Cascading Lives

• Understand the life course perspective and consider how it is different from other ways to think about a life
• Identify a variety of types of turning points, including relationships, health, and economic circumstances, and be able to identify them in specific life stories
• Examine how public issues, such as a pandemic or a recession, can be a turning point for a lot of people

• What makes something a turning point as opposed to just a "bump in the road"?
• What happens between turning points?
• Why do we often feel like we are going through things alone even when many other people are going through something similar?

• Biographical stories for Jenifer and Liz

• Life course: The life of any individual can be looked at as a series of events that are impacted by the society in which they occur. Some paths are easier to travel and others are more difficult.
• Turning point: A significant change in the life of an individual that alters their life course and leads to new dynamics, tensions, and possibilities

When we think about economic position, we often think about it as fixed in place. But, it is really always caught between the push and pull of individual choices and larger forces, like a boat charting a course through choppy waters. It takes work to even stay in one place and a storm could come along and knock you off your planned path. The idea that we should pay attention to the sequence of life events - particularly to big events - and how people navigate them is called the life course approach. This differs from thinking about people as having a fixed destiny - whether that be doom or greatness - and differs from casting individuals as being all powerful and able to control everything that happens to them.

In this activity, students are going to start out by thinking about the big events, changes or upheavals that have occurred in their life or in the lives of the people they know. These can be anything that really mattered, positive or negative, that the student had control over, or that they did not. It could be quitting a job, having a new sibling, going back to school, parents getting remarried, or anything else. As a class, generate a list of all the kinds of turning points students can think of. Then, sort them into categories (e.g. economic, health, personal).

Now, form small groups and read Jenifer's story and identify the turning points. Have students talk about how things could have gone differently for Jenifer. What was within her control and what was not? Why did Jenifer make the choices that she made? Share students' ideas as a class.

At various points in Jenifer's story, the personal troubles she experienced were part of a much larger set of public issues. Assign students to a group numbered 1-to-3. In the group, students should do some guided investigation to examine the issue associated with a number and discuss how this shapes the way one thinks about Jenifer's story. Have all groups share with the class what they learn.

1. Immigration and Education
2. Parenting Children with Disabilities
3. Immigration in Boston

Now, have students read Liz's story. As they do, they should identify 3 turning points in her life and think about what public issues could be behind her personal troubles. They should discuss what kind of research they could do to understand more.

Lastly, as a class, discuss what sorts of things can help someone weather unexpected life events.

Have students pick a fictional character or famous person and imagine that they had the chance to interview them about their lives. How might they answer the following three questions: What was the biggest turning point in your life? How did you get through it? What could have gone differently?

• Poverty line
• Median income

• Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller
• The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck