Final Blog

This was one of the best classes that I have taken throughout school because I have learned so much. The best part of this class was that it was a class that taught you about yourself. Earlier in the year, I wrote about who I was. Now, a semester later, I feel that I have somewhat changed. First of all, I no longer just think that I am influenced by my parents. I am also influenced by those around me everyday. This includes teachers, students, and friends that I hang out with daily.

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Everything that we learned in Sociology can be put into play throughout entire life, and the facts that we learned are those that will stick with someone forever. Sociology has made me more aware of the world around me and everything that shapes who I am. I never realized that where someone lives has such a powerful influence on the values that people have.

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I love the fact that this class was not based of quizzes or tests, but rather just actual participation and interaction within the class. Blogging was a great way to get out thoughts about a particular topic and reveling information that no one may have ever known about you.

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Overall, I really liked this class. This is one of classes that I have taken where I can truly say that I am going to use the knowledge that I learned in situations that I will encounter in the future. I now have a new view on everything that happens around me. Most importantly, however, I have learned how to be Sociologically mind full.

Race

This week in class, we talked about Racism and about how it is an issue around the world. We took some time looking at a chart in class that showed people from all different races and what other people called them. It basically said that no matter where you are in the world, there is someone out there that does not like you. It is sad to think about, but for the most part it seems to be true.

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Also is class, we talked about where someone learns about different races. Racism is not something that you are born with, it is something that you inquire growing up in society. Different regions of the world experience different living conditions and that can relate to social interaction with other races. A limited social interaction will not give anyone an understanding of other races and can make people jump to conclusions.

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We did not watch this movie in class, however, the movie Crash does a great job showing how people jump to conclusions. I can go into detail, but it is one of those movies that you need to see because it is fantastic. It contains a great message that jumping to conclusions is an extremely bad thing to do and can hold serious consequences. I recommend watching it.

Monopoly

This week in class, we played Monopoly; however, this was not regular Monopoly, it was Monopoly based off of Sal's rules. The game started the same, everyone each rolled the dice to see who would go first, second, third, etc. However, when you rolled the dice, you also found out what social class you were going to be put into for that game. There were five different classes as high as the upper class all the way down to the lower class and there were three classes in between. There were different rules depending on what class you were in also.

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For that game, I was placed into the Blue-Collar Working Class. Each class started with a different amount of money and each class earned a different amount of money every time they passed GO; the two highest classes even started with properties that they already owned before even rolling the dice. As the working class, I was given $667.00 to start off with. From then on, it was all a game of luck. For me, luck was not on my side because I lost money, fast. I only ended up buying two properties before I lost all of my money due to landing on many properties that were owned by other classes, including the most expensive property of them all, Boardwalk. After losing all my money, I was forced to go on Monopoly Welfare where I was only given $30.00 every time that I passed go. The good thing about this was that I didn't have to pay rent for any property that I landed on no matter who owned it; the rules stated that a player remained on welfare until they had either passed GO five times, reached a certain amount of money, or bought a property. I remained on Monopoly Welfare until the end of the game. At the end of the game, we added up all of our money, including the buying price of our properties, to see who had changed classes. Everyone had stayed the same. Even though I was on Monopoly Welfare, I ended up with over $400.00 since I had already had two properties. The rich stayed the richest.

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This game is all about Sociology because it discusses Social Class. It brings out both the benefits and the difficulties that different Socials Classes go through. This game uses a very small scale example of what different parts of the world are like and how those people in those different parts live. It many cases, the rich get richer and the poop get poorer. A lot of what determines this is what family someone is born into. However, if someone is born into a poor family, it is still possible for them to advance to upper class, it will just take a little longer and may require more work.

Social Class

This week in class, we watched a film that talked about Social Class. This film really showed how people interact with one another based off of their social class. It showed how the lower class interact with one another and how the upper class interact with one another. It was sad seeing all of the differences between the two classes and that people within those classes do not associate themselves with the other class.

