the working poor; Hand to Mouth

Linda Tirado was barely getting by financially when she posted about the hardships with being in the working poor.  Her online post spiraled into a book that has helped explain the difficulties of living at the poverty line even with a job.  Here is an excerpt from Slate.

--> And this is my bottom line point about work and poverty: It’s far more demoralizing to work and be poor, than to be unemployed and poor. I have never minded going without if I wasn’t working. It sucks not to be able to find a job, but you expect to be tired and pissed off and never to be able to leave your house if you’re flat broke. 
Here is an interview with the author from NPR's onpoint.  You can listen to an hour-long show about the book and living at low income.
 

Because our lives seem so unstable, poor people are often seen as being basically incompetent at managing their lives. That is, it’s assumed that we’re not unstable because we’re poor, we’re poor because we’re unstable. So let’s just talk about how impossible it is to keep your life from spiraling out of control when you have no financial cushion whatsoever. And let’s also talk about the ways in which money advice is geared only toward people who actually have money in the first place.

Here is an interview from the Guardian with the author.

Debriefing the Components of social class and monopoly

1.  From two days ago - look at your list on page 37 of the packet and determine what is your family's social class?  Are you above average, average or below?  Why? 


2.  Where would you fall on the ladder below?

3.  How does this compare to your position in the monopoly game yesterday?


4.  What are some of the difficulties that prevented the working class person from rising up in the game yesterday?


5.  What are other obstacles in real life that might make it challenging for someone toward the bottom to move up in social class?

Ferguson

Today we talked about the rioting in Ferguson last night.  For background, this NY Times article details the events of the shooting, the grand jury and the ensuing riot.  Instead of dwelling on the specifics of this particular case, I tried to explain the larger reasons behind the riot.  I was using a sociological imagination to understand what is happening.  The first point I want to make is how you will not see a detailed and thoughtful exploration of this in the news because the news is not really news in the sense that it is information that explains things to viewers and makes them more educated on the subject.  Instead, the news tells a compact mini story/drama that is a spectacle, literally.  It is something to captivate your attention but not make you think.

Random violence
First, the riot is really random violence.  Random violence happens in many cases within society and often the violence is by white perpetrators.  However, when the actions are committed by a majority group such as white you rarely hear the mention of "white" in the description of the assailant.  Here are some examples of white riots and here are examples of white random violence.  And, from Michael Kimmel, an important sociologist who studies violence, "It's also worth discussing why so many of these young mass murderers are white."  So, race has nothing to do with random violence in general.  Instead, try to see random violence as a manifestation of violent masculinity (see this post of mine for more on that).  Our culture says that the way to be masculine is to be violent and tough.  So, if someone feels disrespected or not taken seriously, the way to earn respect and prove that you should be taken seriously is through violence.  Furthermore, violence is one of the few approved emotions for men to show and still be considered manly.

To emphasize the violence and its connection, think about the police use of force in this incident.  It was a demonstration of power.  And so is the massive show of military style force that is showing up not only at the events in Ferguson but across America.  And we see this with our federal government as well which spends a massive amount on military force and is constantly fighting around the globe.  We also see the use of violence in movies, sports, and video games all as an example of respect and a measure of one's manhood and being taken seriously.  Understanding this dynamic helps us understand where seemingly random violence comes from.

Why random violence in Ferguson?

The random violence I discussed above shows up when people feel powerless and not taken seriously.  In this case, institutional racism has left individuals feeling powerless, frustrated and not taken seriously.  The first reason the feeling of powerlessness shows up comes from the makeup of government officials, police officers and others in power.   From The Guardian, "Ferguson’s population is 67% black, but 50 of Jackson’s 53 police officers – 94% – are white."  And from an article in The Nation:  

The racial disparities that define Ferguson are indeed shocking. More than two-thirds of the town’s residents are black, but almost all of the officials and police officers are white: the mayor and the police chief, five of six city council members, all but one of the members of the school board, fifty of fifty-three police officers....Only 10 percent of the New York Police Department’s recruits in 2013 were black. The whiteness of Ferguson’s political leadership is a national trait, too. Since Reconstruction, only four states have elected black senators: Illinois, Massachusetts, South Carolina and New Jersey. Voters in twenty-five states still have never elected a black representative to the House.

