IT’S A SMALL WORLD
What meaning does the word world have?
Can a person's family be considered his/her small world?
Explain your point of view.
Lesson 3. Family Problems
Do you agree that almost every family has problems as a normal part of living together?
Can some problems be worked out in the home?
Are some problems difficult to solve?
Listening Comprehension
Pre-listening task
List which family problems, to your mind, people are most concerned about in Russia.
Comprehension Check
Listen to a sociological survey on the family problems affecting children. Make a list of the problems the survey reveals. Compare it with the list you have made.
Vocabulary
Write the correct word in the blanks.
abandon pressure fancy juggle supervision fast-track guty
take jobs anxious guilty unwilling
1. Some schools have tried to lessen the ______________on children.
2. Parents send their children to classes.
3. Many fast-trackers are to work with their children.
4. Some school administrators _____________ grades.
5. To feel less ___________, parents buy material things to their children.
6. Children are unhappy because they lack parental_________________.
7. Nowadays, a lot of married women ________________outside the home.
8. Psychiatrists are sure that such children are very______________.
9. Parents who want to have a high prestige, a high-income job in a short amount of time are called_____________ parents.
10. Today most parents must a career and children.
Reading
Fast-Track Parents
Life in the old good days: Dad went to work, Mom stayed home to care for the children. But today life is different. Before World War II, many British and American women took jobs outside the home for the first time. Since then, the number of women in the workplace has greatly increased.
Nowadays, in the two out of three families both parents are working.
So father and mother must now juggle the demands of home and office. To balance the
responsibilities of family and career is especially difficult if both parents work in fast-track jobs – top executive professional, sales, or managerial position. Fast trackers are part of a growing subculture of wealth.
They, like all parents, share a desire to provide the best for their children. But having quite high expectations for themselves, they also expect the best from their children in return. The constant pressure to perform carries a high emotional cost. We see children, who are anxious and aggressive, who are overly competitive. By teenagers, these kids in the fast-track culture have identified themselves as winners or losers, and the tragedy is there's nobody in between as far as they are concerned.
Some school administrators try to diffuse this pressure. They abandon grades and try to recognize each child's talents and skills. But to be effective, any efforts at school have to be matched at home, and increasingly busy parents are unable or unwilling to work with their children at home.
Fast-track children, interestingly enough, often-times show a lot of the problems that children of divorce show, that is, when they don't have enough parental supervision, enough parental attention, these kids seem just like they come from broken homes.
Oftentimes parents are working so hard that they feel guilty and feel bad and oftentimes try to buy material things for their children rather than just giving them the time that the kids need. The bottom line is that no material possessions, no fancy classes or luxury addresses can provide these youngsters the one thing they need most – time with their parents.
Comprehension
Skimming for Main Ideas
One more problem is revealed in a child psychiatrist's survey.
Which one?
Scanning for Details
Which sentence is correct? Circle a or b.
1.
a) Family life is changing nowadays.
b) Family life remains as it used to be.
2.
a) Mother runs the home and cares for the children.
b) The number of employed married women has been growing dramatically.
3.
a) Only father works to support his wife and children.
b) In majority of British and American families both parents are
working.
4.
a) Parents try to balance the responsibilities of family and career.
b) Parents experience no conflict between work and family responsibilities.
5.
a) Fast-track parents have low income.
b) Fast-track parents are people, who have high-power, high-salary positions that require them to work very long hours.
6.
a) The family with two fast-track parents is more common than ever before.
b) The number of fast-track parents is small.
7.
a) Fast-trackers usually have quite high expectations for themselves.
b) Fast-trackers are indifferent to their careers.
8.
a) Fast-trackers' children feel no pressure to succeed.
b) Parents, who have fast-track jobs, also hope their children live up to their own expectations.
9.
a) Parents slow down his or her career.
b) Fast-track parents buy material things for their children to make up for the lack of time they spend together.
