Community service post #3

I finished my 10 community service hours on Monday 12-12-11. My older cousin Jessi is a special ed teacher for kindergartners/first-graders at a small school an hour from my house. I left school pretty early yesterday (1230ish) and drove to her school. My cousin always says she has volunteers helping her/observing her classroom because she built this program that helps special needs children from all areas and all types of special needs, and most of the students commute to her school because they aren't even in her district. I was really excited to help her out and volunteer in her classroom because I want to be a teacher one day, and I love working with kids and helping them learn.

When I got to her class, I immediately jumped into their routine. Some kids left class and I went with them, and we made up dances and songs and played for a little. It was really nice working with these kids because I could tell they loved goofing off and I had a lot of fun just playing around with them. When we got back to the classroom my cousin asked if I could help the kids as they went into stations with writing, drawing, reading and then the last one was math. I helped the kids in reading, and read them stories and then their favorite (Where's Waldo books). It felt so nice to spend the rest of the school day with these kids. Jessi also has the after school program for kids that have working parents and since they commute far to go to her class, they stay later and they do all these activities. We took the kids to the gym in the elementary school and played freeze tag and simon says and all these other games with kids. I really liked helping her out at her school, and can't wait to go back next semester and visit those kids again for a day! It was a blast.

Community service #2

This weekend, I continued to finish up my 10 hours of community service. I asked my mom and sister to give me all the clothes they never wear anymore, and I also went through my closet and grabbed some old shirts and shorts, and decided I'd donate it to Plato's closet. I went on friday with Lauren A. and Taylor N.  from sociology class, and even though the drive was far and we got lost we ended up staying at the store for a while! I watched as they sorted all the clothes we brought to them and felt really good about getting rid of clothes and knowing that other people can have them. We ended up going twice, once on friday and once on saturday. Since we knew what kind of clothes the store was looking for, we went around to our friends' houses and dug through our closets again to bring more clothes to Plato's closet. It felt really nice that I was able to bring clothes to a store where people could buy the clothes at a cheaper price that they can afford.

After going to Plato's closet on friday, Lauren, Taylor and I used the money we got from selling our clothes to buy canned food and toys to bring to a charity event called "Stuff-A-Bus". We knew about this charity because my dad's hockey team the Chicago Steel does community service every weekend and had asked for volunteers for this event. We didn't really know what to expect when we got there because all we were told was to bring toys and canned food. We ended up spending 3 hours outside collecting food, toys, blankets and other necessities, literally stuffing the bus. I was so surprised by the amount of things random people brought in to donate--all these blankets, and toys. Things that I was always provided with, and never even thought about really. I learned a lot from helping at this charity event, like all the little things that not everyone has, and I certainly won't take any of it for granted anymore!

Race

We focused a lot on the topic of race last week in class and how the concept of it is socially constructed. There are some people out there who believe in "hydo-decent" which is if you are not completely 100% white, you are not white at all. Where does the line end from being black to being white? Who decides? Race is socially constructed because people feel the need to fit themselves in categories, or actually, fit everyone else who is different and not like themselves, in categories. Why can't people just be, and not have to be labeled black, or white, or asian, and all the other races out there?

We watched this video that girls documented "A Girl Like Me"which I thought to be really interesting. These girls, who were black, talked about the stereotypes that come along with their race, and the expectations that they exceed but people don't really give them enough credit for. It was heartbreaking to see them re-test the expirement that Kenneth and Maime Clark originally constructed (asked children a series of questions about a black doll and a white doll, and then asked them which doll looked like them). Kids are taught at a young age (brainwashed even) that black people are bad and mean and unkind, and white people are pretty and smart and nice. When these girls made their video talking about race, they reconstructed this experiment, and it's very sad to see that even in the 2000s, children still thought that white dolls were nicer and prettier and smarter than black dolls. What does that have to say about the idea of race today?

