Glass Castle Essay Example
Glass Castle Essay Example

Glass Castle Essay Example

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  • Pages: 11 (2777 words)
  • Published: May 4, 2018
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Assignment the Glass Castle A. Jeannette Walls, in her memoir The Glass Castle, demonstrates Erikson’s eight stages of development. Through the carefully recounted stories of her childhood and adolescence, we are able to trace her development from one stage to the next. While Walls struggles through some of the early developmental stages, she inevitably succeeds and has positive outcomes through adulthood. The memoir itself is not only the proof that she is successful and productive in middle adulthood, but the memoir may also have been part of her healing process.

Writing is often a release and in writing her memoir and remembering her history, she may have been able to come to terms with her sad past. The memoir embodies both the proof that she has successfully graduated through Erickson’s stages of deve

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lopment while also being the reason that she is able to do so. Erikson posited that there are eight stages of psychosocial development that a human being goes through during his or her lifetime. A person is faced with a crisis or challenge in each stage and how one deals with or masters that crisis determines how fully developed a person they become.

Each stage builds on the previous stages and if one does not master the stage, and then it may cause problems later in life. Erikson’s first stage is infancy and the crisis is trust versus mistrust. The Child’s relationship to the parents are essential, particularly that of the child and the mother. The infant develops of sense of certainty and predictability about the mother’s presence and actions. The child is attached to the mother and often displays anxiety

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or rage if separated from the parent.

If an individual does not develop, learn, or understand trust in them-selves, others, or the world, then they may lose hope, a key quality gained from the mastering of this stage. When Jeannette is a toddler, she tumbles out of her parents’ car as her father was taking a sharp turn. She sat, injured, and waited for her parents to return. She waited for what seemed like a long time before I decided that Mom and Dad might not come back for me. Although she is passed the stage of infancy, it is clear that she did not develop trust in her parents and hence did not master Erikson’s first stage.

She questions if they will even notice her absence, come back to get her and make sure she is okay. While her father claims he would never have left her, it is apparent that Jeannette developed an inherent distrust in her parents by even questioning their return. This distrust is never completely erased as she grows up, but she learns to cope with it and is still able to trust in herself, others, and the world around her. Toddler is Erikson’s second stage and the crisis is autonomy versus doubt and shame.

During this stage, a toddler learns that he or she is a separate entity from the parent and can exercise an independent will and a way to develop an identity away from the parent. For the child to successfully master this stage, a parent needs to properly balance encouragement and support with boundaries and without being too demanding. Jeannette exhibits a sense

of autonomy when she cooks hotdogs for her family at a young age. While Jeannette displays her independence in this situation, her parents’ lack of guidance and boundaries is the reason she is injured by the fire from the stove.

This experience, however, does not induce shame or doubt in Jeannette. Instead, she maintains her strong will. Early childhood is Erikson’s third developmental stage and involves the crisis of initiative versus guilt. During this stage, a child begins planning and developing a sense of judgment. The child participates in risk-taking activities and guilt may result if the child cannot achieve the intended goal. A sense of guilt may also result in the child for not establishing initiative or successfully completing a task. Jeannette, as illustrated in the hotdog scene, demonstrates initiative.

In order to balance initiative and guilt, parents must give the child responsibility. Jeannette’s parents allow her to hold her baby sister in the back of the truck on the way to Battle Mountain. In doing this, they instill her with a sense of responsibility and accomplishment. It strengthens the skills that she will need as an adult. Jeannette becomes adept at setting goals and achieving them through independence and self-control. Elementary and middle school years (6-12) are Erikson’s fourth stage in which the child must resolve the crisis between industry and inferiority.

During this stage, a child becomes more aware of themselves as individuals. It is important that a child learn the feeling of success; if not allowed enough success, they might develop a sense of inferiority or incompetence. Again, it is about the balance of industry and inferiority that

leads to competence both intellectually and socially. Despite the fact that the Welsh school administration placed Jeannette in classes for students with learning disabilities, she knows she is smart. She was in honors classes in Phoenix and continues to excel academically under the guidance of her parents.

