My Family As A Builder Of Knowledge, Community, And Values Essay

Family! Family! Family! Family can be a wonderful thing. It can be healthy or unhealthy. It can be functional or dysfunctional. Family means different things to different people. Some families are loving and close. Some families are mean, hateful, and distant. There are different types of relationships within a family unit. Relationships can be enmeshed, detached, or disengaged; these types of relationships are unhealthy. The family system can be open and homeostatic; these kinds of relationship are healthy. We are all born into different families with different situations. Sometimes life can be hard, with all of its facets and difficulties, and ups and downs. Looking at the past of one 's life can be a happy event for some, but for others, it can be tormenting to have to reminisce about the past.

Growing up as a kid, the people I looked up to the most were my parents. As I got older I started to realize how much I started to influence my sister's and started becoming a role model to them. My family growing up hasn't been the greatest family or really even a normal one from what I think a family should actually be. ️

Family is an important aspect of society. Keeping a family stable is a hard task and the definition of family has expanded from what it used to be because nuclear families are not the norm nowadays. Throughout history the African-American family has had to face traumatic events such as slavery, the Great Migration, the Harlem Renaissance, and the Civil Rights Movement. The racism, segregation, and discrimination that followed these movements have also played an integral role in developing the black family. It takes diligence, strength, and courage in order to be able to persevere through hardship. Society as a whole has tried to undermine the black family by implementing in them a false identity of inferiority. If there are strong nuclear black families today, that means that powerful people in history have been forced to step up in order to make a difference within their community. From the beginning of the play to the very end, Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun displays the vital theme of family. In the play there are multiple generations within the Younger Family’s household. The different generations come to show how the African-American family has had to evolve over time. A Raisin in the Sun highlighted the difficulties that families have in order to be able to overcome poverty, aspirations, and the society.

In The Way We Never Were, Stephanie Coontz suggests that society romanticizes past generations of family life and points out that these memories are merely myths that prevent us from “dealing more effectively with the problems facing today’s families” (Coontz x). Coontz proposes that researchers can take empirical data and create misleading causality for that data, thus feeding cultural myth and/or experience. Coontz believes that “an overemphasis on personal responsibility for strengthening family values encourages a way of thinking that leads to moralizing rather than mobilizing for concrete reforms” (Coontz 22). She calls on us to direct our attention to social reforms, which can be accomplished by avoiding victim-blaming

Working in an elementary school, I have had several times when I have met someone with a different worldview than mine. For instance, I have had students that are Jehovah's Witness. Some challenges that I have had relating to those students are centered around holidays activities and birthday parties. One of my students was not allowed to participate in any holiday activities or birthday parties. Her parents did not celebrate holidays or birthdays and they did not want her to participate. If we had a special Christmas program, I would have to arrange for her to go to a different classroom. My principle would let her come help her during any special events.

Family is one of the most important relationships that an individual will encounter in his/her lifetime. I have often times heard the saying “blood is thicker than water” and I do agree that this quote is truthful. Many families share the same blood and the connection is very deep. Even families that do not share the same blood have deep connections that make them family. Family can be immediate or distant and can originate in many shapes or forms. In this paper I will observe my personal, immediate family and share some characteristic as well as describe in what way it relates to the family systems that we have encountered in this class until this point.

Over the past years of my life, many things have changed, including my friends, lifestyle, religious beliefs and jobs. With everything constantly changing around me, there is one thing that has always stayed the same: my family. When I think about my most blissful moments in life, they all involve my family. My relationship with my parents, brother, husband and children is something that I learn to treasure more and more every day. There are many significant things in my life, but the most important relationship to me is family.

My family history is rather unclear and unexplored. I do know that my maternal grandmother was adopted. My paternal side is said to be Italian. I come from an English speaking family. The geographic range is also unexplored and limited to western Pennsylvania. I grew up in the small town of Nolo, Pennsylvania. I can recall moving from one house to another but within the same county. I did change school districts one time. I would consider this to be very stable. Currently, I reside in Indiana county where I grew up. I have been married for six years and have a two year old son that will soon be a big brother. My wife and I built a home within the same geographical location as our parents. My spouse was also raised in a stable nuclear style family structure.

