When was the last time you were a cookie thief?

There is a poem called "The Cookie Thief" by Valerie Cox. We are all cookie thieves sometimes in how we erroneously use the categories that Charon talks about. When was the last time you were too quick to categorize or judge someone? Have you ever been stereotyped or judged wrongly? There was a Washington Post experiment in which Joshua Bell, violin virtuoso, played some of the greatest classical pieces ever written on one of the most expensive violins ever made. And yet few people noticed because he was dressed like an average guy and he was playing in the subway.
Below is a video about a different type of street performer that challenges your assumptions about people and categories.


Another great piece of media about stereotypes is episode 362 from This American Life. Click here to listen to the episode where 5 people tell stories about stereotyping. Listen to the prologue about people with disabilities, and Act One about NY cops stereotyping people coming from Brooklyn.

Service Experience Step 2

After each time you do community service, you should post about your experience. Your posts should help you to remember the details about your experiences so that later in the semester you will be able to write a sociological reflection of the experience. The journal also provides evidence of your participation in the service experience. Please include the information below or you may email it to me, but be sure to include the information requested below. POST ABOUT YOUR EXPERIENCE 1 WEEK AFTER YOU SERVE THE HOURS.

Name of organization you volunteered at:
Where was your experience (address):
Date(s) and time(s) of experience:
Supervisor or person in charge and phone/email address:

Things to record: How did you feel about the service before going? What were your expectations? Were there aspects that you were apprehensive about? Where did you have to go for the service? Had you been there before? If not, what was it like going to this place? Who were the people you came into contact with? What were they like? What was the interaction like? What was the actual job you did? What was it like? Was there anything that surprised you? What were you thinking as you did it? How long did your tasks last? What did you think as you went home?

Answers to the Common Sense Quiz

Okay, ready?



All of the answers to this quiz are based on sociological research.




What is important is that research often reveals contradictions to common sense.  That is why sociology is based on research and evidence and not just one person's opinion about society.  So, the answers to the quiz are false.  That's right!  Go check.  There are reasons that explain each answer.  So, don't be tricked into thinking that sociology is common sense.  Sociology might study everyday life and common issues but the understanding of this might be anything but common sense.

So the lesson target here is that you identify sociology as being based on research.


When finished, click here to go back to sub-day Feb 12, 2015.

Volunteer Op: Habitat For Humanity This Saturday!

Habitat for Humanity sent out a request for 5 workers for this saturday. If you are interested please sign up on their website and also let me know. Once you are on the website, click on "volunteer" and register. For the space where it says church, you can put "Holy Family" because that is where our connection is from.

Students in the past have had a good experience there. If you can make it, I encourage you to go! You could end up with 8 hours. It would be this saturday. Plan to leave home by 7:15. The house is in Elgin. I will give you directions. Usually they work from like 8ish until 3ish with a lunch break. The work will likely be outside so dress warm - use lots of layers because you can always peel off a layer if you get warm.

NOTE: Blog for this week

Thinking about the blog this week, with two days off it certainly poses some challenges. So, let's move the blog deadline to monday, classtime. However, I would appreciate if you tried to post by tomorrow if you get the chance. You can post about freaks and geeks, the social construction of reality, or the snow day.

Snowmaggedon 2011!

This is my driveway where the snow had drifted to 30+inches! It was higher than my snow thrower. If you are interested in thinking about the snowpocalypse sociologically, here are some ways to do that:
My first thought was about how out of tune (disrespectful) we are of nature. We live in an age where we want to go about our days despite nature, whereas our ancestors would have scheduled their days around nature. This was most evident on Tuesday afternoon as people attempted to drive home as the storm approached. There were even dozens (maybe hundreds) of people who simply abandoned their cars on the road. Do you see how we attempt to ignore nature? Do you think that being in tune with nature copuld be good for all of us?
A second way to think about the storm is the social cooperation it brings. Usually with storms and acts of nature, sociologists note that this brings people together in greater social cooperation. I saw many neighbors helping each other and socializing throughout the storm. Did you witness any of this? Were you a part of it?