face to the race

After doing the activity pairing the face to the race, I realized pretty much all assumptions about physical traits of races are all stereotypes that often are not even correct. We grow up learning information about race that is not true. Why else would our class only get 4 of the 20 pictures correct? We see people and automatically label them as a certain race because thats how our culture works. If someone looks different, there must be a reason why. Instead of thinking about why they look different, we waste our time stereotyping them as a meaningless race and ignore the biological part of it. Its embarrassing that this is how the world works. It is odd how race can change depending on a plane ride, yet in Americans' minds we still assume race is biological. Yet, that is impossible if race changes with a plane ride. All over the world people classify people by race. I traveled with my cousin who is a quarter Filipino and a quarter Japanese to Thailand. The Thai people would pay extra attention to my cousin and some would even ask her if she lived in Thailand. Although she did not look Thai, it seemed odd to them that a non Caucasian was with a group of whites so they assumed sh must be one of the Thai counselors. This shows the entire world is obsessed with race.

The Lunch Tables

The day of give-a-thon my friends and I were not able to find a table in our normal spot for lunch because the collection of gifts and food took up alot of the wood commons. After searching for a table, were were unsucesful and finally decided to just sit at a random table where two girls had left their backpacks. We were in the old builiding in the random spot with a few lunch tables and all the vending machines (the tyson and coffee one). We were planning on just asking the girls if they minded sharing a table with us when they returned. Wehn they did return, they seemed very confused and left immediately, I guess to get more food. A few minutes later thy returned and took their bags and food and said that they were going to sit somewhere else. They could it be. They left and my friends all felt kind of bad because we technically stole their table, seemed very nice and they assured us we weren't the reason they were moving, but what else even though we were happy to spend a lunch at the same table as them. This reminded me of the video we watched in class of the high school girls. It is kind of pathetic that even at Stevenson we can not mix different groups. However, at SHS I don't think we have cliques as extreme as the school in Texas. Yes I have a group of friends I normally hang out with but that does not mean I won't spend time with my other friends if I see them. I think the reason we have these groups is for secuirty. It is always good to have people to go to football games with, go to dinner with, and just have their when you need them. So at lunch when the girls left it probably wasn't because they were afraid it was just simply because we weren't in their group and out of their comfort zone.

The Fancy Fridge- Wealth

I think that all the extra stuff in life is a very accurate predicator of social class. Everyone needs a house with the basics such as a bed, a refidgerator, a shower, etc. Yet a bed can range in price from $50 to $50000. The things we buy, regardless if we need them or not, show our social class. Everyone needs a roof over their heads, yet why is it that the wealthier people spend over $1 million on a house when in Waverly, Ohio, you can get the same house for only $2oo,ooo. Things like this convince me that class is related to the things we own and how willing we are to spend money on the basics (such as a bed). When my parents decided to redo my kitchen, my mom picked out a fridge that is paneled in wood with a touch screen water dispenser. Because the fridge is covered in wood, I literally have to plant my feet and yank the door with both hands to open the door to the fridge or else it won't open because its so heavy. Also, I couldn't hang any of my A+ tests on the fridge when I was younger b.c magnets don't stick to wood. Although the water thing is cool, that too is a pain. Because it is touch screen, there is a button called control lock that I sometimes accidentaly press. When that is pressed then I can't get water or ice because the buttons lock themselves. It takes like 10 minutes for the stupid control lock to turn off and I have to deal with sink water. It does not make sense that my parents would pay extra money to make a kitchen that is more difficult to handle. My only explanation is that my parents wanted an "up to date" kitchen to show off when they entertain.

