Jeremy has two children 11 and 8 years of age.
Jeremy’s parents wanted him to complete high school and do well. Jeremy’s
parents were both “extremely bright people.”
His mother was a registered
nurse and his father had a degree in Pharmacy. When Jeremy was 25 years old,
his father died from cancer. His mother died 11 months later. Jeremy’s
mother practiced nursing for a few years and then ran her husband’s store;
Jeremy saw her invoicing and completing bills and ordering forms. His mother
was a very fast reader. She read for work and would occasionally read novels.
Jeremy remembered his mother finishing 800 pages in a weekend but said that
she did not model this very often. He also saw his father reading novels “all
the time.”
Jeremy’s mother rarely watched television, perhaps watching
on Sunday evenings. Jeremy said his father “worked 12 hours then would
collapse in front of the TV.”
Jeremy’s father watched the news every
night. There was not a lot of singing and rhyming in Jeremy’s household
although they would sing and read at church every week.
Jeremy had a library card as a child and would go to the library every two weeks. He would sign out books about magic and crafts such as puppetry and kite building. Until he was eight years old, Jeremy received help from his mother if he had problems with his homework. He did not recall being read to although he remembered reading a lot on his own. He did not recall going on cultural outings with his parents.
Jeremy is the Director of Information Technology and is responsible for over 100 staff across North America. He has an architecture diploma from NAIT and has spent the last 23 years as a programmer, database designer, technical architect, java architect, infrastructure architect, manager and director. Jeremy has taken over 60 week-long courses in Information Technology. He did not do any on the job training for his position.
Jeremy watches television two hours a week, primarily Charlie Rose and A&E. When he watches movies, they are usually family-oriented fantasy. He uses the internet ten to fifteen minutes a day, mostly for product research and some shopping.
Jeremy’s primary focus for his children is on education and he expects them to achieve a minimum of a bachelor’s degree. Jeremy wants his children to choose a career by pursuing what they love. His wife spends one to one and a half hours doing homework with their children every night and a minimum of one hour a day working on reading comprehension.