Volunteer Alert!

Stolen directly from Wednesday's Chicago Tribune.......
What: Bridge Communities will host an outdoor rally for "Sleep Out Saturday" in Glen Ellyn
What It's About: The free rally features live performances fromlocal band Flipside, DJ "Koz" and the crew from The Mix 101.9, an interactive game show, and testimonials from formerly homeless families who are graduates of and/or participants in the Bridge Communities program. After the rally, groups of teens, individuals and families will sleep outdoors in tents, boxes or cars to raise funds for Bridge Communities. The all-night sleepover to raise awareness about homelessness will be held in backyards, parking lots and parks across DuPage County. Last year's event raised more than $100,000.
When and Where: 6:30-8pm, November 6, outside at Bridge Communities, 505 Crescent Blvd, Glen Ellyn
The Charity: Bridge Communities is a non profit agency that serves more than 100 needy families annually in programs that include a two-year transitional housing program for families, life-skills mentoring, an auto program, financial counseling and employment training.
How You Can Help: To participate, sponsor a sleeper or donate funds, call 630-545-0610 or visit sleepoutsaturday.org

Everybody Needs Somebody....

We're watching Secrets of the Wild Child in class right now. The story of Genie (as well as those of Anna and Isabelle) are all heartbreaking examples of what happens when socialization goes wrong....or doesn't go at all. Taking a look at the video below of footage of Genie, stop back and think of the uphill struggle Genie has had in her life to try and fit into mainstream society (as far as I know, she's living in a nursing home-type facility in California and is in her 50s....she has never been able to catch up to her peers in terms of speech, behaviors and motor skills).

What was the main difference between all 3 of these girls? Isabelle had her mom. Even though she was not able to communicate with her daughter, the non-verbals of nurturing motherly behavior did a lot to point Isabelle in the right direction and she was able to "make it" in society, whereas those without that contact never made it, and in Anna's case, she died. If you're thinking that these 3 girls are isolated cases, think again. If you go to the website www.feralchildren.com you'll see many other examples of children who have found themselves in Genie, Anna, or Isabelle's shoes.

Who Helps You Become YOU?

Your agents of socialization, that's who! We've spent the first few days of our socialization unit examining how we learn about the norms of society and who teaches us those things so that we can be well mannered, positive, functioning members of society, and your agents of socialization (see the comprehensive list below) help you to reach this lofty goal at all points of your life. Remember, as pointed out in class, you never stop being socialized.....you all socialize me every day, which is why I can use words like "beast" in a sentence.....such as "Patrick Sharp is a beast on the ice this season!" Did I do that right? :) Anyway, here is a list of those who socialize you....feel free to comment if I forgot anybody!

*Family--Mom & Dad have first crack at teaching you how to be a good member of society. They not only teach you language and help you with motor skills, they teach you useful things like how to tie your shoes, when to say please and thank you, and give you a sense of right and wrong that you can use to interpret the world around you. To take a page out of Cooley's socialization textbook, you may see yourself as your parents see you......hopefully your parents have been your biggest fans and you see yourself positively as well.

*Friends/Peers--You enter school and all of a sudden the good manners and values your parents instilled in you may be erased by some of your peers who have no problems teaching you swear words, or that sharing may not indeed be caring :) You join clubs and sports and hang out with people that are just like you. Speaking of sports....

*Sports--Just as with Candyland, sports teaches you cooperation and teamwork, the value of hard work, and give you a competitive drive.

*Religion--Regardless of your religious affiliation, this is a major highway for values and morals to enter your brain. Golden Rule, anyone?

*Daycare--If your parents had to work, you might have been dropped off at KinderCare, or other places to keep your 3 year old self occupied and out of trouble. As I've seen in my family, this is a mixed bag. Daycare teaches you language skills and independence that you might not receive at home if you're with Mom 24/7, but you're not as connected to your parents.

*Work--If you have a job right now, that is part of your identity, and shapes your behaviors accordingly. As you get older, you are defined by your job....it's less about who you ARE but what you DO. I've found with family and friends who have retired that they have a real terrible time adjusting to their life without work because they don't have that anchor to guide their days.

