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Test Bank For Home, School, and Community Collaboration Culturally Responsive Family Engagement, 4th Edition Kathy B. Grant Julie A. Ray
Test Bank For Home, School, and Community Collaboration Culturally Responsive Family Engagement, 4th Edition Kathy B. Grant Julie A. Ray
Test Bank For Home, School, and Community Collaboration Culturally Responsive Family Engagement, 4th Edition Kathy B. Grant Julie A. Ray
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Test Bank for Home, School, and Community Collaboration Culturally Responsive Family Engagem
1. Even positive ______, like a wedding or the birth of a baby, can cause stress in a
family.
A. rites of passage
B. life events
C. transitions
D. scenarios
Ans: B
Learning Objective: 6-2: What kind of support does a student need when her parents
separate and divorce? Does the transition into a blended family create any special
issues for students?
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Family Life Cycle: Normal Transitions
Difficulty Level: Medium
2. Transitions are difficult for children because they tend to change the ______ of
parenting, which affects the ______ between parent and child.
A. dignity; bond
B. boundaries; level of control
C. quality; relationship
D. rules; acceptance
Ans: C
Learning Objective: 6-2: What kind of support does a student need when her parents
separate and divorce? Does the transition into a blended family create any special
issues for students? | 6-4: How can I work effectively with military families, who are
often in transition owing to deployments or moves? | 6-6: How can I help children in
foster care feel secure in my classroom, even though their family may be temporary?
Cognitive Domain: Analysis
Answer Location: Family Life Cycle: Normal Transitions
Difficulty Level: Hard
Learning Objective: 6-2: What kind of support does a student need when her parents
separate and divorce? Does the transition into a blended family create any special
issues for students? | 6-3: What should my response be to a student who has lost a
sibling, parent, grandparent, or other significant family member? | 6-4: How can I work
effectively with military families, who are often in transition owing to deployments or
moves? | 6-5: How does having a parent in prison affect students' ability to learn and be
successful at school?
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Family Life Cycle: Normal Transitions
Difficulty Level: Medium
4. A child in ______ is buffered against the negative effects resulting from moving and
changing schools.
A. an affluent family
B. a nuclear family
C. a military family
D. no type of family
Ans: D
Learning Objective: 6-1: How can I help a new student who has moved from another
school to be successful?
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Moving
Difficulty Level: Medium
5. A(An) ______ can make it easier for children who are trying to adjust to a move and a
new school.
A. introduction packet of community resources
B. welcoming classroom environment
C. trip to the guidance counselor
D. overview of the curriculum
Ans: B
Learning Objective: 6-1: How can I help a new student who has moved from another
school to be successful?
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Moving
Difficulty Level: Medium
6. Teachers can help ease the transition to a new school by assigning a/an ______ to
assist the new student in learning the school.
A. peer tutor
B. hall pass
C. student ambassador
D. informal assessment
Ans: C
Grant, Home, School, and Community Collaboration, 4e
Learning Objective: 6-1: How can I help a new student who has moved from another
school to be successful?
Cognitive Domain: Application
Answer Location: Moving
Difficulty Level: Medium
8. Miss Perkins, a kindergarten teacher, pays special attention to her students who join
the classroom after the start of the school year. She knows how important it is to help
new students develop ______, so they can transition more smoothly to the new
classroom.
A. friendships
B. self-esteem
C. resilience
D. emotional regulation
Ans: A
Learning Objective: 6-1: How can I help a new student who has moved from another
school to be successful?
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Moving
Difficulty Level: Medium
9. Which factor should Mr. Regar consider when he plans books about sensitive topics
to read to his first grade class?
A. Books about relevant topics should be read to the entire class, during whole group
activities.
B. Some titles are best read individually or sent home for families to read.
C. There are very few books with children experiencing life events, so it will be a
challenge to identify and locate good books to use in his class.
D. Parents will be offended by the use of children’s books about sensitive topics such as
divorce, homelessness, and diverse families.
Ans: B
Learning Objective: 6-1: How can I help a new student who has moved from another
school to be successful?
