Amy+R.


 * Record of Assignments**
 * Name of Student: Amy Rogers**



toc

** Adolescence **

** W : What you want to know (curiosities/inquiry questions) **
1. **Affects of an absentee parent on the development of an adolescent**

First poster:



Final poster:

** Resource #1 **

 * Read:**
 * The article that I picked had to do with family structure and adolescent behavior, specifically to drugs and alcohol. To analyze these; the authors did a research study with 9 urban schools. They studied 630 10th grade students. This article revealed insight to my topic in that they found that drug and alcohol use did relate to family structure. They found that the absence of a father has been associated with negative outcomes and that children in single parent families engage in more problem behaviors than children in two parents homes. Overall it was stated that the presence and quality of an affectionate and non-conflicted parent protects the child from substance use.
 * This journal article also noted that their study was done among predominately African Americans and they found that girls were more susceptible to substance abuse than in boys. The mother figure plays a very strong role in the family and a lack of father or a stepfather causes conflict for a child.


 * Respond:**
 * Everything that was stated in the article was something that I thought would be true, I just didn't know for sure because I had never read into it. Parenting is something that shapes an individuals development and if there is essentially no one taking care of an individual, then they will make some poor decisions with no repercussions. I was glad that I found this article because it connected two of my questions that I had: how does an absentee parent affect the development of an adolescent and how do drugs and alcohol affect the development of an adolescent. Connecting this to my future career- I feel that the two questions I have are very important. I will come across students that may very well be in this type of situation or something similar and it is important to understand why a student is acting negatively and then try to figure out the best way to approach the situation. These topics are not something that I can relate to and that is why I think it is even more important to understand.


 * APA Citation:**
 * Peer influences and drug use among urban adolescents: Family structure and parent–adolescent relationship as protective factors.  [|Farrell, Albert D.] ; [|White, Kamila S.]   Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, Vol 66(2), Apr 1998, 248-258


 * Read:**
 * The article that I read was //Marriage, parenting, and child development: Progress and prospects.// This article began by breaking down the different family system problems and stating how they would impact a child's behavior. This journal article stated that a harmonious marriage equated to compliant children that were less likely to act out. As early as infancy- a distressed marriage can cause behavioral issues from children all the way into adolescence. This study linked problematic marriages to child anxiety, aggression, internalizing and externalizing behavior problems and insecure infant-parent attachment relationships.
 * Another interesting point that this article presents is that marital discord doesn't just stop within the parents relationship. If two parents are unable to get along they may practice different views of direction, guidance, and discipline to the child which can be inconsistent and problematic.
 * Lastly, the role of the mother and father is very likely to change if they do not have a harmonious marriage. A reasonable hypothesis in this article noted that fathers will tend to withdraw themselves from family relationships if they are dissatisfied with their marriage. If this happens normally the mother will try to over compensate her self in involvement of the child- not only for her child's benefit, but for her own since she will receive less support from her spouse.


 * Respond:**
 * While I thought this article brought very valid and very true points- it is a slightly older article. I choose this article because I am interested on the effects of parents on an adolescent. I am more focused on absentee parents but I did want to read something about parents being present. I thought that this article would touch on the affects of divorce on a child but it only vaguely referenced this.


 * APA Citation:**
 * Marriage, parenting, and child development: Progress and prospects.  [|Gable, Sara] ; [|Belsky, Jay] ; [|Crnic, Keith]   Journal of Family Psychology, Vol 5(3-4), Mar-Jun 1992, 276-294

** Resource #3 **

 * Read:**
 * This journal article, //Child Maltreatment//, states that child neglect is correlated with adverse psychological and education outcomes and it is hypothesized that these outcomes may be caused by adverse brain development. This could be caused by stress and elevated levels of stress chemicals in the brain. To study the brain development, MRI methods were used. This article goes in depth into the actual parts of the brain and how each is affected by stress caused by neglect of a parent. Neglect doesn't only cause problems with education but with social relationships. Maltreated children can have issues with their social processing portions of the brain. The following adversities can compromise neuropsychological and psychosocial outcomes:
 * Physical/Sexual Abuse
 * Prenatal exposure to substances
 * Witnessing domestic violence
 * Poor nutrition
 * Poverty
 * Lack of educational opportunities


