Sept. 29 - Five questions I will ask my subject and why

1. Describe a typical day at school?

The reason why I am going to ask my brother this is because he didnt have the typical loving mother to send him on the 'normal' school day. He lacked care, nourishment, socialization, and love.

2. How did you feel when you came to live with me and was encouraged to get an education, opposed to living with mom and being kept from getting one?

I feel this is an important question to ask him because thats a huge change of life-style and its on something so innocent as education that most of us in life will never experience.

3. In spite of being disabled and being kept from going to school, how did you keep such a positive outlook and drive to finish school?

This is a good question for him because not alot of people could overcome a situation like this, especially with the diagnosis of Intellectually Challenged and years of being taught that it wasnt important.

4. Tell me about a time that you had to 'sneak around' to go to school or do something that was not what mom wanted you to do?

This is important because it will paint a clearer picture of what it was like for my brother to have to go to these kind of measures to go to school.  Most of us just do it as a part of everyday life growing up.

5. Tell about your experience of graduation?

This is important because obviously he had some type of goal that he wanted to reach because in spite of whatever my so-called mother did to him to prevent him from going to school and encouraging it upon him he managed to get through and he still graduated from high school in the end.

Sept. 27th Casa: A Partial Rememberance of a Puerto Rican Childhood

Questions for Reflection and Writing - pg. 136

1.  Why are the cuentos in Cofer's memoir particularly women's stories?  What would be the equivalent of these cuentos for the boys in the family?  Who would tell them?

I think that they were women's stories because its the women who typically like to sit and gossip.  The equivalent for the males would probably be to watch out for certain females. I think it would be the same, just from their viewpoint.  I think that the fathers would tell the boys of these.