SOCIOLOGY
I feel like I’m not getting much out of my Sociology class… So far:
- The first week we spent lots of time on introductions, and watching part of a video on Nature vs. Nurture, which ended up not being discussed in the book until Chapter 5.
- We “missed” the 2nd week because of Martin Luther King Day, which puts our class on a tad more complicated schedule for the year than if we had had class on say, Tuesday. Our tests will for some reason be over more chapters at a time (we got both the regular syllabus and the special one for our because-of-the-holiday class, so I see the difference).
- The 3rd week she speed-read through parts of the first 2 chapters she wanted us to highlight, so fast there was barely enough time to highlight (much less opt to take notes instead of writing in our books, which makes them non-sellable to our bookstore). From what I hear, this is normal for what she does. Then we split into groups to brainstorm for our end-of-term project.
- And the 4th week, last Monday, I missed due to severe fog. They still had class though… maybe the fog wasn’t as bad right in the town where the school is, but in my area news emerged over the next couple days that 2 people missed the red flashing lights of a train going by (in one case it was a semi-truck and it caused a pile-up behind him, I think 3 people died), and a car with 3 people ran over a cliff into a water-filled quarry and drowned. As I leave town to drive to school, there’s an intersection with yellow flashing lights, and when I tried to go to school I couldn’t see those until I was basically IN the intersection, so I turned around and came back home (it took several minutes to find a spot to do that, and then I went on blind faith on crossing the road).
Anyway, in diligently reading every word of the book, I just feel like I’m not getting a lot out of it… Even though I feel like I understand what I’m reading as I do so, when it periodically asks questions about topics, I can’t think of an answer… if the teacher were to assign those or put them on a test, I’d be lost. (We’ve already been told that the actual tests will be multiple-choice, so hopefully I can do better on that then on what the book asks).
One such thing in the book shows a picture of a boy and a girl holding tennis (or maybe racquetball) rackets, the boy has a little even smile and the girl is pointing her finger at him… the book asks “After reading about Gilligan’s theory, can you suggest what these two might be arguing about?” Well, to read Gilligan’s theory, I feel like I understand it, but I have *zero* clue on what these 2 kids in the picture might be arguing about.
On reading the book, I do feel even more strongly about something I’ve already thought about - I don’t feel like I was “properly” socialized as a kid. I grew up in the middle of WV, and it was *gasp* 4 whole miles into town. Now that seems like absolutely nothing, but for some reason when I was a kid my Dad didn’t like going into town more than absolutely necessary (and my Mom didn’t drive). The impact on me? Well, when I made friends in school, and they asked me to come to birthday parties and sleep-overs… I didn’t get to go. I can recall going to exactly one birthday party. So, looking back, it seems like people in school became “best friends” with those that they also saw outside of school, and my friends would gradually talk to me less and less. Which, made me feel more withdrawn and then more and more shy, and I guess basically put me in a cycle of not really having good/true friends. Up on our little mountain-side home, I had a few cousins near my age that I did play with (and sometimes more cousins visiting my Grandma), and maybe my parents thought that was enough (if they thought about it at all), but now I feel like it wasn’t enough. I think I needed to have more personalities surrounding me more often to have maybe overcome my shyness. I’m not sure what to “do” about it now.
