Personal Narrative: My Personal Home Experiences

Within the study of sociology we learn skills that allow us to understand both ourselves, and the world that we live in. It allows us to examine our culture and the interrelationships of the contexts that make up our experiences: global, national, community, and home.

It is within these contexts that we are able to examine what public or environmental explanations are. We are complicated beings and what drives us to succeed or fail, try or not, is driven by the sum of our experiences. Privately or personally we have characteristics that are internal and sometimes inherited. We can be handsome, smart, inquisitive, and creative as part of our make up. But the other aspect that contributes to our ‘whole’ person is the influence of public or environmental experiences. Within our personal home experiences things like quality of school, a support system that values education, income that allows for life changing experiences are just a few of the public explanations that can account for a persons’ development.

On a personal level I was inquisitive and learned to read early. On a public level I had the advantage of having parents who valued education and wanted me to have an experience that would be both challenging and creative. From first through 8th grade I attended a university laboratory school where I was encouraged to read at whatever level I was at, able to participate in creative learning experiences, and learned a language from primary school on. Things were hands on and the teachers were focused on positive experiences and encouraging individual development. There were at least two teachers in every class and students were able to go/learn at their own pace. This experience set up my desire to learn. The unfortunate part was trying to replicate that experience during the high school