 The disparity of racial leadership is combined with a disparity in the criminal justice system.  Arrests, prosecution and imprisonment are all slanted against black and Hispanic people. 
From The Nation:

In 2013, 92 percent of searches and 86 percent of traffic stops in Ferguson involved black people. The skewed numbers don’t correspond at all to the levels of crime. While one in three whites was found carrying illegal weapons or drugs, only one in five blacks had contraband.  …But is Ferguson really exceptional? …. The unequal application of the force of the law is also well documented across the country. Five times as many whites use illegal drugs as black Americans, and yet black people are sent to prison on drug charges at ten times the rate of whites. And disparity is evident in other police forces; for example, only 10 percent of the New York Police Department’s recruits in 2013 were black.

This disparity is true throughout the criminal justice system in the United States.  See more about the racially biased war on drugs here(drug use and arrest rates) and here (mass incarceration).

The most difficult way that brings about feelings of powerlessness is in the police use of force.  Police have a very difficult job to do and it is inherently dangerous.  However, they also represent the government, an official institution, that has armed them and authorized them to use force.  So when the use of force is seen to be racially charged and excessive it puts the community at odds with the police department and the government.  Let me explain though that I do not think that racist people sign up to be cops en masse.  Instead there is implicit bias because we live in a society that teaches everyone (including minorities) to be weary of black men.  Here is an example of how the bias plays out, cross posted from the sociologytoolbox (racial profiling):

• Recently, plain clothes NYC police officers did not recognize out-of-uniform, off-duty (but sitting in a department-issued SUV with an ID around his neck) three-star police chief, Douglas Zeigler. He is African American. Clearly, in the officers’ minds, his image fit closer to that of a criminal than their superior. Not even his departmental ID could alter the white officers’ belief that this 60 year-old black male was a trouble maker and not their commanding officer. They didn’t believe the ID was credible. His race trumped other credentials. Read more here.

• This one first came to my attention via the blog, Sociological Imagination. New York city is home to one of the most aggressive “stop and frisk” programs that encourages/requires police officers to, well it’s all in the name, stop and frisk people on the streets. Again, one’s race matters, as it seems to determine if you in fact get stopped and frisked – if you appear “suspicious”. A 2012 report states that 84% of the 1.6 million stopped in 2010-12 were African Americans and Latinos. More data is available here.  This video recaptures one young person’s experience and some testimony from officers themselves. A federal judge recently declared the implementation of this program unconstitutional and may require police officers to wear cameras to document their actions. Mayor Bloomberg argues that it has made the city safer (trumping any concerns of the racial profiling).

• I always use this next video in class, as it generates some real gasps (a key indicator of learning) among students. While not a scientifically controlled experiment (that fact should be used as another teachable moment in class), ABC news creates a situation in a public park where different individuals attempt to steal a locked bike – a white male, a black male, and a white female. The white male is inquisitively questioned by passers-by but only one bothers to do anything beyond look completely perplexed. Take the same scene, same bike, location, and dress, but insert a young black male and within SECONDS he is confronted by people in the park, in fact a crowd gathers determined to take action. “Is that your bike?” The attractive white female actually gets assistance in cutting the lock, although the sample selection process could likely be skewed by video editing.

• My last example for this post is the highly publicized case of police treatment of Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. This case, similar to Chief Zeigler’s experience, shows that status is often not enough to overcome race. A Harvard professor, Gates had trouble getting into his own home near Harvard Square in the early afternoon when the lock became jammed. The police arrived to investigate a reported attempted break-in. One of his neighbors and the subsequently responding police assumed he was a burglar, not a frustrated homeowner. By this time Gates was already in HIS home and was able to show officers his drivers license and Harvard ID. He was still booked for disorderly conduct. President Obama commented on the event and eventually invited the arresting officer and Dr. Gates to the White House to talk over a beer. While not harrassed by the police, Obama was once mistaken as a waiter at a party when he was actually a state senator.