The Saints and the Statesman

In class we have talked a ton about deviance, or breaking the norms of society. However, there is not one strict definition to deviance because deviance is very relative to money, time, class and much more. In the Saints and Roughneck article, the author highlights the relevance between deivance and money. Although Stevenson might not be as severe on the level that Chambliss study was, our high school has both saints and roughnecks roaming the halls. The recent statesman article that was never published about NHS students and FMP students highlight the saints at SHS. Altough National Honors Society students should be the role models of the school participating in community service with outstanding grades, many of NHS members are far from the "saints" that they are percieved to be. In the article, two NHS students admitted to drinking. Like the police did in Chambliss study regarding the saints, the board at SHS did the same. They ignored the fact that NHS students were drinking by banning the publication of that article. If it was published, then SHS would look very bad because it shows that even the ideal students are not truly saints. I would say, regardless of NHS and FMP, the majority of students are saints. Although we all appear to be perfect at school, no one is the perfect angel that the Stevenson society wishes to percieve them.

Adulthood at 21

In class this week we have emphasized that nothing occurs in your brain overnight. Your mind isn't capable of driving the day before your 16, and your mind does not finally decide it can handle alcohol the day before your 21. Yet, our society is ruled by numbers, specifically age. This obsession with age is detrimental to our development. I know that with more years comes maturity, yet I believe after a certain point, age is JUST a number. When I think of someone I know that is 21, not much about them has changed since they were 18. Once someone hits 18, they are allowed to do almost anything in the legal boundaries. Go to war, drive, live alone, get married and many more things. Yet our society places a bigger emphasis on the age of 21, just because thats the age when one can drink. Our society views a 21 year old as a mature adult, yet a 19 or 20 year old is still a "young adult" that has yet to mature. Why is it that use alcohol to measure maturity?I'm not trying for the point of my blog to support making the legal drinking age earlier, but I am just amused with how our society holds a 21 year old in higher regards than an 18 year old, regardless of any factors pertaining to each person.

Fear and the Media

Today in class we touched on how media affects fear. I am obsessed with all the crime shows: CSI, Law and Order, Criminal Intent and many more. I can totally relate to how these shows creat false fear, and because they do, it is very difficult to differentiate between your 6th sense which is real fear or just being paranoid from too many horror scenes. When I was a little bit younger, the crime shows would scare me when I watched. I would turn my head away at points and after, I would be extremely paranoid. They scared me so much that I would refuse to watch one of the show s when I was home alone. Now that I am older, I realize how fakes these shows are, and even tohugh I still find them entertaining, they do not scare me at all. This relates to sociology because media enstills fear in the public. People fear the most ridiculous things because they see the most normal situations turn into horror scenes on TV shows. This is not a great aspect of television because if you fear everything you see as a potential danger, you are not living life to its fullest. Furthermore, after hearing the story about your wife, it made me realize that you should never second guess your sixth sense. However, your wife thought she was just being crazy so she made the mistake of getting out of the car. Possibly she was negatively impacted by media because she thought she was just being paranoid, when in reality it was a real threat.

Advertising

After examining ads this past week in Sociology I realized a ton about media that I have never noticed. First, I thought I might want to go into marketing in college but I think I have decided that I won't like that because advertising is just "clutter" and the more you advertise or promote a product, the more you are contributing. When we were examining the offensive to female ads I looked at ads in a new way. I would have never thought that the Dolce and Gabbana ad was advertising a gang rape but it makes sense if you look into the deeper meaning of an ad. Although a lot of the ads were crossing the line, I felt like many were okay and appropriate because you can spin almost anything to make it offensive. Before we talked about the Dove ads in class, I had already been aware that they were running ads based on "real women" but I never realized they were running a self- esteem campaign. I think its really good that a major company is spending the money to create short clips, like the one we watched in class, that tell young girls to avoid the influence of supper skinny, super pretty models that are in the majority of ads. That whole ad was not promoting the Dove brand at all, but rather warning girls to avoid the negative influence.

