Rising Expectations

In society we value the knowledge of knowing what everyday is going to be like. We like things to stay relatively the same because we fear the unknown. That is why in reading all of the chapters of our Sociology book the one that I found to be most interesting was the last one on social change. Most specifically, I found the idea of Rising Expectations leading to social change fascinating.

Because people value the knowledge of knowing what they can expect in life it is difficult for society to change. That’s why one of the actions that can lead to social change is Rising Expectations. The idea behind this theory is that when people who are disadvantaged don’t see change for an extended period of time they come to the conclusion that here will never be change. But when they do experience small change for the better they have heightened expectations and want more. In the 1980’s this happened in China when the Chinese government gave the citizens more freedom. After that they people began to openly revolt against the government that over time liberalized China.

http://www.units.muohio.edu/havighurstcenter/themes/1989/1989China.html

There are two reasons why I find this concept to be interesting.  The first is that people are never satisfied with what they have. This theory expresses this perfectly; when people are given improved conditions they want more. People aren't able to be content with what they have, even if it is enough. The second reason why I find this theory interesting is the power of knowledge. When people know that they can have more they are willing to fight for it. Not knowing what it is like to live a good life can cause a person living in oppressive conditions to become content with what they have. They fear what a better life might bring them and it keeps them from striving for more. I think a good example of this is the people of North Korea. The people they live a life in which they have no control over anything. They aren’t allowed to leave the country and live in very bad conditions and are content with it. I think that it would be very interesting to see what would happen if there conditions improved or they were freed.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/15/world/asia/north-korea-us-talks

The idea of change is a very scary thought because of what it brings along with it. Knowledge is a very powerful thing because it keeps our lives easy and familiar. But change is good and change is needed for society to make progress and that is why people are willing to fight for it when they know what it can bring.

Family History

When it comes to my family’s history in the United States I don’t know very much. The story of how my family came to the U.S. is not one that is known by either of my parents. Although there is record of our family’s ancestry, we don’t have a copy of it in our possession. What we do know is where are ancestors came from and approximately when.

My mom’s side of the family came from different areas in Europe. My maternal grandfather’s family came to the United States in the mid 1800’s from England. The last 4 generations of that side of the family were born in the United States and the family is located in Upstate New York. I currently have a great grandmother who will be 104 years old in a few weeks. She knows much about the family’s ancestry but I was unable to contact her. My maternal grandmother’s family came from Germany in the early 1900’s. My grandma can recall relatives traveling back and forth from the United States back to Germany to visit family when she was growing up in New York.

My dad’s side of the family has a similar story. We know that we have relatives who were from Russia who then immigrated to Germany and eventually came to the United States. My dad believes that they came to the United States in the late 19^th century or the early 20^th century when lots of immigrants from that area of Europe were coming over. My paternal grandmother also has family that came directly from Germany to the United States but we are unsure when.

Because of a lack of knowledge, I don’t know what struggles my ancestors encountered when coming to the United Sates but I can make some assumptions. I can assume that my family from England came in search of a new life in the United States. They came at a time when the United States had just recently become a nation and there was lots of promise. I do know they were very successful. As for my relatives from Germany I would think they came for mostly the same reason. At the turn of the 19^th century the number of Europeans immigrating to the United Sates was at an all time high. I can imagine they were discriminated against during the first and second world wars when the U.S. was fighting Germany.

Ancestry has never been something that I have thought much about. I have always known that I am mostly German and that I had some English and Russian blood. But I have never known the stories of what my ancestors went though to get to where they are today. It interesting how some families put lots of importance on their heritage and others do not. I have many friends who are Irish and they value that. They all know where their families came from in Ireland and when they came to the U.S. it interesting how different cultures value there own history and how much importance they put into knowing their family story. 

Gender

The social structure of gender in my mind is a set of rules. When you are born either a male or female, you are instantly given a set of standards and guidelines on how you are supposed to behave. These standards are the social norm and people who go against the rules are often looked down upon by others in society and considered weird or ridiculed. This structure gives our lives a certain amount of predictability because what we are expected to do has already been laid out for us, all we have to do is follow the rules.