 * Respond:**
 * While this article may be more extreme to my inquiry question of how an absentee parent affects an adolescent; it most definitely gives some insight. Many of the characteristics listed above can be caused because a parent is void of a child's life. Poor nutrition and lack of educational opportunities seemed to be some of the less extreme reasons that could easily come from just a parent not being present and involved in a child's life. Something that I can relate this article to is a study that was talked about in my animal behavior class. The study presented young monkey's with "surrogate" mothers. Both were wired mothers; one had food present and one had a blanked wrapped around it. The young monkey's preferred to stay with the more comfortable of the two surrogates however would go to the other surrogate for food only. After these monkey's grew up they were socially inept and had odd behaviors for monkey's. This article commented that children's brains can also develop to have social issues as well. Since it is fairly difficult to really study a neglected child while the child is being neglected this article used a lot of information that was already known about the brain however they did a good job of giving actual examples. I would like to find an article that gives more child case studies of children that had absentee parents.


 * APA Citation:**
 * De Bellis, M. D. (2005). The psychobiology of neglect. // Child Maltreatment, ////10 //(2), 150-172. doi:10.1177/1077559505275116

** Resource #4 **

 * Read:**
 * This journal article was based on a telephone questionairre that used questions to place what type of parenting style the subject had as a child and then used questions to ask to see what type of outcomes their upbringing showed. The majority of the subjects were mid-life. So they had plenty of life experiences. They also questioned in their article whether sex, race, and childhood SES moderate the connection between remembered parenting styles and psychological well-being, depressive symptoms, and substance abuse, controlling for variables that are known to be associated with adult functioning.
 * The results found were as follows:
 * Psychological Well-Being: adults who remembered authoritarian or uninvolved parenting as children reported lower psychological well-being compared with adults who recalled their parents being authoritative.
 * Depressive Symptoms: adults who remembered authoritarian or uninvolved parenting as children reported more depressive symptoms compared with adults who recalled their parents being authoritative. Whites with authoritarian showed higher depressive symptoms than non-whites.
 * Substance Abuse: adults who remembered uninvolved parents reported more substance abuse compared with those who remembered authoritative parents.
 * The results of this study favored that indeed, authoritative parenting is the best style to use as it predicts better well-being and self-esteem through life.


 * Respond:**
 * This article was a phone survey so that could greatly impact the data that could have been attained. With any study the subjects have to want to participate and this can always skew the results. The study seemed to be very basic and did not go into a lot of detail. It was very "textbook" in promoting authoritative as the number one parenting style and did not say much about the other style or show any other connections except that authoritarian and uninvolved parenting styles caused the well being of many individuals to be lacking. However this is something I can use to show that an uninvolved parent can cause many problems for their child, problems that will follow them later in life. I did find it interesting that for depressive symptoms, whites had a higher number than nonwhites and this is something that I wish they would have included more about. For drug abuse, the uninvolved parenting style was the only one that showed a significant higher rate. This is something I am seeing as a very common element. Many articles I have looked at show that uninvolved or absentee parents have children that abuse drugs. This will probably be the basis for most of my presentation seeing that it is the most information that I can find. I also found it interesting that uninvolved and authoritarian shared similar results for the catagories, as they seem to be very different.


 * APA Citation:**
 * Rothrauff, T. C., Cooney, T. M., & An, J. S. (2009). Remembered parenting styles and adjustment in middle and late adulthood. //The Journals of Gerontology. Series B, Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, ////64 //(1), 137-146. doi:10.1093/geronb/gbn008

** 5. Sexuality Activity **
([])

From this site I read through the 2011 Climate Survey. This was a collection of data that was collected from students from the LGBT community via survey. The sample taken was from 8,584 students between the ages of 13 and 20 from all states. The survey details the problems seen in school districts with regards to LGBT youth and also lists possible resolutions.
 * Describe your resource:**

The key problems listed were: -Biased Remarks -Safety and Victimization at School -Absenteeism -Lower Educational Aspiration and Academic Achievement -Poorer Psychological Well-Being

It was amazing how high the majority of these numbers are. What was more shocking to me was that 56.9% of students heard negative remarks from their teachers or school staffs. Not only were homophobic remarks documented, but so were sexist and racist remarks.

