Toys At A Young Age

As we grow up, we accumulate hundreds of toys that we may use once or that we may use throughout life. However, gender will ultimately determine what kind of toy you get. At a young age, the only thing that determines what toy someone will give you is if you are a boy or a girl.

-

On Monday, we had to bring in a toy (or a picture of a toy) that we used to play with when we were younger. People brought in dolls, K'Nex, cars, teddy bears, etc. and I brought in a picture of a remote control dumptruck I used to have. Sal separated the toys, based on gender, on two different sides of the table. It turned out that all of the dolls and teddy bears were on the female side and all of the K'Nex and toy cars were on the males' side. This shows how, that even at a young age, girls are quiet and elegant with their tea parties for their stuffed animals, and boys are daring with their violent K'Nex toys with fake guns.

-

We also looked at magazine ads that showed toys for little kids. The girls were always playing in their room quietly and the boys were always outside, sometimes in the sandbox, getting dirty and being loud. I remember that when I was a kid I loved playing outside; so it is clear we get a lot of our habits from what we see everyday.

Un-TV

For one of our assignments, we had to "watch" TV for a while, but in a variety of different ways. First, we had to watch it normally, turned on and with sound turned up. Then we had to watch a TV channel -the program did not matter- with no sound, just watch the picture on the screen. We also had to watch the news with the sound on. This was just like watching a normal program because I watch the news on a normal basis. That wasn't the last thing we had to do though. Next we had to watch the TV. Just watch the TV, turned off. All we were doing was watching the blank screen for thirty minutes.

-

Out of all of these tasks, the hardest one to complete was watching the TV turned off. Just looking at a blank screen for 30 minutes was extremely boring. One assignment that we also had to do was watch someone else watch TV. At least that was a little more interesting that just looking at a screen. To help pass the half hour time span by, I began to pay attention to the slight reflections that were coming from the TV screen. Since my TV faces a window that faces a road, I was able to count the cars that drove by. If I had probably stared at it longer, I probably would have been able to adjust and then maybe even figure out what color or type that car was.

-

Growing up In the era of television, we have been taught how to watch TV; now a days, everything is technologically based. If the power goes out, all we can think of doing is read a book or go outside, but from watching TV, socialization becomes something that someone has to learn. TV separates humans from one another depending on how long someone watches it for so spending time with other people diminishes.

Nothing...

The idea of doing "nothing" is very difficult to think about. However, when someone asks what you did today, the response that a lot of people usually give is "nothing". It is almost impossible for someone to switch their mind to the off position and do absolutely nothing. If you think about it critically, you could be saying you are doing nothing but isn't it true that you are still breathing? Therefore, you are still doing something.

-

Anyway, even though it can be hard, zoning off from the world around you can be done. This past week, as one of our assignments, we had to literally do nothing for ten minutes. This had to be done in a social setting and had to be completed standing up. This was very difficult to accomplish; I did this task at the mall in front of a store that I have not ever shopped at. This task was very hard to accomplish because all that went through my mind was that I was wondering what other people around me were thinking. We are trained by society to be self conscious about what other people think of us. Another thing that I was worried about was what would I do if someone had come over to talk to me. Technically I couldn't respond or I would be doing something and would have to start over. Luckily, that did not happen to me. Do you think that doing "nothing" is/was difficult to succeed in?

Tuesdays With Morrie -- Work

So far is the movie, Mitch can be described as someone who is overwhelmed with the amount of work that he does. Mitch is the main character as writes sporting reports for the city of Detroit. For his job, he is required to travel the country in order to capture the right quote said by a particular person at an exact moment. This appears to be the only way that Mitch knows how to live. He has a girlfriend, but he rarely has time to spend with her. A really short summary of the movie follows...

-

The movie Tuesdays With Morrie is all about a man that Mitch knew back from college; this is because this man was Mitch's teacher. This man is very well known around the college campus that he worked at. The teacher's name is Morrie. After graduating, Mitch promised Morrie that he would come back and visit him one day, but it wasn't until over a decade later that Mitch actually stepped up to his promise. The reason why Mitch eventually went to visit him was because he was slowly dying. Eventually, Mitch begins to go every Tuesday and learns the routine of taking care of him. Soon later, Mitch brings a tape recorder so that Morrie can be remember for time to come.

-

Throughout this movie, Mitch really values hard work. In the beginning of the movie he is a diligent worker when it comes to his job and reporting sports, but as the movie goes on, he begins to devote his time to Morrie because he realizes that every Tuesday that he sees him may be the last. Just about everyone values either hard work, achievement, or success throughout some point of their life. All of this starts when someone is in high school, and in some cases, even before that. It goes from being in an easy junior high school class to being in college level classes at a high school in just a few summers; it is very hard to make a change that fast. From personal experience, I understand how hard it can be taking some classes and working extremely hard to complete a homework assignment; however, that is not what I value, I value the success that I get as a good grade. It is true that grades are not everything, but, when it comes to school, they matter. With success can come further achievement.