The following question will be on the exam.  The question is worth 15 points (30% of your exam).   I appreciate that the question I am asking you to answer could be a topic of a book. However, an “A” answer to the question can be written in 4 short sections.

	What would have been the ideal family, peer, and school contexts for you in which to develop as an adolescent?  	

	The question asks you to outline the ways in which your family, school, and peer contexts was ideal or could have been more ideal.  This is not an opportunity to bash or praise the way you were brought up.  Rather it is a chance to reflect on what was possible in your life – a true scholarly endeavor.   Answering this question offers you an opportunity to integrate 1) our classroom discussions of the ideal miscrosystems (i.e., family, peer, school contexts) and mesosystem (i.e., the relation between elements of the microsystems) for promoting adolescent development; 2) the theory and research regarding these contexts presented in lectures, the textbook and readings; and 3) your own ideas and life experiences.

	Introduce your answer by very briefly describing yourself, proving information about personal characteristics (gender etc.) which may be relevant to this discussion and the cultural context in which you grew up (rural Colorado, suburban Utah, or urban L.A. etc.).  Then for each of the three microsystem contexts (family, peers, schools) write a short paragraph, outlining the two features you believe were ideal or could have been more ideal given the reality of being an adolescent growing up in the context you grew up in (e.g., suburban Utah). Each feature of the ideal context you cite should be fully justified as ideal by reference to research, theory, or argument.  You will be graded not on the number of features you generate but on the importance of the two ideal features you cite for each context and the extent to which they are justified as ideal.  

	In your final paragraph, outline characteristics of the ideal mesosystem which connects the three microsystem. Finally, comment on the ways in which you think you would be different if you indeed grew up in the ideal context you describe.