Liam on peer pressure, social conflict

After much begging, Liam has finally started emailing me some of his homework assignments so that I can read them. They leave me amazed and proud and feeling that he is beyond me. The strength of his spirit is so clear and although I take some credit for nurturing it I’m also aware that he came like that. Nothing to do with me. I am not sure how I ended up with such a beautiful, fabulous child, but I am forever grateful.

Liam wrote a short piece on a book review by Carol Tarvis. Some excerpts:

I wanted to see if someone had a valid point to make about how peer pressure affects me…Peer pressure is not a group of kids surrounding you telling you to smoke…Peer pressure is more the way that you look at things. Such as telling yourself, I gotta act cooler if I want to be his friend. Or maybe you need to buy a new brand of shoes to be part of a group. Those who resist peer pressure are the people who decide not to change for the majority, but let the majority change for them.

When asked “What part would you change in the story and why?” about the novel Hatchet, Liam responded:

If I could change something in this book it would be that instead of Brian being stranded alone, he could be stranded with a friend or another person. I would change this because in that way there could be some social conflict (man vs. man) instead of all man vs. wild. I think that it would add more depth into what Brian is like and how him and  the other person react to being stranded together.

Wow.