My Germans Freshies :)

At almost the end of the semester, I'm finally warming up to my classmates in German. Over the past couple of months I have befriended a few of the previously stated "immature" German class freshmen. Before that, class seemed to be way too painful to get through since nobody cooperated. After the first change of seats the kid sitting in front of me, the one on my left, and the one on my right have started breaking out of their shells. Our relationship has moved from handing papers to each other to having those great inside jokes :)

I've noticed that class has turned into what we make it. Today our teacher wasn't in the best of moods. We all commented on it and decided that we would help the class move along since other students were being extremely stubborn. Another thing I've noticed is that we don't all decide to make class a certain way. Earlier this week the freshy to my right was extremely hyper while the rest of us were normal or down and tired. The energy eventually caught on to me and soon our whole group of four. We were all shouting out answers, which the teacher loved, and we were all having a blast. The same thing occured a couple of days later with me and we had the same result and our teacher was happy again. This demonstrates group think because on certain days we wouldn't even begin to think about being loud and attentive due to tiredness and such but we were all kind of swept up with the energy and acted differently than we would have.

When It Goes Off

This short story talks about fans from rivaling teams and how they went from a pub setting to the street setting. In the end, the thing that Robert and many others were waiting for to happen, being a riot, never happened. All that kept them in line were actual lines on the sidewalks.
Smelser's 6 Factors:
1. Structural Conductiveness- The pub crowd was "programmed" to have a rivalry
2. Structural Strain- The limited space in the pub followed by the killing of a man, as well as the pressure to attact the "other side"
3. Generalized Belief- Protect the honor of the teams at all costs
4. Precipitating Factor- A riot does not break out when authorative figures are present
5. Mobilization- Belief of murder as well as "going with the crowd"
6. Inadequate Social Control- Although there were authorative figures present, they appeared to be terrified of what might happen, so if the police is insecure, what does that say to the soccer fanatics?

I Can Fly

I had a dissection lab in human anatomy today. My partner and I were to dissect a chicken wing.  In the beginning we were to decide on who would retrieve the specimen and who would get the lab packets and other materials. After that we were able to move onto the first step, which was to cut the skin in order to reach the muscle, cutting carefully as to only cut the skin. With one person working on the cuts at the time, the other held the specimen down, in order to stabilize it. After skinning it efficiently we were able to observe the muscles, tendons and ligaments. Pulling on different tendons allowed us to create up and down movement of the wing.

The whole classroom was ultimately working together towards that common goal, which was to see the physiology of a chicken wing, therefore making it an interest group. Although in partners, the entire class stopped to listen to some tips our instructor shared with us. Soon anough, after practicing dexterity, the class was able to see the muscles and bone marrow inside the bone. Many were even able to pretend they were "flying". Our group effort paid off in the end.

Conflict in Jail Of Course

Our very interesting field trip experience on Tuesday had us absolutely buzzing for the next few days. We were given the privilege to walk about the court house and the jail complex. On our visit, we heard several different cases, all varying in severity and incredibility. There was, for many people, that one case that we each chose to be the thought of as the most shocking. One of cases that has stayed in my head is one I was able to connect well with the conflict theory.

It was that of an inmate charged with domestic battering. He was an older white male who was dating a woman with cancer. He was supporting her and himself. However, their relationship quickly became mutually violent and the woman had stabbed him three times in a certain occasion. Listening to his background, I found that he had been homeless and jobless for some time and that he had been previously charged for battering on earlier occasions with different individuals. The woman with cancer had had it with him and finally reported it.

The conflict theory revolves around a marginal surplus population, which we all have learned are the jobless people virtually useless to society. Those individuals ofter turn to violence in order to "vent." I concluded that because this man had been homeless for quite some time, he had resorted to violent outlashes which had unfortunately ingrained into him as an effective solution to arguments. Once able to support himself, he wanted to feel more important and support another person. She happened to be a fighter as well.

Adorable Kid! :)

Julie Deardorff talks about her son and how he's grown over a year. He does "normal boy stuff" such as playing with legos and liking trucks, but he also likes the colors pink, yellow, and purple. Deardorff's son is fond of princess among other "girl things" and his parents don't mind. A problem arose from the boy's choice of Halloween costume. He wanted to be a princess.

Although his parents did not oppose his liking for stories of Cinderella or Snow White, they were afraid that their son would face public humiliation due to his preference of costume. Neuroscientist Lise Eliot says that it is completely natural for young boys to be attracted to feminine things and that children do not develop their judgemental-ness until the age of four and the Deardorff boy was three in preschool.

Basically, young children begin to learn the "rights and wrongs" of their society at an extremely young age. They are influenced by many cultural factors about gender norms and they quickly catch on that any individual who breaks the supposed rules is subject to humiliation. Like the parents, I wish we didn't have to learn about the boundaries of gender, as it only restricts an individual from being who they truly want to be. I believe these borders are more blurred than before, and going along with Eliot, that the next generation will tolerate a more distorted division between what we believe to be masculine and what we believe to be feminine.

Every Day...

I found myself thinking sociologically walking right out of first hour. I walked down the hall to see several kids in various locations of the hallways alone. These are kids I see every day, alone. Sometimes I even see them at lunch by themselves. It just so happens that whenever I see these individuals they are walking slowly by themselves, lost in thought. No one else seems to notice their loneliness, they just notice they're in the way and these kids slowly start getting pushed more and more towards the walls of the school.

I know that their lives are nothing like Genie's but they definitely seem isolated. When I happen to see them far off, I find myself wondering about why they never seem to talk to anyone. I think about who their generalized others are and how the concept of looking glass self plays a role in their lives. Perhaps parents or older siblings are who they trust most and they don't mind what others think. My ideas probably aren't too far off.

Dinner Time

I found myself thinking sociologically when I overheard a comment a girl made about another's nightly routine. For the sake of following along, we'll say girl A made the comment about girl B's routine. Girl B said that she usually had dinner at 8 p.m with her family. Girl A's reaction went something along the lines of a very dramatic stop in the hallway, not minding the rushing traffic of students, and exclaming at the top of her lungs that that was "so weird" and "your family should eat at 6 like mine."

Immediately, I noticed both culture shock and ethnocentrism. Girl A's reaction displayed both emotion relating to a different culture and a statement implying that girl B should do things in the way that girl A does them, leading to the ethnocentric remark.