Socialization: Lesson 9 Social Structure

Guided Notes for this lesson are here.


We have been learning about how culture shapes people in so many different ways.  Because we are born into a culture we often don't notice its influence.  However subtle the influence of culture is, the effects are profound.  This is especially true regarding values.  The slow process of our being shaped by culture (and other social influences) is called socialization.


Socialization

Socialization is the process by which humans are influenced by their surroundings; how they learn culture and how they learn to think about who they are, their "self".  In the past, there was a debate about whether humans are more influenced by nature (biology/genes) or nurture (socialization/society).
Think about the ways trees grow because of their nurture.  They are influenced by the light, soil and water.

Ash tree growing in Arlington Hts.

Typical Ash Tree.

Both of these ash trees start from ash tree seeds like the ones below. That is their nature which provides an aptitude.  The aptitude is the tree's potential for traits like height, branching, lifespan, etc...  But this aptitude is dependent on the nurture that the tree gets from it's environment.

I think it's easy to understand that a tree is affected by:

• the light it receives
• its surroundings like buildings and other trees
• the soil composition
• pollution
• trucks driving by and scraping against branches
• animals and insects nesting/affecting in the tree

However, Americans tend to look past the enormous effects of environment/nurture on other humans.  But humans are enormously impacted by their socialization/nurture including:

• the culture they are born into.
• the family that raises them
• their school
• their neighborhood
• the peers around them

And, amazingly, for humans, this socialization (nurture) happens before birth!  One example of this is in identical twins who have the same exact DNA and biology.  Because they are exactly the same, nurses will often paint the nails of twins differently so that they can tell them apart.  But, often the parents of these twins can tell them apart from their earliest days because they have already started developing different personalities even before being born.

Another example of babies being socialized before birth is the prenatal experiences of the mother.  The effects of alcohol and drugs on unborn babies are one example of prenatal effects on unborn babies that are well documented.  Additionally, other examples are the effects of prenatal vitamins and stress on the mother.  But another example of socialization happening in utero is that babies are influenced by what mothers eat during their pregnancy.  One study shows that the amniotic fluid around the baby can take on the flavor and smell of certain foods or spices.  Babies show a correlation to those foods after being born.  See more about this study here.

In a more complex example, researchers have found the experiences that a grandmother has can affect the genes that she passes down to her grandchild!  In other words, the nurturing or socialization process that affects you might start decades before you are even born!  This multigenerational effect on genes is known as epigenetics.   Here is a trailer for a show on NOVA that explores the connections between genes and social experiences. The researchers theorize that social experiences can affect the genes of a person and, more amazingly, these genes can be passed down to a generation or two. So the grandchildren may experience the effects of their grandparents' lives on their genes. How amazing is that? They call it the "ghost in your genes".

Don't let these mind-blowing examples complicate things for you. Here is the simple idea:

• Nature provides a starting point or aptitude such as DNA and genes, then nurture (or your socialization) works with your nature to enhance it, repress it or change the nature to something else. The point is that both nature and nurture make us who we are.  If we do not have that nurture we cannot reach our higher power of consciousness and awareness.

Other evidence for the nature-nurture socialization process.

It is amazing to me that so much of what we take for granted as being human (part of our nature) is actually learned from our environment (nurture).

Isolated kids:

• Danielle, found in 2004.

She had very little socialization from her mother who was later arrested.  Watch this video from the Oprah show which summarizes her initial finding and then updates how she is ten years later.   Ten years after she was found, the Tampa Bay Time did an update on her here.  

• Genie, found in 1970.  

The video below is about a girl named Genie that was locked in a bedroom alone for 12 years of her life. Here is what Susan Curtiss wrote about her in her book, Genie; A Psycholinguistic Study of a Modern-Day Wild Child.