The way that gender has affected my life personally is something that I haven’t ever thought about. I have grown up in a so called “Man’s” house. There are 4 men in the house, myself, my two brothers and my dad. The only woman in the house is my mother, even our dog is male. The way that this has affected us is by really knowing what the gender role of a man is. Media shows us what society thinks a real man is. A man plays sport (as I have my entire life), a man eats a lot and a man never cleans up after himself or helps around the house. But what my parents have taught me is much different. My mom does yard work and fixes things around the house when they are broken, my dad will cook and clean when needed. I have been taught that it is okay to help around that house and helping make meals for the family can be enjoyable and is a useful life skill. I’ve been taught that you have to work hard in life in order to earn respect and success and you need to provide for your future family. The most important thing that my family taught me was that you don’t have to follow the frame work of society you can be who you truly are because your family will support you no matter what.

  

The social structure of gender has had impacted me more than I had thought. I grew up playing sports like “men” are supposed to. I worked hard in school got in trouble around the neighborhood with friends. I do lots of manual labor for my parents at our house and helping other at their houses. I am also pursuing a major in a science field (biology). I have done all of this without noticing the impact of social structure.

Race (revised)

When you look up the definition of race in a dictionary it will say “a group of persons related by common decent or heredity.” By this definition race is a completely biological trait that we have no control over. In real life though race is how society views you as an individual. A person’s race can change from place to place and can even change while living in the same area.

Race is classified by a person’s physical traits and their standing in society. The way society has classified people is by how they look even though two people who are tall with blue eyes might have less biological similarities than two people who look nothing alike. Race is also classified differently from place to place. A person who is “black” in the United States might travel to Africa and be called white and vise versa. A person’s wealth will make society more or less likely to consider them one race or another. A rich black person is more likely to be called white than a poor white person. Society has made criteria for what it means to be a certain race. A white person is well to do; an Asian is good at math and so on. This is why person’s race changes depending on where they are, because there standing in society changes with them. If I was in a country like El Salvador I would be in the upper class compared to if I was living in Dubai I would not be considered upper class.

I think that the reason why society has changed what race is is because of the labeling theory. If we have been conditioned to think that a certain group of people act a certain why based on their race then we are made to think that all people who act that way are also a part of that group even if they aren’t. I think that this is why we look at race not as a physical characteristic, but a place in society. 

Poverty

Child (3 year old)

Clothing

6 shirts:                                   $60

6 pairs of pants/shorts:            $60

2 pairs of shoes:                      $80

Socks:                                     $10

Underwear:                             $10

Coat:                                       $40

Living

Food:                                       $1,260

Education/ Day Care:              $1,910

Health:                                    $200

Transportation:                        $200

Other:                                      $100

Adults (2) + 1 Adult Child

(all items x 3, except education, rent + utilities x 1)

Clothing

7 shirts:                                   $80

8 pairs of pants/shorts:            $120

3 pairs of shoes:                      $200

Socks:                                     $15

Underwear:                             $15

Coat:                                       $75

Living

Food:                                       $2,500

Education(x1):                        $910

Transportation:                        $1,500

Health:                                   $500

Other:                                      $200

Rent + utilities (x 1):               $8,000

Total:                                      $28,455

Difference:                              $6,342

The thing that surprised me the most when doing this project was how little $22,000 is when you are trying to support a family of four. My original calculations that I thought would be on the lower end of living wages ended up being more double the poverty line. You really notice what you have that others don’t when doing an assignment like this.

I don’t consider myself someone who spends enormous amounts of money. I will occasionally go out to a movie or out to eat with friends but this does not happen very often. When I thought about the amount of money that I do end up spending on little evening out I notice just how much money I am spending. Going to one movie a month and out to eat twice on month adds up quickly (over $400 a year). For a family struggling to make ends meet this adds up to a lot on money. For a family in this situation spending money like this would be nearly impossible and just down right not very smart. I also had to cut near basic expenses such as health care to bring my total number below $30,000.  Cutting this type of expense shows the type of difficult choices that people living at or near the poverty line have to make each day.  If someone in this type of financial situation does become sick and needs medical care the expense fall back on society, which fall indirectly back on all of those who pay for medical expenses.

