Final blog

Who am I?

This blog is dedicated to my Sociology class at a Illinois high school. Whats cool about this is it replaces taking tests. So for the next five months I'll be updating this blog periodicaly.

Whats there to know about me? Well...I run track and cross country, I snowboard, I sing in my schools top choir , and I have a huge love of technology. Also like any high school guy I enjoy my TV and video games. I'm currently a senior at my school and plan on going to a college, I'm just not sure which one yet. During the summer I work three jobs. I life guard, ref soccer, and umpire baseball. I've lived in the same town and house all my life and I wouldn't have it an other way. I love the days where I can hang out with my friends and just do nothing. The biggest influences in my life are definetly my friends and family. In terms of goals all I can reall hope to achieve is be successful and happy. Thats basically me in a nutshell.

Last week in class we discussed the inauguration. Basically we got to here all about my teachers experience at the presidential inauguration. We saw his pictures, videos, and souvenirs. It was actually my first day in the class becuase I had just been transferd in and it was a cool way to start it off."

That was my very first blog. Know the wuestion is how would I change it after learning what I have about sociology. The only thing that really sticks out that I would change is my stereotyping. I said that like any high scholl guy I wnjoy video games and TV. I now realize that that was really dumb of me to say. I know girl that play video games and just because the gamming population is mainly high school guys doesn't meen I should just lump it all together.

Looking back I can see how my culture has realy affected me. For instance I said I was in the top choir. While this may be true, my culture has trained me so much that you need to prove that you are better than someone else to be accepted. If you are in the low choir your immediatly viewed as just terrible.

I also feel like social class comes into play here. I work 3 jobs and its partly to do with my social class. I cant have mommy and daddy pay for everything because of my social class. So I need to wrok and earn my own money to use.

After taking this class. Ive started to make connections to every little things I do. Like the only reason spit is gross is because were conditoned to think that. I really enjoyed the class and hope to continue taking socilogy classes in college

Make up blog from May 8: Race what is it?

Everyone may think that race is part of you. Its something your born with. When really its something your named. Your not born blakc, your just called it. There is no biological part of our DNA that says you are white. In class we started talking about how race is a society factor not biological. Probbly the most enlightening thing we did with this was a match the face to the race activity. We got 4 right as the entire class. Alot of it seemed to be becuase the people we were identifying were such a samll percentage of that race, but the minorities always win. Take Obama for instance. He is viewed as our first black president even though he;s only half black. The minority wins.

This isn't something that really bugged me at first, but I hade never really though of the origin of race. Its just something that our society created hundreds of years ago before true scientific evidence. It really is kind of annoying that we are classified into these categories. were all the same species of human theres not one thing that make us different biologically than another human. I feel that race is a strong factor in our society to this day. I only hope that race eventually disapears and were left with one thing and that is human.

Crash

This week in calss we watched the movie "Crash". The movie is great. It really demonstrates the race sterotypes that our cultures make. The movie is about a group of people that are all some how interconected and how racisim affects them in one way or another. 

This movie really works well for waht we are learning in class. We have learned that there really is no such thing as race. Theres nothing in our DNA that says your white or your asian. Race is just what society says it is. The movie shops how sterotypes are based on the way people look. In the begging of the movie you first notice it when the female cop goes and yells at the asian woman for her driving. Asian driving is a huge racist sterotype. You also can see how black in the movies are viewed as just all around bad people. They have to be theifs or poorly educated. They couldn't just be a nice guy. And if a black man is shot by a white man it is a hate crime.

The truth is the movie really demonstrates how society works. People are racist to some degree in my opinion no matter what. I feel that yes we have made improvements, but there are always going to be these stereotpyes. I here it all the time at school. It could be some remark about how asians are just naturally smart, how only mexicans work in the fast food industries, and so on. Its really a fair assumption to say all people are racist to some degree. I see it getting better, but we have hundreds of years of society brainwashing to reverse.

30 days minimum wage is hard work

This week in class we watched another episode of 30 days. The episode was about living on minimum wage. This showed how difficult the life of the working poor can be. The most shcoking and apalling thing about this whole thing was how the medical system worked against them. At the end of the 30 days they ebded up owing the hospital $1,200.  The working poor has to do what ever they can to stay alive in the world. Being able to actually use money to buy something for relaxation or necessities, such as furniture, are imposible to buy. They had to go to a good will store to get dishes. The place they were living in had a crack house being run in it at one point.

We also played monopley, but not normal monopoly. We all started off with different amounts of money to represent different socail classes. The game proved that its nearly imposible to actualy move up in the social ladder. While the rich get richer, the poor gets poorer. This is a true statement. I was able to keep myself at upper middle class and could afford all the fees I had to pay and still make money. Our minimum wage system is obviously messed up. Hopefully the goverment realizes this so people can make a good living.