Community Service post #1

On Tuesday December 6, I had the opportunity to go with Ms. Breuer and 15 other kids to a soup kitchen. I honestly had no clue what it was going to be like helping out there, I just thought I'd help serve food food somehow. I expected there to be a lot of homeless people coming in at random times just kind of coming to get and take food, and then leave. But that's really not what happened when we got there. First, a man kind of told us what would be happening at the soup kitchen. Like how they were serving brotworsts and chili and potato pancakes with syrup. And there was also salad out on the tables. We were told that we were going to actually serve the people who came in...like we were their waiters at a restaraunt. He also told us that were was going to be 70-100 people coming in that night for food. I honestly didn't expect that many people coming in to the soup kitchen. At first, I was really nervous talking to some of the people that sat down at the table I was working because I didn't know what to say, but everyone was so polite. I guess that was one thing I didn't expect. A lot of the people who came in said hello, and asked how I was, and seemed really curious about me. I felt really good when I started serving the food. Everyone I spoke to that night was really appreciative of what I was doing for them. Going to a soup kitchen is something I would like to do again. It makes me realize that some things such as having dinner on the table at home is something I shouldn't take for granted, because not everybody has that luxury. I could tell that even talking to the people I met that night put them in a better mood, and for me that was the most rewarding part of the night.

Social Class

We continued to talk about social class this week. We watched this movie that showed people from all social classes. The people who were at the bottom, and just accepted they were at the bottom and didn't even care to get rich. Those people actually were really content with their lives, and loved it. They grew up being poor, and were comfortable with their lifestyles. What really shocked me was watching the story of a woman who lived in Ohio, who walked 10 miles to work at Burger King back and forth every day so she could clean the bathrooms. They were completely poor, and she had to support her kids, one of which strived to get out of his social class, and live a better life. His mother, however, didn't understand why he thought he was better than her, and didn't understand that he wanted more for his life. I thought when we watched the 'WASPS' talk, they didn't even seem deserving of all that they had. They were just born into wealth. They thought they were better than everyone else because they looked better, and talked better, and were better educated. It was actually really ridiculous. Outside of sociology class, I never really thought of social class because it's something most people don't like to discuss. But watching that video made me see that social class really does affect our everyday lives. How we go to school (or if we do), where we live and where we grew up, and all the belongings we have.

Bread Expert

We watched a movie called "People Like Us" where people from different social classes were interviewed and talked about how things you buy and own can show off your social class and basically brand you as a person. The one thing I really remember from the movie was an elderly woman who was titled "Bread Expert"...she was talking about all the different types of bread, and how some bread was really bad, and some were really good. I never really thought that the type of bread you buy shows off your social class, but I guess if you think of the bigger picture, like the things you're willing to spend a lot of money on, or the cheaper things you buy rather than the expensive, really does show off your social class. I never really thought of social class affecting me as an individual since I'm still a teenager but it really does affect us. Like what kind of car we have for ourselves, but we really should be thinking how lucky we are to have a car when some people's families don't even own a vehicle.

Deviance x2

In class this week we read an article called The Saints and The Rednecks by William J. Chambliss. This was a story where a sociologist followed students that both demonstrated behaviors outside the social norm (deviance) and documented their actions. This guy, William J. Chambliss, labeled the groups "the saints" and "the roughnecks" based on how others perceived them. The saints were seen around town as good students, smart, intelligent, wealthy (or had some money), and all around good students that had a bright future ahead of them. The roughnecks were just the typical bad guys---the ones who ditched class, didn't do their homework because they didn't care, didn't have a lot of money, didn't really know what they were doing with their lives. Both these groups ditched class, lied to their teachers, and were equally deviant, however, they weren't punished the same. I thought this was really shocking because when I think of someone ditching class, I think of getting in trouble. But when the saints ditched class, they'd come up with some excuse like a different teacher needed to see them, while the roughnecks were honest that they didn't want to go. Honestly, I think it's better to be a roughneck than a saint, because at least you're honest when you're a roughneck, even though you're breaking the rules. At our school if you ditch a class, 2 days later you get called down to the dean. The dean asks you why you weren't there, and you can either say you didn't go, or you got called out or something and then they ask your parents. It really depends on the type of person you are. If you'd rather lie when you get in trouble or just get in trouble because you deserve to.