Here is a brief clip from a documentary about Genie's story. And below are notes from one of the researchers studying Genie:

Genie was pitiful. Hardly ever having worn clothing, she did not react to temperature, either heat or cold. Never having eaten solid food, Genie did not know how to chew and had great difficulty in swallowing.  Having been strapped down and left sitting on a potty chair she could not stand erect, could not straighten her arms or legs, could not run hop, jump or climb.  In fact she could only walk with difficulty shuffling her feet and swaying from side to side. Hardly ever having seen more than a space of ten feet in front of her she had become nearsighted to exactly that distance....Surprisingly, however, Genie was alert and curious. She maintained good eye contact and...She was intensely eager for human contact. 

Feral Kids

Some people have been found to be living with wild (feral) animals.  These feral people provide more evidence that humans are influenced by their surroundings.  Check out this website for examples of feral children.

Here is video of one of the kids found in the wild with dogs.

Skeels and Dye and Institutionalized Children

From Henslin's Sociology; A Down To Earth Approach, Skeels and Dye's study of institutionalized children (1939) and Skeels follow-up study in 1966 found that children given love, affection, stimulation and intimacy are able to be more independent, socially-attached, more successful adults later in life.  Look at the difference between the children that stayed behind at the orphange receiving proper care, but little stimulation, love and affection versus the children who went to a home where adults with special needs could show them love, attention, nurture and stimulation:

Orphanage 12                                  Home for Special Needs 13           __   

More functional at first                           More severely dysfunctional

Proper care, but no stimulation               Stimulation, play, challenge and affection
-30 IQ pts                                             +28 IQ pts

- avg. less than 3^rd grade ed                 - avg. of 12^th grade 5 complete 1+ years of college    

- 4 live in institutions                           -  all 13 were self-supporting or homemakers

- low level jobs                                     - 1 grad school

 - 2 marry                                              - 11 marry

Dr. Dean Ornish, research on relationships and health.

There is a power in our interaction with other people that is difficult to measure.
Dean Ornish M.D. writes about this force in his book, Love and Survival. Checkout the excerpt below:

Love and survival.
What do they have to do with each other?
This book is based on a simple but powerful idea: Our survival depends on the healing power of love, intimacy, and relationships. Physically. Emotionally. Spiritually. As individuals. As communities. As a country. As a culture. Perhaps even as a species....I have no intention of diminishing the power of diet and exercise or, for that matter, of drugs and surgery....As important as these are, I have found that perhaps the most powerful intervention-and the most meaningful for me and for most of the people with whom I work, including staff and patients--is the healing power of love and intimacy, and the emotional and spiritual transformation that often result from these.

In this book, I describe the increasing scientific evidence from my own research and from the studies of others that cause me to believe that love and intimacy are among the most powerful factors in health and illness, even though these ideas are largely ignored by the medical profession. As I review the extensive scientific literature that supports these ideas, I will describe the limitations of science to document and understand the full range of these implications--not only in our health and illness, but also in what often brings the most joy, value, and meaning to our lives. I give examples from my life and from the lives of friends, colleagues, and patients.

Medicine today tends to focus primarily on the physical and mechanistic: drugs and surgery, genes and germs, microbes and molecules. I am not aware of any other factor in medicine--not diet, not smoking, not exercise, not stress, not genetics, not drugs, not surgery that has a greater impact on our quality of life, incidence of illness, and premature death from all causes.

Cholesterol, for example, is clearly related to the incidence of illness and premature death from heart disease and stroke. Those with the highest blood cholesterol levels may have a risk of heart attack several times greater than those with the lowest levels and lowering cholesterol levels will reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke. However, cholesterol levels are not related to such diseases as complications during pregnancy and childbirth, the incidence of illness and premature death from infectious diseases, arthritis, ulcers, and so on, whereas loneliness and isolation may significantly increase the risk of all these. Something else is going on.

Smoking, diet, and exercise affect a wide variety of illnesses, but no one has shown that quitting smoking, exercising, or changing diet can double the length of survival in women with metastatic breast cancer, whereas the enhanced love and intimacy provided by weekly group support sessions has been shown to do just that, as I will describe in chapter 2. While genetics plays a role in most illnesses, the number of diseases in which our genes play a primary, causative role is relatively small. Genetic factors--even when combined with cholesterol levels and all of the known risk factors--account for no more than one-half the risk of heart disease.