Agents of Socialization

I found the article that we had to read for class very interesting. I never realized how many aspects shape children's lives, even though no one is aware of certain influences unless they are pointed out. School has many functions. You go to school to learn reading writing and math(manifest functions), yet you go to school also for social skills and interaction with the real world (latent functions). Everyone always says that latent skills are so much more important because they get you further in life, yet Stevenson still places a much heavier weight on the manifest functions (except Soc class)! Although Stevenson tries to mistake families and people into believing they place a heavier wight on latent functions by encouraging learning targets and extra curricular, when it comes down to it infinite campus with grades is the most important ingredient to academic success at Stevenson. Another agent that I could relate to is day care. I had a nanny that lived with me when I was about 2 until I was around 6. Although I was with my mom also most of the time, my nanny, Lindsey, had a strong impact on me. She was from England and from being around her so much during the years when my brain was vastly developing, I picked up a rather strong British accent. It shows that the people who are around you when you are a young child, even if the are not your mother, have a very strong influence on various aspects of that child's life. Unfortunately, I lost my British accent within a year or two after she moved back to England.

Parental Influences

Before taking a Sociology class, I never thought twice about how the environment shapes our culture. I just thought it was normal to eat using silverware, sit in a chair during class, and always be occupied. After learning about sociology, I have realized that these things are things we learn from the environment and from growing up being nurtured. This is made so clear after watching the video of the girl that was locked up for 12 years. She seems so strange to us, because she does not follow the same norms as we do because she was never nurtured to learn about the American society. We would label her "strange" if we saw her walking down the street and didn't know her story.Because this girl was never nurtured, she had absolutely no influence from her parents. However, many kids in the world today are strongly influenced by their parents. During the college application process, I am applying to only colleges with respectable Business schools. I am following right in my father's foot steps because he owns his own business. I even had to right a college essay explaining why I chose business and I wrote the entire essay explaining how my dad had influenced me throughout my entire life.

Dependency

As an American citizen, I would definitely characterize our country as being highly dependent. We depend on each other for both material and non-material things. Often people depend on another for money or clothes whereas people also depend on each other for support and love. Americans are more afraid to depend on people for the non-material things. People feel uncomfortable asking someone for advice, support, or even guidance on many topics because they feel like they are being a burden, or they just feel awkward. We often mix up dependency with fear. If I do not ask someone for advice it is not necessarily because I do not want to be dependent on them, but more because I am afraid to have a meaningful conversation with that person.

For material goods, Americans hesitate a bit more. For example, I forgot to bring money and I was going to subway with my friends. I hesitated asking my best friend to borrow money because I did not want her to think I was depending on her. Another trend of dependency at Stevenson High School is on homework. When people can not figure out a math problem, they do not try to go beck and figure it out, rather they depend on a classmates homework the next day in school. I hate depending on people for homework because I get frustrated when I can not figure something out myself.

I would say Americans as a whole fear dependency for both material and non-material things. However, the reasons why we fear them are very different.

America- A Consumer Nation

When I started thinking about American Culture, the one thing that I could think of to characterize America is money. We have talked about money in class, "Time is Money," and how we like spending. That is why I would define America as a consumer nation. As Americans, we love to spend money on things to improve our appearance, but also technology and food. The industries dealing with beauty- cosmetics, botox, salons- have all became major staples of American Industry. A girl does not need to drive very far to find a store that sells makeup (Walmart, Walgreens, Ulta). Other industries, such as those selling clothes, also are everywhere because people feel better about themselves when they are well dressed. The second thing we spend money on is technology. It used to be that one TV would be sufficient for a house hold but now, we spend money so every room has a flat screen HD TV. Also, the growth of the ipod has created an "iWorld." This industry has created an array of products that allow us to listen to music, connect to the world wide web, and even contact others. The final aspect of America as a consumer nation is food. We love to spend money on a good dinner. There is no other explanation why their is always over an hour wait at luxurious restaurants such as Wildfire or Cheesecake Factory. Also, their has been an enormous increase in fast food restaurants. Although this seems to contradict my point about spending loads of money, a home cooked meal is much cheapier than paying 2 dollars for a coke when a can probably only costs 50 cents. On a side note, eating fastfood is destroying the folkway of family dinners where you talk about eachothers days. Overall, America is an enormous consumer nation that strives to have unlimited income so you can spend it on fashion/cosmetics, technology, and food.