She reads on her own and understands that education is important. Despite her placement in the lower classes and not having any close friends, she is able to develop a sense of industry. Adolescence is Erikson’s fifth stage of development wherein the person must master the conflict of identity versus role confusion. The question, who I am? Is a question that arises during this time? The child is concerned with how they appear to others and are searching for a way to define themselves and create meaning. Jeannette takes on the role as the journalist in high school and it is in this that she finds her niche.

She is able to meet people because she is in charge of the newspaper and create the semblance of a social life. Journalism becomes her career path and she settles on this occupational identity. Erikson’s sixth stage is Young Adulthood in which the person must master the crisis of intimacy versus isolation and the quality that this stage centers around is love. Balancing intimacy and isolation is important in that only in knowing how to be on one’s own can one learn to truly love. Jeannette is married twice, first to Erik, then to John.

While she was able to develop intimacy and love with Erik, after five years, she realizes that he is a good man,

just not the right fit for her. After her separation, she is on her own again and appreciates her independence, exemplified through her ice-skating. Felt best when I was on the move, going someplace rather than being there Ice-skating was her way to escape, a distraction, to pretend to be somewhere she was not because she was not happy with her situation in life. After some time on her own and learning to accept isolation, she is able to find love again and this time, a more enduring love.

Generativity versus stagnation is the central conflict in Middle Adulthood, Erikson seventh stage of development. Concerns during this stage include parenting and work. Expressions of generativity are to establish and guide the next generation as well as offer socially valued work. Her second husband john also has kids from his first marriage so she takes on the role of a step mother. Jeannette has successfully made her way through almost all of Erikson Developmental stages. Although she experienced many trials and tribulations she has had kids, become a successful journalist and author, and doesn’t appear to really regret much.

Based on the ending of the memoir, The Glass Castle, she appears to be happy with her life, should she die today, she would die with integrity. By understanding Erickson’s psychological stages of development, the teacher can relate to the student as they learn to adjust in their personal development. Their behavior can be better understood with regard to their prior development and experiences. A variety of theories attempt to explain why students display certain characteristics or traits at some periods and not at others.

style="text-align: justify">These theories help us understand why a student like Jeanne might be a happy, well- adjusted child at one point in her life and unhappy, anxious child at another, In general, development theories try to explain why children change in the ways they do and why they differ from one another. B. Knowledge of theories can help teachers in dealing with students like Jeannette. The book refers to the time when the family moved to Blythe. Living in a larger city meant that Jeannette had to go to school. Since she could read so much better than the other students, Jeannette stood out in the classroom.

This situation caused her some trouble with bullies, including one group of kids who followed her home and beat her up in an alley. By using the behavioral theory the teacher can understand the behavior of her students. And create a safe and fear free environment for her students to avoid bullying. There are many different ideas and explanations proposed to explain how children develop into theories, or sets of information that are used to give reasons for certain behaviors, and explain certain situations and occurrences. The story tells as when the family settled in Battle Mountain.

Jeanette and her siblings began school. Jeannette was careful not to show off her knowledge, so she would not be picked on like she had been at the last school. The Cognitive therapy helps articulate and explore the meaning of their trauma. Themes of environmental abuse, psychological development, and family relationships meld within the personal experiences are described in this book. Another aspect of the memoir relevant to the

learning communities is Wall’s honest depiction of her parents and the problems stemming from constant resistance to provide physical necessities for their children.

C. I could have overcome any personal distaste for Jeannette, considering her psychical appearance and odd behaviors and become her mentor. By being a mentor I can be an important source of advice and support to students like her. Of course from the point of view of the child it can be challenge to the students when someone tells them that they can do something, which is also a good form of motivation. "Mentors should to unite the head and the heart, coming across and being a whole person, being a good listener.

It must be about helping people like Jeannette find a way and to provide the space to express and discuss issues meaningful to them. It goes beyond looking at each other as human doings, but as human beings. Just like students need someone to care about them as a person, mentoring is a process-oriented thing, it's the relationship, the caring. If you get away from the power relationship, the more you can grow, and the more you can give back in return. Mentoring student likes her help as grow as person and spiritually at the same time we are helping students like Jeannette regardless of their behavior and physical appearance.

