and it keeps her mind sharp. At bedtime she reads random Christian romance novels because they are light and she doesn't have to think too much. I called my little sister Becca, 34, and she said she just finished "Beautiful Disaster" by Jamie McGuire, a romance novel. She claims she reads them as an escape from reality and a chance to be 'irresponsible'. She is a busy mom of 3, one with special needs, so I can understand that.
I am looking forward to this class, and reading the other blogs.
I entered first grade not even knowing my alphabet and I remember my teachers exasperation about it, however by the end of the year I was reading so advanced that I had my own reading group. I am a reader from a family of non-readers, neither of my parents read and most of my siblings aren't too keen on it either, I have a sister that has never read a book that wasn't assigned! My mother was never taught phonics and it always made reading hard for her. I remember that when it became clear that my little brother's teacher was not teaching phonics, my mother assigned me, then 15, to teach him. I have taught many people, young and old, to read since then. Mom was always concerned that I was "addicted" to reading and used to take my books away for days at a time if she felt I was reading too much. I cannot count the number of whippings I received for being caught reading in the bathroom with the door locked or hiding under the covers with a flashlight in the wee hours. The worst reading related whipping though was when she caught me reading my first romance novel. She hid it in her bedside table where I continued to sneak in and read it until I finished it. Today I read on average of a novel a day, even while attending full time, in part because I read incredibly rapidly. In fiction I can be found reading western, action adventure, chick lit, murder mysteries, fantasy and romance. Probably romance is my most common fictional read. In non-fiction I read books that interest me and I have rarely found any that don't. On the dresser at the foot of my bed you will find my current reading or to-read stacks, books on autism ( I have a 13 year old with ASD), health and fitness, history, alternative building and energy, and cheese making, also the latest Stephanie Plum novel. I own more books than Imelda Marcos had shoes. Currently the bulk of my book collection resides in an unused single wide on my property, and the children laugh about my books needing their own house! My children are almost all readers, and I have always read to them. The three youngest boys 9, 7, and 5, are currently enjoying the Narnia series as our bedtime read, and we just finished the Harry Potter series.
My 18 year old daughter Christen is currently reading "Eragon" by Christopher Paolini and "The Mediator" Series by Meg Cabot, both for the 5th time. She reads primarily fantasy. She says she reads because "it's better than real life". She was the first in my family to purchase an e-reader but she is currently jealous of my Kindle Fire. My 82 year old mother in-law is currently reading "The Intellectual Devotional of American History" because it is informational, and she learns more about America and it keeps her mind sharp. At bedtime she reads random Christian romance novels because they are light and she doesn't have to think too much. I called my little sister Becca, 34, and she said she just finished "Beautiful Disaster" by Jamie McGuire, a romance novel. She claims she reads them as an escape from reality and a chance to be 'irresponsible'. She is a busy mom of 3, one with special needs, so I can understand that.
I am looking forward to this class, and reading the other blogs.
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