Wendell Berry’s essay, “Family Work”, is about the influence of technology and the need to return to traditional values. Berry argues for the reduction of technology by reinstating the traditional family values and learning to be a better parent. I agree with Wendell Berry. When I was a small child, my family always went over to my grandmother’s house for Easter. My older cousins would hide the Easter Eggs and leave the hunting to the smaller kids. There were always two special crystal eggs. (The eggs weren’t really made of crystal. They were just shinny plastic eggs.) If you found one of the two crystal eggs, you’d get a special prize. Sometimes the prize would be a stuffed animal or a dozen of our grandma’s special brownies. I loved going there for Easter. Our visits stopped after my brother was born. After my brother’s birth, we ended up staying home and watching Here Comes Peter Cotton Tail by Rankin and Bass. When I think back on my life, I wish we could …show more content…
have continued to visit my grandmother on Easter. It’s sad that my brother never had a chance to participate in our family tradition. Years later, I asked my dad why we didn’t continue the tradition.
He told me that bringing a baby everywhere was hard work. At the time, it made sense to stay home to take care of the baby. My mom would put in the Peter Cotton Tail VHS just because it was an Easter movie. After a while, my parents decided that watching a movie was easier than traveling for Easter. The ‘convenient’ TV replaced our Easter tradition. As an adolescent, a child’s first role model is their parents. Most children watch their parents do something and then try to replicate it. Imitating is one of the first instinctual actions for most humans. An example of this can be seen in my life. I remember watching my dad separating his food into different corners of his plate. When I asked what he was doing, he told me that he didn’t like his food to touch. This simple action of him not wanting his food to touch each other has made me feel the same about the food on my plate. Even now, I don’t like it when my peas touch my mashed
potatoes. The same thing happened to my brother. He and I saw my dad pushing around his food and imitated him. However, my brother’s dislike of food touching each other subsided when he was older. I believe this happened because of the TV and outside influence. When he turned 10, he decided that maybe it was okay for his food to touch. My mother caught him eating fish crackers and almonds in the same bowl. She was confused by my brother’s action and asked him if he was okay. He nodded and told her that not letting food touch was weird. He said that no “normal person” on TV did that. Now, when my dad and I push food off to the corners of our plates, my brother has something to say about it. Although I agree with Berry’s position, I do not believe that we should throw our TVs out. It is an impractical solution. However, unplugging the TV from time to time is not a bad practice. It would give families more time to spend with each other. What would Thanksgiving be without the annual Macy’s Day Parade or the Turkey Bowl? Watching Football and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade are some of my family’s Thanksgiving traditions. What would the Christmas season be without the Rankin and Bass Christmas specials? Those Christmas specials were what made the Christmas season magical.
In the essay “Supporting Family Values,” Linda Chavez makes a case for allowing illegal immigrants to stay in the U.S. because they bring with them a stronger sense of family values than native-born residents do. In addition to Chavez’s arguments, it is important to note that they also bring with them a desire to work and support those families. While many immigration opponents would argue that immigrants are a drain on our public resources and have higher crime rates, the facts show that many illegal immigrants pay their fair share of taxes, many more would if given the opportunity, and the crime rates are lower.
In “A Half-Pint of Old Darling”, by Wendell Berry, being honest is an important factor in a relationship. Miss Minnie and Ptolemy Proudfoot are a prime example as such when they keep secrets from one another, but then fix some things with the truth. They head over a major road bump that is eventually solved after being honest with one another. It seemingly makes their relationship stronger when the story concludes. Most of the secrets are kept in fear of hurting the other, which ends up happening one day when Tol sneaks Old Darling alcohol into their buggy. It is seen that hiding the truth means one is not being honest to his or her self, as well as to another. In this story, secrets leave speculation as to just how well Miss Minnie and Ptolemy Proudfoot’s relationship really is, and if things end up changing after a huge mistake.
Walking across a dessert to a place where you know your family is going to have a better life and better opportunities. You can just see it as you are getting closer to where your destination is but what is that destination well in Linda Chavez writing “Supporting Family Values” it is the United States of America. Chavez writing is not just about illegal immigrants in the U.S. but also the they family values are not what most people think.
