Friday, July 29, 2011

It's almost over --

When school gets out at the end of May, it seems that the summer will go on forever, and is full of endless possibilities . . . But it's not even August 1st yet and I'm already getting emails about the beginning-of-semester meetings, and reminders that for all intents and purposes, my school year will start on August 15, rather than on the 22nd when things really start.  And I'm way behind on planning my class . . . so what else is new??


I'm participating in the "Friday 56," in which you pick a quote from page 56 of whatever book you're reading.  Here's the book:


 And here's the quote:  "The most emotionally compelling of those private obligations was protection of men's dependents.  Thus wars were increasingly explained as being fought for hearth and home, most especially 'to protect our women.'"  This is a very interesting book about the American family, especially myths that have grown up about it -- for example, that it's evidence of our country's decline that so many teenagers are having babies these days, when in fact, the rate of births by teens 15-19 is actually half of what it was in 1957.  In this quote, she's talking about what happened as a government could no longer count on the fact that people had an obligation to be obedient to the state (i.e., to fight for it in times of war), so they began arguing that people had private obligations, to protect their women and children, in order to get them to enlist.  It's a very interesting book.

Happy Friday!

8 comments:

Lisa Gordon said...

The beginning of the semester e-mails began for me this past Monday Elise :-( My school year also starts a week in advance of the arrival of students, which means I go back on the 17th. Where did summer go???

The quote is very interesting, and I'll bet the book is also.

I wish you a wonderful weekend!

Elise Ann Wormuth said...

Thanks very much, Lisa --

fredamans said...

Sounds very interesting. Thank you for participating!

Evelyn S. said...

Great post, Elise! (I'm really quite happy to be starting my 10th year of retirement from teaching, so no August reminders for me!)

Evelyn S. said...

I forgot to add something in the previous comment. "The Way it Was" is so often a revision of history, isn't it?

Elise Ann Wormuth said...

Yes, the book is very interesting. I'm going to use the chapter on myths about childhood in a composition class that will be filled with Child and Adolescent Development majors.

urban muser said...

friday 56 sounds like an interesting project. have a great weekend.

test said...

what a great quote! "protect our women" -- im not complaining. though i would suppose we do our fair share of protecting ourselves!

http://guiltlessreading.blogspot.com/2011/07/its-friday-time-for-some-memes.html