Love and intimacy are at a root of what makes us sick and what makes us well, what causes sadness and what brings happiness, what makes us suffer and what leads to healing. If a new drug had the same impact, virtually every doctor in the country would be recommending it for their patients. It would be malpractice not to prescribe it--yet, with few exceptions, we doctors do not learn much about the healing power of love, intimacy, and transformation in our medical training. Rather, these ideas are often ignored or even denigrated.

It has become increasingly clear to even the most skeptical physicians why diet is important. Why exercise is important. Why stopping smoking is important. But love and intimacy? Opening your heart? And what is emotional and spiritual transformation?

I am a scientist. I believe in the value of science as a powerful means of gaining greater understanding of the world we live in. Science can help us sort out truth from fiction, hype from reality, what works from, what doesn't work, for whom, and under what circumstances. Although I respect the ways and power of science, I also understand its limitations as well. What is most meaningful often cannot be measured. What is verifiable may not necessarily be what is most important. As the British scientist Denis Burkitt once wrote, "Not everything that counts can be counted."

We may not yet have the tools to measure what is most meaningful to people, but the value of those experiences is not diminished by our inability to quantify them. We can listen, we can learn, and we can benefit greatly from those who have had these experiences. When we gather together to tell and listen to each other's stories, the sense of community and the recognition of shared experiences can be profoundly healing.

Examples of Socialization in Kids

Lastly, check out this post from the Society Pages, called the baby preacher.  It shows a young baby who is influenced to behave like a preacher even though he can't even talk yet!  This illustrates the socialization influence on kids that happens at a young age.  Here is a baby rapper video.  Here are two babies learning to converse.

Summary

After this lesson, you should be able to:

1.  Explain what socialization is.

2.  Explain the significance of Danielle or Genie or other isolated kids.

Cultural Values that Help You Thrive: Lesson 8 Soc Structure

The reading called Thrive by Dan Buettner is a cross-cultural study of cultural values.  Remember that we were learning how humans are shaped by their society.  Culture is a strong force in nurturing who we are.  We are born into a culture and before we are even conscious, we are shaped by it.  Culture is made up of different components, but values are one of the strongest components in shaping the lives of individuals living within the culture.

Please take out your Thrive reading and review it.  Answer individually:

Here is the Google Form for this lesson. 

1.  What was one suggestion that Buettner made that was interesting to you - something you had not thought about before?

2.  What is something that Buettner mentions that our culture might make difficult to pursue?  Why does our culture make it difficult? 

Values are very strong components of culture.  They shape so much about what we do and how our daily lives are structured.  Here are some values in the U.S. identified by social scientists:

American Values

In 1970, sociologist Robin Williams published his examination of American cultural values.  In 1985, L. Robert Kohl published a similar examination of values written for refugees like the Lost Boys so that they could adjust to American culture.  

Below is a chart that merges the two values lists.

(For more on values see my previous post on Amer-I-can Values)

American Values                        vs.        Other Cultures’ Values

Personal control/responsibility                              Fate/destiny

Change seen as natural/positive/Progress             Stability/tradition

Time and its control                                               Human Interaction

Equality/fairness                                                    Hierarchy/rank/status

Individualism/independence/freedom                    Group welfare/dependence

Self-Help/initiative                                                 Birthright/inheritance

Competition                                                            Cooperation

Future orientation                                                   Past orientation

Action/work                                                             “Being”

Informality                                                              Formality

Directness/openness/Honesty                                 Indirectness/ritual/”face”

Practicality/efficiency                                             Idealism/theory

Materialism/Acquisitiveness                                   Spiritualism/detachment

Achievement/Success                                              Acceptance/Status Quo

Morality/judgement                                                Consequentialism/situational ethics

More about American values:

https://www.state.gov/courses/answeringdifficultquestions/html/app.htm?p=module2_p2.htm

Study USA values for understanding Americans

And more recently, in 2015 Sociologists Erik Olin Wright and Joel Rogers published American Society; How It Really Works, which they say,

 "Wright and Rogers identify five core social values that most Americans affirm in one way or another: freedom, prosperity, efficiency, fairness, and democracy. "

3.  What cultural values from the Kohl reading might conflict with that you wrote about above? (use the list of values)

Answer the following questions:

Compare the values of Thrive to American Values and those from the movie.