When I had cut as much money of as I thought I possibly could I was still $6,000 over the poverty line. In doing this I have seen just how wealthy my family really is. My parents have been able to send myself and both of my brothers to a private high school and fund our extra curricular activates for the last 18 years. I am truly blessed to have the privileges that I do and I can’t think of what it would be like to live on the poverty line.

My Educational Experence (revised)

My life as a student has been very different than most peoples for one main reason. I was not enrolled in a traditional school from second to sixth grade. This factor was key to my educational experience and has given me a different perspective on school and education in general.

The summer going into second grade, when I was 7 years old, my mom decided to home school myself and my older brother. My mom had a teaching license and had been a stay at home mom my entire life. My older brother wasn’t being challenged academically and the school we were attending wasn’t providing him a challenging environment.  He hated school and couldn’t stand going each morning. She had already pulled him out of school and was home schooling him. I was the exact opposite, I was having trouble keeping up with the pace set for reading and writing and my mom believed that I need to go at my own pace. She then pulled me out of school and started teaching us math and English at home. The issue that my mom had found was happening at our public school was a lack of person attention to individual students. One teacher with 30 students will have a lot of trouble working with all of the students one on one to meet there personal needs. By home schooling us the teacher to student ratio went from 1 to 30, to 1 to 2. we go more individual attention and were able to address the areas that needed help or needed to be challenged more.

We participated in various co-ops with the other families in the community to expose us to science and art classes with other kids. I loved this style of learning. It was laid back and brought myself and my brother closer. My younger brother was right there at our side even though he was not of school age. We were also able to see my dad more often at his work. We always loved going to visit him as he worked for the University of Minnesota’s football team. Although I was at home most days I still had lots of social interactions with other kid through the co-ops and sports I participated in.  I ended up being completely home schooled until 5^th grade when my parents enrolled me in a charter school called Cyber Village Academy (CVA). CVA was a half in the classroom, half online school that my mom used to transition me back into the traditional school setting. Two days a week I would be in the classroom with other students and the rest of the week I would be at home doing my class work on the computer. CVA helped me to adjust to the traditional school setting. It still gave me lots of individual help because the class sizes were very small and the teachers there were very good. My mother even ended up working there on the days that we were at school!

When I went back to a traditional school in 7^th I had some trouble adjusting because I was having difficulties focusing. I was diagnosed with ADD and a learning disability (reading/writing) that year and it indeed had a very big impact on my learning. My mom had sensed that I had ADD at a young age and knew that school would not come easily for me because of this and she was right. I have always enjoyed the social aspect of school but have had trouble wrapping my head around the way it is set up to make us learn. Having everyone go at the same pace through school and expect them to all learn the same way is not how I think school should be. I enjoy learning new things but locking everyone in a room and lecturing for hours on end was torture for me. I’m someone who needs to be up and moving around. Because of this a traditional school taught me one important thing and that is patience. For me to succeed in school I needed to go in each day relaxed and know that no matter what,  I’d be free to go home and run around at three each day!

In the end my mom was right. I didn’t learn to read proficiently until around 5^th grade and this would have held me back huge amounts in a traditional school. My brother being challenged was also very good for him. He is currently going into his third year at the Engineering school at the University Of Minnesota. The personal help that being in a non traditional school setting has given me the opportunity to be at the educational level that I am at today.

Labeling Theory (revised)

Labeling theory is an interesting concept to understand. It is constantly present in our lives and is always influencing us. When it comes to why we label people in our day to day life it is so we can categorize them to make life easier. It is something that we are conditioned to do in today’s fast pace society. The idea is that if I see someone or something, I will automatically use my past experiences in life to categorize them. For example, if I see a pot on the stove with the heat on, I will instantly assume that it is hot. My past experiences of touching a pot on the stove or being told as a young kid that the pot is hot has shape my understanding of the situation. The same goes for people, if I see a man wearing a suit and tie, carrying a briefcase while talking on his cell phone as he walks down the street in downtown Minneapolis, I assume that that man has a corporate job and either works in the city or has business in the city.  He probably has a nice car, house and is married. Although for the most part our brains categorizing and labeling in life helps us to make things simpler it can also cause us to make wrong assumptions about people and situations. Labeling can also be caused by what we are told.