The report also lists solution, finding that they saw to help improve the problems listed above. This survey has shown that Gay-Straight Alliances, Inclusive Curriculum, Comprehensive Bullying/Harassment Policies and Laws, and Supportive Educators all help to reduce the high percentages in the problem areas.

There is no doubt that these are real issues within school systems and every student and every teacher should be made aware of this and all of the solutions listed with in the report need to be in every school. The solutions listed aren't unattainable for any school.

2011 National School Climate Survey
 * Link to your specific resource:**

** A. Site details: **

 * Name of site: AMC Theatre
 * Link to site: [|AMC Theatre]
 * Contact person:
 * [[image:AMC picture.jpg width="274" height="204"]]

__ ** B. Describe your setting ** __
AMC Theatre in West Chester, formally known as "The Rave" is a large colorful building in The Streets of West Chester. This is not much to do on a Friday night when you are in high school besides go to The Streets of West Chester or go down to Clifton and sneak into a hookah bar. It is considered lucky if someone's parents go out of town because that is really the only time that any "party" atmosphere occurs. Within walking distance there is a variety of different eateries, a bookstore, an ice cream shop, and a salon. It is perfect for high school students because they can tell their parents to drop them off to the movie early/pick them up late so that they can go to all of the different places prior to/after their movie. This AMC Theatre has a large parking lot surrounding the building and yet on a Friday night the lot is practically full. Parked along the drop off area is a cop car with no cop in sight. The large walkway is the hangout spot for all of the adolescents waiting to see their movie. They are very loud and excited. The are grouped up in different areas. The groups start out as predominantly female/male and then seem to work their way into one large group.

__** C. Describe what you did at the site (free-write/journal formatting) **__
Friday, October 4th. 7:00pm-8:30pm
 * __ 1st visit: __**

I choose to sit up on a ledge to view everyone that walked into and out of the movie theater. Normally a lot of people are standing outside but not as many as I thought there would be. I observe many young couples walking in; they look happy and they are holding hands. If I had to take a guess I would say the majority of them are no older than 16- they look very young! Small groups also walked in. Groups of 5 or 6 boys all wearing athletic apparel and dressed casually- different from the guys that walked in with girls (they were more dressed up). I also saw many groups entering with their parents which I found odd because when I was that age I rarely ever spent my Friday night at the movies with my parents. Also the crowd seemed very young, I checked what movies were play and there was a children's movie //Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs// playing so that could have deeply impacted the turnout. Around 8pm I started to notice that groups became smaller (2 people each). Two girls would walk in to the movies around 16 or 17 all wearing clothing that was very revealing- short shorts and backless shirts. Many of the clothing choices I saw were something that I wouldn't dare walk out of the house in. When I was younger I would get dressed up for the movies but now I rarely do. I guess that is really one of the only places in the area that adolescents can go to without their parents worrying- so this could impact why they dress up just to see a movie.

