Neglected Girl

Last week in class we learned about the neglect of children and how it effects how they grow up and become who they are. In particular we learned about a girl who was neglected by her mom and lived in a small room for years until she was rescued. This girl was living in a 10x10 room with a damp mattress to sleep on, and bugs infesting most of the room. She had parasites and bugs in her hair when she was found, and her vision was almost completely nearsighted because of only being able to see 10 feet in front of her for most of her life. After she was found, she was taken away by child services, which in my opinion was a good thing. According to the video, because the girl was neglected, her brain function was that of someone who was many years younger. Being neglected by her mother almost completely rendered this girl a vegetable in a way. Hopefully years of therapy and proper upbringing can turn her into a normal girl. This story really had an impact on me because of the nerve of the mother to not at least call child services herself. On the other hand though, this story really shows nature vs. nurture because of the fact that this girl had virtually no nurture at all. Without nurture this girl was basically a primate and this video segment really made me think how important nurture really is when bringing up a child.

Tuesdays With Morrie

This week in class we watched Tuesdays With Morrie, and it was a very good movie. Beyond having some humor and a good cast, it truly had a message that was important to understand. Beyond all the obvious messages that Morrie tried to portray to the audience, there was one that took a little thinking. I think that the main message was that one should always have respect for elders. In today's generation, with more and more disrespectful people growing up, less and less kids have respect for elders. I think this movie teaches that eventually everyone will become an elderly person (hopefully), and that people in general, not just kids, should have respect for what they will eventually become. This relates to sociology because people in our culture celebrate youth as opposed to being old. This leads to less people appreciating the wisdom of older people. People need to realize that they should listen to the words of older people because they have already experienced life and have more experience with life than younger people.

Community Service

Last week me and Frank went to Elgin for our community service hours. It was really tough work and I was really proud that I was able to help those people out. On our way there we kind of got lost, but we ended up getting there on time. Doing the community service was great and all, but the best part of the trip was easily something I observed while walking to a dumpster to throw stuff out. I saw a group of older people working on the other house and they seemed to be having a nice conversation. However, right when I walked past, this older white guy was handing out business cards to each of the people he was talking to.There happened to be an Japanese looking guy in the group so I started to laugh to myself thinking about our lesson about how the Japanese look at business cards and act very respectful about it. Then the funniest thing happened. While everyone else just took the business card and crumpled it away into their pockets, the Japanese guy took it with both hands and smiled and nodded his head at the card. The moment I saw this I said to myself "Wow I cannot believe I just saw that." because it was really crazy learning a lesson in class, and seeing a real life example of it literally days later.

Toilet

This week in class we learned about people's different types of cultures and how they all interact across the world. It was particularly interesting while learning about toilets and how there are so many different ones across the globe. One of my favorite examples was one of the toilets in Japan, which was basically a hole in the ground. This relates to sociology because most people are used to using their own toilets or customs, but when in a different country, they are forced to use a new culture's ways and traditions, or in this case, toilets. My relation to this topic really doesn't have anything to do with toilets, but it does have to do with experiencing a new culture from a different part of the country. A few years ago I visited Boston, and I noticed that whenever someone wanted to cross the street, they simply did it. Most people disregarded cross-walks and just jaywalked everywhere. I know people do this in the city of Chicago too, but in Boston it was about 100 times worse in my opinion. This just goes to show you that a culture or custom can be radically different even across the U.S., not just across the entire globe.

A Bronx Tale

Last week we watched A Bronx Tale in class. Not only was it a very good movie, it passed along some very positive messages. This movie dealt with some sociological issues such as racism and conformity. I think that this movie suited our unit very well because it had a lot to do with the way people perceive other people. However, the biggest learning moment for me came after the movie ended. When we found out about the life of the actor who played the main character, it was very surprising. In the movie, there was a semi-happy ending and for the most part everything turned out ok for the main character because he did what was right. However in real life, the choices he made were the complete opposite of his character in the film. The saying "The worst thing in life is wasted talent" was mentioned a lot in the movie, and it was very ironic how the actor wasted his talent by getting involved in a robbery and ending up in jail. It is a very normal thing for an actor to play a part and continue acting, but in this case the actor's real life played out in the same way his character did, but he made bad choices in real life. The sociological part to this equation is that I'm sure acting in A Bronx Tale had a profound impact on the actor's life socially. This probably led to him becoming like the character in the movie and thus getting in a lot of trouble.

Article about violinist

Today in class we learned about a famous violinist who played some very famous music outside a subway as part of a social experiment. I was honestly not expecting many people to give the violinist a tip, let alone stand and watch him. I believe that people tend to follow the norm socially and are not very open to paving new ways sociologically. Since this random violinist was not the norm, I think people were a tad scared to be seen watching him or giving him money. I also think that it also depends on the people in the subway. I think that if the right people heard his music, they would appreciate it and realize it was a famous artist. Not only does the outcome depend on the people that walk in, but their attitude sociologically. I think that if it was a music that was more well known around that area, more people would have given money or stopped to watch because it would have been more normal music in that area that many people listen to. This was a very cool article to read because it really tested the limits and boundaries of how people react to certain sociological situations.

Relation to boat activity

Today in class we did a very different boat activity. This activity really related to sociological mindfulness because it put my classmates in a situation that required a lot of thought and intellectual decisions. This activity also related because it wasn't just an activity that the students did by themselves. This activity was done in a group and therefore forced my classmates to interact and be social. This activity was a lot of fun, especially being able to watch it happen and see who got kicked out out of the boat. This lesson relates to me because I remember being in a situation like this one time with my family. We were going to go onto a professional baseball field and they were letting fans onto the field. Only 3 of us could go onto the field however, so it was an awkward situation. My mom let me and my brother and dad go because she knew that it was more important to us. That's kind of how this activity was, where the most important person, or person who could contribute the most, ended up staying on the boat.