The big house

Prison is a punishment that is extremely cruel. This week we watched 30 days and saw what prison life was like for 30 days. These people are so cut off from the outside world that there lifestyle is anything but normal. They are denied so much of the normal things from the outside world. Their entertainment is typically reading or talking. Sometimes they get lucky and can work in the cafeteria for a few hours.
Our criminal system is harsh. So much so that we make huge assumptions about people before they are even convicted. The article courtroom 302 showed that. People are guilty before innocent. Then even if these people do get out of jail they have no support ring. They have to depend on themselves. Our law sysytem needs some work, prisons are becoming overpopulated with multiple offenders. With all luck our system will get a much needed change.

Saints and roughnecks

We always here " don't judge a book by its cover", but frankly no one does it. The first thing that you do when you meet someone is look at them and try to size them up using stereotypes. The article we read in class only emphasized how this is done. There are the rich, well dressed, straight a students who seem like saint, but really aren't. They do things like drink and steel or do stupid things in their cars. Then if they get caught doing any of them they are let off with warnings at most. The adults size them up and think of them as decent kids. Then there was the rough necks who also do stupid things, but dont have the same background as the saints. They are poorer and dont dress as nice. If they get caught they recieve instant punishment.
I see this all the time today. You see people who get sized up and misjudged just becuase of how they look. If you look at things like death sentences a majority of the people sentenced are black. Our world is guilty of stereotyping people and not giving them a fair shot at showing who they really are.

Be a Man

This week in class we went over male and female expectations. On the female side we talked on how media has manipulated the way girls grow up and whats expected of them. They grow up with this idea that they have to dress a certain way, need to be a certain height, need to be so thin or so tall. They set these imposibly high standards that no one ever acualy looks like. This was really shown in the Dove videos we watched. A women went through a full photo shoot, but by the end result, its not really her on the bilboard. Its some photo shoped imposter.

Then there is the guy side of things. We wathced a video about how guys have to put on a guise. They need to show that they are a tuff guy and won't stand for any crap. They need to be muscular, accel in sports, not show any signs of weakness. This is shown countless times in mass media. The movie frequently made references to movies such as "Rambo" or "Terminator". The actors in those movies are muscular and are have some heavy artilery to really that they are in charge. As a result there are gun crimes, murders, and rapes all done by males for the most part. Media needs to make drastic changes to show that its okay for men to show signs of weakness. Its not something men should be ashamed of to help break this social norms for men.

Friday is always a good day for sabbath.

This week in class we watched an episode of Freaks and Geeks. We were told to look for things that could influence how a person acts. One good example would be that Sam felt the need to stay quiet because Lindsy told him to. You could also see how Lindsy was influenced by her freinds because they wanted to have a party with a keg and she gave in. She let what her friends decide what she was going to do.

I see things like this all the time at my school. There are kids that do things that arent thought out or things just to fit in with their friends better. Its natural to do these things. Especially if it a majority in your group. Its also natural to give into things from your family because you are brought up to follow your family's life style. Its just something that happens we all are influenced by our friends, family, co workers, etc. every day wether we realize it or not.

Office hours are tuesday

This week and part of last week we watched Tuesdays With Morrie. The movie is about a sociology profesor that gets ALS. His old student find out about it and he visits him every Tuesday for the first time in 16 years.Throughout the story Morrie says he is teaching his last lessson to his old student, Mitch. 

Morrie's philosphy is that "once you know how to die, you know how to live." I believe there could be some truth to this. I think he is essentialy saying you have to live life to the fullest, don't miss any chances ever given to you. He also syas you need to know how to say goodbye. I think this is important just because you never know when your going to see anyone again. The last point Morrie made was that people need to know how to love. You need to be able to admit you can love someone and just open up to the world. He made it seem that if you can't love then there is no point in living. The movie touches on so many good points and its really a heart warming story. Morrie has some valulabe lessons and this movie should deffiently be a must see on your list. 

The world country differences

We recently read an article in class. The article was about a German immigrant who compared what he saw in Chicago to what his life was really like in Germany. There were quite a few differences. For instance he was suppirsed to see super markets. In Germany they have places for each food product. In America we don't have this at all. We have super markets that have all the food we could ever need in one stop shopping. The other suprising thing to him was joggers. He was amazed to see that we jog so much. We do it for pleasure. We do other tsks while jogging also. In germany it would be a rare thing to see.

This article just really makes you think about how things we consider everyday norms in our culture, could be a complete shock to another. I had never really though about things like supermarkets and jogging being something specific to the American culture until I had read this article. It amazing especially with how well the world is connected these days.

Do you like Tricks?

