The Final Entry

When I first started sociology at the beginning of the semester, I figured I already knew everything, that it would all be common sense. And while a lot of the things we learned were common sense, there were other levels to everything we learned that taught us more in depth about not only what was happening but why these things were happening and how they affect us.

Mrs. Castelli taught me more about sociology than I thought there was. I thought sociology was just things like mannerisms and the idea of global emotions. I didn’t know that race, wealth disparity gaps, and what we expect from the different genders was sociology too. I was surprised by some of the things we learned in this class and was quite intrigued and interested in others.

One subject in particular that interested me a great deal was the idea that what we have come to expect of males and females is not innate, but rather a learned ideology that stems from years upon years of the same expectations. We watched a film in class called "Missrepresentation" which was about how the media portrays females and how that makes females feel about themselves and how it makes males feel about females. I'll spare you my rant, but if you feel the need to read, here is the link to my blog entry about the aforementioned film, Missrepresentation Indeed.

Overall, this class was quite the eye opener. From what I have learned about race recently I have been noticing a lot how true it is that racism is ever present yet people like to pretend they're not racist by pretending races don't exist (which is just silly). It is actually amusing to bring up the subject of race and watch people squirm, uncertain of how to remain politically correct. But I don't just enjoy the practice of what I've learned, I enjoyed just learning it. I have always love learning and school and if that makes me a nerd, or weird, then so be it! I very much loved this class because it took things that I was already at least partially aware of and taught them to me more in depth and from different perspectives. It was as enjoyable as much as it was an interesting and unique learning experience. I can honestly say that I am glad to have taken this class and would like to learn more about it in the future if given the chance.

Mountain People: the truth about modern day Appalachia

Growing up in in a friendly, white, well-to-do town has provided me with a nice little bubble to live in where nothing bad in the outside world can penetrate it. I take a lot of things for granted; a nice home, parents with a steady income, the education I have recieved, all of the opportunities available to me for success, etc. When I hear about how bad things are in other countries and even places here in the United States, I feel bad and want to help, but with no real way of helping them, I don't worry about it and continue surfing the internet; I never actually took the time to imagine how hard it would be to live somewhere that didn't have quite so many opportunities for me to take advantage of. I had no idea that a place like this even existed but it does, and it's called Appalachia.

For people who live in the really impoverished parts of Appalachia, the norm is to not go to college, to do labor intensive, dangerous jobs or end up selling drugs, living with 8 or 10 or 12 people in one tiny house. They grow up with this, expect this, and don't dare to dream about being more or trying to get out because it will only lead to dissapointment.

I saw a video about Appalachia and the problems they are facing there. In the video there was a segment that followed a highschool senior. He did dare to dream about getting out. He lived in his truck so he could get away from his backwoods family, he tried hard in school and football so that he could get a scholarship and get a higher education. He didn't want to end up like the rest of his family, stuck in a tiny house with too many people, doing a difficult job for not enough pay. He did get a scholarship and was able to go to college, but ended up having to drop out because he couldn't keep up with the rest of his classmates socially. he tried to evade the Appalachian trap, but he got caught up in it anyway. The saddest part about his story, to me, is that he did everything he could to get away, but once he did get away, he succumbed to easily and ended up right back where he didn't want to be.

There was another part of the video that talked about how it isn't strange to see a middle aged person in Appalachia with missing teeth. I thought this was the most absurd thing in the whole video. If you were to walk through the halls of my highschool, you would see row upon row of straight, white, shiny teeth. I don't think that there is a single person in the school who is noticeably missing teeth. What is making the Appalachian folks lose their teeth is all of the soda that they drink, Mt. Dew in particular. They drink so much of it because it is cheap, and with not very much money, it is easier to buy Mt. Dew then worry about not having enough money for something else. They showed footage of Mt. Dew being put in sippy cups for little children. Little children! They drink so much soda, and then don't have proper health and dental care, so it's not really all that surprising that they have this problem. 

Over all, it is just disheartening to know that places exist here in the United States, and everywhere for that matter, that are so impoverished while there are other places that are just rolling around in the excess of wealth that they have. The huge gap that has occured in the wealth of this nation is ridiculous, frankly it's just plain unfair. If we were to distribute the wealth more evenly, a lot of these impoverished societies could be helped, more opportuinites could be given to help the children in these situations because they are the ones that are going to suffer without our help.

We live in a nation with so many powerful, prestigious, wealthy people, and none of them are doing anything to help the rest of us. Tell me, how is that right?