Confessions of a Closet Catholic

While reading the book, I had a hard time thinking of a question. The book presents some stereotypes and some generalizations about being Jewish. I was thinking of our class discussion and came up with the idea of: Do all children/teenagers challenge their beliefs or values in order to fit into what they see as the norm(what their friends believe/do)? The reason I picked this question is because it seems that Justine wants to be like Mac in order to fit in. Based on page 8, where she talks about being Catholic like Mac, do you think that this is something that she wants to do because she is testing what religion she wants to be or do you think that she is doing this just to be like her friend?

Another idea that is brought up is the idea of Sister Teresa Benedicta, do you think that this is there to show that more teenagers are trying to be like the norm in society so they do not get made fun of or stick out? Or do you think that Sister Benedicta was just brought up to show that other people in history have switched between the two religions? Do you think that Sister Benedicta is seen as a role model and a way to see how she fit into society?

Project Mulberry

One of the topics that my group talked about was the idea of Mr. Dixon and Julia's mom. Why do you think that the other thought the other person was white? A few people talked about just how people assume things about teachers and the families based on the composition of the students in the area.

Another big discussion was the idea of heritage and how does that affect what you want to do with projects. Do you think that your heritage affects what you want to do in school and how much you are willing to share? The reason this came up is because of her being Korean and how she didn't want to do a project. I said middle school is a hard time for any student to fit in and all they want to do is fit in so they are not going to other people a reason to exclude them in activities. What do you think?