Grant, Home, School, and Community Collaboration, 4e
10. Teresa recently arrived in Mrs. Talbert’s second-grade class, 8 weeks into the
school year. She and her family moved to the area from another state. The school’s
mandatory parent–teacher conferences are scheduled for next week, and Mrs. Talbert
is not sure the best way to approach Teresa’s family, since there is little information to
share about Teresa’s academic progress so far. What is the best solution for Mrs.
Talbert?
A. Talk with Teresa’s family on the phone as soon as possible to find out more about
Teresa. Ask if they would like to meet at conference time
B. Get clearance from the principal to wait until the spring parent–teacher conferences
to talk with Teresa’s family
C. Ask the school principal to meet with Teresa’s family to get them acclimated to the
school during conference week
D. Set a time on the conference schedule and inform Teresa’s family members of their
appointment time
Ans: A
Learning Objective: 6-1: How can I help a new student who has moved from another
school to be successful?
Cognitive Domain: Application
Answer Location: Moving
Difficulty Level: Medium
11. One way that teachers can reach out to families who have recently moved into the
area is to provide information about ______.
A. school policies
B. community resources
C. the local geographic area
D. food bank and clothing pantries
Ans: B
Learning Objective: 6-1: How can I help a new student who has moved from another
school to be successful?
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Moving
Difficulty Level: Medium
12. High school graduation ceremonies, going away parties, and weddings are
examples of ______, or transitions that are expected.
A. non-normative transitions
B. resiliencies
C. family life cycles
D. rites of passage
Ans: D
Grant, Home, School, and Community Collaboration, 4e
13. Which consequence illustrates a loss of status for children after a divorce?
A. having your own bedroom instead of sharing it with siblings
B. having to change schools
C. having less health care insurance
D. having to move into a newer home
Ans: C
Learning Objective: 6-2: What kind of support does a student need when her parents
separate and divorce? Does the transition into a blended family create any special
issues for students?
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Characteristics of Difficult Family Transitions
Difficulty Level: Medium
14. Research suggests which strategy to help children adjust to their parents’ divorce?
A. provide limited information about the divorce to children
B. create a new, blended family as soon after the divorce as possible
C. getting the children into counseling
D. parents maintain a sense of security and emotional support
Ans: D
Learning Objective: 6-2: What kind of support does a student need when her parents
separate and divorce? Does the transition into a blended family create any special
issues for students?
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Students in Families Undergoing Separation, Divorce, and
Remarriage
Difficulty Level: Medium
15. Which statement about the relationships between divorce, parents, and/or children
is true?
A. If a parent has emotional problems, such as depression, and becomes self-absorbed
or withdrawn, then students may exhibit acting out behaviors as well as develop
emotional problems.
B. Effective teaching practices can reduce the negative effects more than any level of
parental support provided.
C. The negative effects were stronger for the academic achievement of children in
secondary school when compared with children in primary school.
D. Children who have accumulated fewer negative family transitions will have more
academic, behavioral, and emotional problems than children who have experienced
more negative life events.
Ans: A
Grant, Home, School, and Community Collaboration, 4e
Learning Objective: 6-2: What kind of support does a student need when her parents
separate and divorce? Does the transition into a blended family create any special
issues for students?
Cognitive Domain: Analysis
Answer Location: Current Research on Divorce
Difficulty Level: Hard
16. Blended families must develop new roles and ______ to help children function in the
new family system.
A. consequences
B. transitions
C. life events
D. boundaries
Ans: D
Learning Objective: 6-2: What kind of support does a student need when her parents
separate and divorce? Does the transition into a blended family create any special
issues for students?
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Scenarios Relating to Divorce
Difficulty Level: Medium
17. Teachers are recommended to encourage the ______ parent to stay actively
involved in his or her child’s education, even if there is conflict between the parents.
A. remarried
B. divorced
C. noncustodial
D. neglectful
Ans: C
Learning Objective: 6-2: What kind of support does a student need when her parents
separate and divorce? Does the transition into a blended family create any special
issues for students?
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Suggestions for Working With Students in Families Undergoing
Separation, Divorce, or Remarriage
Difficulty Level: Medium
18. It is common for young children who are grieving to develop ______ and to ______
in developmental behaviors.
