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September 27, 2005
Genie and Background!
When I was doing more research, I was profoundly struck by the amount of tragedy in Genie's family. There was so much more going on in this situation than just child neglect. First off, Genie's father was twenty years older than her mother, not a very unusual situation certainly, but an interesting fact to add to the story. Her mother was blind, due to an accident when she was young and was hit in the eye while helping her mother wash clothes. Her father grew up in a series of foster homes, but was still devestated when his mother was killed in a hit-and-run accident just prior to Genie's birth. It is believed that her father was serverely mentally ill, which affected his family in so many different ways. The couple had two children before Genie and her brother, both of who died due to apparent child neglect.
The reason I chose to write about this aspect of Genie is because there is apparently so much more to the situation than just face value. It is so complex, and despite Genie's father's apparent guilt, he certainly cannot be blamed for the entire situation, for some of it was beyond his control. I learned about Genie last year in psychology, but each the topic is brought up, I am intrigued beyond belief with the complexity of her situation. P.S. I got my information from: http://www.psychology.sbc.edu/cesarz.htm
Posted by lciscotis at September 27, 2005 04:30 PM
Comments
I think it's interesting that they had two children previous to Genie and her brother, both of which died because of child neglect. You would think that they would be under close watch after losing two children like that...it's really weird that people were not suspicious of them, but then again they probably kept to themselves so that no one even knew what was going on inside of their house.
Posted by: Brenna S. at September 27, 2005 08:18 PM