Race continues to matter as police officers and the general population continue to profile non-whites as more suspicious and lower status than whites. If you are white, like myself, you may not observe this occurring to others and subsequently not be aware of the additional surveillance and racial profiling that non-whites are subject too, even if they are police chiefs, Harvard professors, or state legislators. These vivid examples help us understand how racial profiling continues and we can’t rely on our individual observations or experience to make conclusions about racial groups’ collective experience in our society.

This is also a good case for teaching how structure is reflected in individual action. Here we see a larger, socially-constructed racial system embedding cognitive categories in individuals’ minds, over ridding other markers of status and driving assumptions of suspicion.

Sadly, the racism shows up nearly daily for people of minority racial status who are living in impoverished segregated neighborhoods.  TRIGGER WARNING - SOME OF THE VIDEO BELOW HERE ARE VIOLENT AND DISTURBING FOOTAGE OF PEOPLE BEING SHOT.

Just 10 days after Michael Brown was shot to death, this happened in nearby St Louis.  The police were called because this man stole two soft drinks from a convenience store.  The police showed up and within 20 seconds the police had shot him 12 times.  Then they proceeded to handcuff the lifeless body with hands behind his back.


Here is another incident from South Carolina where an officer tells a man to get his driver's license and when the man reaches into his car to get it, the officer shoots him.  The man then asks, "why did you shoot me?"


Here is a video from an Ohio Walmart where John Crawford III was holding a bb gun that he picked up off the shelf at Walmart.  It should be noted that Ohio allows citizens to walk around with firearms.  It should also be noted that this was a toy bb gun.  Someone in the store called police and they arrived on the scene and shot the man in less than 30 seconds.  There was no indictment.  See the story from the Washington Post here.



Here is a Washington Post article about similar situations. 
Here is a Huffington Post article also about situations like this.

This site from Occupy.com claims that a black man is killed every 28 hours by police.

I hope students see that the issue is much more complex than simply "those people were upset so they rioted".   The connection between race, poverty and the criminal justice is complex and it is made even moreso when adding our cultural construction of violent masculinity.  But keep in mind that most of us NEVER have to live at the intersection of poverty, minority status and violence.  But those in Ferguson and similar communities do live that out on a daily basis, their whole lives.  With that perspective, it should help you understand why there is outrage.

Here are sociological resources for teaching the Ferguson events.  Here is a website with lesson plans and articles.  And here is John Oliver's take which is basically what I said above but funnier and more entertaining:


And here is Tim Wise, an anti-racism activist, writing about all the ways implicit racism has swirled around the Ferguson incident.

Behind the lines of masculinity and violence.

Lately there has been a very public discussion about the NFL and domestic violence. This is all related to the socialization of masculinity in the United States. ESPN's Outside the Lines even featured Jackson Katz on an episode. See that here. Jackson Katz has been researching and publishing about masculinity for over ten years.

De-briefing the panel and research on femininity

Today I would like to accomplish two tasks:

De-brief the panel from yesterday and analyze the research from thursday.

1.  The panel

Please write individually about this:

1a. What are 3 things you took away/concluded from yesterday's panel?

1b. What are 2 questions you still have?

1c.What is 1 way this connects to the social construction of gender?


2.  Research on effects of feminization on girls.


3.  Looking ahead:
Remember to read Kimmel and Mahler's article on School Shootings

The Un-TV Assignment

The Un-TV.  Using your Un-TV experiments, please discuss;

1.  How many technical events did each of you count?  What is the median for the group?  What do you think the purpose of the technical events are?

2.  How did the person you observed in step 4 react?  Is this similar to others in the group?

3.  How do you think the technical events from step 1 affect the viewer you observed in step 4?

4.   What were your reflections/insights/questions raised by watching the TV. (step5)?

 

The Un-Tv Assignment is another great exercise in sociology from Bernard McGrane and his book, The Un-Tv and the 10mph car.  McGrane has also published a more recent book that is completely focused on the media called Watching TV is not Required; Toward Media Mindfulness and Enlightenment TV. 