4.  Identify values that are contradictory to U.S. values from the film God Grew Tired of Us.

US Value        How does it contradict with the Lost Boys?

5.  Look at the list of values that Americans hold.  Identify American values that might complement each other.  These are called value clusters.  List them here:

Value Cluster: ­­­­­­­­­­­

6.  Now look for American values that might contradict the other American values.  These are called value contradictions.  List them here:

Value Contradiction:

 
Hopefully, you see that culture can shape our lives in numerous ways - especially what we value about community, workplaces, social life, financial life, homes and our self-identity.



My goal is for you to become sociologically mindful about the ways in which culture shapes you, especially in how it leads you to be happy or not.  With sociological mindfulness, we can use research like Buettner's to consciously guide our choices to help us live happier lives.

If you have questions or comments, please post them below in the comments sections.  

For more on Thrive:

Here is the author's Thrive website. 

Here is the Thrive happiness test- it will measure your satisfaction and make recommendations. 

Here is a Thrive "study guide" - it has questions for reflection.

Here is a review of the book from NPR.

You can read a preview of the book from Goodreads here. 

Here is link to an interview with the author on NPR.

Here is the publisher's Thrive website.

Sociology of Refugees

Immigrant and Refugee Info

top recent sociology on immigration
In light of the Obama administration's 2014 DACA program, Contexts put together the most cited articles on immigration from the five years (2009-2014) in three leading sociology journals: American Sociological Review, American Journal of Sociology, and Social Forces.

immigration data tools

• Want to know whether immigrants are more or less likely to work in a particular industry than native-born Americans? Pew’s data tool uses American Community Survey data to break it down by state.
• If you’re interested in how the age and sex distributions of US immigrants compare to those of the native born population, The Migration Policy Institute used IPUMS data to put together interactive population pyramids comparing the populations in the US over time.
• The Department of Homeland Security maps out international students by state, showing there were over 2,799 international students in Maine as of November. They also offer downloadable tables of characteristics like age, marital status, country of origin and admission category for greencard holders, nationally and by state.
• The Urban Institute has a data tool that pulls information on children of immigrants from the American Community Survey, so if you wanted to know what percentage of children of immigrants in the US had parents with a Bachelors’ degree (33%), it’s a few clicks away.
• Population Reference Bureau’s data finder generates statistics (and charts and maps) on demand.  Want to know the percentage foreign-born in each state’s population? You’re a few clicks away from a map.

Many people consider accepting refugees as a humane and compassionate act.  And, I think you could make the case that it is in our nature to empathize with our fellow humans who are experiencing war, famine and violence.  However, accepting refugees is not only a moral choice, it is also a very practical one.  

Refugees have added immensely to American culture and success.  For example, from rescue.org, here is a list of famous refugees including:  Albert Einstein, Madeleine Albright, Ellie Wiesel, Sergey Brin, among others. And from the UN here is a list of prominent refugees who have made a difference.  And, here is Time Magazine's list of important refugees.

Second, not only do refugees enhance American ingenuity and success, but they also provide America a platform to speak out for humanitarianism, democracy and peace.   Refugees are generally fleeing from untenable situations of war, violence, famine, and persecution.  Many refugees are at risk because of helping the U.S. with conflicts overseas.  For instance, Iraqi and Afghani citizens are threatened with violence for aiding the U.S. with intelligence and other military operations.  

Recent Sociological Trends and Refugees

Despite the benefits cited above, the U.S. runs the risk of losing its moral authority regarding refugees as well as its credibility with those who aid U.S. operations overseas because of recent trends regarding refugees.