 

http://revolutionarypaideia.com/2011/06/18/you-cannot-lead-anyone-when-you-need-to-be-led/

I believe that this idea of labeling people and categorizing them has an impact on who we perceive to be deviant and who we don’t. When we see news headlines about criminal cases, the way the article is written shapes our opinion on whether the person in guilty or innocent.  If it is written in favor of the defendant, we will most likely have the assumption that they are innocent and vise versa. This initial view on the topic will have a huge impact on how we perceive the topic from then on out. A personal example of this in my life was the idea of steroids in sports. I grew up in a house hold that viewed the use of performance enhancing drugs as completely wrong and unacceptable. I always had this idea in my mind that if you used steroids you were a cheater and didn't deserve to win (you were deviant). In recent years I have seen the movie Biggest Stronger Faster which is focused around the idea that even thought the U.S. says that it doesn't support steroids it is really everything that the country stands for which is a hard thing to grasp.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KzGfuFFSxA

The other headline news story that has a raised in the past few years that I followed very closely was the Lance Armstrong investigation. I grew up watching the Tour De France and have been a fan of Lance my whole life. When he was under investigation for using performance enhancing drugs during his 7 Tour De France victories and eventually admitted to using such substances I was torn. I new that using performance enhancing drugs was wrong and against the rules but I also knew that at that time everyone in the spot was cheating (using performance enhancing drugs) so it was an even playing field. So would the actions of Lance Armstrong be considered deviant? It was the norm at the time and he didn't do anything that others weren't doing so should he be considered deviant? I have been torn on this issue for a while and have come up with a personal conclusion. Although Lance was on a level playing field with other cyclists of that era he was still breaking the rules and therefore is somewhat deviant. For me this was a hard conclusion to come to because I had always had always labeled Lance Armstrong as someone who was good. I had the idea that Lance never broke the rules and worked hard from the bottom up to earn his success but I was wrong and I had to re-label him.

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=lance+armstrong&FORM=HDRSC2#view=detail&id=8091AB42B4E9B5BAEFFF1A5A5F4F95695A8B0BE7&selectedIndex=36

The way that we as individuals and our society as a whole label different people as deviant has a lot to do with our past. What has happened to us in the past impacts our perspective and outlook on day to day life. No two people have had all of the same experiences and come out the same way. These experiences give us all different outlooks on the world and the people around us.

Family

On the first of August this year, a bill will be put into action in Minnesota allowing same sex marriage in the state. Up to that point two people of the same sex were unable to be given the same right as “traditional” heterosexual couples. Previously homosexual couples were not given the same rights as married couples and were not in the eyes of the government considered a family.

 What is a family? By definition a family is a social unit consisting of parents and there children dwelling together or not. In this definition of family there is nothing saying “Mother and Father” or that the parents must be married. This means that the core family is not about marriage it is about supporting each other and raising children in a nurturing environment.

 Just because the government doesn't recognize a marriage between two people of the same sex doesn't mean that they have not been a part of their own family. In the United States at this time the image of a family is changing and some people are having trouble accepting this. The image that people have in their mind of a mother and a father raising their own flesh and blood is starting to transform. Two men and two women can raise children and be the core members of a family. Just because the children that they are raising are not their own fresh and blood doesn't mean that the same core values are not present in the family.

 Family can also be a part community. In my family we have no relatives who live any closer than Cleveland, Ohio. Because of this we have formed a family with the people in our church and the neighborhood in which we live. The church I belong to is small so we know just about everyone. I know that if I ever need anything the people of my church would be there to help me. The same goes for my neighborhood. My parents have surrounded us with friends who are always looking out for us and supporting us in whatever we do. None of these people are my flesh and blood but the relationship that I have with them is one of a family.

Impressions

The first situation that came to mind when reading this blog assignment about our impressions on others occurred in this class. On the first day of class, everyone was supposed to introduce themselves to the group in a few quick sentences. I can personally say that I tried to write something that wouldn't embarrass me or make me appear stupid. I wrote three to four sentences about myself, where I was from, what I did outside of school, and had my mom check to make sure I didn't have any misspelled words or little mistakes like that. Although sending that quick little blurb about myself doesn't come close to giving people an idea of who I am or what I am like to be around, it felt like I was going up in front of the class and introducing myself to them, which is something I am sure we have all experienced.