At the end of Jeanne’s junior year of high school, Jeannette went to talk to the school counselor about her future. When the counselor told her she was better off staying staying in state to go to college, Jeanette decided there was nothing keeping in her

Welch. Jeannette decided not to wait until she graduated high school, but to go to New York right away. Jeannette knew she would never return. She got the emotional support from her mentor and finally, found the resources and will to leave home. az D.

With the No child left behind, educators and students are under excruciating pressure to improve test results and meeting the standards, often at the expense of meaningful learning, and more low income and minority students are dropping out We should not care only about the achievement of our students. It is important for us teachers to accept students for who they are, rather for what they do, is integrally related to the idea of teaching the whole child. The point isn’t just to meet a student’s emotional needs with different activities. It isn’t easy to create these kinds of relationships when there‘s no time to get to know each student.

Huge classes, huge schools, and short periods impede more than academic achievement. That’s why we need be to be unconditional teachers to meet to meet the different needs of our students. E. In this story when Rose Mary (Jeannette’s mother) had left town so quickly that she had not bothered to get the children’s school records. School officials refused to believe her claim that the children had all been in gifted classes. As a result they were placed in special education classes. This was based on the principal attempting to ask them simple questions.

They did not understand his accent and failed to answer the questions correctly. Jeannette immediately began to suffer beatings from local bullies. The

role of the school in protecting children with the kind of problems that Jeannette has, is to: Do appropriate assessment to students so they cannot be misplaced Protect student from bullying and foster a learning environment that fosters respect. Implement procedures for identifying homeless children and youth such as Jeannette. Maintain a cumulative count of the number of homeless students living within school boundaries.

Keep in close contact with staff, encourage detection and prevention of problems Facilitate a cooperative working relationship between school staff and community agency staff to ensure the provision of services to meet the needs of students like Jeannette. F. I think Jeanette and her siblings are better off with their parents because although she had eccentric, neglectful, and often abusive parents. Her mother and father lived in their own reality, moving from one home to another due to strange conspiracy theories in which someone was always after them.

Never feeling jobs were important; the family rarely had food, resorting to eating the margarine because that was the only thing in the fridge. Her father was an alcoholic, but Jeannette refused for the longest time to see any fault in him, until he spends her hard saved money or drinks. Eventually, all of the kids escape to New York. Of course, homeless mom and dad follow, seeing it as their next big adventure. It is often hard to hear how this little girl loved and trusted in her neglectful parents and watch her struggle to survive. An excellent memoir that shows abuse isn’t always physical, and hat escaping more difficult that it seems. Ms Walls also sees the good sides

of her upbringing. She says her parents taught self-reliance and intellectual curiosity. Her father, when sober, taught his kids like physics, geology and how figures out problems on their own. She was thrilled when she landed her first job as a reported and worked hard; her intellectual drive and motivation eventually got her a college scholarship. This situation helped her to develop more drive and ambition than most people since she didn’t have the choice.

In comparison to kids who had the parents pay their rent, she never had the luxury of that on one hand, but on the other hand, it was definitely sink or swim so she had to swim G. The story tells us the time when Jeannette’s father refused to get a job and Rose Mary is also without work; so there is not food in the house. Jeannette is now forced to find food in the trash in school. (Behavior for survival) At the same time, Jeannette’s mother is sneaking candy bars. Rose Mary’s action again touches on the theme, proving that Rose Mary is more concerned with her own comforts than those of her children.

As an educator, our responsibilities are to care about the whole child academically and socially. We must also understand the development of the age of children of the age of children we work with. A caring teacher must be have personalization with her students by building relationships to get to know her students so they can open themselves and that will allow to know their concerns and struggles. In regarding to bullying, we must not allow it and foster respect among students.

If we suspect child abuse, we must ask kids questions and always to report child abuse to the appropriate authority or service worker. .

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