*Media--Miss Katy Perry proved the point here, as does my gal pal Miley Cyrus. Little kids are very impressionable.....and heck, you teenagers are as well. You see all sorts of images on TV, on the Internet, and in movies and print media that tell you that you need to wear your hair "just like this" or dress "just like that" and life will be perfect for you. If you eat this or that, you'll be strong and popular. Clothing labels like Forever 21, Abercrombie and Fitch and Aeropostale are creating a line of their clothing for kids as young as 6 to hook them in to their brands at a young age. I see it with my nieces. Clothes from Kohls or Target are fine, but if it says Old Navy it's even better and means you're "cool" and "popular."

What do you think? Did I leave anything out?

Socialization and Katy Perry

So we started talking about socialization in class today.....HOW you learn about your culture and how to do the right things (and avoid the wrong ones). Many different factors come into play with your socialization process: parents, friends, teachers, even the media play a part in shaping you into the person that you are. In discussing the media and children's programming, Sesame Street came up. I have to admit, I'm a child of the Street. LOVED the show when I was a kid, and if I ever have my own children, they will be Street kids as well (no purple dinosaur for them!). Well, in launching their 40th season on the air, they leaked a few segments that would be shown and my, the uproar about the Katy Perry appearance caused Sesame Street producers to yank the segment. Is Katy sending a wrong message to 3 year old Street lovers, especially the girls, or is she just teaching them about opposites? I'll let you decide, then you can chime in with your thoughts.....

Does This Clash with My Culture? The Case of Cuy...

In discussing culture clash and culture shock in class, it has come to my attention that there is some amount of confusion as to what these terms mean. Let me clarify some of that for you with a visual. Take a look at the top picture. It is a traditional Ecuadorian meat dish called cuy. The meat has been been described as slightly chewy and salty, but delicious nonetheless. It has been prepared in Ecuador for hundreds of years by its indigenous citizens, who prepared cuy before beef cattle were introduced into their culture. Then take a look at the bottom picture. It's a guinea pig.....or what the top picture may have looked like before it was cooked. Yes, the people of Ecuador eat guinea pig (my best friend has done this on his travels to Quito, Ecuador when he was in college). A bit surprised? Grossed out? I have to admit I was too, especially when I looked at the other pictures of cuy on a website (this one is tame compared to the others). That sick feeling to your stomach is the culture SHOCK....it's that feeling that you have when you encounter something that is not part of your home culture. The CLASH here involves food. It's American menu items vs Ecuadorian menu items. Gotta think that Chili's or TGIFriday's is not going to be adding cuy to their menu anytime soon as the SHOCK of their patrons would make the item not a very big money maker.

When George Met Abdullah....

Nobody wants to look racist, or insensitive to those from other cultures. However, watch the following video, with music added for comedic effect. What did you probably do while you were watching it?

You giggled didn't you? Why? Think about the norms of American culture. Men are not supposed to hold hands, but if you were to take a trip to the Middle East, this is expected behavior, and it's considered rude if you don't (and it doesn't have any homosexual overtones to it either). Our giggling (and the fact that the person who posted it felt the need to add it in) shows our ethnocentrism. Explaining the Saudi Arabian culture, and the expected behaviors that go along with it, shows cultural relativism.

That's Freegan Gross!

Or is it? We discussed the concept of subcultures and countercultures this week. Subcultures being those that are defined as those groups that set themselves apart from mainstream society due to their age, ethnicity, class, location or gender (thanks, Wikipedia). They may wear clothes to set themselves apart from the mainstream crowd, which sometimes backfires when their type of clothing becomes popular and everybody is wearing it. If you look to your left and right in the classroom, you will see subcultures all over the place. If you're on a sports team, that's a subculture. If you're part of a particular ethnic group, that's a subculture. You all are young, and I am old, which causes us to dress differently, especially as I would look totally ridiculous in Hollister clothing. My 87 year old grandma would look EXTRA ridiculous wearing a pair of Aeropostale sweatpants. We are part of different subcultures. If you look at COUNTERcultures, they reject the social norms and values of mainstream society that your garden variety subcultures ascribe to. Think hippies: they rejected the norms of 1950s post-war America and created their own society within America's borders that embraced sex, drugs, and rock and roll....all things that were seen as destructive to our country. Now fast forward to the freegans we talked about in class. What kind of culture are they....sub or counter?

They definately reject the mainstream American values of consumerism and consumption, however when they are dumpster diving for their groceries, or looking on the curb for a new couch or a great new pair of pants, they are looking for things that are part of mainstream America. Think back to the woman we saw in the video clip. She followed a freegan lifestyle, yet took her money that she saved and went traveling around the world. I love to save money as much as the next person, but I just can't bring myself to camp outside of an Einstein's Bagels to grab my breakfast. Thoughts?

