Kevin Sylvester

[Kevin Sylvester]

So for my next paper, I was thinking on going into the way the millennial generation was raised. More specifically, I wanted to focus on what was going on from about ages 3-5ish. I was hoping my experience as a father would help me to focus on areas that an outsider to the subject might not see.

Of course, my biggest problem with the last paper was that I tended to stray from the topic so any ideas you may have on individual subjects would be awesome. Some of the ideas I was going to look at;

-Discipline and Corporal Punishment, Gen Y vs Previous
-Attitudes towards preschool
-Responsibilities of a 5 year old, then and now

[Paige Dolinski]

Kevin, these sound like really interesting ideas...and the topic for your paper sounds like a good start. It seems to me though that professor cooksey really wants us to narrow down our ideas within the topic. I could see you making a standard paper for each of the consecutive subjects you list at the bottom; you could prob list at least four types of evidence to support a thesis within each topic.
If you narrow your focus even more it can allow more depth in the subject...I'll have to keep this in mind too as I'm sure I'll have the same problem..haha

[Fred Cooksey]

Good response, Paige. I agree that each of Kevin's "areas of focus" could be individual papers, particularly if Kevin were doing primary sociological research. But since he's writing not as a sociologist but as a generalist, he might need a slightly broader approach. It's really all a matter of what kind of research he can find, and how in depth / specific it is. Therefore, I think the next logical step is to begin looking for research in those areas -- if you, Kevin, find that there's a lot just on the topic of corporal punishment (particularly, I think, in terms of both generation and CLASS), then make that the entire paper. If not, stick with the plan of addressing all three of these "issues." In any case, it's a great idea to be focused on such a specific age range -- that will most likely be narrow enough.

[Kevin Sylvester]

I found a ton of research on corporal punishment and with the recent story of the Texas girl who was caught being hit on video, I'm thinking this could be a charged topic.

I'm still going to try to stay within a specific age range but I think I'm going to change that age because the research certainly went in two different directions.

So a preliminary title might be;

Spanking Gen Y : How Corporal Punishment Affects the Millennial Generation



? specifc enough ?

[Fred Cooksey]

Yes, that's definitely specific enough -- though I wonder just a little if you should try not to get bogged down in these "fringe" cases (Texas girl). Remember the adage, "The exception proves the rule." These cases are definitely exceptions and therefore not indicative of the larger trends.

An organizational idea:

1. Intro
2. Extreme cases (briefly), backlash against larger trends
3. Families that still use corporal punishment, in an "old-fashioned" way
4. Families that would never consider corporal punishment
5. Conclusion

Or you could reverse the order. But the heart of this, I think, lies in examining the contrasts between #3 and #4, particularly in terms of class (and perhaps education, race, cultural background?).

At any rate, I'm confident you now have a good direction to pursue.

[Kellie Crabtree]

I think your idea is really good, but I was wondering if you would also focus on different areas of the country. I'm pretty sure that how people raise their children is related to where they live at least in part, because different areas have different society norms. Just an idea.

[Ryan Hartling]

Sorry it took me a few days to get back to you, it slipped my mind. My mom said she never got hit by her parents, and when I talked to my grandmother (on my mother's side), she said she believed "minimal" corporal punishment was acceptable, but she never hit my mother.

My dad, on the other hand, is a different story. He remembered multiple times where he would get a smack or two for doing something he wasn't supposed to. Mostly from his father.

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