Here are some of the reflections on this experiment from Mcgrane's book.

Consuming kids (not cannabalism)

The last agent of socialization from the other day is the media.  The media has a profound impact on U.S. citizens.

One video highlighting this impact is from the movie Consuming Kids from the Media Education Foundation.  The movie exposes all the ways that marketers have tried to make kids into consumers.   Watch it here on mediacast.

As you watch the video, think about your own experiences growing up and how they compare to what the video says.  What are your own examples of becoming a consumer and being branded by the media?

Also, think about your experiences in the UN-TV experiment.   What did this reveal that might relate to the power of TV?

Student Survey for Grading Policy

The SHS Assessment team is seeking your input about doing the standards based grading, aka evidence-based grading. Please be honest in answering this survey: http://goo.gl/AjruYI

Thai Commercial inspires us to make the world a better place

Here is a Thai commercial called Unsung Hero that reminds us to be mindful that our actions can make the world a better place, a happier place.

Prince Ea raps about being sociologically mindful in this critical video called Why I Think this World Should End :


Be sure to watch until the end to see the mindfulness of the post.

Sociological Imagination v. Mindfulness

Blogging self-assessment

The first post was due yesterday.  Today we went over how the posts will be graded.  We used the following self assessment.  Note that the italics are the proficiency standards that we expect (3 meets standards). 
-->

Sociology  (concepts and terms)  

__  I completed the assignment

__  I explained at least some of the concepts, terms or ideas of the class.

__  I fully explained the concepts, terms, or ideas from class and I used the terminology from the class.

__  I gave a unique example or application that was my own and not an example from class. 

__  This example/application was used correctly. 

4 Exceeds standards           

3 Meets standards

2 Shows some proficiency               

1 Doesn’t demonstrate any proficiency

Literacy (sources such as readings, videoes, charts, websites)

__  I completed the assignment.

__  I referred to a source from class.

__  I referred properly to a source from class

__  I explained the source’s connection to sociology in the student’s own words.

__  I referred properly to multiple sources from class

__  I explained the connection of an outside source that I found on my own.

4 Exceeds standards           

3 Meets standards

2 Shows some proficiency               

1 Doesn’t demonstrate any proficiency

Academic Expectations                                         

__  I completed the assignment.

__  I completed it on time.

__  I had no misspellings.

__  My grammar was correct.

__  I commented on two other student posts.

__  The comments were meaningful.

__  My writing was clear and understandable.

4 Exceeds standards           

3 Meets standards

2 Shows some proficiency               

1 Doesn’t demonstrate any proficiency

Volunteer Opportunity: Pull a Plane for Special Olympics

The Plane Pull features the ultimate tug-of-war competition, as teams of up to 20 battle a UPS Airbus A300, weighing more than 190,000 lbs.  That’s right, the plane weighs more than 90 tons!  Each team raises a minimum of $1,000 to participate (only $50 per person for a team of 20). Special Olympics Illinois and the Law Enforcement Torch Run will host the 6^th Annual Plane Pull at O’Hare International Airport on Sept. 27.  The 2013 event was a record-breaking success, as 64 teams participated and more than $135,000 was raised for the athletes of Special Olympics Illinois! Click here for more info.
A special thanks to UPS, the Chicago Department of Aviation, City of Chicago, HMS Host and Durham School Services for their continued support of this event.
Teams compete in one of three divisions:

• Open Division (ideal for companies, school teams, gyms, crossfits, clubs, friends and families)
• Public Safety Division (law enforcement officers, fire fighters, paramedics, DNR, DOC and military personnel; teams need at least 10 public safety competitors to qualify)
• Hotel Division (new in 2014, and by popular demand, we have created a division solely for groups in the hotel industry!)

For  questions on how you can get involved in the Plane Pull, please contact Matt Johnson.