First, there has been a shift in political rhetoric that uses refugees as an outgroup.  Remember we learned that it is easier to mistrust, judge and demonize outgroups.  And this PEW research shows that support for refugee settlement has been stronger when the group was European/White.  

And the graphs below show how easy it is to highlight refugees as an outgroup because the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq shifted the need for refugee status to Asians and Muslims.

The Trump administration has capitalized on refugees as an outgroup by promoting anti-immigration and anti-refugee rhetoric.  The National Immigration Law Center has a list of Trump's tweets about refugees here.  For example:

• "Refugees from Syria are now pouring into our great country. Who knows who they are"
• "These aren't people. These are animals."
• "She's telling us how to run our country. How did you do where you came from? How is your country doing?"
• "...refugees, coming from the most dangerous places in the world, including Yemen, Syria, and your favorite country, Somalia, right?"
• President Donald Trump accused Rep. Ilhan Omar of professing a “love” for al Qaeda and talking about “how great” and “how wonderful” al Qaeda is. ( This NY Times article highlights the racist and xenophobic attacks that the President made about sitting Congresswoman Ilhan Omar.)
• “Biden will turn Minnesota into a refugee camp.”

In a response to this dangerous rhetoric, in 2016 The American Sociological Association published this statement, including:

In recent years (2016), vitriolic characterizations of immigrants and draconian plans for their exclusion have been floated by political candidates to a surprisingly receptive public. While the U.S. extended refugee status to 3 million persons since 1975, only about 28 percent of the American public currently endorses the continued admission of Syrian refugees. 

...the advent of cable news, the Internet, and social media have created additional venues for anti-immigrant sentiments. Their mobilization has shaped the fate of individual candidates, legislative agendas, organizations and social movements on the local, state, and national level....

The degree of anti-immigrant sentiment currently displayed in U.S. society is sizeable and strongly felt. However, despite aphorisms about America’s status as “a nation of immigrants,” evidence of anti-immigrant sentiment is clear and longstanding among wide swaths of the public. The reasons for its recent acceptability might be partly attributable to opportunities to express opposition to immigration in a manner that would have been politically unacceptable prior to the 1990s. In this way, analyses presented by sociologists and other scholars of migration can help us account for changes in popular views of immigration.

Secondly, not only has the rhetoric changed, but the actual policy has as well.  By law, the POTUS must notify Congress by the end of September what the refugee limit for the next year will be.  During the first year of his presidency,  Trump attempted to ban refugees and since then, the U.S. has reached its lowest level of refugees ever!  In 2017, the U.S. saw a historically low rate of refugees:

Pew documents the recent drop in refugees here.  In fact, 2017 was the first time in modern history that the U.S. has resettled fewer refugees than the rest of the world.  And this 2019 NY Times article details how President Trump slashed the number of refugees in the U.S. to even further record lows.

And the National Immigration Forum explains that precipitous drop here:

And, just a couple of weeks ago (September 2020) the current administration requested that the ceiling on refugees be set even lower than the record lows of 2018!  The Associated Press reports that here.  And the NY Times details the decision in this article,  Trump Virtually Cuts Off Refugees as He Unleashes a Tirade on Immigrants.  

Local Refugees

I facilitated a sociology conference (2015) where we had a keynote speaker discuss refugees.

James Hardan from the World Relief Fund discussed them for us:

Immigrants choose to leave but refugees are forced.

The road to refugee:

Flee homeland, leave everything behind, find temporary shelter (avg stay is 5 years) sometimes living in the forest for an extended time

Interview with UNHCR; often involves reliving the events

Wait for acceptance and nation to accept you

The US resettles 50-60% of worldwide refugees

If accepted, go wherever you are sent and be prepared to pay back airfare costs!

26 million refugees worldwide.

50-80,000 refugees accepted to the US each year

$900 given to each refugee to make it through the first 3 months!