Culture in Thailand

In class we learned about the three different norms: more, folkways, and taboos. After learning about other cultures in class, I realized how I had experienced all these norms on my trip to Thailand. One of the mores that was in another South Asian culuture I also esperienced in Thailand. A more there is to have the bottom of your feet facing someone. Sitting indian style was highly offensive if someone sat next to you. You could not kneel if there was anyone behind you. However, when we would meditate in the temples, the position is very similiar to indian style. It was odd how it was accepted in the temple, but not around the school or house. Another more they have with feet is shoes. Before we entered any building or room, we HAD to remove our shoes. The kitchen was detached from the orphanage so we would put on shoes, walk 10 steps to the kitchen, and then have to take our shoes off before we walked in to get food. Shoes were removed before going into the class rooms and before walking into any structure at the temples. A folkway that is part of their culture is wearing tank tops and shorter shorts. In Chaing Mai, the biggest northern city, the people would walk around in mini skirts and tanks. They were not looked down upon or as a disgrace, because that has become normal in the big cities. However, in the village I lived in, 6 hours from Chaing Mai, we had to dress extremely conservative. We would often put on shorts to teach at the school because it was so hot out, and our counselors would make us change into longer shorts because we did not want to offend the students or teachers. A taboo was talking about sex and alcohol with the monks. They are not allowed to have either, and it is extremely disrespectful to even ask them about it.

Street Smart and Book Smart

What are all the groups that Collogero belongs to? (Think in terms of the circles exercise we did in class.) Would you put him in Sonny’s crew, or would you put him and Sonny in their own group? What is Collogero’s Master Status? Why do you think so? Do you think his master status changes throughout the movie?

Sonny encourages Collegero to stay in school so he is twice as smart as everyone else. He would have the book smarts with the street smarts, the ultimate combination to succeed in life. I believe that these two groups are the foundation for C's groups. C's numerous groups can be classified under those involved with his "street life" and those he sees at schools. Although Slic,Mario, and all the others that died in the car fire were his friends that he would hang out with after school, they were not street smart, and therefor fall under the school category. The only reason the 17 year old C is friends with them is because they had been his friends since he was growing up. Most likely they met at a young age at school. C's other group would be the street group, the guys that he hangs around at the bar with. This group, led by Sonny, would define who C is and what he grows up to be. Collogero's master status would be a son. To sonny, he is a son. To Robert Deniro, he is a son. Although not blood related, Sonny treats C as his own and mentors him as a father is supposed to ( not that C's real father didn't do the same). C's master status does not change through the movie. Ever since he was 4, he looked up to Sonny. Although he might have not realized it, Sonny strongly shaped who he grew up to be.

Identity Molecule

I really like the identity molecule actvity. It was very interesting discovering things about myself I never really thought about. It is obvious that I belong to groups such as my family, friends, and Stevenson High School. However, there are many other groups that I am part of that make me who I am. I have a group labeled camp that influences me because I spent 8 summers at an overnight camp with the same girls at the same place, doing the same activities. In the camp circle for my role I put both friend and leader. Because I went to camp for so long, the younger campers would always come to me with questions and look up to me for advice. As a senior camper, I would often be the most skilled at activities and would always take younger girls out to sail or help them get up foir their first time on water skis. Also, I was a Color Day Captain of the white team so I had to lead half the camp for the last 3 days of camp in sports, song fest, and burn the rope. So it makes sense that even though I do not still go to camp, my friends I made still influence me because they are still some of my best friends. My other groups that I had not really thought about before were track and work. I work throughout the year so the interactions I have with my co-workers and boss occur quite often. Even though track is only in the spring, I still see my track friends throughout the year. One thing that was also surprising about this activity were how a ton of my circles overlap. My family overlaps with my friends, because my sister is one of my best friends and I think of a lot of my friends as sisters. Furthermore, some of my camp friends I consider more than just "camp friends" because I either see them everyday at school, or make an effort to see them over the weekends.
Overall, I really liked this activity because it made me think about groups and friends that I never really classify.