2013 Event Results

• Open Division: Maine South Hawks (HS Football Team), 9.81 seconds
• Public Safety Division: Chicago Police Department - O'Hare, 9.34 seconds
• Grand Champion: Chicago Police Department - O'Hare
• Top Individual Fundraiser: Bob Pomeroy, ComEd
• Top Fundraising Team: Niles Police Department
• Team Spirit Award: Park Ridge Fraternal Order of Police #16

Example of post 2 from a student

Below is an example of a student post for the second post.  I will comment on the post in red:

 Note that she turned this in on time and her spelling and grammar are correct.  She writes clearly and properly. (Academic Expectations)

I don't have a car, but this past week my dad went on a business trip to Dubai and I got to drive to school. I also had to park at the train station, because I don't have a parking pass. If you have ever walked from the train station to school, it isn't bad but it is a little bit of a walk. Also I like being to school early so it was about 7 am when I took this walk and I walk slow (it was a long walk). It gave me some time to think. Every step I tried to be mindful of all the things that were happening around me. For example, how so many other people had walked this same path making it easier for me to walk because all the snow is trodden down or how my scarf was made in Thailand and some worker across the world had made that scarf for eventually me to wear, or my favorite is how someone, long ago when the side walk was paved, drew two circles with dots in the middle (to be interpreted as what ever you please) right by parking lot A and it makes me laugh every time. Then it went to how my steps could be saving someone else in the future from slipping, or maybe my owl hat was recognized by one of the passing cars which would brighten their day since they really think my hat is cute (I mean it is) and that will make them a little more chipper going into work and so on. 

See how she relates of this to unique examples from her own life?  Her writing is authentic - it only applies to her. (Sociological content)

In that short but long walk, I started to get it. Everything around me at every moment in the day is created by others and society makes me who I am. My mom was telling me about some woman who lost all of her memory, and had to relearn everything as if she were an infant and it makes me wonder how much different she'll be. The influence of society will be so different for her now opposed to when she was born, say, in the 60s. 

I really like the picture my teacher drew that helped me understand the difference between sociological imagination and mindfulness demonstrating how imagination is how society affects you and mindfulness is how you affect society. 

She uses the terms from class (sociological imagination and mindfulness) and explains what they mean. (Sociological Content)

It's crazy to think how everything is intertwined. I agree completely with what Schwalbe says about sociological mindfulness being so rare because of the guilt that accompanies it. Knowing that you have such a great impact on the world, and all the power it inhibits is frightening that you could be supporting child labor by buying a certain shoe, or that your bad mood could set off a string of bad moods to make others unhappy or do something drastic. At the same time though, it's incredible. That same power that can creating bad can also create immense good.  In this paragraph she demonstrates that she understands what the reading was about and she comments on the reading by talking about it in her own words. (Literacy)

Sociological imagination: Realizing that my friend turned my bad day into a great one just by one hug and recognition that I am loved. 

Sociological mindfulness: Taking my now escalated mood to change another friend's bad day into a better one by going on a whim to go to "Color Me Me" after school with her since she was upset.

End result: Happiness. (:

Gratitude

In another post, we thought about how American values shape our everyday lives.  And a couple of those values are individualism and  personal control.  These values make it difficult for us to acknowledge the significant role that others have played inour lives.  They make it difficult for us to be dependent on them and to be grateful to them.  So we conducted this exercise:

Close your eyes.  Think of someone influential in your life.  Now write down who you thought about and why you thought about that person.

When you are finished, follow these instructions:

CALL THEM AND READ IT TO THEM!

Afterwards, think about:
Were you able to do this? Was it difficult?  Why or Why not?  How did you feel before and afterward?

 Check out this video from Upworthy on how this creates happiness: 



 

 After the video, click here to return to the previous post that prompted this activity.

Classifying in other languages

This post is an explanation of the Sapir Whorf and how we categorize.  Here is the original lesson.

Set 1. Auto, turtle, basket, bird
Students generally select auto or basket using the culturally familiar categorizing device of machines vs. non-machines or and movement vs. non-movement. At least some non-western cultural groups, however, would see birds as most different because their culture emphasizes shape and birds are relatively angular rather than rounded in shape. Our culture tends to emphasize use or functionality. Thus correctness would be culture-dependent.