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Going to SHS, we are not really exposed to many different social classes. There are a few people who have less money and there are few people that have a lot of money, but the majority of the population at the school is upper-middle class. It is easy to spot different social classes, however, at sporting events. For example, at a baseball game, you can see different classes by just looking up. In the "nose-bleed" seats, you can see lower class and in the sky boxes, you can see upper class.

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Even the type of food that people eat is determined by social class. For example, upper class people tend to enjoy wheat bread over white bread and lower class is the opposite. If only people were not as worried about social class and money and were more worried about spending time with one another.

Prison Life

In class this week, we watched an episode from the TV series 30 Days. The episode that we watched was 30 Days in Prison. Morgan Spurlock, the main person for the show, went behind bars to serve a 30 day sentence just to see what everything was like. He did the first part of the 30 days living around others with really no privacy. Then he spent 72 hours in solitary confinement. After solitary confinement, he went back to the normal prison and then finally went to a drug rehab center. He did not need any of this, but he spent time in many different parts of jail to see what it was like for people who go through it. The way that people acted throughout different parts of jail were really interesting to see. Morgan made many "friends" while there. Two of his better "friends" were his roommates George and Travis. Morgan spent a lot of time talking to both of them and learned a lot about their life and what they have gone through. George had been in jail several times, spending more time in jail than out of jail. Travis had been a heroin addict for ten years, since he was 15, and has literally been disowned from his family.

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Many facts were brought up in the show; there were a lot of statistics given as well. One of the statistics given was that 2/3 of people who are released from jail, end up going back to prison. During the show, both George and Travis kept saying that this was the last time that they were going to be in jail and that they would clean up and get better because they never wanted to go back to jail again. However, shortly after being released, both Travis and George were arrested and stand trial once again. While watching this show, it makes people feel sympathetic for those who are in jail and say they want to get better. But after hearing that those people went back to jail, the sympathy goes away; it is almost as if they didn't even try to stay out.

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Jails in America are overcrowded and the lengths of some sentences are ridiculous, but talking about getting clean and actually doing it are two very different things. This relates to sociology because a mind has to be set into motion instead of just lips moving in order to accomplish something.

Was He Really Mugged?

In class this week, Sal told us a story of a man named Julio Diaz that was mugged one night. This man did not even put up a fight, he just stood there and gave the kid, who had a knife, the thing that he wanted; the mugger wanted his wallet. After giving him his wallet, Julio offered the mugger his jacket since it was cold and the jacket was really warm. After offering the jacket away, he offered to take the guy out to dinner. The mugger decided to go with him and they ended up eating together. After eating, Julio told the mugger that he would have to pay though since he took his wallet; so, with that, Julio said that he would pay if the mugger gave him his wallet back along with the knife. This mugging story ended with a happy ending.

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This is a story of a mugging gone good. This shows how someone can shape society to their likings if they try hard enough. Not only did Julio probably change someones mind but he also did also saved other people by taking to knife off of the streets. This lesson and story go along great with what we learned last week about Aikido. Only in this situation, Julio Diaz used his energy to control this persons (the muggers) mind. He acted off of the muggers bad energy and turned it to good energy in a few simple steps.

Viole... Aikido is the Answer

Why Aikido? Aikido is the form of using someone elses energy to win a dispute. This is not fighting though... this is simply defeating someone else while using none of your own energy in methods of self defense. This past week in class, Sal showed us what Aikido looked like. With a demonstration in class, he showed us exactly how it worked and how he used the other persons energy to his own advantage to take the fighter down.

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Aikido shows that violence is not the answer. It is simply that way to get around violence when someone else wants to start it. Not fighting may show people that you are not as tough as everyone else, but with Aikido, you really are tough. It is not the "Tough Guise" that people display on the outside, it is the display of mental toughness on the inside. It can take years to learn the proper art of Aikido, but it can change the way how you respond in different situations, for the good.