This week in class we played a card game. The goal was that everyone was supposed to be in a group and they all put in a card and someone would win(having a trick). The games started of easy enough in your starting groups. The only difficult part of it was that we werent able to talk. Our teaacher actualy tricked us though. He gave every group a different set of instruuctions. So at one table they might have been told that a diamond beat out a spade and different rules along those lines. Needless to say this caused cconflict at many tables. Some students would get angry others just kinda went with the flow. I just went with the flow, but I was totaly confused on what the hell was going on.

This game applies to cultures around the world. A good example my teacher gave us was that in japan the people really dont just flat out say no. People will get bugged by cultural differences. I went to New Zeland and it drove me nuts that anytime I oredered a lemonade it was actually a sprite. This game proves that its frustrating to adapt to a lifestyle that is different thatn on we have grown up with all our lives. These things in culutres though is what makes them unique and the American culture has unique things to it to. Needles to say it always starts of frustratin to adapt especially if their is a language barrier.

A Bronx Tale

This week in class we watched "A Bronx Tale". The movie really demonstrated how the world around us can be made up of multiple groups. The Italians and Blacks were couldnt agree with eachother. The movie allso showed us how people tried to live and survive in the city. They had to respect the mobsters or gangs in their neightborhood. They knew the dangers if they didnt. The main mobster, Sonny, talks about how people can earn  respect. There is the meathod of fear and the meathod of love. I felt that sonny did have both, but I think fear is going to be the more powerful way to gain it. Violence seemed to be the main way to gain that fear and therefore, gain that respect. The movie was good and it really has alot of things to show about how the world around us works.

Abandon ship

This week in class we did an activity called abandon ship. We had 16 people assigned roles amd sit in a boat outline on the floor. Then we had to kick out 7 people because the boat would sick with anymore than 9. It seemed like it was basically survival of the fitest originaly, but a few of the poeple we kicked off didnt seem like proper fits. We kicked off a sailor becuase he had a shaddy background. It did start off like survival of the fittest, but we got rid of a couple of young vapable hands only to keep a guy whose hands were unusable. 

This activity was based off a true story. It seems awful, but when it came down to it, it what was neccesary to survie. I do feel that if I or anyone else was actualy in this position that we would kick people off. The idea of sacrificing one life to save multiple. I have no doubt that anyone in this situation would follow the idea of surviaval of the fitest. I also believe some morals would kick in. For example in our activity we didnt kick off the pregnant lady or or husband because its wrong to leave a pregnant woman to die or single. This activity really makes you wonder what would you do and how would you bear it if you had to throw people overboard to save your life.

Canibalism. Is it really that wrong or are we just breaking a norm?

So of course canabalism is not a widely accepted thing by society. Yet from time to time you can hear stories about peole who resort to hit to stay alive. I had read about one such story durring the oregon trail times and now most recently the story of the survivors of f-227. 

Now under no normal day means do we want to hear, see, or partake in canabalism. Frankly it goes against every social norm that we have. But when it comes down to it we would probably do it if it ment your survival. The survivors of f-227 had to do this. Now it is disgusting meat is meat. We dont think anything of killing animals, but when its a human its completly different. Im not saying by any means that canabalism is socaily acceptable, but if it has to be done to live I'm sure anyone would do it.

Myer experiment

The results of the meyer experiment come as no supprise to me. Partly becuase I have read about it multiple times, but when you think about it, from day one of life we are programed into being obedient. Our parents expect nothing less of us. Were told not to be disrespectful by disobeying something that they ask of us. If we do we get punished. Now even though in most cases your not punished for being disobedient in adulthood, unless of course in the working world, we are automatically do what is asked of us. Now thats not to say Nazi's didnt have punishment to worry about, but Americans in  a study that they can opt out of any time had nothing to fear. They were going to get paid either way. I have little doubt that any one in my class would not stop once they reach a near fatal level of voltage if instructed to do so. We may think it is wrong, but for the first 18 years of our life we are essentialy programed for the real world. And part of that programing is being obedient to any supperior

Who am I?

This blog is dedicated to my Sociology class at a Illinois high school. Whats cool about this is it replaces taking tests. So for the next five months I'll be updating this blog periodicaly.

Whats there to know about me? Well...I run track and cross country, I snowboard, I sing in my schools top choir , and I have a huge love of technology. Also like any high school guy I enjoy my TV and video games. I'm currently a senior at my school and plan on going to a college, I'm just not sure which one yet. During the summer I work three jobs. I life guard, ref soccer, and umpire baseball. I've lived in the same town and house all my life and I wouldn't have it an other way. I love the days where I can hang out with my friends and just do nothing. The biggest influences in my life are definetly my friends and family. In terms of goals all I can reall hope to achieve is be successful and happy. Thats basically me in a nutshell.

Last week in class we discussed the inauguration. Basically we got to here all about my teachers experience at the presidential inauguration. We saw his pictures, videos, and souvenirs. It was actually my first day in the class becuase I had just been transferd in and it was a cool way to start it off.