Set 2. Laundry, beer, clothing
Students generally, with great assurance, select beer as most different. Functionality places clothing and washing machines together. Yet, at least one culture views clothing as different because laundry and beer are both “foamy”. Visual appearance is most salient. US slang for beer (“suds”) also recognizes the attribute of foaminess.

Set 3. A chair, a spear, a couch 

Students again select the “wrong” answer—at least from the perspective of traditional West African cultures. US Americans tend to emphasize use, thus placing couch and chair together as types of sitting devices (i.e. “furniture”). Ashanti apparently would see the “couch” as the most different because both a chair and a spear can symbolize authority.

Real Estate and Prestige

Checkout these houses for sale in 2014.  Which do you think are the most expensive?

A.

 B.

C.

D.

 E.

 F.

 G.

H.














Click here to see the answers.

Kendall and Ethan - Guest Speaker

We had two former SHS students stop in to be guest speakers about their experiences teaching.  I think it relates to our unit on socialization when you think about all of the agents of socialization in these kids lives: family, neighborhood, school, peers and even their gang.

Here are the schools they teach at:

Spry Community School
Here are demographics for the South Lawndale neighborhood where Spry is located.

For the kids who have textbooks, this is what they look like.

The halls at Spry.

Stagg Elementary School
Here are demographics for Englewood where Stagg is located.
Here is a map from the Chgo Tribune showing crime in Englewood.

Here is an article about the firing of all staff at a CPS school.

Here is a series from WBEZ that documents the difficulties that students face in CPS.  The series was done in 2009 when the CPS dropout rate was 50%.

 For nearly a year, WBEZ explored the real-world forces driving the high dropout rate inside Chicago’s public high schools. Our team of reporters - including Linda Lutton, Julia McEvoy and Natalie Moore – spent much of the school year deeply immersed in the lives of the students, teachers, administrators and parents at Robeson High School in Englewood on Chicago’s South Side. The series earned multiple journalism awards and audience plaudits for its deeply engaging, insightful and rich, narrative approach to education reporting.

The week ahead...

Today,  we reviewed the lesson (and post) from last friday.  Hopefully you can see how American values shape our everyday life and how the Kohl reading explains those values.

I also assigned the nothing experiment from  page 25 of the UNit2 Culture packet.  Please read this and turn in the reflection on the back (page 26) by monday March 17th.

Also, I assigned the reading called Thrive which starts on page 27 and goes about 20 pages.  It is long but interesting.  PLease read that for next monday as well.

homework update - Gang Leader for A Day

I am sorry but I am thinking that we won't get to Gang Leader for a Day by friday so please don't pressure yourself to read it all by then.  Please just read teen-parent conflicts for tomorrow.  The Gang Leader reading will be due wednesday.

Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind? Maybe, but too much water makes the studetns go "Ew".

Today and yesterday at Odyssey the Neo-Futurists performed their 30 plays in minutes.  One of their plays was their impression of a pod of Whales.  This scattered them out among the audience where they made whale noises and occassionally sprayed mouthfuls of water in the air as if to be the whales blow hole.  It was surprising and funny and gross!  But they did it right there at school and dozens of students were wet by the comical improv.

This reminds me of our spit vs. saliva lesson.  The idea was that we have socially constructed a difference between spit and saliva.  Spit is something that leaves your mouth and is considered gross. Saliva is the same thing but it stays in your mouth and so we would never consider that gross.  We freely swallow saliva but never spit.  Similarly, there are times and places that society says it is okay to spit: a baseball game, a water polo match, and now an improv theater performance.  Not only were they spitting, but they let the mist land on students!  Imagine if I did that in class or even at the Shedd Aquarium, "Look at me I'm a whale PPFFFFFSHSHSH." I might get kicked out of there and even arrested! But right there at school there it was as part of a performance.  Imagine if you did this in the commons and when security approached you, you said, "I was just imitating a whale."  That is an example of how society creates a certain feeling or a certain acceptability in some places but not others. 

