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.

Assignment 9

Eyes,

Growing up, my eyes always seemed to be the focal point of my appearance. My parents would always take pride in the deep blue color which has since faded, but the old color of them contributed greatly to my childhood and what people though of me.

Brains, 

I was always a straight A student. In grade school I would never get rewards like my friends would for good grades, but I also never worked for them. In middle school though that stopped. I became careless and I stopped doing homework because I believed I had better things to do. I believe in doing so I lost out on a lot of things that I would know and that I want to know. Although I am finding that high school taught me a valuable lesson, being I should do my homework or i’ll fail.

Personality,

My father raised me to be friendly and helpful whenever possible. He always valued friends and would put them before everything but family. He taught me to never leave anyone in a bad situation when you have the ability to help and to do as much for my fellow man as I possibly could. He would always demonstrate this by helping the neighbors with their cars (he was a mechanic) or cutting the grass when they were out of town or helping with other various tasks and chores. Through his demonstrations I really got a first hand look on everyone’s reactions to his kindness because he would always drag me along and I loved the happiness that his help brought people. Everyone seemed to appreciate the things he would do and I always appreciated that. Today I try to do the same thing. I try to be as helpful as possible to my friends and family because I believe it’s right and I think it never hurts to be nice.

Assignment 8

Early in the morning we climbed into the the stale cold minivan and said goodbye to our house. We hit the road and were off to a new place, somewhere I had never been. As we swerve through the empty dark streets of the bitter morning, the street lights illuminating the road and the dark surrounding the road, the fascination of the world around me kept me awake, even though i was close to falling asleep in the very back of the van. The seat was uncomfortable to say the least. Stacks upon stacks of bags were piled up next to me and they looked like they were ready to topple onto me and crush me at any moment. The back door looked like it was struggling to hold the load as we barreled down the highway, my dad excessively speeding as always. Although we were flying down the highway, cars were still passing us as if we were standing still. Sports cars with men in business suits on their way to an important meeting, too busy to worry about speed limits or laws. Too important to take their time to get to work safely, but not too important to risk getting into a fatal crash. Finally when we reached our destination, there was an erie feeling about the place. The florescent lights illuminated the entirety of the structure as several cars circled in front. Looking out the window past the dark and menacing fence I could see several steel structures sitting on the concrete, waiting to move but still in hibernation. The place seemed to be infested with people as everything on the other side was moving. The ground seemingly unsettled and anxious to complete the day’s activities. We finally parked a few minutes later and started to unload the car. Our bags were put onto carts then wheeled off by some random employee and were gone. Our carry on bags were heavy first thing in the morning. We ventured out of the cold and into the warmth of the inside of the sprawling complex. People were starting to form lines in front of the information desks, trying to receive their tickets, check their bags and pay for a new ticket out of town. We were almost gone. We were headed on a brand new adventure to California and the plane left in just a few hours.