#473: Butter
Articles on eating disorders, aging parents, English-only households, and child care
Dear Loyal Readers,
It’s been a while since I’ve thanked those of you (300 this year!) who are new subscribers. So here I go: Thank you for discovering my newsletter and giving it a chance. I hope that you find some articles on race, education, and culture that are worthy of your time and attention. Always feel free to say hi.
I’m pleased with this week’s batch. As usual, I’ve chosen pieces from a variety of publications, many of which may not be in your normal rotation. (Paid subscribers make this possible, thank you!) Ever hear of Ecotone Magazine, for instance? It’s a good one.
Today’s lead article is “Butter,” a provocative essay by Mishele Maron that explores the inner workings of an eating disorder clinic. Rather than focusing on the physical and emotional therapy she received, Ms. Maron emphasizes the social dynamics among the patients, all young women. I think you’ll appreciate the piece’s tone as well.
If that topic is too heavy for you, I urge you to read one of the other three articles in this week’s issue. They are about:
how taking care of our aging parents might also be limiting their agency
how a teacher’s opinion of a trilingual kid’s speech got his family to go English-only at home
how we say we care about children but nonetheless do not fund child care
Hope you appreciate this week’s articles. As always, if a piece resonates with you, let me know. I’d love to hear from you. Or if you prefer, show your support by becoming a paid subscriber (like Janice) or buying me a coffee (like Renée). I would be very grateful.
✚ Big thanks to Elise, Lillian, Bonnie, Wayne, Laura, Debra, Camille, Alison, and Nicole for joining our discussion of “Athens, Revised,” by Erin Wood, last Sunday. It was a wonderful, thought-provoking conversation. We won’t have a discussion in December, but I’ll let you know about our January article first thing in 2025. My hope is that if you’re maybe interested, you’ll give Article Club a try.
1️⃣ Butter
Instead of completing her freshman year at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, Mishele Maron found herself one of eleven patients on the fifth floor of the Ballard Community Hospital’s eating disorder unit. Ms. Maron was there for bulimia; most of her peers were there for anorexia. In this well-written memoir, Ms. Maron recounts the relationships she experienced with her peers, particularly Beth, the leader of the girls, who mocked her for adding butter to her bread. “You’re going to eat that?” Beth asked increduously. Yes, in fact, despite the bullying, Ms. Maron was indeed going to eat the bread with butter. “I could not heal an eating disorder in five weeks,” Ms. Maron writes. “I could, however, eat the butter.”
By Mishele Maron • The Sun • 13 min • Gift Link
2️⃣ My Father, The Cyborg
Even though I didn’t choose this piece as this week’s lead article, it’s still my favorite. Omer Rosen has an 89-year-old dad with the typical maladies of an 89-year-old dad. To keep his dad alive, and to protect him, and to alleviate his own anxiety and guilt, Mr. Rosen implements technology to monitor his father’s health. There are cameras to detect falls; there is a blood sugar monitor; there are wearables that gather all kinds of data. He likes that his dad is safe; however, with all this information, Mr. Rosen wonders if he’s being too controlling. Has he taken away his dad’s agency and his free will? Mr. Rosen writes: “The ability to make bad decisions is common to us all: it is only in the elderly that we perceive it as incompetence. In children, it is immaturity; in adults, it is recklessness; but in the elderly, it is a lack of capacity. When someone is under our care, we value their safety at the expense of their autonomy.”
By Omer Rosen • Boston Review • 17 min • Gift Link
3️⃣ The The The The
Brian Truong: “In third grade, I was trilingual but could not pronounce ‘the’ or ‘that’ properly. I found out when Mom came back from a parent-teacher conference and handed me Mrs. Johnson’s feedback slip from a language arts assessment.
“My gut twisted. It was not the first time someone assumed I was born outside of Texas. In the pecking order of my elementary school, ESL students were second-rate citizens. No one in my family had been through the American school system, but the message was clear: blend into the main group or be ostracized into the ‘other.’
“Without a semblance of opposition, our family converted to an English-only household.”
By Brian Truong • Ecotone Magazine • 3 min • Gift Link
4️⃣ The Dark Future Of American Child Care
During and after the pandemic, child care in our country got better. That’s because our government invested in stricter requirements in licensing and safety training. A total of $24 billion in aid supported the rise of teacher salaries and ensured manageable child-to-caregiver ratios. Unfortunately a backlash followed, with conservatives slashing funding, believing that nuclear family members should take care of children, rather than the state. The result? Fewer rules and regulations, plus cost-cutting measures, like the employment of teenagers. Now teenagers as young as 14 are being employed by child care facilities — thereby reducing costs and resulting in more dangerous conditions. Preventing teenagers from caring for children, the argument goes, amounts to ageism. “You can’t say a 14-year-old is not going to be as good as a 65-year-old,” one state senator said.
By Jackie Mader • The Hechinger Report • 19 min • Gift Link
💬 Your Turn: Say hi and share your perspective
Many of you are new to Article Club. Don’t be shy! Please feel free to introduce yourself, say hi, tell us why you subscribed to the newsletter, and share your perspective on one or more of the articles.
➡️ Which piece resonated with you and why?
In typical Article Club fashon, be sure to be kind and thoughtful. The idea here is always empathy and understanding.
Thank you for reading this week’s issue. Hope you liked it. 😀
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