1. Discuss the ways in which the values of individual autonomy, community, and the virtue of work are evident in any three of the following policy areas:
1. welfare
2. child care
3. Head Start
4. family leave
5. health care
2. Describe how the "trilemma" of quality, cost, and access characterizes each of the following policy arenas:
1. Health care
2. Child care
3. Parent education
3. Debates continue over how to evaluate the success or failure of most family-relevant policies. For any three of the following policy arenas, propose and defend at least three measures of success:
   
   1. Head Start
   2. Child care
   3. Parent education
   4. Family leave
   5. AFDC
4. Current welfare reform efforts highlight "self-sufficiency" as a major goal for reform. In your view, is this an appropriate goal for welfare programs? Why or why not?
5. As you think about your own future family of choice, which areas of family policy concern you the most? What steps toward improvement in these areas would you like to see, and why?
6. In what areas do you believe the government has made the most significant improvements in supporting families in recent years? What are the current areas of greatest promise, and why?
7. Why is it problematic to discuss THE American family? Why have most Americans come to accept that there is a single standard for THE American family? What do you feel is the most appropriate way of evaluating the legitimacy of various family structures and forms found within the United States?
8. How have you benefitted from taking this course in the sociology of the family? What aspect of the course did you find to be the most helpful? What aspect of the course did you find to be the most interesting?

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