IL is 7^th largest recipient of refugees

UNHCR – US Dept state – IOM Travel logistics – Resettlement Services

World Relief Services:

• Initial resettlement
• Employment Services
• Education Services/ESL
• Refugee Counseling Services
• Youth Services
• Volunteer and Church Relations
• Citizenship and Immigration Legal Service

Challenges:

• Educational factors: ESL and lagging academics
• Family and Cultural Dynamics:
• Parent-child role reversal
• Lack of parental involvement in students’ lives
• Lack of parental involvement in school
• Different parenting styles and discipline
• Past and Current Trauma/stress
• Identity crisis

IL refugees:

• Bhutanese
• Ethnic Lhotsampa
• 108,000 people displaced
• Imprisoned, abused, denial of human rights
• Iraqi
• Very different from Bhutanese
• Recent refugees, short term
• Kids have seen and experienced more turmoil than Bhutanese

Closer to our district is the Viator House of Hospitality.

More research on refugees and immigrants from the sociology journal Contexts:

tear gas? this is america.

As refugees flee Central America, they met with hostility reminding the public that American identity is assumed to be White, Anglo-Saxon, and Christian. Anyone that doesn’t fit this profile is othered and scrutinized.  Also provides a review of exclusionary U.S. immigration policies, some of which go back to the 1960s but created the crisis in immigration today.


a haunted generation remembers 

Sikh refugees survived a massacre in New Dehli in 1984 but the memory of the event has changed shape as it passes from one generation to the next.

three facts about immigration control from social science

Immigrants and refugees are often criminalized and this article highlights three realities:  

1. Companies and government bodies benefit from the criminalization of immigrants.  
2. Global capitalism and institutional racism produce the “facts” that are used to justify immigration control.
3. In reality, immigrants and their communities face extreme threats.

is unauthorized immigration an economic drain on american communities? research says no.

Sociologist Helen Marrow and race and education sociologist Will Tyson reached out to other North Carolina sociologists with expertise in immigration: Susan C. Pearce of East Carolina University and Martha Crowley and Kim Ebert of North Carolina State University.  Marrow thought of her own students at Tufts University outside Boston, so often surprised to learn what sound, peer-reviewed research says about these matters. “We never hear this,” one student said of such research in 2016. “All we hear are the negative messages [about immigrants] in the media. We hear it so much we even believe it, too.” 

Together, our team has aimed to do three things: 1) assess the soundness of the data Miller presents, taking her up on her suggestion to use her sources to verify her claims; 2) provide more accurate information regarding the economic impacts of immigrants and immigration, using peer-reviewed research; and 3) offer an explanation for how and why flawed and biased anti-immigrant messages are so often reported in the media. The literature on this topic is vast, so we highlight just a few key points that readers can use to learn how to spot and critique biased and unfounded messages about immigrants and immigration in their own communities.

1) Purely Negative Media Accounts of the Economic Costs of Unauthorized Immigration Often Rely on Questionable Sources.
2) Unauthorized Immigrants Have Little or No Negative Effect on the Wages and Employment of U.S.-born Citizens, and Immigrant Workers Have Positive Effects on American Consumers.
3) Unauthorized Immigrants Do Not Have Large Negative Fiscal Impacts on Taxes and Public Spending When Long-Term Effects and Contributions to Federal Coffers Are Taken into Account.
4) What’s Really Going On? Research Points to Economic, Cultural, and Racial Anxiety.

looking “illegal”

From sociologist, San Juanita García’s 2019 article in Sociology of Race and Ethnicity.  

The review of Garcia's work in Contexts explains, 

“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.” Since this statement in June 2015, Donald Trump’s rhetoric has only intensified the Latino Threat, by which anti-immigrant attitudes toward Latinx and Hispanic individuals in the U.S. are intensified. It has also provided the underpinnings of 

García wanted to understand how Mexican-origin women experience racialization in an anti-immigrant climate and what that means for their sense of belonging or exclusion. She interviewed 60 Mexican-origin women residing in Houston, Texas.García ends with a caution: since the 2016 presidential election, scholars have documented a rise in harassment and intimidation of those perceived to be “illegal,” and it shows no signs of abating. She calls on academics to delve more deeply into the ways racialization and “illegality” unfold in the lives of immigrants and other vulnerable populations.