The only group I was able to truly observe the interactions of started as a group of 2 girls. They were wearing leggings and boots with nice/dressy tops. They went inside and purchased their tickets but then came back outside and immediately started sprinting as fast as they could and yelling until they got to the end of the parking lot. They walked back and sat on a ledge just opposite of the ledge I was sitting on- I was disappointed at first because I thought I wouldn't be able to hear them talk. However, they did a lot of yelling so that wasn't really an issue. They sat for a while and didn't talk. They were mostly doing something on their phones. Shortly after they started drawing attention to themselves. They were laughing and talking very loud. A boy (flat billed hat waiting for someone to pick him up) with his apparent girlfriend walked by and one of the girls started yelling "don't you remember me" and laughing. The girl friend looked upset that the girls were yelling at him and they wouldn't stop. Later two boys (same age as girls- 15/17) came up to the girls and then 2 more girls came over. They all seemed to know each other. At this time there are 3 white girls- dressed up, 1 black girl-dressed up, 2 black boys-dressed up, and one white boy-not dressed up. All seemed in pretty decent shape except the one white boy was overweight. The white boy started calling one of the girls a bi*** and yelling what the f*** very loud and people that are older standing outside start to walk inside. Then he started to shake a light pole and then he walked in front of a car. When he came back he called the girls ugly but the girls didn't seem to concerned because they were sitting next to the two other guys and flirting with them.

I did not have the turn out I expected. I think that I may have went on a homecoming night for one of the closer local school that may have contributed to this. Also the movie selection wasn't that great. So I have decided to go again on Halloween weekend because I would assume a scary movie is coming out and many people will go to see it. One other thing that I thought about was that when I was that age not everyone had a cell phone in 9th grade and if you did; you didn't always text everyone. I would go to the movies and wait outside with my friends to see if people that we liked were going to show up..etc. Now there are so many social networks and cell phones so people don't really have to do that. That would be something interesting to look into, the affect of technology with adolescent social behavior. I hope that after a few more observations I can adjust my questions to maybe better fit my observations because my site doesn't exactly relate to absentee parents. It is interesting to see how adolescents act when their parents are not present.

Friday, October 25th. 5:30-8:00
 * __2nd visit:__**

For my second visit I decided to sit inside the movie theatre in a section in front of the concessions and the arcade. I noticed that there were a few young workers all huddled together walking around (2 boys and 2 girls). They seemed to be laughing and talking and soon an adult worker came over and they began to disperse to the task that they were obviously given. There were alot of groups with there parent- alot of the movies were rated R so I assumed that the parents were there to buy them tickets. One group with a Dad was a group of 5 boys- all the same age and all in gym clothes. There were a few couples- I noticed that a younger couple (boy-girl) were dressed up and the boy bought his ticket for the girl. The girl was extremely skinny and was wearing leggings. I saw two younger girls that appeared to be in middle school walking around and could not get into their movie. They were wearing ugg boots and skinny jeans, I assumed that they came too early and seating was not yet available. They got food and sat down. They were eating candy and drinking slushies. I took the classes recommendations and decided to talk to them. It was very awkward for them and they were standoffish so I made the questions quick and to the point. I asked them the following: Do you like school? Do you do well in school? Do you get along with your parents? Do your parents actively monitor your grades and keep you on track?

The girls answered "yes" to all of the questions and did not elaborate- I didn't ask them too either. While I was asking the questions they didn't make any eye contact and just stared at their phones. I noticed that both girls were very overweight and that this would probably reflect on their poor eating habits (the candy and slushies).

After the questions the girls sat next to me and talked to eat other. One girl called her "Mommy" and yelled at her because she kept hanging up on her. She was getting an attitude with her Mom because her Mom seemed busy and wasn't listening to her on the phone- I believe she was trying to tell her Mom about how they were too early.

I would like to get the chance to talk to some older adolescents because I think that they would actually give more substantial answers and elaborate on their school-parent relationships. It was apparent that the two girls that I did talk to did not have the experience talking to people due to their lack of eye contact and playing on their phones while talking to me. I think an older adolescent would have still felt awkward, but more understanding and have better social skills.

It is interesting to see the dynamic on how the people going to the movies dress. Couples all seem to be dressed up and looking more presentable than the groups of friends of the same sex (at least for the boys). The couples I saw were all well put together but the groups of boys all had on sweatpants or basketball shorts. There were even a group of girls that had on sweatpants and yoga pants as opposed to the girls dressed up, seeing a movie with their boyfriends.

