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Silva Family Educational History

The Early Silva Family

Within the last two quarters of my mother graduating from college she was evicted from her house because the owner wanted to move back in. My father decided they should live together, and after a few weeks he decided that it was wrong and they should get married.They married in a court house and after my mother became pregnant with Elizabeth she dropped out of school.

Drug and Alcohol Abuse

My oldest sister Elizabeth recounts her early childhood as very chaotic. Both of my parents were heavy drug users and my father was also an alcoholic. During my mothers pregnancy with Jennifer she struggled to end her drug abuse and successfully ended it. However my father was still heavily involved and was physically abusive when drunk. While my mother was pregnant with me she was beaten to the point where she needed a divorce and to run away to Eastern Washington to live with her parents.

Our Early Childhood

Child Abuse

I was born in Colville Washington, and we lived in a very rural part of Eastern Washington. There my mother met Timothy Hawkins and they began courting. My oldest sister Elizabeth did not like Tim and was very rebellious. Tim forced Elizabeth out of the house at the age of 16, my mother re-married, and we moved to South Central Alaska because of family disputes Tim had started with family and community members.

Tim had insisted that Jennifer and I were home schooled. We later found out this was because he did not want us to have contact with any other adults. I remember as a six year old Tim told be a dirty joke and not to tell anyone, as a six year old I of course told everyone I knew. At the same time my nine year old sister did not tell anyone, and from that point on he began to molest and rape my sister until the age of 16.

Neglect

I remember as a child being told we were stupid, and that we would never amount to anything as an adults by Tim. We were not allowed to leave the house, and through the ages of six to fifteen I only had a total of three friends for brief periods of time. From the ages of ten and up, the four of us lived in a small motor home around various parts of Alaska. We were so poor at one point that we squatted in various abandoned parking lots with no electricity or heat, and relied on food banks to feed us.

IDEA Equalities

While Jenna and I were enrolled in the IDEA homeschooling district of Galena they made accommodations for isolated children. In chapter one of the text it talks about how often times students suffer from geographic and economic isolation. The IDEA homeschooling district was aware of these issues and because often times their students were geographically isolated or of a lower socioeconomic status, they would provide those families with memberships to the nearest gyms so that the students could exercise, and they would provide computers for families unable to afford them. Because of this, we were able to take showers at the gym, and we had a computer that we otherwise would not be able to afford. (Oakes, 2013, p. 16)

Lack of Genealogy

When interviewing both of my parents, they both expressed their lack of knowledge as to where their family origins lie.

To simplify, we will generalize that on my father's side there is a mixture of Chicano, Portuguese, and French. On my mother's side, there is a mixture of Irish and various European ethnic groups.

Secondary Education

About The Silva's

Age Difference

Early Childhood

My parents differ in age by eleven years, however we will look at their lives and history in parallel to gain a better understanding of their effects on me and my sisters.

Progressive Household

As noted in the textbook, the 1970's characteristically showed more emphasis on ethnic groups and women in the work place. My mother graduated from high school in 1972 and the fact that her father wanted her to pursue becoming a doctor rather than a nurse showed that the Davis family was on board with what was happening in society.(Oakes, 2013, p. 77)

There are many more Silva's than I will mention as I have four half brothers, all with kids that are in excess of thirty plus years older than I am in age.

Silva Education

My sisters have dropped in and out of community college, but never completed any degrees, I completed my AA degree 2 quarters after high school and am on track to being the first person in my family line to achieve a bachelors degree.

Although my father was popular in high school, he did not making any lasting friendships and mainly kept to himself. He hated all subjects in school with the exception of shop classes which he excelled in rapidly. My father went on to become a carpenter and builder after high school. His family did not have any expectation for him or any of his siblings to attend college after high school.

My mother was considered a nerd in high school. She excelled in reading, writing, math, and especially science. She planned on going to UC Berkeley to become a nurse even though her father wanted her to become a doctor. Her and her brothers were expected to go to college, however her other two sisters Julie and Kelly were discouraged because they were not considered smart.

To better understand our personal struggles and successes in education we will analyze the education and lives of my parents.

Our current family consists of my older sister Jennifer (27) my oldest sister Elizabeth (36), my father Frank (75) and my mother Debra (64).

Both of my parents are the oldest of their siblings, however my mother had the same parents growing up. My father was the only child between his parents, and had half siblings on both maternal and paternal sides, however he was raised by his mother and step father.

Mom has four younger siblings Julie, Jim, Bob, and Kelly. They were all born and raised in the bay area of California.

Dad has five half siblings on his mother's side, and three siblings on his father's side. They were all born and raised in New Mexico.