Volunteer Op: Special Olympics Bocce Ball April 13th, 2014

This event has been a really great service experience in the past.  SHS supplies all the volunteers for the Special Olympics Area 13 Bocce Ball  tournament.   It is usually from about 7:30 - 3:30.  The event is usually a very positive experience.  You will work directly with the athletes and the Special Olympics is really grateful for your time.  They will give you a Tshirt and provide a modest lunch (sandwich, chips, cookie, water)  You do not need to know anything about bocce ball to volunteer.  We will have a 1hr training session the week before the tournament to teach you all that you need to know. I HOPE YOU WILL JOIN US!  If you are interested, be sure to leave Sunday, April 13th free.  Mr. Salituro will coordinate the event so feel free to email him at csalituro@d125.org.  There will usually be a training day the week before.  Salituro will update Mr. Block and Ms. Fainman with details.

If you are interested in volunteering, please click here and add your name to the list.

Polar Plunge 2014!

This is the Patriot Plunge Team 2014!  Tutu much fun!

This is the Patriot Plunge Team 2013!

Sunday, February 23rd from (roughly 10-2) is the Special Olympics Polar Plunge. This is the biggest and most important fundraiser for the Special Olympics. Here are instructions for how to register, but basically you simply need to logon to the webpage for the Fox Lake Polar Plunge. Then click on "register now"  (or click here) .  Then click on "Start Fundraising." Scroll down and select "Fox Lake" for the event. Then follow the instructions and when you get to "team" select "Stevenson High School Patriot Plungers". When you are finished registering, you will have your own unique webpage that you can email to family and friends. They can donate directly to you through that page. They can use a credit card and you won't even have to collect money. All you have to do is collect $75 or more and you get to participate in the polar plunge and you get a free hoodie! Help us defend our  title as the school with the most plungers!

Here is a flyer for the Fox Lake Plunge. Watch this video to get excited about being a part of this experience. Still not convinced?! Look at how much fun this is:

Volunteer op Louder: Than A Bomb: The Chicago Youth Poetry Festival

Here is an example of a service opportunity and sociological mindfulness.  This is from the Louder Than A Bomb: The Chicago Youth Poetry Festival .  A poetry slam is a competition where authors read and perform their poetry on stage.  It is a really cool art form, especially if you are into writing, poetry, or hiphop. They need volunteers to do all sorts of help with the performance.   You can volunteer by clicking here.

Checkout the following poem by Mr. Marshall Soulful Jones.  His poem is really sociologically mindful.  He is writing about the ways in which technology is affecting us and how we interact with each other.  That awareness of the changes in how we interact is sociological mindfulness. 

Jones makes an important point about being aware of how our use of technology is shaping us.  And So that is a reminder for you to be mindful of this in class.  Please be sure to power down and take your ear buds out.  Be in the moment.  Do not let your ipad or cell phone take you out of the moment.

If you are intrigued and want more, there is a documentary about the poetry competition called Louder Than A Bomb.  Here is the trailer:

Your Tshirt and sociological Mindfulness

Below are two videoes from upworthy about where our shirts are made.  We often don't think about the people who make our shirts and how our purchases impact them, but this video really makes us aware of  where our shirts come from and the people involved in that process.  In his book The Sociologically Examined Life Michael Schwalbe writes

“Being caught up in our daily concerns, we often fail to see and appreciate all of our connections to others-to those who make our clothes, grow our food, clean up our messes, pay for the schools we use, use the schools we pay for, benefit or suffer from actions by politicians we elect, look to us as examples, and so on.  Sociological mindfulness helps us see these threads of social life and how they sustain and obligate us.  The main benefit of this awareness is that it can make us more responsible members of a human community”

 These videoes really bring an awareness of this.

The Pledge of Allegiance and now Silence?

Rituals and habits are important parts of our lives. They create a mindset before beginning worthwhile ventures and they provide closure for journey’s end. Graduation day has its gowns and speeches and diploma handing. Birthdays have their cakes and singing. Our school day has the Pledge of Allegiance.

When I first started teaching at my high school, there was no saying of the Pledge. There was a flag in nearly every room, but each day started with the morning announcements and no reference to the flag hanging quietly and dignified in the corner of the room. Then came September 11, 2001 and America was searching for its identity in a time of crisis and uncertainty. Many Americans were feeling patriotic. And in July of 2003, Governor George Ryan signed Senate Bill 1634, which amends the state school code so that “students in secondary schools recite the Pledge of Allegiance on a daily basis.”

