Becoming by Michelle Obama is an autobiography in three parts: growing up,
meeting Barack Obama through his election as president, and finally her life in the
White House. Great book. You may want to skip the last part, as much of it is
well known and discouraging. Becoming is an inspirational story of upward mobility through hard work
and education, tempered with the limits imposed on women and minorities.
Michelle Obama’s mother said, “I’m not
raising babies, I’m raising adults.” Much of Michelle Obama’s story contains
excellent parenting advice. Nurturing successful and healthy children is a
theme that starts with her childhood and continues through her time as the first
lady. Her mother walked the delicate line between teaching independence and
being supportive. “When things were bad, she gave us only a small amount of
pity.”
However, her mother would intervene
when necessary. In second grade her mother got her transferred to a better
classroom. Michelle Obama was grateful for this intervention, but she also
thought “about the twenty or so kids who’d been marooned in the classroom stuck
with an uncaring and unmotivated teacher.”
She learned her mother’s lessons of
self-confidence and responsibility enough that when her high school guidance
counselor said, “I’m not sure that you’re Princeton material,” she had the
strength to ignore the advice. Of course, it helped that her brother was
already enrolled.
Her strategy was built on the “age-old
maxim in the black community [also women and other minorities]: You’ve got to be
twice as good to get half as far.” This straight As, follow all the rules,
approach left her vulnerable to the right-wing press when she reached the White
House, forever trying to avoid their criticism.
An uplifting story of women in the 21st
century having it all, career, love, family, followed by a sad chronicle of US
national politics.
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