A. stress; advance
B. physical ailments; regress
C. mental illnesses; revel
D. attachments to adults; need assistance
Ans: B
Learning Objective: 6-3: What should my response be to a student who has lost a
sibling, parent, grandparent, or other significant family member?
Grant, Home, School, and Community Collaboration, 4e
19. Tori feels remorse since the death of her younger sister. She thinks that she should
have been the one to die because she is the older sibling. Tori is probably experiencing
______.
A. post-traumatic stress syndrome
B. stress-induced depression
C. life event transition
D. survivor’s guilt
Ans: D
Learning Objective: 6-3: What should my response be to a student who has lost a
sibling, parent, grandparent, or other significant family member?
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Death of a Parent or Family Member
Difficulty Level: Medium
20. Young children who experience a death in their immediate family ______.
A. may not understand that death is final or real
B. go through all five stages of the grieving process much more quickly than adults
C. tend to grieve in the same way as their parents
D. rarely have difficulty expressing their emotions
Ans: A
Learning Objective: 6-3: What should my response be to a student who has lost a
sibling, parent, grandparent, or other significant family member?
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Death of a Parent or Family Member
Difficulty Level: Medium
21. Rajah’s twin 7-year-old brother recently died in an accident. His teacher knows all of
Rajah’s family members are in counseling to help them deal with their grief. In which
way can Rajah’s teacher help him in school as he goes through this difficult time?
A. Talk with the other children in the class and explain why Rajah is sad. Tell them to
say nothing about his brother.
B. Dedicate several morning meetings with the class to discuss death and dying. Ask
the other children to share their stories and questions with Rajah.
C. Look for ways to help Rajah remember his brother and share memories and feelings
about him when he chooses to.
D. Read children’s books that deal with the subjects of death and dying to the class
every day for one month. Hope Rajah finds comfort in the stories.
Ans: C
Learning Objective: 6-3: What should my response be to a student who has lost a
sibling, parent, grandparent, or other significant family member?
Cognitive Domain: Application
Grant, Home, School, and Community Collaboration, 4e
Answer Location: Suggestions for Working With Students and the Death of a Parent or
Family Member
Difficulty Level: Medium
22. Research indicates that children whose parents are in the military self-reported
______ as the most difficult aspect of military life.
A. not knowing when a parent will be deployed
B. dealing with the numerous moves and school changes as a result of military service
C. worrying about a parent’s safety
D. negative portrayal of military personnel in the media
Ans: B
Learning Objective: 6-4: How can I work effectively with military families, who are often
in transition owing to deployments or moves?
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Students With Parents in the Military
Difficulty Level: Medium
23. How can teachers help children from military families to feel welcome and secure at
school?
A. avoid any references to the military during the school day
B. eliminate homework and any additional stress while a parent is deployed
C. encourage classroom conversations and relationships among military and nonmilitary
students
D. continually assure the children their parents are OK and will come home soon
Ans: C
Learning Objective: 6-4: How can I work effectively with military families, who are often
in transition owing to deployments or moves?
Cognitive Domain: Application
Answer Location: Suggestions for Working With Students With Parents in the Military
Difficulty Level: Medium
24. Which strategy is recommended for teachers who will be working with students in
active-duty military families?
A. keep war stories and daily news out of the classroom
B. forgo conferences with families who are about to be deployed
C. limit the bad news sent home to families
D. incorporate coping strategies into the curriculum
Ans: D
Learning Objective: 6-4: How can I work effectively with military families, who are often
in transition owing to deployments or moves?
Cognitive Domain: Application
Answer Location: Suggestions for Working With Students With Parents in the Military
Difficulty Level: Medium
26. Children whose parents are incarcerated are more likely to ______.
A. fear authority
B. be resilient
C. learn from their parents’ mistakes and make better life choices because of it
D. enter the criminal justice system at some point in their lives
Ans: D
Learning Objective: 6-5: How does having a parent in prison affect students’ ability to
learn and be successful at school?
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Students With Parents in Prison
Difficulty Level: Medium
27. Technology can be used to overcome many of the challenges that prevent children
from visiting incarcerated family members. Which challenge may still exist even with the
use of technology, such as video conferencing?
