Nick's ePortfolio

 Marriage and Family Relations

FHS 2400-003 

Paul L. Peay, Fall Semester 2011

          Several papers were assigned based off of many different family issues and topics throughout the term.

 For my signature assignment, I was to choose one of these assignments and provide a reflective writing to 

 accompany it of at least three paragraphs. I have copied the Reflective writing below. The assignment itself and

Reflection 

             The nature of this assignment (and many others like it) led me to consider fundamental questions surrounding parenthood. Perhaps, as a culture, we look very passively at a couple having children. We tend to consider this their right or freedom. If a couple has the freedom to have a child, then perhaps they also have the freedom to have it however or whenever they wish. The implications of this type of thinking leads one to consider further the difference between the ideal and the realistic, the fanciful and the practical, as well as the difference between the popular and the controversial.

            This assignment helped me dig deeper into the basic ideas in a society, and reconsider the basis for my beliefs and biases. In nearly every class, my original assumptions or concepts of family statistics and trends are challenged. In my opinion, that has been the most enriching and interesting part of this class. Rather than quickly give a superficial half-thought-out answer, I am encouraged to consider many new factors about fundamental practices. These factors include changing national and local norms, scientific research, historical patterns, incorrect public views, and so on. For example, it was my understanding that the local homosexual population made up 10 to 15 percent of our population. However, past research has indicated that that percentage is probably closer to less than 1 percent of the population.

            This additional consideration, to me, is valuable. After all, how often do we make decisions which greatly impact our lives? How often are these choices (such as choices shaping our family experiences) made with only generational norms or local trends as our basis? This assignment helps me to think more critically, politically, practically and even more scientifically when facing such decisions. After all, a subject like “becoming a parent” should warrant more than a minute’s contemplation or a single person’s viewpoint.

            That is something that this class has in common with my other course: “The Economic History of the United States.” The consideration of multiple factors in making decisions has proven to be a take-home lesson for both classes. Not only have both classes presented some of the same historical material, but they have also complimented each other. For example, in my Economics class, we discussed the things which led to women entering the workplace during the industrial revolution.  The short-term effects on the family and the nation economically were also discussed. Then in my Marriage and Family Relations class, we discussed how women working during the industrial revolution would change gender roles and cultural norms which still affect families today.

Nicholas Burk
November 15, 2011