Delani Strub

Educ255
Mrs. Henderson

Case Study
This is a comparison of my life and that of my interviewee between his
experiences first and mine following. Lets start by giving a little upfront information
that will be explained in full later. I am a heterosexual woman that grew up in
Southeastern Indiana, with a family made up of my mother, my father, and my two
older sisters. Neither of my parents are super religion and we barely go to church, if
at all, but I was baptized as Presperterian. In contrast, the interviewee was raised in
a strict Southern Baptist family with both parents and two older brothers and hes a
homosexual.
First, lets go further into detail on our religion. Although he grew up in a
religious community and family, he now has no affiliation with any organized
religion but identifies himself as Agnostic. As was stated earlier, my family isnt
religious but we all identify ourselves as Agnostic as well. Even though we grew up
in totally different religious lifestyles, we both believe somethings out there but not
necessarily an all knowing God or gods.
Now, lets dwell into geography. He grew up in the religious South by way of
Columbia, South Carolina. In a city with a population of nearly 130,000 people, he
lived in a very urban settling while I grew up in a town with a population of under
6,000 people, very rural Bright, Indiana. We grew up in totally different area with
somewhat different values.
Lets go through the differences of gender. He is a male which as he stated in
the interview is viewed as the dominate sex. With that being said, I am female and I
believe that being of that gender pushed me into education because almost all my
teachers were female and that reinforced my choice from a young age.
Last but not least, the one difference thats left is sexual orientation. Hes gay
which he feels didnt affect his education, while Im straight which didnt really
affect my education at all. He said in the interview that his family doesnt accept his
preference while my family wont really care as long as youre not doing anything
gross in front of us. His family being super religious hinders their acceptance of his
sexual orientation, while my family isnt religious. I believe this difference is his

opinion and shouldnt affect his familys view of him.

In conclusion, our difference didnt affect our education. We both grew up
totally different in totally different areas. We may be of different genders, yet it
didnt affect us negatively in school. Growing up as we did affected us and changes
our views on life and education. We both highly regard education as a whole.