A. public transportation typically does not exist for prisons
B. prison facilities may be far from inmates’ families
C. children and their possessions may be searched before visits
D. prison visits may be short in duration
Ans: C
Learning Objective: 6-5: How does having a parent in prison affect students’ ability to
learn and be successful at school?
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Students With Parents in Prison
Difficulty Level: Medium
28. Twelve-year-old Henry is sullen, angry, and worried about his father who was
recently arrested and is now in jail awaiting trial. Studies show that what Henry is most
in need of at this time is ______.
A. a mentor to serve as a father figure
B. accurate information about his father’s whereabouts and safety
C. protection from the harsh realities of his father’s situation
Grant, Home, School, and Community Collaboration, 4e
D. someone to tell his classmates what has happened to his father so he won’t have to
tell them
Ans: B
Learning Objective: 6-5: How does having a parent in prison affect students’ ability to
learn and be successful at school?
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Students With Parents in Prison
Difficulty Level: Medium
29. Researchers found that adolescents with a parent or family member in prison were
very concerned about ______ because they feared being ______.
A. confidentiality; stigmatized
B. prison visits; separated from their loved one
C. the length of the prison term; placed in foster care
D. school absences resulting from court appearances; penalized for them
Ans: A
Learning Objective: 6-5: How does having a parent in prison affect students’ ability to
learn and be successful at school?
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Students With Parents in Prison
Difficulty Level: Medium
30. What method did the San Francisco Children of Incarcerated Parents Partnership
use to create the Bill of Rights for Children of the Incarcerated?
A. It was based on the findings of research studies than spanned over 30 years.
B. It was based on the belief that children with incarcerated parents need minimal
supports to overcome their challenges.
C. It was based on surveys completed by parents, teachers, and caregivers of children
who have incarcerated family members.
D. It was based on interviews and experiences of children who have incarcerated
parents.
Ans: D
Learning Objective: 6-5: How does having a parent in prison affect students’ ability to
learn and be successful at school?
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Students With Parents in Prison
Difficulty Level: Medium
Learning Objective: 6-6: How can I help children in foster care feel secure in my
classroom, even though their family may be temporary?
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Students in Foster Care
Difficulty Level: Medium
32. The majority of children adopted from foster care are adopted by ______.
A. grandparents
B. family friends
C. foster parents
D. single adults or married couple working through adoption agencies
Ans: C
Learning Objective: 6-6: How can I help children in foster care feel secure in my
classroom, even though their family may be temporary?
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Students in Foster Care
Difficulty Level: Easy
33. To help children in foster care succeed academically, teachers need to ______.
A. have high expectations for success
B. get all previous school records
C. give as minimal support as possible
D. allow the guidance counselor to handle all concerns
Ans: A
Learning Objective: 6-6: How can I help children in foster care feel secure in my
classroom, even though their family may be temporary?
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Suggestions for Working With Students in Foster Care
Difficulty Level: Medium
34. Which classroom activity is likely to make foster children feel uncomfortable?
A. reading children’s books about a variety of family types
B. having classroom volunteers assist small groups with math
C. learning about historical or cultural events that included families
D. creating a family tree with baby pictures
Ans: D
Learning Objective: 6-6: How can I help children in foster care feel secure in my
classroom, even though their family may be temporary?
Cognitive Domain: Analysis
Answer Location: Suggestions for Working With Students in Foster Care
Difficulty Level: Hard
True/False
Grant, Home, School, and Community Collaboration, 4e
1. Parents, other family members, and teachers can help buffer children from the
damaging effects of stressful change.
Ans: T
Learning Objective: 6-1: How can I help a new student who has moved from another
school to be successful?
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Family Life Cycle: Normal Transitions
Difficulty Level: Medium
2. Children who move into better homes and neighborhoods suffer little or no negative
consequences a result of a move, whereas students from poverty or single-parent
homes who move often experience lower grades in school as a result.
Ans: F
Learning Objective: 6-1: How can I help a new student who has moved from another
school to be successful?
