Becoming "C"

            The student I chose for my case study, “C”, never discusses her religious thoughts or beliefs in class, therefore, I decided from the beginning that this chapter really wasn’t going to have any impact on my case study.  I could not have been more wrong!  Although C doesn’t discuss her beliefs outwardly, through reading this chapter I could see that some of the conversations she has do center around her trying to figure out who she is and what role she is supposed to play in society inside and outside of her current living situation.

            In a recent conversation with the managers at the house, I discovered that when C came to live at the group home she would go “on pass” on Sundays to go to church.  Her mother would come and pick her up, they would go to church and sometimes to lunch, and she would return early Sunday afternoon.  Overtime, this became a point of contention for the managers, staff, and other residents at the house, because C would frequently misbehave during the week and then automatically get to leave the house on Sundays, because it was for religious purposes.  One of the consequences in the house is that when you misbehave during the week, your weekend passes are taken away.  Many individuals felt as though C was abusing this privilege and getting away with inappropriate behaviors without consequences.  After losing her passes (based on her behavior) to go to church a few weeks in a row, C now no longer leaves the house to attend church with her family.  Initially it was due to her behavior, but now it’s a mutual decision between the house and C’s mother.  In response, C states that she, “doesn’t care and doesn’t want to go anyway.”

A few weeks later, I found this book in C’s stack of personal reading books that she keeps in/on her desk in the classroom.  Initially, I didn’t say anything about it, but now I’m thinking this might provide a good opening for a conversation that I wasn’t previously willing/equipped to have.  As Nakkula suggests, "if we open spaces for adolescents to begin to answer existential questions in ways that make sense to them, we help them to develop intellectual and spiritual pathways out of unqualified relativism and into greater clarity (220)."  By continuing to coauthor C's story and attempt to help her to make sense of some of these issues I think I can help her navigate through some of the difficulties and 'big questions' she is facing right now.

 

After reading this chapter I am torn about the decision that was made for C about not attending church.  I realized last week that everyone who C (as well as all of the other girls in the group home) interacts with on a daily basis is paid to be with her.  The few hours a week that she was able to spend with her mother and doing something to help construct who she is becoming as a person were so valuable!  To take those away from her and stifle this aspect of her identity is very disheartening.