It's Totally NORMal....

If you're reading this post right now, it's because it's a norm of our school culture to stay on top of your homework. If you're wearing clothes while reading this, that's a norm too. Which way do you look when you cross the street? You look left first, then right, correct? Go to the UK and you need to look right first, then left. I can't tell you how many times I almost got hit by one of those big red buses when I went to London because I'm so trained to look left first. This is why they have signs like this painted on their street corners, so that dopey tourists like myself don't end up in their hospitals:This pictures is not even really accurate. They usually post "Look Left Last". Use your imagination (and knowledge that they drive on the opposite side of the road than us) to think of what would happen if you looked left FIRST. If people don't look the right way when they cross the street, it's not just breaking a social norm, it's breaking the social norm called a more. You're causing some major social disruption if you don't look the right way when you cross the street. There is definately a "right" and a "wrong" way to how the chicken crosses the road both here in the US, and in other places around the world. You can go to San Diego and they cross some streets on a diagonal....choose not to take that path and you're slowing down traffic.

Another big norm that we have is going to the bathroom. Yes, it's grody to talk about bodily functions, but take a second to think about how that whole process works. I don't need to go into the details as we're all potty trained here. Now here's what a toilet looks like in Japan:

???? How on earth does that work? Well, you squat. Think about it. People in Japan traditionally don't sit on furniture, why would they sit on a toilet? If we went to Japan, especially after the long flight to get there, I'm sure we'd have to go...imagine walking into a bathroom and you see this? Confusion and pandemonium! If you understand Japanese culture, however, you realize not only are they germ-conscious, they also are big on preserving resources, and these potties use less water than ours do. Now I've done it. You'll be thinking of sociology the next time nature calls :)

While We're Talking about Communication...

I was looking for political cartoons for my Geography class and stumbled onto this one, which fits in beautifully with our discussion of language and communication within the US. Agree or disagree with its message?

Like, I Need To, Ummmm, Write a Post

Time was spent over the past few days discussing the role of language in the transmission of culture from generation to generation, as well as how the language itself is symbolic of the culture it represents. I know that a majority of you spent Thursday speaking extra slowly making sure not to use the word "like" in your sentences (I sure did during parent open house!), or listening to others speak, making tallies of how many times they used the word like in their sentences :) Language sure has changed! Text messages have abbreviated how we speak, we speak so quickly we've added in filler words to buy us time to come up with the vocabulary we need, we're dumbing ourselves down by using basic vocabulary instead of stretching our intelligence and using "big words," technology has turned nouns into verbs, i.e. friended, to Google, Facebooked, and we're a much more vulgar bunch than we have been in the past. I mean, take a look at this sign here.....honestly people, how many of you saw 'lol' instead of a drowning person?

Volunteer Alert!

Copied from the GivingDuPage website....

Volunteer Recruitment Fair is quickly approaching! It wil be held on September 25 from 10-4 p.m. at Cantigny Park. We will share the day with the popular Green Fair! So come on out and meet representatives from 30 agencies and learn how to "Recycle Your Talents!" in a new and exciting volunteer opportunity this fall.

Volunteer Alert!

Poached from today's Trib Local.....I worked at a PADS shelter in college and it was a great experience.

From October to May, the First United Methodist Church of West Chicago is "home" to the DuPage PADS (Public Action to Deliver Shelter) homless community every Thursday evening until Friday morning. This is the 25th year to provide this service and new volunteers are always needed. A new volunteer orientation with be held on Thursday, September 23, 2010 at 7 p.m., 643 E. Washington St., West Chicago. Shift work is scheduled for once a month. The shifts are 6:30 p.m to 9 p.m. setup and dinner; 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. Light clean-up, personal laundry, make lunches; 1 am to 5 a.m. complete personal laundry and towels; 5 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. breakfast and clean-up. Also needed are volunteers to help prepare a home-cooked dish for supper or to provide essentails for breakfast or sack lunches (eggs, breakfast meat, lunch meat, bread or fruit). All the bed linens need to be laundered each week. The frequency for being assigned laundry duty depends on the number of volunteers and may be designated as few as three times during the entire season. Laundry is picked-up on Friday mornings and clean linens must be returned before the following Thursday. Can't commit to once a month? Sign-up to be a substitute volunteer for any shift. For more information please call Brian Hendricks at 630-231-7532 or 630-840-2448.

Heelo! Hsssssss....Five!

