Multi Media

Gloria Gaynor-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dqtraNmVgA&feature=related
Shiny Toy Guns-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeczOVOuAK0

Assignment 21

This question reminds me of a movie I saw a few years a go called Trading Places. The movie stars Dan Aykroyd and Eddy Murphy. In the beginning of the movie, Aykroyd is a wealthy investment banker who has everything he wants and has no financial worries at all. Murphy starts off as a petty thief who is trying to get by day by day. The wealthy investors who own the bank that Aykroyd works at end up deciding to switch the two’s rolls after Murphy runs into the firm trying to steel something. Eventually, Aykroyd is thrown into the life of a street criminal and Murphy is given everything he ever wanted. They learn to adapt to each other’s life style and eventually end up switching back. I thought this story was interesting mainly because of the idea of people switching classes in an instant. The adaptation within the film shows the willingness of the lower class to try to rise given any opportunity possible, while the upper class have a much harder time reverting to the lower class. Also, the different types of knowledge it takes to succeed in either class is shown. The investment banker is a well educated and “cultured” individual and is very book smart where the petty thief is less book smart and more street smart. This can show the effects of the environment that one lives in as a child, being either privileged or not and being forced to learn either aspect of society.

Stereotype Video Link

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zack464/6423875767/in/set-72157628202506139/

Assignment 18

The commentary she is trying to provide about blue collar workers in America is that they are trapped in the middle class. Besides the fact that they can potentially fall lower in the social classes, most cannot rise to higher ranks within any field of work so they remain in the same social class as they were born into. I thought the piece was interesting in the fact that I have thought about this idea before and I enjoy reading other's ideas on it. I believe that unless something abnormal happens most are stuck in their class position with no chance of escape. Ethically this provides a constant strong workforce for the upper class to use, which in the long run creates faster progression and a generally modern civilized society. Although that may be true, it is unfair to the middle and lower class that they can be promised a chance to progress and not be able to.

Assignment #14

This article was probably the most interesting one we have read so far. The connections that were made in the article were not only surprisingly true, but were very eye opening, mainly because in my high school all three classes existed and so did all of the methods of teaching. For the most part in my experience, the social class was less of a factor, but students without realizing it would fall into the specific social groups based on their class. The kids from lower class families tended to not care as much about their education and they usually ended up in the lower standard of classes. Kids with middle class and some with upper class parents would end up in the normal and regular classes that were explained in the book. Those classes would involve some reasoning and other skills but were still highly regulated. And on the high end of the scale, most of the wealthier kids and some of the middle class kids were thrown into accelerated classes where critical thinking was involved as well as in depth study and research on close to every single topic. I believe that without realizing it, the students fell into their prospective groups unintentionally and stuck there from a young age. The school district then realized which students belonged where and began to organize us into social classes by class rank. As far as the given sentence was concerned, I believe that z is trying to say that through education, the political and economic structure in this country is being preserved by the level of education in each social class. In other words, the system is somewhat working to keep the rich families in control of the major corporations and of the wealth and managerial positions where at the same time it is working to keep the middle and lower class in the factories and in other positions doing the ‘grunt’ work for the higher classes. I believe that the points made in this article are very true. I believe I can say that I have seen these results first hand and until now I would have never realized it.

memoir

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zack464/sets/72157627981089206/

Blog #13

Rose's identity was effected heavily by his education. The diverse cultures that surrounded him were good building blocks for his development as well as realistic examples of how the world works. For example, the teacher asking him what kind of name 'Rose' is and then calling him a 'wop' or the sixteen year old drug dealer and pimp. There were also the different social and societal classes such as the black rappers and the surfer kids. In the end it all came down to the fact that they were shoved into this school and because of his ability to blend with several of the social circles he was able to develop a self identity that was formed by all of his peers. The 'cues' that he brings up are directly related to the events in his life that change him. Through these 'cues' he is molded and formed into his final self and the way that these events change him are ways that his self perception is molded.