Buscaglia warns us against holding others to our expectations: "People are not here to meet your expectations." (Living, Loving and Learning, p. 109) People are each unique; each worth knowing in their own right. To have expectations is to shape the world by your own perspective, to try to fit others into where you have categorized them as belonging. That is structurally violent, for it causes you to set up categories into which you try to make people fit, and it makes it harder for you to categoize and interpret their communication because your own categorization preoccupies you and places structural limits on the categories you consider.

Based on your readings in Living, Loving, and Learning, answer the following questions:

Click on the Question Number to link to jeanne's answers.

1. Does Buscaglia mean that we shouldn't have high expectations for our children?

2. What does Buscaglia mean when he says that each of us is unique?

3. What is structurally violent about "expectations" in Buscaglia's sense?

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   Figurine by Rudiger Appel. Notice that you can see three effects in the animation. Either the Variation on the Kandinsky figurine appears to turn in a clockwise direction, or in a counterclockwise direction, or it appears to open and close. Can you see all three effects? Try. Fascinated? Link to Appel's site and then link to the background he provides. Scroll down until you find a link to background.

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   Chantessy's Page Chantessy's Mardi Gras Alphabet was originally used on this page. We changed it because it was too distracting as eye candy. Chantessy was the first contributor to our Kids' Site when we began Dear Habermas. Visit her page. Check out the sliders puzzles on her fun page. Or check out her candy box and send a friend a posty. Non-violent ways to respond to structural violence in the academy! It's great fun.