Middle School
Worksheets
Coming of Age in America - The Life of Margaret Mead
Margaret Mead
Reading Comprehension for December 16
Margaret Mead's father once said to her: "It's a pity you aren't a boy; you'd have gone far." Actually, Mead went quite a ways anyway. She trekked, not only to far-flung corners of the Earth, but to the pinnacle of success in her career. She excelled in the field of anthropology, the science of humankind.
Margaret Mead was born December 16, 1901, in Pennsylvania. She was the oldest of four children. Mead's father was an economics professor. Her mother was a sociologist. Margaret was raised in an "ivory tower" atmosphere, surrounded by academics.
In 1918, when Mead entered college, anthropology was not considered a women's field. In fact, very few women even went to college. Margaret attended DePauw, the college from which her father had graduated. She studied sociology and economics, following in her parents' footsteps.
Mead's first year was miserable. She felt rejected and out of place. In her second year, against her father's wishes, she transferred to Barnard College in New York. At Barnard, Mead took a class from Franz Boas, a leading anthropologist. She fell in love with the study of people.
When she graduated, Margaret married Luther Cressman, a theology student. Though it wasn't the custom at the time, she kept her maiden name. Two years later, Mead went into the field to complete her graduate studies. She was determined to prove that women could be scientists or anything else they wanted to be.