Friday, November 1st 6:00-8:30
 * __3rd visit:__**

I spent half of this visit outside the movie theater and the other half walking around The Streets of West Chester where many adolescents walk around after their movies. When I was outside this time there were more people than my previous visits. This time I paid attention to a group of six teenagers. Two girls were dropped off and began to walk up to the movies but waited outside. They had their jackets zipped all the way up when they were dropped off but as soon as they got out the unzipped them and they were both wearing clothes that were revealing so I would assume they didn't want whoever dropped them off to see what they were wearing. I can not really make assumptions but this indicated to me that they obviously had a parent that was somewhat concerned about their child and not an uninvolved parent that wouldn't care what their child was wearing. The girls sat up on the ledge next to the theater and one lit a cigarette, so they may have been 18- but they could be underage and smoking cigarettes. I personally didn't think they were since they had someone drop them off. About 20 minutes later a group of four guys walked over from the parking lot. They were all wearing clothes that were more casual and the girls were overly dressed up. They were all sitting a talking, they weren't being very loud. One of the girls her friend away from the group and told her something and they walked back over. One of the guys then was teasing and flirting with the girl that was pulled away.

After the small group went inside I continued to observe but I wasn't really getting anything new happening. I decided to start walking over to the Barnes and Nobles that is close because many adolescents like to go there before or after their movies. When I walked in they have a books section and a music section. There were adolescents present in both. I started in the books section and just browsed around looking at books. There were three girls that looked young laughing at a sex position book, I thought about walking over to hear what they were saying but I can't imagine the conversation was anything that I wanted to hear and I didn't want to look creepy! There was a couple over by the cook book area and the girl was very skinny and dressed up and the boy was presentable but not dressed up. He was joking about what foods he wanted her to make for him and he made a comment that she needed to buy all of the books and that she shouldn't leave the kitchen. She didn't seem mad about any of the comments that he was making and he kept making them. I would have been irritated if a guy was saying that to me.

I walked around on the sidewalks but didn't really get anything useful. Just groups of adolescents walking from restaurants to stores. I did notice that the crowed was a little older than it had been. This may have been because some newer movies just came out. I saw a lot of adolescents that looked like they were 17/18 and I did note that when groups of 17/18 year old's were walking around they did not draw as much attention to themselves as the groups that I thought looked 14-16. I stopped over by the restaurant steak and shake and sat down and ordered a milkshake. There was a group of girls (4) behind me that looked around 16-18 and I could hear basically all of their conversation. One was talking about someone who was a "slut" and how she was pretty sure she had a STD. They also talked about some of their teachers from school and how this "slut" was in that class with them and how she asked really "stupid" questions in class and they wanted to smack her every time she opened her mouth (their words).

I was happy that I decided to do something different for this observation. I got to hear more conversations then I normally do and they were quite amusing. I think that for this visit I can relate it more to my topic. Mainly with the girl that was smoking a cigarette. I honestly do not think she was 18 and I don't want to just make assumptions but by the way that they acted it seemed that they had parents who were at least somewhat involved in their lives and they had to get away from them to dress provocatively and smoke cigarettes because that would be something that their parent's would not approve of. I definitely got a lot more out of this observation.

[insert here- minimum of 2 paragraphs]
 * __4th visit:__**

[insert here- minimum of 2 paragraphs]
 * __5th visit:__**

** Physical **
I noticed that the boys that I saw that were with girls were almost always less developed than the girls. I only compared with couples and groups based on the assumptions that the boys and girls would be about the same age. The book agrees with what was observed, because it states that there is about a two year gap between when girls start maturing and when boys start maturing.
 * What did you notice about the physical differences between boys and girls (pp. 283-288)?**

At my observation site, the mood of many of the adolescents was happy. Only a few seemed upset due to events that occurred at the site. The mood was high for these adolescents because time spent with peers that coincided with Friday and Saturday evenings. All of my observations have been on Friday evenings and the majority of my major observations came from adolescents that were with friends.
 * What did you notice about the adolescent’s mood (p. 289)?**