Teenage Nature as shown by the Abadnoned Ship

During the ship activity we did in class, I was able to discover a lot about the nature of our class, and mainly teenagers as a whole. When you told us the boat was going to sink if seven people did not go "overboard," people immediately turned to the people with obvious downfalls, such as the Draft Evader for being a drug dealer. However, no one on board took the time to re-read or discuss the positives of keeping certain people aboard. This activity highlighted the nature of human behavior, we take the easy way out by judging everything at face value(the drug dealer and the eldery couple). Also, no one took the time to re-read the packet and learn about useful charactersitic some of the people on the life boat had. This highlights the laziness of teenagers and the hesitance to work hard in school. Although the situation was only a simulation of the real thing, if our class was really about to sink on a lifeboat, we would all use the same tactics, not necessarily the smartest ones, but the most convenient ones to send 7 people overboard. I was the Peace Corp Volunteer and was immediately thrown overboard after discovering I had no use on the boat. I thought that throwing me oveerboard, along with many other people such as the Noble Peace Prize Winners, was done because of stereotyping. The stereotype of a Peace Corps Volunteer is someone who just paints rainbows all day and wants everyone to smile, so how could they possibly be helpful on the lifeboat?
Overall, this simulation made me realize that as teenagers, we often do not make the smartest decisions, but rather take the easy route out.

Hill Tribe Orphanage

I have learned from a very positive experience that community service can not only be extremely rewarding, but also highly enjoyable. Last summer I traveled with a high school travel program, Rustic Pathways, for a month over the summer in Thailand. I spent the trip split up between two places: Mae Seariang and the Elephant Conservation Center. For the majority of my trip, I lived in an orphanage in a tiny village in the mountains of northern Thialand called Mae Seariang . I spent my mornings teaching the tiniest kindergardeners the Enlgish alphabet and language. In the afternoon, my group of six girls led by counselors from the states and native Thai counselors, would participate in projects to improve the school and the orphanage (such as planting a garden for fruits and vegetables). Although we would dread the projects at the start (because it was over 90 degrees and there was no a.c anywhere), we would always end up laughing and having fun. The boys at the orphanage were all teenagers that were recently (in the past few years) orphaned from the conflict in Burma. It always amazed me how optimistic these boys were and how fun and silly they could be to hang out with, given many of their situations. On certain afternoons when we would finish service projects and teaching early, we would go help out or visit local buddhas and temples. The temples were filled with statues of buddhist gods, and long stairs adorned in tiles and crystal, that I would forget I was in a religious center. The temples were the most gorgeous areas that I have ever seen. I even got to medidate with the monks when we finished cleaning up trash at the various temples. My favorite service project, however, was definetly planting rice at the orphanage. All of my group was hesitant at first to step hip deep into muddy water where crabs would often poke through, but after getting used to it a days worth of planting, our entire bodies were covered in mud from numerous mud fights. I still had mud in my scalp three days later! Our counselors told us after that the rice that we had planted would last the orphanage into October (4 months)! I learned service could be extremely fun if you and your friends make it that way. Overall, the trip taught me that giving another person or community a lending hand is more rewarding than anything else imaginable. I would give anything to go back and do it all over again.

Who Am I?

I am Hilary Eliza Kritz. I am a senior in high school, so my work at school, and relationships with friends and family pretty much define who I am. My friends are probably the biggest influences in my life because I choose to spend a lot of my free time with them because they can make me laugh. My parents also have a huge influence in my life obviously because they have raised me and have always been there for various reasons that range from silly things to very important reasons.

Silence can be very awkward sometimes, but other times it seems totally normal. A silence is awkward when you aren't completely comfortable with someone. I travel from one building to another building with someone who I had classes with last year. It is in the middle of a period because it is an AP science class, so the hallways are nearly silent. When there is silence, it is a bit awkward because we don't know each other very well. We talk about Chemistry the majority of the time but when Chemistry topics run out we make "small talk" to fill the air in an attempt to prevent an awkward silence. On the other hand, I can sit next to one of my friends for a while without saying anything, yet it feels totally normal. We do not feel the need to fill the air with words to prevent awkwardness because it is only normal to need a break from speaking after spending all day with someone.