Summary of Troubled by Rob Henderson: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class E-Book
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troubled rob henderson
Summary of Troubled by Rob Henderson: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class
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Rob Henderson's memoir, Troubled, is a poignant account of his upbringing in foster care, military service, and attending elite universities. Born to a drug-addicted mother and father, Henderson experienced tragedy, poverty, and violence during his adolescence. Despite his academic achievements, he still felt like he was on the outside looking in, comparing his academic achievements to the love and protection of stable family life.
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Summary of Troubled
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Summary of Rob Henderson’s book
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Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class
GP SUMMARY
Summary of Troubled by Rob Henderson: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class
By GP SUMMARY© 2024, GP SUMMARY.
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This is an unofficial summary & analysis of Rob Henderson’s “Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class” designed to enrich your reading experience.
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PREFACE
Robert Kim Henderson, a person with more education than he ever expected to receive, argues that education should be seen more as the fortunate benefit of a warm and loving upbringing. He shares his experiences of being abandoned, abused, or neglected by his biological father, birth mother, and former adoptive father. He believes that educated Americans tend to focus on credentials when deciding whether or not to listen to someone, but his authority comes from the origins of his name itself, not the credentials after it.
Education is meant to be a ladder toward a better life, but it can also carry the wounds and scars from childhood maltreatment. Unstable environments and unreliable caregivers aren't bad for children because they reduce their future odds of getting into college or making a living; they are bad because the pain they endure propels them to pursue relief that often infects even more harm. Credentials and money are not antidotes to the lingering effects of childhood maltreatment.
The author's personal discoveries reveal that 18 out of twenty students were raised by both of their birth parents, which is shocking given that none of the kids he knew growing up was raised by both of their parents. This highlights broader national trends, such as boys raised by single mothers or caregivers other than their parents being five times more likely to be incarcerated than boys raised by both parents.
The author suggests that the school system should be held responsible for childhood outcomes, but his experiences in California showed that schools should not be held responsible for childhood outcomes.
The New York Times published an op-ed titled "College Does Help the Poor," which highlights the disparities in education and social mobility between wealthier and less privileged individuals. Research shows that Americans who grow up poor and graduate from college earn about $335,000 more in their lives compared to their peers who did not attend college, while college graduates from wealthy backgrounds go on to earn about $901,000 more than comparable individuals who did not complete college. This disparity is worthy of consideration, as it does not consider trauma, neglect, feelings of worthlessness, and stressful interpersonal relationships that accompany an already impoverished upbringing.
A popular article in The Atlantic by sociology professor W. Bradford Wilcox presents evidence that children with married parents are more likely to graduate from college and obtain higher-paying jobs. However, the article assumes that the main reason stable families are good for kids is because it sets them up to go to college and earn more money.
A recent paper led by economist and Nobel laureate James J. Heckman found that family influence on important child outcomes in Denmark is about as strong as it is in the United States. Even though public assistance in Denmark is widely available and university education is free, disparities in test scores and educational mobility between children raised in wealthy versus low-income families are virtually identical to the US.
Economic forces may be the key factor for the disparity in outcomes among peers from different periods of their life. A 2012 paper in the scientific journal Developmental Psychology found that children raised in unstable environments are significantly more likely to engage in harmful or destructive behaviors later in life. Being poor doesn't have the same effect as living in chaos.
The author disagrees with the sentiment that being grateful for what they went through because it made them who they are today. They would swap their position in the top 1 percent of educational attainment to have never been in the top 1 percent of childhood instability.
The author shares their personal experiences growing up in disorder during the 1990s and mid-2000s, aiming to provide a firsthand view of life during that era. They believe that upward social mobility should not be the primary goal for society, but rather a side effect of family, stability, and emotional security for children. The author grew up poor, encountered the middle class in the military, and found influence at Yale. They learned about the concept of "luxury beliefs," which confer status on the upper class at little cost while often inflicting costs on the lower classes.
The author began writing this book in 2020, a year after arriving as a PhD student at Cambridge University. During the COVID-19 lockdowns, the author created a new routine by dedicating time to this memoir. They revisited their childhood by mentally traveling back in time and physically visiting the places where they grew up to jog old memories.
The author emphasizes that all stories are true, though some names and dates have been changed. They share early memories that were initially stored in the mind of a child and try to communicate them to the best of their ability, though they may not mirror reality perfectly.
Until Your Heart Explodes
The author, a graduate of Yale University, shares their story of being adopted from Seoul, South Korea. They recall their earliest memory of their mother, who was a former police detective and later became pregnant with the author. The author's mother had two sons with other men before becoming pregnant with the author, and they have never met their half-brothers.
The author's mother moved to California as a young woman and completed one semester of college before dropping out. After being removed from her care, she was asked by a forensic psychologist if she had taken drugs in college. She replied that it was a psychedelic age. After arriving in the US, she met the author's father and became pregnant with the author. The author's father was Hispanic, with ancestry from Mexico and Spain.
The author's mother was deported to South Korea after her arrest, and she never saw her again. The author is often asked about trying to find their birth parents, but other adopted people rarely ask about this.
The author lived in seven different foster homes in Los Angeles in total, with two of the placements being brief and two others unrecorded. It is possible that these experiences were so upsetting that the memories weren't encoded or that the author's recollections blended with the placements they did remember. The author hopes to have substantive memories of three of their foster homes.
The narrator was taken from their mother and placed in a crowded foster home, where they spent most of their time watching TV and roughhousing without much adult supervision. They were mostly Black and Hispanic, with an older child controlling the television channel. One day, the narrator was taken away by a Black woman named Gerri, who warned them to leave. The narrator was confused by the different families on TV and the fact that some of their foster siblings had left and new ones had joined them.
The narrator's foster parents, the Dela Peñas, were from the Philippines and had difficulty speaking English. The narrator struggled with hunger and went through the lunch line each day, hoping to be registered into the free lunch system. He would fantasize about sneaking through to get food, but eventually realized that other kids thought it was weird that he didn't have anything to eat.
One day, the lunch lady handed the narrator a lunch card, making her the narrator's favorite person in school. The narrator felt grateful for being able to eat like everyone else, feeling less of an outsider and easier to pay attention in class when he wasn't hungry. The narrator's experience highlights the challenges faced by children in their early years, such as language barriers, lack of support, and the need for a sense of belonging and belonging.
In my foster home, I lived with six foster siblings and extended family members, many of whom were teenage boys. Food was often scarce, and I would sometimes sneak snacks from the pantry. One day, one of my foster brothers disappeared, and I hoped it wouldn't happen to me. An older man, Mrs. Dela Peña's father, lived in the house and was kind to me.
The mid-nineties were a perplexing period for me, as I would hear "Simpson" on television and wonder if my mom would ever return for me. I was lucky that my mom had moved back to South Korea and didn't know who my dad was, which helped me avoid the toxic biological parents.
There were many teenage boys in the home, some of whom spoke Tagalog and English. They usually hung out in the garage, drinking and smoking, playing music videos, and listening to loud music. One day, I tried their beer, which tasted bad, and they laughed at me. I learned some swear words and tattoos, which made it easier for the cops to catch me.