I unfortunately did not have a lot to say about the relationship with adults. However, quite a few younger adolescents were grouped up with a parent (I would assume to see a higher rated movie). The adolescents that came with a parent were far less mature than the adolescents that came by themselves. I did not see any adolescents that looked between 16-18 with a parent. The book touches on the idea that as adolescents mature, the demand to be treated like adults and the have higher conflicts during this period. This could be a possible explanation as to why there were no matured adolescents seeing a movie with their parents on a Friday night.
 * What did you notice about the adolescent’s relationship with adults (p. 289)?**

A lot of girls tended to be wearing clothing that was exposing
 * What did you notice about the role of body image in adolescent behavior (p. 290)?**

I noticed that many of the same sex groups were physically similar. Girls that were more matured were dressing more provocatively together and girls that appeared less matured were wearing clothes that did not expose them. Even weight wise- girls that were more overweight tended to be grouped up together and girls that were very skinny or very athletic tended to be grouped together. This did not hold true for boys. Groups of boys varied in weight but they did seem to be about the same age. Couples that I saw were predominately heterosexual same aged adolescents of the same race. All of these observations correlate with the book stating that adolescents feel most comfortable with peers who match their own level of biological maturity.
 * What did you notice about peer relationships ( pp. 290-291)?**

At the movie theater, adolescents can eat before they come, go to steak and shake, or eat concessions. I noticed that many people were in line at the concession stand- buying large popcorns and large pops. I also observed two larger adolescents eating candy and slushies and this was probably one of the contributors to their obesity. The book states that around this age- adolescents are starting to make their own decisions about their health. If adolescents aren't properly guided this could be a very unhealthy time period for them.
 * What did you notice about eating habits (pp. 291-292)?**

I did not see a lot of issues around sex besides touching each other- but not in a sexual way.
 * What did you notice about issues around sex (sex education, sexual references, sexual activity, teen pregnancy, etc.) (pp. 293-299)**

The only observation on substance use was when I witnesses one girl smoking a cigarette and it appeared to me that she was not old enough. The book comments that this is a time of experimentation in adolescents and it is normal but it should not be taken lightly. A cigarette isn't as big of a deal but it could lead to something else which could further along the possibilities of someone having issues with drug abuse.
 * What did you notice about substance use or substance related references (pp. 299-300)?**

** Physical Cognitive **
What I did notice was that girls that were considered "skinny" or "in shape" would wear clothing that was more revealing than girls who were overweight or curvy. I also saw that a lot of the adolescents that were overweight were getting some of the concessions from the movie theatre. The boys that I observed really didn't have an obvious trait that I saw. I did see that in general adolescents of around the same age (or same physical appearance) were seeing movies together.

** Emotional **
There was close to nothing I observed about the emotional state of the adolescents. For the most part they all seemed happy- which the book states is common of many adolescents on a Friday night. I noticed a lot of immaturity and groups trying to draw attention to themselves by yelling or running out in front of cars. Also the girls that were looking at a sex position indicated that maybe they were curious and this could be under the "emotional" catagory.

** Social **
Many adolescents seemed happy to be at the movies and many came in groups. The majority of the groups I saw were same sex groups. But any groups that were mixed sexes seemed to drawing more attention to themselves and spending more time outside of the movie theatre prior to their move time. I also observed adolescents in the areas around the movie theatre and many were in larger groups having a good time and visiting the shops and such nearby.

** Revisiting Your Curiosities **
[Answer your original questions as best as you can, given the course material and your observations. You must make at least 4 references to the text with page numbers.] There are so many things that parents can do that affect the development of an adolescent. In general all of the articles that presented themselves to me were in strong support of authoritative parenting. This child rearing style is not always the case, and when parents are void from a child's life there is a plethora of adverse affects. A common factor that I emphasized in my poster was a factor of drug abuse. Many studies showed that when children had uninvolved parents they were more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol. This does not mean that every child that has an uninvolved parent is going to abuse drugs. There are many other factors that can build up to this. Poverty is another factor that puts a child with an uninvolved parent at a greater risk to abuse drugs/alcohol. A more extreme study that I found indicated that uninvolved parents do not have a part in a child's life and many a time this could be considered neglect and children may have an even more difficult time and turn to drugs and deviant peers who only emphasize deviant behaviors that can inhibit a child from doing well in school and taking care of their body.
 * W : What you want to know (inquiry questions) **
 * 1.**
 * Affects of an absentee parent on the development of an adolescent**

