Is Family Tree Homework An Invasion Of Privacy?

General | 11/19/10 | Myself

[Califreak]

How do you feel about "family tree" homework? My kids have had to do this repeatedly. To me, this seems like something that should be done at home on one's own time.

[SnakeDoctor]

I don’t think it is an invasion of privacy at all. Why not just do the assignment? They’re not asking for medical histories or social security numbers. What’re we trying to hide here?

Connecting personal history to overall history is a valuable lesson for kids. It can make things real. When we did similar assignments in history classes when I was in school, I learned from my father that I had a relative that died at the Battle of the Alamo, and another that was a pacifist pastor during the American Revolution.

People have mentioned adoptions, blended families, etc., etc. What about artificial insemination or gay parents? Must every assignment be tailored to the politically correct version of the “family” ... or can people just do the assignment?

SnakeDoc

[dragnet2]

My neighbors 17 year old just turned in her family tree project...I was basically a picture of a tree she had to color in, and glued pictures of family onto the branches.

[brewcrew]

Sounds like a project for a third-grader.

[dragnet2]

My neighbors 17 year old just turned in her family tree project...It was basically a picture of a tree she had to color in, and glued pictures of family onto the branches.

Sounds like a project for a third-grader.

Hmmm...My neighbor said she was the smartest in her class.

[bert]

It could be a real problem in some neighborhoods where there are several who don’t for certain if their father is their daddy or their uncle and their grandmother cusses out both of them .

[SunkenCiv]

Yes, and life insurance is socialism. :’)

It could be a terrible thing for kids who don’t know who their fathers are, but these exercises in the here and now are probably part of the “everyone’s family, homelife, and family structure is okay” axe-grinding.

[OCC]

This was a voluntary project for social studies class back when I was in the 7th grade around 1977. It was fun and interesting. On the other hand, my niece had a project last year of recording all her relatives genetic traits (eye color, hair color, right hand/left hand use, proportional finger length, ear lobe connectivity). It was interesting... but a little creepy.

[King Moonracer]

Make sure you add a few Black or Hispanic ancestors. You never know who will build the ovens first.

[Frapster]

I loved doing family trees in school - Huey P Long on one side and Pretty Boy Floyd on the other. :-)

[Chickensoup]

my adopted children use my family of course, because it is their’s too.

[stayathomemom]

We had an assignment like this during the genetic segment of our high school biology class in the early 70’s. Someone in my older sister's class found out he was adopted through that assignment. That would have been a shock!

We did not have to go back many generations. It was basically to see how dominant and recessive traits were expressed through a couple of generations. We also had to, based on what we figured our genotype to be, add a future spouse to our tree with the opposite genotype to ours and determine the probability of having children with certain phenotypes. It was a fine assignment in an era when stable families were more the norm. What I found funny was that my dad, whose parents had died years before, could not remember their eye color, which is a trait I always notice!

[goat granny]

All 13 of my grandchildren have had to do a family tree and some were in private schools, some public schools and 2 in a religious school...They all had to ask me questions about our family tree but only had to go back 3 generations...I think it was an exercise in research and finding out for themselves who their ancestors were...I thought it a good idea, they found out what their grandfather(who passed away before most of them were born) and great grandfathers and mothers did for a living and what part of the world they came from....

[OCC]

my niece did this homework during a Family gathering last Christmas, all measurements and observations were done of those present, and vague recollections of those who where not. It actually lead to several hours of fun family stories and memories!

[brewcrew]

C’mon, coloring and pasting? For a senior in high school?

[aruanan]

I just tell the kids to make something up. When they're asked to describe their home or their bedrooms or something like that, I just tell them to be creative.

Something weirdly along the same lines: My oldest (11th grade) said he hated how teachers were always prying into their thoughts and beliefs. I told him, "When the teacher asks you, "How do you feel about ____" tell the teacher "I feel that you are wasting too much classroom time delving into thoughts and feelings instead of instructing us in the subject area." He said that he'd get in trouble for saying that. I told him to tell the teacher that he was simply responding to the request of the teacher. He went on to say that a teacher showed them 10 pictures of people and wanted the students to tell what they thought and felt about these photos. He said one student referred to one photo and said that he thought the guy was "a faggot." The teacher jumped on him and said he couldn't say that. The student responded that the teacher had asked him what he thought and he was telling him what he thought. The teacher responded by saying that if he said something like that again he'd be suspended. A female student described a picture of a particular woman by saying the woman looked like "a slut." The teacher said she had to say, "A woman of the night." The class started laughing. I asked what the class was and was told history. I asked what the hell talking about feelings images provoked had to do with history. I told him, "Seriously, though, if a teacher asks your opinion, give him your opinion and if he complains about your opinion say, "If you want me to someone who pursues truth, then don't tell me to tell you what you want to hear when you ask me to tell you what I believe. That's just brainwashing and indoctrination, not education."

[ottbmare]

I think it can be a great way to introduce kids to history, because they see how history is not just dry facts in a book; it really happened to real people, and they are here in the US because of the actions their ancestors took. Many people who do genealogy research find it absolutely fascinating, full of moving and inspiring stories. How is it an invasion of privacy? You don’t report any details you don’t want others to know about. If there’s something you’re proud of, you can share that and others may find it interesting too.

[Califreak]

We have Nazi’s on one side and Confederate soldiers on another.

I am not kidding.

LOL!

[Califreak]

My brother used to get multi part math problems. He did the equation then the next part of the problem was, “How do you feel about this math problem?”

Who dreams up this crap anyway?

I couldn’t believe it.

[lonestar]

So you told your kids it’s okay to lie and cheat?

[ninergold3]

Unfortunately, you are very mistaken. My older children are from a broken/blended home. I threw my ex-husband out when he became physically abusive toward me. The kids went through HELL with that man as he emotionally used and abused them for years. This went on until he decided to "sell" them to my current husband - if I wrote off the $10K he owed in back child support. My husband adopted the kids and only then did their lives become a bit more stable as his family accepted us completely. We were blessed.

However, my oldest never recovered from the abandonment and he still has problems. Nobody has it perfect.