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Moving
Difficulty Level: Medium
4. Family members recover more quickly if they progress through all steps of the
grieving process together.
Ans: F
Learning Objective: 6-3: What should my response be to a student who has lost a
sibling, parent, grandparent, or other significant family member?
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Death of a Parent or Family Member
Difficulty Level: Medium
5. Children in military families are at greater risk for abuse or neglect when their
parent(s) are deployed.
Ans: T
Learning Objective: 6-4: How can I work effectively with military families, who are often
in transition owing to deployments or moves?
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Suggestions for Working With Students With Parents in the Military
Grant, Home, School, and Community Collaboration, 4e
6. Parents who are deployed can still be involved in their children’s education.
Ans: T
Learning Objective: 6-4: How can I work effectively with military families, who are often
in transition owing to deployments or moves?
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Suggestions for Working With Students With Parents in the Military
Difficulty Level: Medium
7. A parent’s return after a long deployment can be a stressful event for children.
Ans: T
Learning Objective: 6-4: How can I work effectively with military families, who are often
in transition owing to deployments or moves?
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Suggestions for Working With Students With Parents in the Military
Difficulty Level: Medium
8. Children who witness their parent’s arrest are more likely to suffer trauma, grief, and
other symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Ans: T
Learning Objective: 6-5: How does having a parent in prison affect students’ ability to
learn and be successful at school?
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Students With Parents in Prison
Difficulty Level: Medium
9. Studies show that parenting classes can help incarcerated parents to parent better
and to stay out of prison once released.
Ans: T
Learning Objective: 6-5: How does having a parent in prison affect students’ ability to
learn and be successful at school?
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Suggestions for Working With Students With Parents in Prison
Difficulty Level: Medium
10. Schools can help children in transition or crisis by simply maintaining regular,
predictable routines and procedures.
Ans: T
Learning Objective: 6-4: How can I work effectively with military families, who are often
in transition owing to deployments or moves? | 6-6: How can I help children in foster
care feel secure in my classroom, even though their family may be temporary?
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Suggestions for Working With Students in Difficult Family Transitions
Difficulty Level: Medium
Grant, Home, School, and Community Collaboration, 4e
Essay
1. In what ways can teachers help a new student moving into the classroom in the
middle of the year better adjust to the classroom?
Ans: Discover the reason for the move to better understand the student and his or her
needs.
Show sensitivity to new students’ needs and create a welcoming atmosphere.
Connect new students with a “student ambassador” or friend to help them find their way.
Provide extra support and attention until the student has adjusted to the classroom
routine and demands and to help the student develop new friendships in the classroom
to replace those that were lost in the move.
Conduct informal assessments as soon as possible to determine the student’s abilities.
Share books with the class about making friends and open up discussions about the
difficulties a move creates in a child’s life.
Learning Objective: 6-1: How can I help a new student who has moved from another
school to be successful?
Cognitive Domain: Application
Answer Location: Moving
Difficulty Level: Medium
2. What are some key principles teachers should keep in mind when working with
families who are going through separation and divorce?
Ans: Allow students to talk about their feelings, but do not quiz them about their family
situation. Help them express their feelings in acceptable ways.
Respond to students in a way that shows teachers are willing to listen and care about
them and their family.
Be alert to changes in behavior or schoolwork and stay in contact with parents about
these changes.
Be sensitive to problems with getting work completed, concentrating in class, or acting-
out behaviors, as students are sorting through the many psychological, emotional, and
physical changes occurring in their lives.
Encourage noncustodial parents to remain active in their child’s schooling and
extracurricular activities.
Send all communications, such as newsletters or notes, to both parents’ homes, rather
than forcing the child to communicate information to the noncustodial parent.
Be as neutral as possible when parents separate and remember that it is not your role
to judge either parent.
Include both parents and stepparents in conferences or meetings; offer separate
conference times if parents do not want to meet together.
Keep both parents informed about the child’s schoolwork, such as projects or long-
range assignments that may need to be completed on weekends when a child is visiting
the noncustodial parent.
Grant, Home, School, and Community Collaboration, 4e
3. What are some common responses to stress and grief teachers of young children
may see in the classroom?