File is inserted at the top of the wiki.
 * 2. [insert title of PowerPoint or Poster]**

The poster is linked above in the wiki. It shows some of the key facts that I found while researching my topic.
 * 3. Creative Presentations**

As a future teacher I would like to research more on what types of things schools are doing about the problem of uninvolved parents. A school can not directly parent a child nor tell a parent how to parent a child but there could be implements to help and support children. Little things such a free healthy meals and after school programs can give children experiences and belonging that can help them steer clear of deviant behaviors that could possibly lead to drug abuse and an unhealthy lifestyle. Also, I would like to know if teachers have awareness of some of these problems. Being supportive and understanding of children may be something that teachers need to consider. I know a lot of people have the notion that it doesn't matter and school is school- not a place for teachers to be anything other than a teacher. But a teacher could be one of the only positive role models in a child's life.
 * 4. What new questions emerge for you as a future teacher?**

Late Adulthood

Describe your Older Adult Project:
 * For my older adult project I decided to spend some time talking with my Dad. He is 63 years old and to be honest we don't really spend much time together. Towards the end of my high school career I distanced myself from him a lot and we don't really do any activities together or have anything other than a simple conversation. When I was younger we did everything together and I would have labeled myself a "Daddy's girl". Before we spent some time together I thought about some of the things he used to tell me about his life so that I could ask him some questions and get a different perspective as opposed to when I was in middle school hearing about his life.
 * What I did remember is that he came from a smaller rural area in northern Ohio, where a lot of my family is located and he had a lot of interesting jobs. I remembered him telling me he did some security guard work, drywall hanging work, he drove a truck, and he worked for a mechanic. So he has had a lot of different experiences that I can not relate to. All my life I have lived in a suburb, I have only had retail and business management experiences and I am working toward a college degree which is a vastly different path then what he would have been doing at my age. I normally wouldn't choose a family member for a project because it can be a conflict of interests but I thought it would be more beneficial for myself and I could probably make more connections then I could with someone that I had never met before.

Describe your experience (2 paragraph minimum and make 4 references to the textbook):
 * During my experience we started out by getting a pizza and talking. I started asking him about when he broke his neck. He said that he went to the doctor and they jerked his neck around and put a cast on it. If something happened like that today he probably would have had surgery and less neck problems then today. I asked him when he got married the first time- since he was previously married and had children with someone else before he married my Mom. He was 23 when he got married and met her when he was 21. That is so different than my life considering I do not even have a boyfriend yet and couldn't see myself getting married at 23.
 * I asked him about his physical abilities from when he was my age to now. He was very fit at my age because he did a lot of manual labor but now he said he hurts some days and once he had to move a TV and actually got a hernia from lifting it. This is mentioned in the text that physical abilities decline with age. Also, he wears glasses because he can not see as well as he used to and his hair is graying- all things that the book mentions. I could tell that when I was talking to him he really enjoyed telling me his stories. We actually talked a few times after last week when I did the actual project and I asked a few more questions. One thing I noticed and understand a little better after taking this class is why my Dad wants to move back to Northern Ohio. Even though my Mom, Dad, and I live in Cincinnati, the rest of my family (including my siblings) all live farther away. My Dad always talks about moving back and my Mom (who is younger than my Dad) doesn't want to and neither do I. I can understand though that my dad is getting older and he probably wants to spend the other half of his life with all of his family. The book talks about people wanting to be comfortable when they die. I would hope that my dad isn't dying anytime soon but that is something to consider that he might want to just be more comfortable as he gets older. Even if he lives for 20 more years or so he will be getting older and things will be even harder for him to do. It is a sad thing to think about it but I definitely understand why he would want to move back now.