Wendell Berry argues that “the aim” of technological progress “cannot be the integrity or happiness of our families, which we have made subordinate to the education system, the television industry, and the consumer economy” (3-5). But it is two of these things that are often an element of caring for one’s family. Caring for one’s family entails that someone works their hardest to give the best possible life and future for them. One of humanities aims is still the integrity of those close to them, which often it is ensured through
Journalist, Jane Howard in her argumentative essay, “ In Search of a Good Family “ emphasized the markers of a good family. Howard's purpose is to give her opinion on families, because she thinks human being should not be alone. She adopts an educated, factual and knowledgeable time in order to appeal to similar feelings and experiences towards the whole country. Howard uses many rhetorical question, metaphors , repetition, and allusions to help her pull her argument together Howard argues how essential is to have a good family. All human being need a family , clan or a tribe in order to survive in the real world. No matter where you are or what are the circumstances you are going through. You would always have somewhere or someone to fall back to.
Several changes have occurred since the 1920s in traditional family values and the family life. Research revealed several different findings among family values, the way things were done and are now done, and the different kinds of old and new world struggles.
As mentioned before, sociologists Coontz and Hochschild further elaborate upon Parsons and Bales’ concepts of the American family, but they mostly critique the idea of the male-breadwinner family. One of the main arguments Coontz and Hochschild present is the decline of the male-breadwinner family due to the economic changes of the United States and the arising social norms of consumerism. Because Parsons and Bales never considered how the changes throughout society would affect family, they believed the male-breadwinner family would continue to be a functional type of family for everyone. However, within her text, “What We Really Miss about the 1950s,” Coontz specifically discusses the major expense of keeping mothers at home as consumption norms...
Mr. Richtel, though, doesn’t seem content to let people go about their lives without realizing the potential ramifications overuse of technology might have on their lives. By shining a spotlight on an actual family, he seeks to show his readers how families in the modern age truly exist, and perhaps to have his readers recognize behaviors similar to those described in the article in themselves, and make a conscious effort to try to change their habits.
In Ray Bradbury’s, “The Veldt” he illustrates the possible effects of letting technology dominate family life. The integration of technology into major and basic functions of everyday life had a detrimental effect on the wellbeing of all the characters in this story. Since the parents invested so much time in the technology, they were eventually over run by it. As a result, the house was able to turn the children against the parents while driving the parents insane at the same time proving that the house had full control over the family. The children were convinced into believing the nursery was all they needed and killing their parents was right. This event relates to a quote from the article “Is Google making us Stupid”, “As we come to rely on computers to mediate our understanding of the world, it is our own intelligence that become...
Numerous other studies have also showed how children seem to mimic the persona of their parents. It is well-known that children often attempt to copy their parents, but furthermore they seem to become a certain type of person that fits the “middle-class” mold. These children see how their parents interact with other adults through aspects such as their speech and even dress. This prompts the children to expect the same results when acting in the same manner. The working-class students rarely see how their parents interact with such entitlement either because they do not have the means or the confidence. They in turn remain more timid and less pro-active.
At a young age children tend to capture everything they see. When children see their parents doing inappropriate activities, the children tend to imitate because they cannot process right from wrong. Children are also very energetic. In the church in Sand Mountain the “children were racing down the aisles” because they see what their fathers are doing and imitate them (Covington 311).
Role Modeling Bandura’s Social Learning Theory (1977) posits that people learn from one another, via observation, imitation, and modeling. Banudura says “Most human behavior is learned observationally through modeling: from observing others, one forms an idea of how new behaviors are performed, and on later occasions this coded information serves as a guide for action.” This is an important role as a childcarer because it is vital that you behave appropriately at all times as children learn from your behaviours and at the same time you must encourage children to learn certain behaviours through role modeling, such as eating. Equality
I think that technology has had both positively and negatively impacted the family life in our society. But I think the positive effects out way the negative ones. In this term paper I will focus on how cell phones, internet, and home security systems. These are only a few of the technology that has affected family life. I will first talk about the positive effects then I will explain the negative effects.
Children sometimes feel as if parents are mean and overprotective. Children get mad when their parents do not let them date at a certain age, stay out late, and even wear certain clothes. But parents always have a reason for their actions whether the child may like it or not. An example, one’s parent may have dated at a younger age and ends up pregnant. Parents do not want their children to make the same mistakes as they have done. Another example, everyone wants to wear the latest trending clothes. For women the clothes may be too revealing or makes the child look older than what she is. For men, the clothes may be baggy and not professional. Parents try not to let their children dress a certain way because they care about their children’s appearance. Some parents did not have anyone to tell them how to dress or carry themselves when they were younger. All of this ties in with having
Everyone seems to define family differently, however, the significance of family is the same. For you, family means everything. You can always count on your parents and siblings for help and love. Family is very valuable and important to you and should never be taken for granted. No one can deny that family is the foundation of our generation. A family is where we all start our life journey and helps us grow to be successful throughout our lives.