Ahead of Her Time in Yesteryear: Geraldyne Pierce Zimmerman Comes of Age in a Southern African American Family

Conclusion

Conclusion “No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.” These lines from John Donne’s poem are certainly apropos in understanding Geraldyne Pierce Zimmerman’s metamorphosis from girlhood to womanhood. Simply put, she is the product of early-twentiethcentury , traditional, southern child rearing. Young Jello was instilled with the limitations necessary for practicing civility and being a good citizen, but her parents did not place limitations on her that restricted her creativity and dreams. She was a product of “old-fashioned” child rearing, handed down through the various generations of the Pierces and Tatnalls. They raised her using discipline and tough love, supervision and extended family assistance, unconditional love, and set rules that were always enforced. Her family successfully shaped her morals and values through both their religious convictions and how they themselves behaved as role models. Her parents were true to “practicing what they preached,” as they themselves lived the model life for how they wanted their son and daughter to live and behave. Once married, Mrs. Zimmerman was determined to use different methods from her parents in raising her own children. In actuality, however, she was more like her parents than she realized. In raising their children, both Mrs. Z and her husband also emphasized the importance of religion in their lives, disciplined them with corporal punishment if they misbehaved, monitored their interaction with the opposite sex, set standard rules for them to follow, and supervised them closely. Even when Gerry purposely deviated from her parents’ child-rearing practices, there was still evidence of her parents’ child-rearing influence. For example, she wanted her children educated in a Catholic school setting, but it Conclusion 114 was a setting known for practicing strict rules, having less tolerance for misbehavior , and implementing stiff punishments. The instructors, like Gerry’s parents, ended up using some of the very same means that the girl Gerry promised not to ever use once she had children. Like her parents, Mrs. Z was also conscious of the changing times in her children’s era and wanted to make sure they stayed on the correct path of growth and not fall in harm’s way. This was particularly true as racial barriers were gradually disappearing, enabling children in the 1960s to have more choices and live with fewer restrictions. Yet unlike her parents, Mrs. Z wanted her children to go out and explore the world, to enjoy a freedom that she always wanted to have in her youth but felt it was stifled by too many rules and restrictions . While there was a continuum in the child-rearing practices between the older Pierces and the younger Zimmermans, Mrs. Z made sure that the choice to dream and think independently, to make their own choices, and to follow their own dreams was an option never taken away from her children. Unfortunately, by the 1970s most southern African American families, including those in Orangeburg, had practically abandoned the family and child-rearing culture of past generations, regardless of social class. In fairness, there remain a significant minority of African American parents whose childrearing culture reflects past eras, including having God-fearing households; attending church together; sitting for dinner at the table nightly as a family; using corporal punishment to discipline; emphasizing the importance of good behavior, manners, and reputation; and/or teaching youth to shun sexual relations until marriage. But the overall cultural departure from how earlier African American families functioned while child rearing accounts partly for the increase in dysfunctional early-twenty-first-century Black families, in addition to continued race discrimination, unequal opportunities, economic inequities , and poverty. Returning to some, if not many, of the “old school ways” of child rearing will certainly yield an improved future generation of African American parents—parents who could be trailblazers, restoring functionality in both the African American family and community. ...