Ans: There is not a typical response to loss, as there is no typical loss. Children do not
respond to grief in the same way as adults, and they may have difficulty in
understanding that death is permanent, irreversible, and final.
They may not be able to express their emotions or ask for what they need, and they
may exhibit unacceptable classroom behaviors.
They may regress in behaviors, such as bed-wetting, or display aggressive, acting out
behaviors or irrational fears.
They may feel that their behavior in some way contributed to the death of their parent.
They may withdraw into themselves, have difficulty concentrating on schoolwork, and
avoid it out of frustration.
Learning Objective: 6-3: What should my response be to a student who has lost a
sibling, parent, grandparent, or other significant family member?
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Death of a Parent or Family Member
Difficulty Level: Medium
4. Washington Elementary School is located near a large military base, and students’
families at Washington Elementary are often deployed overseas. In what ways can
Washington Elementary teachers design their curriculum to build students’ resiliency,
coping skills, and sense of belonging in the classroom?
Ans: Create ways for students and families to share information and communicate with
each other and the school, such as a class website or blog.
Make clear the classroom expectations and routines and keep to them.
Develop lessons on emotional competence.
Incorporate ideas from military life across disciplines.
Celebrate children’s experiences as military children, including noting where they’ve
lived and where families have served around the nation and world.
Test Bank for Home, School, and Community Collaboration Culturally Responsive Family Engagem
Provide opportunities for students to learn from each other and share strategies for
dealing with strong emotions (fears), crises, and transitions related to military life.
Provide lessons on dealing with worry and anxiety.
Provide places for children to share their identities as individuals and as a class.
Develop lessons on issues related to military families and include children’s literature
related to these issues.
Learning Objective: 6-4: How can I work effectively with military families, who are often
in transition owing to deployments or moves?
Cognitive Domain: Application
Answer Location: Students With Parents in the Military
Difficulty Level: Medium
John Dryden, famous alike for his verse, prose and drama, shows
his wit in biting, stinging satire.
Equally caustic are his epigrams, save one—the immortal lines on
Milton.
ON SHADWELL
All human things are subject to decay,
And, when Fate summons, monarchs must obey.
This Flecknoe found, who, like Augustus, young
Was called to empire, and had governed long.
In prose and verse was owned, without dispute,
Through all the realms of Nonsense absolute.
This aged prince, now flourishing in peace,
And blest with issue of a large increase,
Worn out with business, did at length debate
To settle the succession of the state;
And pondering which of all his sons was fit
To reign, and wage immortal war with Wit,
Cried: “’Tis resolved; for Nature pleads that he
Should only rule who most resembles me.
Shadwell alone my perfect image bears,
Mature in dulness from his tender years;
Shadwell alone of all my sons is he
Who stands confirmed in full stupidity.
The rest to some faint meaning make pretence,
But Shadwell never deviates into sense.
Some beams of wit on other souls may fall,
Strike through, and make a lucid interval,
But Shadwell’s genuine night admits no ray;
His rising fogs prevail upon the day.
Besides, his goodly fabric fills the eye,
And seems designed for thoughtless majesty—
Thoughtless as monarch oaks that shade the plain,
And, spread in solemn state, supinely reign.”
The original of these fine lines was probably a Latin distich written
by Selvaggi at Rome, which has been thus translated:
Greece boasts her Homer, Rome her Virgil’s name,
But England’s Milton vies with both in fame.
PHILLIS’ AGE
How old may Phillis be, you ask,
Whose beauty thus all hearts engages?
To answer is no easy task:
For she has really two ages.
FRENCH HUMOR
The first French humorist of note in the seventeenth century was
Cyrano de Bergerac. His History of the Moon and History of the Sun
are of the nature of Gulliver’s Travels.
We laid ourselves along upon very soft quilts, covered with large
carpets; and a young man that waited on us, taking the oldest of our
philosophers led him into a little parlor apart, where my Spirit called
to him to come back to us as soon as he had supped.