When going about my day to day life I fail to notice all of the times that I have similar experiences. I try to do my best to leave a good impression on people where ever I go, but why is this? If I am at a gas station, in the middle of no where in Texas, why do I want the gas station attendant to have a good impression of me? Chances are that I will never see this person again and no matter how I interact with them I will get the same result of walking away with two Nestle double chocolate milks and a full tank of gas for the road trip I am on.

I can’t say for sure why I try to leave a good impression on people. Maybe it’s because of the way I was raised? My dad always makes small talk with the people he interacts with on a day to day basis whether it is the cashier at a grocery store or one of the athletes that he trains as a coach. Maybe it’s because I hope that if I leave a good impression on people it will make their day a little better and they will do the same for someone else like in the movie “Pay it Forward”?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pCtXRP1edo

All I know is that for some reason I believe in trying to leave a good impression of myself on others no matter who the person is.

Culture

I find culture to be a very interesting concept. It’s kind of like our nose. It is right in front of us but we never notice it unless we are told to notice it. Culture shapes our perspective on life and what we think of different actions and ideas. Culture is the reason why we shake hands when greeting someone and why we stand when the national anthem plays at a sporting event.

http://www.endlesssimmer.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/tailgaters_00057-1024x682.jpg

When I was reading the section of the book that talked about different cultures and their customs, it reminded me of the theory of evolution. Every living thing on this Earth is the way it is because of what has happened to its ancestors that shaped it into what we see today. For a giraffe to have a long neck it had to evolve over thousands of years. But the animal that we think of as a giraffe could be a very different animal if something as simple as a lack of trees thousands of years ago caused it to eat grass. The same goes for our culture. Cultures vary all around the world. What is normal here in Minnesota could be looked down upon in Alabama because of the different beliefs and ways of life that cultures have.  Everything that happens to the people of a certain region changes their culture in a small way just like evolution. This is why every culture is different in some small way from other cultures and why other cultures seem so unusual.

http://www.kenya-information-guide.com/image-files/culture-safari-in-kenya.jpg

Cultures are different because of what they have gone through and I think the fact that there are many different cultures is what makes life interesting. Many people look down on cultures different from there own. They constantly compare them to what we find to be normal and/or right.  I enjoy other cultures. I have traveled to Asia and Europe and have been able to experience these different cultures and I loved it. Different food and customs are things that I welcomed. I think that if there weren’t different cultures there would be nothing exciting about going to new places and there would be nothing new to try in life. Culture not only represents who we are now, it represents what we have been through and where we are going. It gives us something to be proud of and something to admire in others.

Your Turn Study

The “Your Turn” study that I did involved breaching personal space of someone else. My brother had a friend over who I knew but we aren't what you would call friends. Going into this I was a little nervous because I had no idea how he was going to react or whether or not it would be awkward or not.

            At dinner I sat very close to him breaching his personal bubble. When I was doing this I felt a kind awkward simple because it didn't feel “right”, I could tell that my brother’s friend had noticed how close I was to him and was uncomfortable about it as well. After a few moments when he noticed I wasn't moving he tried to scoot away from me a little bit. You could tell he was trying not to bring any attention to the situation and was simply trying to remove himself and make the situation “normal” again. When he did this I tried to scoot closer to him again when I sat back down after getting up. This time I found it to be more awkward because he had a quicker reaction and asked me to give him some room. I did and that was the end of it.

            Looking back at the “test” and observing what was happening I realized how programmed we are to what is normal. When a group of people sit down at a table that is not particularly crowded you are expected to give people a fair amount of space. But what is considered a fair amount of space? And why when a table is crowded do the rules change? I often have to sit at a crowded table because of the size of my family (there are 5 of us who are all at least 6 feet tall sit at a table that should only sit 4) do the rules change. I don’t find it to be to unusual to sit a table where you are touching elbows with the person next to you.  It’s interesting to think about how little things like the size of a table or the number of people sitting at it can change the norms that we follow when sitting at it.

