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Running head: GLASS CASTLE: REFLECTIVE PAPER 1

GLASS CASTLE: REFLECTIVE PAPER 12

Reflection Paper on the memoir Glass Castle by Jeannette

Name of Student

Institution Name

Date

Introduction

I used to think of how life is for those kids whose parents do not care or love them as they grow up. I always felt pity because I knew their life would be headed in the wrong direction. After reading through the book “Glass Castle” by Jeannette I am in support of Jeannette and her siblings on keeping some of the things affecting them to themselves, this is because it helped them overcome the trouble of dealing with their parents who never cared about the effect it would have on the growth of their children as they shifted from place to place.

After reading through the book, Jeannette has created a change of mind in me. She has help me know how to understand a person’s background when you are evaluating them for counselling (Marshall, 2013). The background has a very significant role when it comes to understanding why a person has a certain character or behavior. It has also taught me the importance of mentors in our lives who can come in the form of teacher like for the case of Jeannette while other can be family members or friends. It is my belief that whether you have loving and supportive parents or not, you can still succeed in growing up into a successful adult, it all depends on the motivation you get from your own self or other people.

The theories that can be connected to the teacher’s role in the lives of Jeannette and her siblings are Social Cognitive Theory, Humanistic theory by Abraham Maslow and the Information Processing theory.

The social cognitive theory is connected to Jeannette and her siblings in that these kids learnt the behavior they have by observing other people especially their parents. This theory states that the environment one grows in contributes to their behavior and hence it is learnt. Jeannette and her siblings grew in an environment of parents who made them do things on their own and in turn Jeannette learnt to depend on herself in coming up with solution for providing food for her siblings. Jeannette learnt how to overcome her fear by observing how her teacher encourages her to deal with life’s problems as it presents itself. Observation is very key when it comes to learning a behavior especially a behavior that can change our mindset about a certain way of life you find people practicing. Parents do not know that children always observe their behavior and they can replicate the same behavior when they grow up into adults. Therefore every parent should teach their children to take their positive behavior and leave out the negative behavior they can observe from them.

The Humanistic theory by Abraham Maslow which states that people’s behavior is driven by need to satisfy needs that are arranged in a hierarchy order starting from the very basic needs like food and shelter to the highest of self-actualization. Abraham Maslow realized that human beings are motivated to work or adopt a certain behavior that help them survive in the environment they are living in. Once you have satisfied needs in the lower hierarchy ”basic needs”, you move to the next level of needs which include security, family friends and the highest being self-actualization.

This connects to Jeannette and her siblings, since their need to find food to satisfy their hunger motivated them to start working in order to get the money they would use to buy the food. This behavior develop into their senior years, where Jeannette seeks a job so that they can live in a good house, eat good food and have a warm bath (Glass Castle, 2015).

The information processing theory states that “human process the information they receive rather than respond to stimuli”. It applies in the mental development in a child’s mind. Every person’s brain has the ability to process information they receive or the one that they perceive from their environment, hence a person has the ability to process the information that they deem important to themselves. (Ivanof, 2005)

This theory connects to Jeannette’s condition with her siblings. Jeannette never just responded to the stimuli of feeling hungry or angry at her parents, but rather she processed this information and made decision that would work. She also processed the information she obtained from her dad about where to work. Her dad suggested that she remains in Welch and work there but she declined the offer as she decided to go and work in New York. She never just responded to the stimuli of feeling love for her dad in order to remain in Welch but she thought over the idea and chose to work in New York.

I would apply these theories as a school counselor in helping Jeannette by trying the best to show her the significance of her behavior in her growth. As a counsellor, it is very important to understand your client/student when you are coming up with the ways that you are going to use to help them overcome their problems. I would apply the theory in the following ways.

Firstly, I would make her understand the importance of learning positive behavior by observing the behavior of others. I would advise her to look at her parents and learn to live a different life all the same in order to ensure that when she grows up into an adult she does not replicate the same behavior.

