Stereotypes we lived with

By Georgie Bright Kunkel

If you were in school when the Dick and Jane books were the major readers in first grade, you were led to believe that every family lived in a nice house with a father in a business suit who worked for a living and a mother in her apron who stayed home to take care of two children, a dog Spot and a cat named Puff.

Until the late 1960s few challenged the stereotyped family pictured in these early readers. When these books were finally analyzed it was found that the only mother depicted in the readers who worked out of the home worked in the school cafeteria. Actual labor statistics showed that a great percentage of women were already in the work force.

When I began my career in education I used these readers without realizing that very few of my students fit into the mold they depicted. I soon learned that there were students who lived with a single mother; others were being raised by grandparents. Many were living through the stress of divorce. Some fathers were violent, terrorizing their wives who had little strength or financial resources to escape such a situation.

In one case when I was a counselor in a high school for a short time I worked with one teen who was emancipated from his parents. He lived in an apartment, working after school to support himself. Some time later I learned that there was a need for child advocates to stand by children being brought to court because of abuse in their families. My counselor friend became such an advocate and sacrificed a great deal of time to assure that young children were given their day in court.

Since we now realize that families must be protected, we have developed state agencies to investigate unlawful behavior within the family structure. Children need to be loved and cared for and families who are successful do not necessarily fit the old patterns of working father, stay-at-home mother and two children.

Not only do families need to recognize that every member in the family deserves to have their needs met but other institutions need to extend rights to individuals within the institution as well. College students, armed services personnel, ill persons residing in care centers all deserve the rights that this country was formed to protect.

Our own state has finally established a department of Early Childhood Education in an attempt to provide the needed services to young children that some other countries already provide. Care centers must provide clients with a statement of the rights they deserve when being confined to nursing care. Workers, if protected by a union, can expect to be supported in gaining rights and decent working conditions.

With half of the marriages ending in divorce, unions disappearing, industries being relocated overseas and global warming looming before us there is still a great deal left to do to assure that the family and the work place is protected.

Perhaps the trailblazers that opened our eyes to needed change will wake up our so-called great country to its responsibility to protect all its citizens. Then perhaps we citizens can cooperate in improving society instead of spending so much energy taking sides against those we see as disagreeing with us. Let's stop fiddling while Rome burns, OK?

Georgie Bright Kunkel is a freelance writer and speaker who can be reached at gnkunkel@comcast.net or 935-8663.