Post Secondary

My parents were divorced before I was born, and Frank is currently cared for and lives with my Mom (strictly platonic). I am the first to be married between my sisters, however Elizabeth has two children (Merina and Preston) with two different men.

My father went on to live his life working and started a family with his first wife Marylou and eventually getting a divorce after having four sons.

My mother went on to study at UC Berkeley and flunked out. She studied at Saddleback Community college, earned her AA degree and went on to study biochemistry at California State University.

How My Parents Met

My parents met when my mom and one of her friends were hitchhiking to Yosemite and my dad picked them up. They spent a lot of time together after that trip, and grew very fond of each other. My father was infatuated by how smart my mom was, and she loved how much attention he gave her.

Family Households

My mom's home life was fairly typical of a white lower middle class suburban family in the sixties and seventies. She had much more freedom within her house than my father. She described her interactions with her parents as often times sarcastic and occasionally resentful due to the amount of responsibilities she had as the oldest child.

My father's home life was very strict growing up, he described the living room as a hotel lobby; no playing was allowed there and the house was to be kept immaculate. His mother had always told him, that if he could not bring his friends home, he should not be friends with them. My father described that as a child he did not have any say in the household, he did what he was told, he didn't talk back, and that he was just a "ward in the court".

Socioeconomic Background

Early Schooling

My father's family was described as always having what they needed, but they were very stingy with their money even though they certainly not poor.

My mother's family was always tight on money, many items were shared as a family, and when the children were old enough to work they had to purchase their own school clothes and supplies. Her parents also went bankrupt while they were in high school.

My mother was indifferent about school growing up. She loved to read and excelled academically, however she was not successful in any physical related activities such as sports. Although she did play outside for fun outside of school.

My father was raised bi-lingual, however when he started elementary school he only spoke Spanish. He described his schooling experience as harsh and lonely due to his lack of communication with his peers. He was forced to complete a program teaching him the English language and always had a negative view of school growing up.

Boarding School Experience

My father spoke very negatively of his experience learning the English language, and like many of his ELL peers in the early fifties, he was scarred and resented his English speaking teachers and peers.

Both parents experienced biased sorting methods explained in the text. My father had to learn English in a separate program, and my mother was placed in an advanced reading program where she and her peers would read more advanced literature and were expected to complete their readings faster than the other groups. I believe that these sorting methods had lasting effects on my parents. My mother had the impression that she was a nerd and excelled in school whereas my father became socially isolated in school and disliked his entire schooling experience.(Oakes, 2013, p. 301)

Secondary

We moved to Eastern Texas to take be near Tim's step father after his mother passed away, and shortly after we were able to afford to rent a home, my oldest sister and her 9 month old daughter Merina came to live with us after she fled an abusive relationship with Merina's father. Shortly after my fifteenth birthday Elizabeth found out what had happened to Jenna and she called CPS. We were whisked away to Granbury Texas and Tim was sent to prison. Jenna was old enough to move away, but I had to either become emancipated from my mother and move in to a foster home, or live with my mother and go through counseling. I decided to move back in with my mother and we saved to move back to Eastern Washington to be near family in Colville again.

Secondary contd.

Influences

I was forced to repeat my freshman year in high school, and I struggled to keep up socially. I would vomit out of anxiety every morning before school. Fortunately I overcame my social anxiety, and without the influence of Tim or my father's lack of passion for school my mother was able to encourage me to be successful academically. It was not easy, but we struggled through high school and running start and I eventually began classes at Western.

I believe that because unlike my siblings I spent a larger amount of my childhood un-abused, and with an adult that had a higher level of education is the reason why I have been able to succeed academically and socially when compared to my sisters. It has not been easy getting where I am, but it is possible with support. Gaining an understanding of my family history and being open about the struggles I have faced and overcome will hopefully be an inspiration for children in similar less fortunate situations.

Access to a Rich, Balanced Curriculum

My high school was a title one school, and it was very apparent. I had free lunch my first two years in school, we did not have a music program, and the only foreign language taught was Spanish. Most students did not have access to computers at home, and were required to take computer classes. As explained in the text, the lack of resources reflected on the performance of students. Many of my graduating class did not finish college or even attend, and a few of the students that went to community college with me showed their lack of preparedness due to our high school's poor curricula and lack of resources.(Oakes, 2013, p. 269)

References

Oakes, J., Lipton, M., Anderson, L., & Stillman, J. (2013). The U.S.

Schooling Dilemma. In Teaching to change the

world(4th ed., p. 301,77,16,269). Boulder, CO: Paradigm Pubishers.

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