Besides not liking being forced (by a corrupt governor no less) to do this, there were other reasons I did not stand up and support this pledge immediately. The United States had invaded a sovereign nation in March of 2003. This was an invasion and war that I never supported, but I was surrounded by a whirlwind of patriotism that demanded military action was a necessary course of action. Indeed most of our Congressmen felt compelled to authorize this slaughter for fear of being considered unpatriotic. In brief, it was blind patriotism and I felt that forcing teachers and students to stand for the pledge was one more blinder for the patriotic horse.

And then I was reminded of the history of the Pledge of Allegiance. In 1892, in accordance with the celebration of the 400th anniversary of Columbus’s arrival in the Americas Francis Bellamy wrote the Pledge as a salute to the original ideals of the American republic.
Dr. Mortimer Adler, American philosopher and last living founder of the Great Books program at Saint John's College, has analyzed these ideas in his book, The Six Great Ideas. He argues that the three great ideas of the American political tradition are 'equality, liberty and justice for all.' 'Justice' mediates between the often conflicting goals of 'liberty' and 'equality.'

His original Pledge read as follows: 'I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.' He considered placing the word, 'equality,' in his Pledge, but knew that the state superintendents of education on his committee were against equality for women and African Americans.
In 1923 and 1924 the National Flag Conference, under the 'leadership of the American Legion and the Daughters of the American Revolution, changed the Pledge's words, 'my Flag,' to 'the Flag of the United States of America.' Bellamy disliked this change, but his protest was ignored.
In 1954, Congress after a campaign by the Knights of Columbus, added the words, 'under God,' to the Pledge. The Pledge was now both a patriotic oath and a public prayer.
Bellamy's granddaughter said he also would have resented this second change. He had been pressured into leaving his church in 1891 because of his socialist sermons. In his retirement in Florida, he stopped attending church because he disliked the racial bigotry he found there.
What follows is Bellamy's own account of some of the thoughts that went through his mind in August, 1892, as he picked the words of his Pledge:
It began as an intensive communing with salient points of our national history, from the Declaration of Independence onwards; with the makings of the Constitution...with the meaning of the Civil War; with the aspiration of the people...
The true reason for allegiance to the Flag is the 'republic for which it stands.' ...And what does that vast thing, the Republic mean? It is the concise political word for the Nation - the One Nation which the Civil War was fought to prove. To make that One Nation idea clear, we must specify that it is indivisible, as Webster and Lincoln used to repeat in their great speeches. And its future?
Just here arose the temptation of the historic slogan of the French Revolution which meant so much to Jefferson and his friends, 'Liberty, equality, fraternity.' No, that would be too fanciful, too many thousands of years off in realization. But we as a nation do stand square on the doctrine of liberty and justice for all...
If the Pledge's historical pattern repeats, its words will be modified during this decade. Below are two possible changes.
Some pro-life advocates recite the following slightly revised Pledge: 'I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all, born and unborn.'
A few liberals recite a slightly revised version of Bellamy's original Pledge: 'I pledge allegiance to my Flag, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with equality, liberty and justice for all.'
So, although the words in the Pledge have changed and the meaning has sometimes been forgotten, the importance remains. We are fortunate to live in a country that allows a certain degree of freedom. We are fortunate to be, at the very least, citizens striving for equality, justice and freedom. These ideals must be achieved through education. And we are also fortunate for that. Our well-being as individuals depends upon our education. Our ability to achieve happiness depends upon it. So whether you recite Bellemy’s original Pledge or you add God or equality to it, what matters is the ritual of giving thanks that you are about to embark on self-discovery that is only possible in an unoppressive country with public education. Let the Pledge be a time to reflect on that and get into the proper mindset for you to fully take advantage of that. I am grateful to be here with you today. I am happy that you are able to be here and I want you to feel thankful that you may achieve happiness through the quest for equality, justice and freedom.