Deviance

This week in class, we focused on the topic of deviance. Deviance is actions or behaviors that violate cultural norms. How other people perceive our actions, and how we perceive others. I think a lot of deviance comes from where and how you're raised. For example, in class we took a survey with a list of 17 different questions, such as "walking with groceries on your head" or "a man wearing a dress" and we had to check next to it if we thought that was unacceptable. I had checked off less than four as unacceptable, because I felt that most of the things on the list were okay for people to do. I was really shocked that some people checked off more than 10 as unacceptable. There was a lot on that list. If nothing on that list is okay to do, then what is? I think I don't judge people as harshly as others because I've been judged before, like by being Jewish. I think everyones judges, but everyone is also deviant. I don't understand how we can be both, but majority of people are.

media affects us

This week in class we've been focusing on how media affects both us as individuals. I thought it was really shocking that media has stereotypes and is powerful enough that it can affect our everyday lives, and how we think about ourselves.

 I buy magazines a lot, so I know what the media prints and how they make these models and actresses and stars look. They look so fake, like fake skin and almost too skinny. I think that these pictures that magazines print attempt at making women want to buy their product so they can look just like the model, but I was really shocked to learn that it's media ads that show these images of gorgeous and almost unreal people that cause girls to have eating disorders, and low self esteem. In magazines you see like celebrities (pretty much women) being judged on like the way they dressed, or their weight, so as a girl, I start to think constantly, "do I look alright?" or "am I too fat?" The media does affect us a lot more than I used to think it did. 

Our teacher showed us a magazine where there were toys for little girls and boys. If he hadn't have pointed out that the girls were always shown playing with their toys somewhere safe (like inside a bedroom, or a living room, or a kitchen even...), and the boys playing outside (backyard, and my personal favorite: in outerspace), than I never would have noticed. But it's these little images that we see in the media that affect us when we're kids and adults. I never really thought about media in a way of being harmful to anyone, but after discussing how the media depicts women and causes all these serious problems, I know that a lot of it is harmful and kind of degrading. 

Being human

We focused a lot in class this week about how we, as humans, are affected by both our nature and nurture in our lives. Nature consists of our genes, emotions, instincts. Nurture is basically just our social environment, society, and interactions/relationships we have with other people. Both nature and nurture play off each other to create the person that we are now. All my life I've been in such a positive environment. My parents always played with me when I was little. I had siblings. I went to school. I had friends. I was healthy. My parents always told me how much they loved me. It was actually pretty surprising me to in class when we learned of the feral children and how they were raised in isolation and basically stripped from both nature and nurture, like how could I take everything I have for granted when there are actual cases out there where kids never got what I did? The one story of a young girl named Dani really stuck with me. Her mother basically kept her in a room for six years, until the police arrested her for child neglect. The young girl had no human interraction and had the mental capacity of an infant. This girl, who should have been in first grade, can't speak, can't play, can't write, can't do anything due to her lack of nature and nurture. After learning of these feral children, I don't think I'll ever get mad at my parents for little things anymore.

Nothing

Last week in class our teacher gave us an assignment that we had to do nothing. We basically had to stand in a crowded area and just do nothing. We couldn't talk, or pretend to be waiting or looking around for something, we just had to stand there and "see what we see", and then reflect back on the process after ten minutes. I chose to do this assignment when I was at an airport when I was visiting Alabama. At first I thought an airport was a good place to do this because I thought people stand around doing nothing and no one notices but also because it was a really crowded place. I felt really awkward and uncomfortable at first. i'm not used to just standing around doing nothing. I always have to be doing something. I guess that's what the point of the assignment was--to prove that in our society, we're taught that it's awkward to just be standing around doing nothing. I noticed that everyone was running around like crazy (or maybe that's because they were missing their flights! i'm not sure..) and no one really took the time to just stand still and relax. From now on when my life gets really crazy busy, I'm going to make sure to take time and do nothing--it really did relax me!

Dependency -- Tuesdays With Morrie..