This humor of eating separately gave me the curiosity of asking
the cause of it. “He’ll not relish,” said he, “the steam of meat, nor yet
of herbs, unless they die of themselves, because he thinks they are
sensible of pain.” “I wonder not so much,” replied I, “that he abstains
from flesh, and all things that have had a sensitive life. For in our
world the Pythagoreans, and even some holy Anchorites, have
followed that rule; but not to dare, for instance, cut a cabbage, for
fear of hurting it—that seems to me altogether ridiculous.” “And for
my part,” answered my Spirit, “I find a great deal of reason in his
opinion.
“For, tell me is not that cabbage you speak of a being existent in
Nature as well as you? Is not she the common mother of you both?
Yet the opinion that Nature is kinder to mankind than to cabbage-
kind, tickles and makes us laugh. But, seeing she is incapable of
passion, she can neither love nor hate anything; and were she
susceptible of love, she would rather bestow her affection upon this
cabbage, which you grant cannot offend her, than upon that man
who would destroy her if it lay in his power.
“And, moreover, man cannot be born innocent, being a part of the
first offender. But we know very well that the first cabbage did not
offend its Creator. If it be said that we are made after the image of
the Supreme Being, and the cabbage is not—grant that to be true;
yet by polluting our soul, wherein we resembled Him, we have
effaced that likeness, seeing nothing is more contrary to God than
sin. If, then, our soul be no longer His image, we resemble Him no
more in our feet, hands, mouth, forehead, and ears, than a cabbage
in its leaves, flowers, stalk, pith, and head—do not you really think
that if this poor plant could speak when one cuts it, it would not say,
‘Dear brother man, what have I done to thee that deserves death? I
never grow but in gardens, and am never to be found in desert
places, where I might live in security; I disdain all other company but
thine, and scarcely am I sowed in thy garden when, to show thee my
good-will, I blossom, stretch out my arms to thee, offer thee my
children in grain; and, as a requital for my civility, thou causest my
head to be chopped off.’ Thus would a cabbage discourse if it could
speak.
“To massacre a man is not so great sin as to cut and kill a
cabbage, because one day the man will rise again, but the cabbage
has no other life to hope for. By putting to death a cabbage, you
annihilate it; but in killing a man, you make him only change his
habitation. Nay, I’ll go farther with you still: since God doth equally
cherish all His works, and hath equally, divided the benefits betwixt
us and plants, it is but just we should have an equal esteem for them
as for ourselves. It is true we were born first, but in the family of God
there is no birthright. If, then, the cabbage share not with us in the
inheritance of immortality, without doubt that want was made up by
some other advantage, that may make amends for the shortness of
its being—maybe by an universal intellect, or a perfect knowledge of
all things in their causes. And it is for that reason that the wise Mover
of all things hath not shaped for it organs like ours, which are proper
only for simple reasoning, not only weak, but often fallacious too; but
others, more ingeniously framed, stronger, and more numerous,
which serve to conduct its speculative exercises. You’ll ask me,
perhaps, whenever any cabbage imparted those lofty conceptions to
us? But tell me, again, who ever discovered to us certain beings,
which we allow to be above us, to whom we bear no analogy nor
proportion, and whose existence it is as hard for us to comprehend
as the understanding and ways whereby a cabbage expresses itself
to its like, though not to us, because our senses are too dull to
penetrate so far?
“Moses, the greatest of philosophers, who drew the knowledge of
nature from the fountain-head, Nature herself, hinted this truth to us
when he spoke of the Tree of Knowledge; and without doubt he
intended to intimate to us under that figure that plants, in exclusion of
mankind, possess perfect philosophy. Remember, then, oh, thou
proudest of animals, that though a cabbage which thou cuttest
sayeth not a word, yet it pays in thinking. But the poor vegetable has
no fit organs to howl as you do, nor yet to frisk about and weep. Yet
it hath those that are proper to complain of the wrong you do it, and
to draw a judgment from Heaven upon you for the injustice. But if
you still demand of me how I come to know that cabbages and
coleworts conceive such pretty thoughts, then will I ask you, how
come you to know that they do not; and how that some among them,
when they shut up at night, may not compliment one another as you
do, saying, ‘Good-night, Master Cole-Curled-Pate! Your most humble
servant, good Master Cabbage-Round-Head!’”