In the Words of the Students

In class, Lucy Swindell did most of the talking. But each day, her students opened up to their journals, responding to the novel and relating its many themes to their lives. A page, a paragraph--sometimes only a few lines--the writing was stark, honest, and sometimes silly.

What are the biggest problems teen-agers face? Why do people want to ban this book? Do you find the language in the book offensive? Is life fair? What is a dysfunctional family? What did you learn from the novel?

Here are some tidbits of the students’ reflections:

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“Teen-agers get pressure everywhere they go.”

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“I hate other stories that always use the same formula. They don’t use the ‘normal language.’ They stop when the story reaches the bad side of society or human beings. I don’t think that is a good way to write the story. The world is not perfect. We do not need to cover up the bad side because we want to have a perfect world. Maybe the language is not necessary, but we cannot cancel all the bad language.”

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“Most teen-agers have something to do with drugs or sex and the ones that don’t want to do or talk about either subject end up being laughed at or losing friendships because they choose to say no. . . . We are going through a period of time when a lot of pressure is put on us about just anything people can think of and this pressure doesn’t always come from adults but from our own peers. It’s a very confusing time because you’re stuck in between being a kid and an adult and you don’t know which way to go.”

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“I do find this novel rather strange and stumbling. Too much profanity for my taste. And I don’t understand where they are or where they came from. But I guess I will have to read more and understand it.”

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“Teen-agers don’t like to read fairy tales, they like to read the truth.”

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“The book is confusing because what is Ordinary People. I have never heard the words ordinary people before. What is an ordinary person? Is there really an ordinary person? I hope to answer this question when I read the novel . . . maybe!”

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“I think all families are considered dysfunctional nowadays. No family is perfect. Because I know my family is dysfunctional. Actually, I don’t know a functional family. But I think they should change the rating so that normal family with normal problems should be considered functional.”

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“Sex becomes a big factor in your life at this age. You want to be able to brag about it to your friends and to rub it in.”

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“When do they think we should hear about teen-age suicide? When we are adults it will be too late! And the same with teen-age sex. It’s very important that we talk about it before we do things we might regret, which many kids have. Also, most teen-agers are having or thinking about sex.”

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“I learned that there is no such thing as an ‘ordinary’ family. Everyone experiences problems and deals with them in their own way. Every family has feelings of guilt, loneliness, depression. Almost everyone experiences lack of communication, selfishness, family problems. I also learned you can’t hold in everything, you have to communicate with others because it will come back in your face or it will keep haunting you. Suicide is not something to joke about. You should take it like it’s really going to happen. It’s the safer assumption.”

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“It seems to me that parents don’t understand teen-agers. It’s like they were born parents and never were teen-agers.”

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“One important element in keeping a family together is communication. Not only do families have to communicate, but they also have to get along and respect each other. If the members of a family don’t respect each other then obviously they would not get along, which would eventually lead to not communicating.”

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“A good family is like the Brady Bunch, that is a perfect family. The Bundys are a dysfunctional family. My family is an in between, nice and not nice, I am a Brady Bunch/Bundy family.”

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“This book has my full attention. I feel that I can feel what Con feels. I can relate to how he feels, thinking that nobody cares about him. At the same time, I feel extremely sorry for him.”

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“I feel I am a survivor. If something went wrong in my life I do feel I would be able to handle it. If there was a death in my family of course I would be sad and not know what to do. But some way, I know, I would still be able to go on and be OK.”

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“Usually when I face a problem I will try to avoid it first. Then, sooner or later, I will find out there is no way to avoid it unless the problem disappears or I disappear. The both are impossible, so there is only one way left--face the problem.”

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“From this novel I learned that my own life isn’t as bad as I thought it was.”