For the past few days in class, we've watched the movie "Tuesdays with Morrie" I've never seen this movie before but from what I have seen, I'm trying to analyze through a sociological perspective. The main character, Mitch, is obsessed with work, and keeps himself busy and detatched from the real world (his social life, like his girlfriend, and his old teacher Morrie). Mitch WANTS to be independent, although he becomes more and more dependent on the people he loves later on in the movie.

I think a lot of people are afraid of being so dependent on others is because you can lose the people around you. Mitch knows that Morrie is going to die; Morrie is sick and he's getting worse with every tuesday visit Mitch has. I think it's hard sometimes to get too close to someone you know you are going to lose. Or maybe it's just the thought of losing them that makes you so afraid of getting close in the first place?

I depend a lot on my friends, family and parents. Whether it's for support, advice, or just to talk and listen to each other, I need these people in my life. My parents have helped me a lot. When I was younger, I depended on them for rides. But now I have a license and a car, but sometimes I still ask them to drive me!! I also depend on my parents for starting college, having a place to stay, clothes, food, etc. I need my friends and family a lot for advice, or just to hang out. It doesn't really bother me being somewhat dependent on these people. If I was completely independent, I'd feel alone. I like having my friends and family around when I need them.

Alabama--subculture

We've been talking a lot in class about culture and subculture. Our teacher emphasized our social norms, and how other countries have their own cultures--and sometimes each country has their on subculture within. We learned how culture can depend on a lot of things: materialistic things  (clothes, phones, cars, etc..), resources, and even religion.

Last weekend my mom and I went to look at a college in Alabama. When I told all my friends that I was looking at schools there for next fall they all made fun of me saying I'd be the only jew. I thought it was soo weird that it was even a big deal that I'd be going there; being jewish is a part of me because everyone in my family is, but I've never really payed attention to my religion. When I went to visit Alabama, I met up with an old friend I have that goes there, and she introduced me to her friends, and they were asking me all about being jewish. Like they had never met anyone jewish before.. it was really strange and uncomfortable!!

Although Alabama is in the US, it felt like a completely different culture to me, even though it's a subculture. In Chicago people drive so fast and everyone is always in a hurry, but in Alabama I noticed that people even drive like 15 miles under the speed limit, and they take their time and go really slow with everything. I've seen Illinois colleges before, and Alabama college was so different also. I don't know if it was just the town or particular school, but there were a million churches, and no materialistic stores on the campus.

I think it's possible to evolve with whatever culture you're surrounded by, but visiting Alabama and comparing it to Illinois (even the people were so different there!) was so surprising to me!! Everyone says the south is different from the midwest and it really is true!!

(a photo I took in Tuscaloosa, Alabama...a few minutes past the college campus)

Culture shock definitely came into play for me when I visited Alabama. Not only were the people so different in the south than in Illinois, but the town (from what I saw) and some of their regular day customs were so different. I drove 5 minutes past the college campus, and was shocked when I saw the tornado damage in Tuscaloosa (left over from when the tornados hit in April just past the campus). It was horrific and I had never seen anything like it!! It was really shocking to see that such a beautiful campus where nothing looked wrong at all, had immense damage just a few minutes past the school. I was so shocked to see this.

Fish out of the water

This week in class, we played a card game where each table learned a set of rules, and played their game accordingly, and then when it was time, the loser of each game had to move to a different table. When I sat down at the other table, I was really confused because that new group I was with played the game completely different than how I had learned it. I immediately started questioning everything they were doing, but just conformed to how they played the game because I didn't know what else to do. Our teacher told us that this was an example of culture shock.

We focused a lot on "fish out of the water" and culture shock this week, which I thought was a really interesting concept. I applied to a lot of colleges in the south, and am considering going to Alabama. Most people I know, however, stick more in the midwest, and tell me that the south is such a culture shock. It's so hard for me to picture Alabama having a different culture than we do, since it's only a two hour flight and short drive, but I'm so intrigued on seeing what it's like there. I've just heard that the customs in the south are much different than here, and am really experience what it'll be like. I think my family is pretty easy going...we're not religious or anything, but I know in the south religion might be really important to some people. It'll take a while for me to adjust (or maybe I won't be able to), just like it did with the card game example, but I'm really excited to see what it's like! I'll be a fish out of the water if I go to school in the south..

