This assignment had helped the students understand their parents more, and the parents were able to, transfer the wisdoms of their lives to their young too, translated…
The students are about to separate themselves based off of their areas of studies soon, although it’s not as complicated as choosing their majors, but, for sixteen-year-olds, it’s still, a huge decision for their young lives.
Last week, I’d asked my students to interview their own parents to see how they picked their areas of studies back when they were in school, how they’d managed to choose their majors in college, how they found their jobs, and how they’d handled the hardships that came to them as they started working? And, what their views on life in general are?
This week, I’d started, grading the weekly journals, it was like reading the personal histories of the students’ parents, and, saw that there was, that invisible bridge being erected up between the parents and the children. Some of the fathers, because of their economical hardships from home, were forced, to enter into technical high schools, and after graduation, they’d started working as manual laborers, and after twenty-five years of working, they’d developed this shoulder condition. Some had chosen the popular majors, but the major that they’re not at all interested in, chemical engineering, and started doing the work that they have absolutely NO interests in, but by so doing, they were able to, keep a household up and running. Some chose the areas they’re interested in, electronics, and to date, they’re still weathering the hardships of their work, but, with their sturdy beliefs, they were, able to, find ways to break through.
The students mostly disclosed, that this, was the closest sort of conversation they’d ever held with their own parents growing up, and understood, in the processes of interviewing their parents, that the parents weren’t as authoritarian as they thought, that they also, faced hard decisions, in the crossroads in their lives from before too, choosing what they loved. There were mothers who’d stopped working because they were having their young, and became housewives, and felt a bit loss, but, seeing how their young are growing by the day, they were, overcome, with joy.
Because of my reading through the work, and, getting involved with their and their parents’ lives. I was able to see, how the students gained a better understanding of where their parents came, that the parent-children relationships aren’t devoid, but just not maintained enough. They’re not lonely, their parents had always been there, just rarely interacted with their young. I also saw, how each child is able to become, that beautiful scenery of the world, finding affirmation in what s/he is doing, and, making one’s own choices, making one’s own life count.
So, through this homework assignment, the kids got to know their parents’ better, and, the parents got a better understanding of their young too, this, is a very good project, for the teachers to set up for the parents and children to do together.