Earning What You Have

Child Interview

Matt Messmer

Indiana State University

Childhood Interview

Name: Annie Auger

Grade: 6

Age: 11

School:

Q: What is your favorite subject in school

A: I really like science.

Q: What is your least favorite subject in school?

A: Math. At St. Rose, I used to hide the books I was reading inside my math book and prop it up so it looked like I was reading my math book but I was actually just reading my books.

Home:

Q: Who is included in your family at home?

A: My parents are divorced, so we go back and forth. At my moms house, it’s me, my older sister Maggie and my older brother Sam. At my dads house, it’s me, my older sister Daisy, and then Maggie and Sam too.

Q: Tell me about your brother and sisters.

A: daisy likes to be by herself but she’s a really good friend too. Maggie likes to run track and cross country and can be kind of annoying sometimes but she’s a good sister too. Maggie is a sophomore. Sam loves basketball and has been playing forever, he’s really good. He likes video games and he’s in 8th grade.

Q: What chores do you have?

A: I don’t have any chores… but I do have to keep my room clean and sort my own laundry and we all help out whenever the house is dirty or mom asks.

Q: Tell me about your pets.

A: Gertie is my dads dog and she is so cute. Shes just the cutest thing ever I love her. Charlie is my moms dog and he is my best friend. He sleeps at the end of my bed every night and I always rub his belly.

Interests:

Q: What are your interests or hobbies?

A: I used to do competition dance until this year. I took a break because I wanted to play volleyball and do cheerleading. I made the volleyball team and I was a setter. Daisy played volleyball for forever and she was a setter too and we had the same number. I also did cheerleading for boys basketball. I don’t like middle school cheerleading so i’m not going to do it next year but I want to do it in high school.

Friends:

Q: Tell me about your friends.

A: My best friend is Eliza. She just moved here. I don’t remember where she lived before. My other friends are Anna and Kendra.

Q: What do you like to do with your friends?

A: We usually go to the movies or to the high school basketball and football games. We go to Urban Air a lot too on the weekends though only. Mom and dad won’t let me hang out with them during the week. Their parents let them have sleepovers during the week. I wish my parents let me do that.

Self Concept:

Q: What do you like best about yourself?

A: I don’t know

Annie Auger, an sixth grader at Franklin Community Middle School in Franklin, Indiana. She has lived in Franklin her entire life. Being the youngest of four children, she had some interesting answers to the interview questions. The answers that Annie gave me were very insightful and intelligent for her age and I believe this is due to her being the youngest of four children. Her oldest sibling is eight years older than her. I believe she has learned a lot from watching her older siblings and has matured faster because of it.

During the interview, I realized that Annie’s answers were very mature and she did not stray from the questions very much. She was not elaborating very much, either. Annie is eleven years old which means that she is in the formal operational stage of Jean Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development. This means that Annie is developing the ability to think about abstract concepts and is able to logically form and test different hypotheses. It is clear that Annie is in this stage because things are starting to not bother her as much as they would have when she was younger. She can carry on a conversation and does not ask as many questions about the world anymore. The Formal Operational stage starts at age 11 and goes through adulthood. It is very clear to me that Annie is in this stage of cognitive development, however, I also believe that she is mature for her age.

        The Formal Operational stage is the last stage of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development. At this stage, children are starting to mature and eventually become adults. I believe Annie is maturing at a fairly normal rate for her age, however I do believe she knows more about life and the world because of her older siblings and the people she surrounds herself with. It is normal at this stage for children to start coming out of their bubble. At this age children also start to realize what there interested in.