The ID Molecule of a "Bronx Tale"

Our surroundings affect us as an individual. That's a fact. But it's more than just our surroundings that shape who we are; it's our parents and how they raised us, it's our friends what we have in common, it's our social norms, it's our work, our role-models, our "groups" that we are involved in. It's our groups that shape who we are, and it's our groups that separate us from everyone else.

This week in class we watched a movie called "A Bronx Tale". I've seen the movie before, but after learning last week about all of my personal groups that create who I am, I started thinking about Calogero and all the groups that shaped who he was. I would say that Calogero had three main groups: his parents, Sonny & his group, and Calogero's friends.

 Calogero loves his parents very much, and he wants his parents to be proud of him. He respects them. But he also respects Sonny, and almost looks up to him as another father figure in his life. Calogero is almost stuck between Sonny and his real parents; almost like he had to hide one group in order to remain in the other. But Calogero also has his group of friends, which in a way, he starts to lead (like Sonny leads his group), and they mimic actions that Sonny does. I think Calogero tries to balance his master status between Sonny and his parents. His allegiance to one side would be bad for the other side. A good example of this is when Calogero went to a boxing match with his dad and had to decide where he wanted to sit--with his father or with Sonny. Personally, my master status will ALWAYS be with my family, because they mean everything to me; but Calogero considers both his parents and Sonny his family. So he's stuck.

I can relate this group to my life because having learned that idea of sociologically mindfulness and imagination, I now know that every little thing that surrounds my life daily shapes who I am as a person, just like how Calogero is shaped by the groups he is surrounded by.

Should we generalize?

This week in class, we were assigned to read Charon's "Should We Generalize about People?" I read this article once quickly, and then re-read the article to annotate and take notes. I really thought it was interesting, and so true when the author pointed out that everyone is guilty of categorizing and generalizing other people.

Why do we feel the tendency to generalize as human beings? "A much better question is: how can we develop accurate generalizations about people? I agree with Charon and his article; as people, we act as individuals, but that doesn't change the fact that we categorize others and generalize them.

I read this really interesting article of this family that had a baby named Storm. The family wanted their child to be free from generalizations or classifications, so they decided they'd hide the child's gender for as long as they could. You can read more about this article Gender-free Baby. The family wanted to prove to society that their child (whether it was a boy or a girl) would be treated differently based on their gender, so for as long as they could, they plan on keeping the sex a secret. They wanted their child to be treated the same if it were a boy or a girl. I think this is so interesting. If baby Storm wanted to play with trucks, don't assume the baby's a boy; if baby Storm wanted to play with dolls, that doesn't mean the baby's a girl.

Although I'd love to think of myself as unbiased and free from stereotyping and generalizing those around me, it's human nature to assume someone is the way they are based on how they look, or how they act. In my life, I categorize those around me by their groups of friends. I'm not really judgemental, and I always have been friends with people in different "cliques" or groups. We only see what one chooses to show. Being in sociology has really opened my mind to the human thought process and tendency to generalize, and as of now, I am trying my best to steer clear of label casting.

We're all just freaks and geeks

This week in class, we watched the pilot episode of the TV show Freaks and Geeks. I've seen some episodes at home before, but I never thought of the show in a sociological standpoint. The show is humorous, but if you really analyze each character and what they stand for, you can see past their exterior and look at them with a sociological perspective.

I looked at the different "groups" in the show through Emile Durkheim's functional theory, and began to think of the purposes each character and their group tends to serve. At first glance, tough girl Kim Kelly seems like the typical bully. She makes fun of all the kids that cross her path and she goes out of her way to humiliate Sam for no reason at all. But if you look further into her actions, you can see that she not only represents a "freak", but she also represents a girl who has problems, whether it's at home or with her identity or school life. She struggles with her "freak" identity just as much as the "geeks" struggle with their identity. Every member in this show serves a purpose with their group.