I was born in Austin, Texas as the first child and I was surrounded by a very supportive and caring family. My mom was born in Chanhassen, Minnesota and my dad grew up in Austin, Texas. My Mom’s family lives in Minnesota and we have spent summers traveling there since I can remember. I have always enjoyed going there and spending time with my grandparents, my aunt, uncles and cousins. We would have these amazing dinners at my grandparent’s house where the entire family would come and celebrate my grandma’s delicious cooking. I can remember spending time at my aunt and uncle’s cabin on a lake in Minnesota where we would do nothing but fish for days. My Uncle Darrell is an avid fisherman and we had fun catching lots of fish. My Grandpa Scholer and my Uncle Darrell are retired military. My grandpa was part of the command unit for General Eisenhower in the Battle of the Bulge. On top of the amazing family and support system in Minnesota, I have an extremely encouraging family here in Austin. Growing up, my Grandma Ruth wouldn’t miss one of my baseball games for anything. My Grandpa Bryant would host family gatherings and was also very supportive of me. My mom’s brother, Bob and his family would always have us over for lots of fun celebrations. I have been blessed with two amazing families and I can’t even begin to say how much I love and care for them all.

We are a family of four: my mom, my dad, my sister and I. Passed down from generation to generation, the values of commitment, respect, and faith have been instilled in my life by my parents. Throughout my childhood, my parents have shaped the way I look at the world by teaching me lessons and guiding me to the right path.

Family has assumed a key part in molding me into the individual I am today. However, as I have matured, I have developed my own standards in view of my comprehension of the world. My family 's qualities are anchored firmly on religion and we attempt to live the values that the Bible lays out. Growing up, my family instilled Christian qualities into me and these qualities are imbued in my memory and I attempt to practice them despite the fact that I don 't generally succeed. As of now, I am driven by aspiration and yearning to be at peace with myself. I have certain objectives I need to accomplish and my qualities and morals have advanced to incorporate them while attempting to keep up those morals I learned when I was young. There since have been occurrences whereby I have gotten in difficulties and I need to settle on what I know to be right and what serves my self-interest. I can 't assert that I generally make the best choices. Yet, I pride myself on being principled. Usually, I adhere to a specific way on the off chance that I feel that it is right with my beliefs. My struggle with is with the whisper in my ear attempting to occupy me from my previously chosen way, however I am persistent, resolute, and take after what I have confidence in to be right to me. I rarely make serious ethical violations but I will not hesitate to own my actions.

A change in characters happened throughout the novel. At the beginning of the novel, Nath, Lydia’s brother, was doing everything in his power to keep Lydia from being happy. He believed that Lydia was receiving favoritism from their parents, so he got jealous and tried to change this. For example, he knew his younger sister did not know how to swim. However, he pushed his sister into the lake to make her learn how to and to see her struggle because of his harsh feelings towards her. This caused Lydia to almost drown, foreshadowing what caused her death. Then, when he learns of Lydia’s death by drowning, he is extremely affected. He finally becomes concerned, however, at this point, it was too late. He wanted to get to the bottom of her death. There was an investigation to see if she had committed suicide or if she was kidnapped and murdered. To figure this out, at Lydia’s funeral, he found a boy that he thought was taking advantage of Lydia. Nath knew the day before Lydia went missing that she was with her friend Jake. He did not trust him. Nath knew that when the two of them hung out, all they did was smoke. However, he also knew that Jake frequently looked to have sexual relationships with other girls, so he thought that he also tried this with his younger sister. Nath approached him at the funeral and suddenly started questioning him and then punched him. Nath’s actions and feelings about his sister changed because of her death.

No one can’t meet a family like mine’s. My family is well diversified. Every family member plays an important role in all my family’s lives. In my family, there are four people: my father, my mother, my little brother and me. My father is one who brings money home and is also responsible for organizing and planning family trips. My mother is the one who is in charge for making meals and makes sure everyone eats at the appropriate times. My little brother is the pet of the family. He actually doesn’t have any responsibilities, for he’s the pet. I am the rock of support in my family. I always go beyond my parents’ expectations. I also support my younger cousins and little brother, by being a role model that they can look up to. Another

Over the summer, I put my own values above my family’s for the first time. This led to my decision to move out and begin crafting my own life by making choices that I give myself. My family would no longer be making my decisions for me. In response, my father felt as though his values should be placed above mine. He was so upset that one of the things he said to me was, “I am extremely disappointed in you.” His remark only furthered my decision to leave; I had recognized that my personal values were more important than family values.

When I think about who I am in my family, I recall my experiences, good and bad, that has made me who I am today. To begin with, my parents divorced when I was a toddler, so my family consists of the maternal side of the tree; they’re too loud, too proud, and full of drama, but I 'm sure that all families have brown spots–don’t they? When is a family considered dysfunctional? Is there some secret sauce that makes up a functional family?