            When reflecting on this test I started to think about the other unspoken norms in everyday life. I often rode the city bus home from school and there are many norms on the bus. People are expected to be quiet and keep to themselves when on the bus. The bus driver never has the radio on which keeps the bus even more quiet. You don’t sit next to someone unless there are no seats available and even then it is sometimes more gracious to simply stand. Looking back on these norms I wonder how my outlook on riding the bus would have been if people were expected to talk to each other and the bus driver could have music playing in the background.

Mind Over Matter

The saying of “Mind over Matter” is one that has been tossed around in my house ever since I can remember. I have grown up in a family of athletes. Most of my childhood I participated in three different sports year round along with my two brothers. Both of my parents were division 1 athletes and my dad is a strength and conditioning coach. Currently the most important thing in my life outside of school is Speedskating. I have been skating for almost half of my life. I train year round and compete at an international level. Skating is not a sport that you can be good at simply by having more talent than everyone else, you have to be willing to work harder and be tougher than everyone else.

My dad, who is one of my coaches, has always reminded me of the power of our brains. Our brains are what keep an average level speedskater for being one of the best in the world. The brain is what tells you to stop in the middle of a workout using lactic acid by setting fire to you legs or tells you not to get out of bed in the morning to go to an ice workout because you are hurting from the two workouts you did the day before. If you are strong enough mentally, you can use you brain to your advantage as well. Professional cyclist Yens Voigt says it perfectly in this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RahvWjoU9Xc

If you can use your mind to push through pain you can do incredible things and get to that next level as an athlete. To me that is what is meant by "Mind over Matter".  Pushing through the pain and discomfort and coming out on top a winner in the sense that you gave everything you had and a little big extra on top of that

In the year 2007 I was 12 years old and there were four events that would have a large impact on my life over the coming years. The events were the Iraq war, the presidential race at the time and the 35W bridge collapse. Although I might have not realized it at the time these event would have impacts on my day to day life for a period of time.

The Iraq War had an effect on my life because of the money it cost people. President Bush announced that it would cost the country an estimated $1 trillion. This would mean an increase in taxes which for a middle class family like mine had a big impact. At that time both of my parents were working to send my older brother and eventually myself thought a private high school which in itself meant that we had to cut back on some luxuries in life.

Photo By: Carolyn Cole

http://framework.latimes.com/2010/08/18/the-iraq-war/#/0

The second event that would impact me in the year 2007 was the Presidential race that was starting up. In the race at that time were 2 people who, if they won, would be the first of their type to be our commander in chief. The first was a woman and the second was an African American man. Although I don’t consider myself as someone who is sexist or racist the fact that our country had come to that point was something that I believe had an effect on us all. It was no longer a time where your sex or the color of your skin could hold you back like it once did. It also would have an effect on my out look on politics. I only had memories of George Bush as president and I had no real idea of what kind of changes would happen when his term in office ended. It would evidentially bring increased taxes, the end to a war in Afghanistan and stricter gun laws.

http://www.panamericanonline.com/so-why-should-we-vote/

The third event that had an effect on my life at that time was the 35W bridge collapse. When the bridge that went over the Mississippi into Minneapolis collapsed, killing 13 people, I was at my home in St. Paul just five miles away. When any catastrophic event like this takes place it has an effect on you no matter where you live. But living just five miles away it really hit home. Watching the footage of the people injured on the bridge and knowing that I had friends who had been on the bridge that same day it really bring you closer to the people around you. You wake up every morning feeling like nothing like that will ever happen that close to you and yet it did. To this day whenever I drive over that bridge I think of what it would have felt like to be on the bridge when it fell and what would I have done if I was still alive when the dust settled. It gave me appreciation for what I had, the people around me that I loved, and a respect for the unknown in life.

http://www.america2050.org/2007/08/minnesota-bridge-collapse-unde-2.html

When in the midst of events in our lives we don’t realize until later the effect they will have on our lives. When I think back to the kid in middle school, that I was at that time, I had no idea the impact these events that didn’t involve me in anyway shape or form would have on my life in the years to follow.