Overview
part 1) In your Reading 19, The Long and Twisting Path to Adulthood, the authors identify 5 ‘transitions’ that comprise becoming an adult in our culture: leaving home, completing school, entering the workforce, getting married, and having children. The authors also point out that often when young adults take longer, or fail, “to grow up,” there are usually larger economic, demographic, or cultural social forces at work. For this discussion, please pick one of the five ‘transitions,’ and discuss in more detail the contemporary reality of ‘growing up.’ Please pay particular attention to the role that family, economics, and culture play in the young people’s struggle to successfully leave their parental home, complete their education, enter the workforce, find a partner, or start a family, OR their choice to forgo one or more of these transitions, thus redefining what we mean by adulthood.
Part 2) read chapter 8 and answer the following questions
1) Reading 17 Beyond Sentimentality: American Childhood as a Social and Cultural Construct Steven Mintz
According to the authors, childhood is
An unchanging, biological stage of life A social and cultural construct A universal developmental phase A constant across cultures and times
2) Reading 17 Beyond Sentimentality: American Childhood as a Social and Cultural Construct Steven Mintz
The author mentions ‘the objectification of childhood’ as a form of psychological abuse. What does he mean?
3) Reading 18 Diverging Development: the Not-So-Invisible Hand of Social Class in the United States, Frank Furstenberg
The author states that when considered in the aggregate, there is as strong correlation between family characteristics, and school- and neighborhood quality. What does that mean? 4) Reading 19 The Long and Twisting Path to Adulthood, Richard A. Settersten, Jr., and Barbara Ray
Your authors state that unlike in the past, when couples married to build a life together, today young people build their lives separately and then marry. What do they mean?