10.
a) The children of fast-track parents need more time spent with their parents.
b) Fast-trackers' children need more material possessions from their parents.
Making Inferences and Drawing Conclusions
Give a summary of the survey. Present this summary to your partner.
Swap roles.
Discussion
Divide into two teams. Each team selects a moderator to lead a discussion. One of them discusses the questions of Group A, the other -the questions of Group B. After that each team presents the results of its discussion to the other team, the members of the latter ask questions for more information and express their points of view.
A.
You may need this vocabulary:
| to deal with social conditions to promote family problems to support family life to overcome family problems to create new jobs to improve housing to restrict alcohol (drug) traffic to apply to a public welfare agency to offer guidance and economic aid |
to use family therapy to consult a trained counselor to consult a trained social worker to consult a trained psychologist to counsel family members to meet with the entire family to work out family problems together |
- Can family problems revealed in the survey be reduced?
- What can be done to help the family overcome its problems?
- Can children be a reason for a couple staying together?
- How does divorce affect parents?
- Who should custody of the children be granted to? To the wife? To the husband? Why?
- Divorce affects children deeply. But many experts believe that living with only one parent may be better for them than living with both parents in an unhappy home. What's your point of view? Explain it.
B.
- What do you think are some of the social changes that have contributed to the phenomenon of fast-track parents in Britain and the USA?
- Does a "fast-track parent" trend exist in Russia? If so, what is your reaction to it? If not, why do you think this trend is occurring in some other parts of the world but not in Russia?
- What are some of the positive and negative aspects of both parents in a family having fast-track jobs?
- What can the children of fast-track parents be like when they become adults? What might be some of their positive and negative personality traits?
- Would you like to be a fast-track parent? Why or why not? If yes, what would you do to ensure that your children do not suffer from your job and your pressure?
Grammar Focus
Complex Object “N” should do it.
“Pro” ought to do it.
John should do it.
He ought to do it.
I
t is advisable.
It is his duty
Writing (this activity can be done at home)
Use the pattern above. Give three advice to each group.
Children, whose parents have got divorced, ...
Their parents...
Their stepparents...
Fast-track parents...
Research (this activity can be done by advanced students or by those who wish to)
Find out what companies can do to help fast-track parents cope with the problems of juggling a career and children.
Appendix
Listening Comprehension
A Sociological Survey on the Family Problems
Some people tend to view the family as separate from society. They think all family problems can be solved by dealing only with the family. They fail to realize that the family is part of society and that society influences family life. Such social problems as poor housing and unemployment directly affect family life provoking family conflicts. Increasingly, sociologists are finding that alcoholism, drugs, child abuse, runaway children, unhappy marriages, and certain other problems are related to problems in society.
The question of divorce can be one of the most serious problems a family may face. Couples get divorced for numerous reasons. They may include differences in goals, financial difficulties, or a poor sexual relationship. Divorce affects every member of the family deeply. The husband and wife must make a new life for themselves, and the children may grow up in a fatherless or motherless home.
Second marriages present special problems of adjustment, especially for couples, which have children from a former marriage. Quarrels between the new couple over their children may become the sources of conflict and new divorces.
Children naturally have mixed feelings about their new family. They become painfully certain that their biological parents will not be reunited. Children, who were very close to the single parent, may feel displaced and jealous because the stepparent has a special and private relationship with their parent. Children may also feel fondness and love for their new family but be scared that the new marriage also will end in divorce or death. In addition, children may see their feelings of love as a mark of disloyalty to the absent parent.
The rights and obligations between stepparents and stepchildren may seem different than those taken for granted between biological parents and children, for example, in the right of parents to discipline. Thus, stepparents and children are generally challenged to deal with many feelings that are not present in biological families.
Key Answers
Lesson 3 Vocabulary
- pressure
- fancy
- unwilling
- abandon
- guilty
- supervision
- take jobs
- anxious
- fast-track
- juggle
Scanning for Details
- a
- b
- b
- a
- b
- a
- a
- b
- b
- a