Connecting the show to Max Weber's idea of symbolic interactionism, I began thinking of important scenes or objects in the episode we watched. For me, I thought a really important moment was when the army coat that Lindsey insisted on wearing. The show doesn't go into detail about Lindsey's past, but you do know from the first episode that she used to be a mathlete, and her grandmother passed away. Lindsey is obviously going through depression, or an identity crisis, so she is rebelling all her typical norms by wearing her dad's old army jacket. In a way, that army jacket represents her trying to find herself and change the way she fits in with society.

I think it's interesting while analyzing the show because I start thinking of myself and the way I act, which brings me back to sociological mindfulness. At a school as big as ours, I think that when you're in a group of friends, you don't really have a label or a stereotype. I don't think my friends and I do, at least, but maybe to other groups of friends, they classify me and my friends differently just like they do to everyone else. I know that my friends and I all have a lot in common, just like the groups in the show Freaks and Geeks. We all affect each other.

Sociological Mindfulness

This week in class, one of the things we discussed that stuck with me the most is learning to be sociologically mindful. I thought it was really interesting that Michael Schwalbe discussed the keys to being sociologically mindful as to: have a good life, everybody has the equal right to a good life, and human lives are intertwined. "Mindfulness is more than paying attention. To be mindful of a thing is to see and appreciate its unique qualities." Everybody is different. We're not all the same and we all have different qualities and interests, which I think is awesome because we're all individuals. If we were all the exact same, I think the world would be really boring.  I would like to try being more sociologically mindful because after reading and talking about Michael Schwalbe's essay, because I think it would be beneficial for myself and others around me. I really liked the depth that Schwalbe discussed of how our lives are all intertwined. My parents always told me to be kind and not say anything that I'd be offended to hear. I never think it's funny when someone says a racist joke or makes a homophobic comment. I think if people were more sociologically mindful, or just tried to be at least, we'd all definitely have a good life.

Awkward Turtle...

One of the reasons I decided to take sociology as a class this year was because my older friends spoke so highly of it. They said it changes the way we think of the little things in life. Like the things we take for granted, or the things we don't pay attention to.

I'd definitely say that walking into class and sitting there in complete silence was so incredibly awkward. Every year on the first day of school, especially since high school began, you sit in class, the teacher talks, we listen and stay quiet until asked any questions. I guess that's how we've been trained sociologically. Like we as students have been brainwashed since the beginning of school to be quiet until spoken to. That's how classes always begin. So when I was in an environment where we didn't yet know the teacher, or what we were supposed to be doing, or even if we were supposed to be talking, the room was filled with awkwardness.

 Even if the class wasn't silent and we were talking, I still think we'd be talking just to fill the room with noise. Small talk. That's what people do on the first day of school: "How was your summer?" or "Are you excited for this year?" Students talk just to pass time and fill the silence in the air, so I think silence is something we take for granted. I like silence...even though on the first day of school it was such a weird situation at first!

Silence alone isn't awkward if you don't feel pressured to talk. I think that people make situations awkward. I don't even like the word awkward. I think that people make situations feel strange and uncomfortable so we feel pressured to talk. I never really thought about how we we were stuck in this routine for the first day of each class, but this silence taught me that we've already been trained to follow routine and we didn't even know it.

Who am I?

Who am I?

It's hard to answer who I am right now, but I know who, or at least what I want to be when I'm older. I know that I want to be a teacher (and always hoped to be one since I was little). I know that I'm graduating High School early. And I know that I want to go to college next fall in the south. I guess that it's these certain goals that I have in mind that in some way, shape or form, create who I am right now. I don't know exactly how all of these goals are going to play out, but I guess I'll find that out soon enough.

As for what I know about myself right now: My name is Dylan. I'm seventeen. I'm the youngest sister in my family, so I have an older brother and an older sister. I love my parents so much. I like to think that I'm independent and level-headed. I think respect is a big factor in influencing someone like me. I respect my family. I respect my older sister, and hope to be successful like my brother.

My family always taught me values like work hard for what you get, or don't take advantage of what you have. It's values like these that shape who I am right now, and how hard I've been working to get to where I want to be.