The student presentations this week were great
learning experiences. I believe students drew a lot on previous readings and
discussions, yet expanded their topics to include debates we did not have time
to have in class. I particularly found JB and IP’s presentations to be
interesting.
I really enjoyed listening to JB because she
expanded on something that was almost completely skipped in class. We discussed briefly gay
and lesbian adoption but our discussion was focused more on the psychological
arguments for gay and lesbian adoption, such as in “How Does the Sexual
Orientation of Parents Matter?” This chapter states “this body of
research-mostly done by psychologists-almost uniformly reports findings of no
notable differences between children reared by heterosexual parents and those
reared by lesbian and gay parents” (Stacey & Biblarz,p.248). As important as this conversation was, it left
out lesbian adoption, which was very disappointing. Luckily JB stepped in and
did some of the research for us. She stated she also found the research to be
sparse when it came to lesbian adoption and was hoping to find out why that is as
she continues to research. I would be very interested in hearing about what she
finds.
I also found IP’s research topic to be particularly
interesting. Her discussion of transnational adoption, and how this adoption
can affect identity, was very similar to what we discussed in class. IP found
that she agreed with Keller in the reading “Goals of Maternal Practice,” in
that helping a transnational adoptee develop their racial identity is crucial
to the child’s wellbeing. IP did however differ with Keller when it came to the
parent’s role in supporting this racial identity. Keller stated that when
adoptive parents send their children to camps such as Kamp Kimchee in Minnesota, it will “help
their children develop a sense of racial-ethnic literacy, pride, and identity”
(Keller, p.27). IP found the opposite to
be true, especially in her own experiences. From what I understood from the
presentation, IP believes that there needs to be better programs in place to
prepare adoptive parents for helping their adoptive children develop racial
identity and that a simple one week camp is not cutting it.
I believe my walk away from these
presentations and this semester as a whole is that no matter what you hear in
class, it is always just a small glimpse of the whole issue. It is important to
do further research to really find out where you stand on an issue. Do not
follow blindly, but rather discover things for yourself by pursuing as much information
on the issue as possible.
Julie Thurmes