Secondly, I would advise her to use her needs both basic and psychological needs to motivate her to work hard towards achieving. I would tell her to look beyond the unsatisfied needs to look for or devise means that she would use to obtain the food. I would encourage her to look for a job that would provide the finances that she would use to buy food for herself and her siblings.

Finally. I would use the theory of information processing to make her understand the importance of looking at the information given to them with scrutiny before making a decision on anything in life. I would make her understand the importance of information when making any decision in life whether in looking for a job or obliging to requests made by people around her.

Miss Jeanette Bivens is the teacher that mentored Jeannette into becoming journalist. She was also Rex (Jeannette father) teacher (Glass Castle, 2015). She had a better understanding of Jeannette since she knew her dad when he was growing up. She is seen supporting Jeannette and encouraging her throughout the time she was in school. She advised Jeannette on the newspaper she was editing.

Looking at Jeannette, I would not overcome any personal distaste in order to become her mentor. The reason for this is because one does not need to be perfect in order to become their mentor. A person’s flaws are the factors that lead you to becoming their mentor in order to help them overcome their flaws and focus on their passion. For instance if the teacher; miss Bivens looked at Jeannette’s odd behavior she would have declined becoming her mentor and this would in turn affect the outcome of her later when she went to New York looking for a job.

As a counsellor, the odd behavior, looks and a person’s personality should be the guideline when counselling or mentoring these individuals rather than the factors that prevent you from counselling them. The counsellor should understand the person he/she is counselling in order to know the strategies to use when counselling them.

The following people have a role in the development of a child both mentally and physically when they are in school: a teacher, counsellor and school psychologist who play a very important role. (Dewey, 1094)

However, there are standards that may interfere with the mentoring process by a teacher or school psychologist (Paisley, Getch and Bailey, 200). These standards have to be met and in the process they may affect the success of the counselling and mentoring of kids with problems similar to the ones that affected Jeanette. Some of these standards include: Standards on human growth and development, career development that are based on academic performance, standards on techniques to use when counselling and finally standards on diversity.

Many counsellors have a great understanding of human growth and development for individuals. This knowledge is very important in counselling, but this knowledge can interfere in the counselling kids with problems similar to the one that was faced by Jeannette and her siblings. This is particularly evident since different have different growth patterns and you cannot judge a person by pre-defined development stages. Taking the case of Jeannette, a counsellor may use the development pattern set in the textbooks, but it may fail to apply since her childhood was very different compared to other kids.

Standards on career development on the basis of academic performance rather than passion for certain careers can hinder. A counsellor or a teacher may mentor a child to follow a career that matches their academic performance but this may fail to work in case the person fails to like the career that matches their performance. The counsellor should know the thing that the counselee is passionate about in life before they can start counselling them on the careers they should get into. Some of these standards may interfere with the success of the mentorship program unless it is done with a better understanding of the counselee.

Standards on techniques to use may interfere. The reason I am saying is because a predefined mentoring and counselling technique may work for certain children and fail to apply to others. Hence when counselling, the counsellor should strategize the techniques so that they can fit different scenarios. Rather than using the technique taught in counselling schools, the counsellor should be flexible. (Bailey, 2006)

The school plays a role in supporting kids with problems similar to those that affected Jeannette. The school can ensure that these children’s problem do not affect their performance in school. Some of the roles played or that can be played by the school include: providing mentorship and counselling programs where identified children can attend and be counseled on ways to deal with the problem of unsupportive parents. Another way is providing financial support like giving them sponsorship opportunities that will cater for their academic fee in the period they are in school. This will help them not to worry about school fees, rather they will only worry about performing better in school in order to retain their sponsorship.

The school should also protect these kids by encouraging their fellow student not to bully them or discriminate them because of their status. This will ensure that their stay in school will be as comfortable as possible and they will not reach a point of isolating themselves because of bullying or discrimination from other children in school. All the above are the ways a school can adopt that will help ensure kids that are not privileged or are facing family issues will get education without getting affected by their background problems.

Jeannette and her siblings are better off with their parents and also without their parents. The reason why am saying that are better off with their parent is because parents play a very significant role when it comes to the growth of kids. Even if they are not providing for their basic needs, their presence in person is also very important. Jeannette mother Rose Mary from time to time uttered encouraging words to her “Life with your father was never boring” (Glass Castle, 2015)

However, Jeanette and her siblings are better off without their parents because they have already learnt on ways they can survive on their own without their parents support. From the memoir, it is evident her parents are not willing to support them in any way as they run away from their debtors and promises them things that they are not intending on fulfilling.

The factors of Jeannette being loved by their parent, their parents wanting them to be educated and the children loving their parents makes me think the importance of family love especially parents’ love when it comes to education. Every parent want their children to get educated so that their future can be bright. Therefore every child that want to be successful in their studies should show their love to their parent and this in turn will make them successful. Even the Bible tells children to obey their parents and one way children can obey their parents is through loving them and doing as they wish. Hence the factor of unconditional love has help me understand that only love can help you overcome troubling parent and end up becoming successful in life just like in the case of Jeannette.

Life in the real world and in school are totally different. This is because the way kids behave when there are in school is very different in the way they behave around their parents and siblings at home. Looking at the case of Jeannette, they never shared their experience with the adults in their life who are their parents and teachers at school. They exhibit only those behaviors that are fit for their survival when they are around these people.

These behavior of not being honest about what is happening in your life through your behavior is not very appropriate in academic setting as it may hinder teachers from understanding the children they are teaching. Educators are very responsible when it comes to identifying consistency in the behavior that children show when they are in school and when they are out there at home with their parents and siblings.

Educators should not live as though they know everything about the child but rather they should cooperate with the children in coming up with solution to the problem of exhibiting different behavior when in school and when in the “real world”

Secondly, when teachers are nurturing their students they should ensure that they focus on their social, emotional, physical and cognitive developments. When they do this, they will help reduce the gap between behavior shown in real life and in school.

Thirdly rather than leading the children into good behavior in school, as an educator you should guide them in ways that will enhance their behavior. Through this the children will share their experiences with you and this will help you in understanding why they are behaving in a certain way.

Fourthly, the teachers should create a communication channel with the children and also with their parents. This is a very importance strategy as it helps parents and teachers to learn about the behavior of their children both when they are in school and at home. Through the channel children will feel comfortable to ask question, share their experience and seek advice from their educators.

Finally, providing the tools and the environment that will help their students to grow into responsible adults. This can be through monitoring their behavior when in the classroom and outside the classroom and providing the guideline on changing where the behavior seems to be perverted. All the above mentioned are some of the responsibility we can take as educators that will help students to have behaviors that are appropriate for academic settings.

Conclusion

In conclusion, having supportive parent is very important for a child’s growth but for those kids who do not have supportive parents they can still make it in life by having a changed mindset.

From the discussion above it is evident from the memoir by Jeannette “Glass Castle” the growth of a child especially when they are in school is partially or wholly affected by the way their parents treat them back at home.

There are several theories that try to explain why people have certain behaviors and this include: information processing theory, humanistic theory by Abraham Maslow and the Social Cognitive theory. All these were evident in how Jeannette adopted certain behaviors in her life as she grew up into adulthood. Educators should understand these theories when it comes to understanding the behaviors being exhibited by their students.

Educators have an important role when it comes to mentoring children with problems similar to those that were faced by Jeannette. Once they have understood why these children are like that, then they can be able to guide them into becoming better persons.

Finally parents and teachers are very important when it comes to mentoring children into becoming better versions of themselves as they grow into adults. I would recommend this book to every student who have had uncaring and unsupportive parent. It will teach them on the ways they can adopt to ensure that their life turns out successful when they get into adulthood.

References

Walls, J. (2006). The glass castle: A memoir. Simon and Schuster.