Clarence Roberts Jr.
The purpose of this unit is to give students (and teacher) an opportunity to examine and understand the relationships between changes in the family structure and changes in the social and/or economic makeup of society. This unit should also serve, if desired, as a followup to my unit last year. That unit, “Communities In Transition”, sought to examine the arrival of various ethnic and/or cultural groups into American society and communities. It hopes to show the impact of those groups on their neighborhoods (how their lifestyles and attitudes changed or complimented them). This unit, instead of looking at the larger picture, will examine the individual family (how their composition was and is determined by those forces in the larger community). Thus, from the “group” to the “family” seems like a logical progression that should end with a unit on the individual.
At the end of the unit mastery of the following objectives should be accomplished:
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1. Student will be able to define the following terms as they relate to the study of the family unit: monogamy, polygamy, polyandry, matrilineal, nuclear family, extended family, family time and historical time.
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2. Student will be able to discuss the need for large families in an agricultural economy.
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3. Student will be able to discuss how the “work at home” concept of preindustrial America helped to maintain the family unit.
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4. Student will know how the needs of an urban/ industrial/manufacturing society influenced changes in the family unit.
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5. Based on their studies, students will be able to make predictions about the future of the family.
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6. Student will know that many variables helped to shape the structure and expectations of the family.
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7. Student will be able to discuss the difference between an economy centered around agriculture and one centered around industrial manufacturing.
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8. Student will explain the Industrial Revolution.