I'd love to see what a random stranger would think of that title :) We've moved on from our introductory unit and are entering the world of culture through our Heelotia simulation. Through all the hisses, shoulder taps, number listing and "heelotias," we can reasonably assume that we made a microcosm of society as a whole when two different cultures come together. We may not hiss at those from another culture, but we definately have our moments of unease when encountering those who are different than us.

Today we began our class definition of what makes up America (and by extension, us being Americans), containing the good, bad and ugly of the fine US of A. We're freedom-lovers who live hectic lives while going through the Starbucks drive through lane reading our latest celebrity gossip :)

It's easy for us to determine what makes up our culture, but even more interesting to look at an outsider's viewpoint on what make our country what it is. I'm curious to see what you had to think about Stefan Schirmer's take on America as compared to his native Germany. Or what you think about these little French kids (click HERE for the video) and how they view America. Are they correct in their assessment, or do they have a twisted look on our country?

Volunteer Alert!

Here's another option for you if you're stumped on what you can do for your service learning project...I am boosting this word for word from announcements :)

Attention all students interested in being a fabulous Snowball Teen Director! Applications are now available! See Mrs. Ventimilla in the Counseling Office to obtain a Teen Director Application and to sign up for an interview time. The applications are due on Wednesday, September 22nd to the counseling office. Interviews will begin the following Tuesday, September 28th. If you have any questions please contact Mr. Winquist in room 236 or Mrs. Schoenbeck in room 247.

I had several students do this last fall and it was a great experience and lots of sociology to be found!

Volunteer Alert!

Interested in politics? Want to serve your 10 hours helping out a political campaign? I got this information in an email.... Here are the deets for you:
Needed: volunteers to help with phone calls, door knocking, and various other tasks for Bill Foster's election campaign
Contact info: Josie Mace (josie.mace@ilvictory2010.org) or (804)513-4693

I have no affiliation with this guy. Just wanted to present the opportunity....

Community Service!

Happy Monday, ladies and gents! Today's class focused on the different sociologists that shaped the field of Sociology into what we are studying this semester. The last half of class centered around the teachings of Jane Addams....she was not just a thinker, she was a DO-ER, which is why you are all going to be doing Sociology through your service learning project this semester. I have a few tips and tricks that have been picked up along the way:

1. Call early to set up your opportunity. Don't just show up.....let them know you're coming. Some places have age requirements to volunteer....make sure that you're old enough to help (or if you need to bring an adult with you). Which leads to....

2. Be polite when you call. Even if you've called, and called, and called and no one has gotten back to you, be patient. Some organizations don't have someone manning the phones all the time. Call different times of day if you can to see if you'll have greater success. Speaking of success...

3. Have more than one place in mind to volunteer with. You might strike out at one place, and I don't want you to have all your service eggs in one basket. One last thing...

4. Don't procrastinate and wait until the last minute to complete your service requirements. Have you ever heard of Murphy's Law? It essentially says that anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. Applied to this scenario, you'll put the hours off until the last minute, then your organization won't need help and you'll be up a creek without hours and needing to write a paper for your final about your experiences.....which you didn't have because you waited too long.


There were a lot of "don'ts" up there. I DO want you to enjoy yourself in this experience. Find something you enjoy and throw yourself into it. I have had students continue their hours well past the end of the semester because they really enjoyed the experience...maybe that will be you!


Can't wait to see what you all will be up to! Due date for the project preview is on SEPTEMBER 17th.

Use Your Sociological Imagination

We have spent plenty of time talking about C. Wright Mills' concept of the sociological imagination....taking what is in the world around us and looking at it through the lens of Sociology. I have to say that this actually came up over the weekend in my own life. I went to Sycamore Speedway to watch some dirt track demo derby type races and I was looking at the cars as they went by....because....well, that is what you do when you are at a car race. I was thinking back to the discussion we had in class last week about how cars serve a primary (manifest) function of getting you from place to place and many secondary (latent) functions, such as showing status (you are "cooler" if you have a car) and wealth (you have a "cool" car). As I watched junkers like this go around the track (and slam into each other), I thought of another latent function of cars: pure entertainment. Any of you watch car races? Yes, those cars get you from point A to point B, but they do it in circle, 200 times in a race, really fast, and point A and B are the same (start and finish line). Did I mention fast? :) Think about the different experiences you have on a daily basis. Can you figure out the manifest and latent functions of those experiences? Hmmmmm..... :)