crime is even lower in diverse immigrant neighborhoods

Immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than U.S. natives. Still, Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaign hinged partly on stoking fear of criminality among U.S. arrivals. After his win, Trump seemingly set out to find data to support his alternative facts, requesting a weekly list of crimes committed by immigrants and ordering that a hotline be set up so that victims could directly report crimes committed by non-citizens. Against this backdrop, Feodor Gostjev studied immigrant concentration and neighborhood crime rates for his new article, published in Sociology of Race and Ethnicity.

undocumented asians, left in the shadows
Asians are the fastest-growing undocumented racial group in the United States, but they are often ignored and that keeps many Asian undocumented immigrants living in the shadows such as those in L.A.'s Koreatown.

is the border safe? border residents’ perceptions of crime and security

The perspectives of border residents provide an authentic interpretation of border security. El Paso residents do not display any sense of danger living within close proximity to Mexico. As academic research, analyses of crime data, and surveys show border residents feel safe.

rethinking crime and immigration

Robert Sampson, The Department Chair of Sociology at Harvard in 2008 writes in Contexts here, 

I would hypothesize that immigration and the increasing cultural diversity that accompanies it generate the sort of conflicts of culture that lead not to increased crime but nearly the opposite. In other words, selective immigration in the current era may be leading to the greater visibility of competing non-violent mores that affect not just immigrant communities but diffuse and concatenate through social interactions to tamp down violent conflict in general. Recent findings showing the spread of immigration to all parts of America, including rural areas of the Midwest and South, give credence to this argument. The Willie Hortinization of illegal aliens notwithstanding, diversity and cultural conflict wrought by immigration may well prove healthy, rather than destructive, as traditionally believed.

Broadway's Hamilton and immigration

Quarantine tips

 I am getting a lot of feedback from you all about the difficulty, uncertainty and boredom from quarantining.  I think this can be a valuable learning opportunity and I also want to give you some suggestions.

First, we have been talking about social structure and how it creates stability and continuity for us.  This structure leads to culture and shared meaning between people, even strangers.  This quarantine is a great example of that.  Think about how much you notice all of the structure that daily life used to provide:  Going to school and jobs, meeting with friends, clubs and sports.  We tend to go about our daily lives not noticing these patterns - like a fish swimming in water and not noticing the water.  All of these groups provide both a structure and a "self" identity.

Hopefully, this quarantine helps you see all the ways that we take for granted our interaction with each other.  Are there connections that you previously did not realize?

Second, here are some suggestions for weathering the quarantine.  I would recommend making a schedule so that you make time to do these regularly:

1.  Get outside.  You are not quarantining from fresh air; you are quarantining from large groups of people, especially aggregates.  Make this part of your regular schedule.  Walk around the block.  Or, go for a long walk.  See how far you can go.  Take a bike ride.  Explore different routes and areas.  Finally, drive to a hike.  Buffalo Creek is a nice 3 mile loop.  Independence Grove is beautiful.  If you are willing to go farther - Lakewood Forest Preserve in Wauconda is really nice too.  If you get outside regularly, you can start to notice small changes in nature's cycle.    What can you see and hear?  One idea to focus your attention is to make a photo album of what you see each time you go out.  Here are 19 ways to get outside.  Do you have a favorite place outside?  Tell us in the comments section.
Here is research about how getting outside is beneficial to your health:

https://positivepsychology.com/positive-effects-of-nature/

https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_nature_makes_you_kinder_happier_more_creative

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6104990/

2.  Stimulate your mind.  Don't use your classes as a task to get done.  Instead, see them as an escape.  Lose yourself in the learning.  Explore, ask questions and then research and learn.  You have so much at your fingertips.  If you don't find your classes engaging, then look for topics/subjects you like.  Feel inspired learning about something that you didn't know about.  Some books that I have read lately that I have really enjoyed:

Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson is an amazing but true story about a Harvard Law Grad who decided to work at a non-profit law firm defending people on death row who did not have enough money to defend themselves.  It is really an amazing book that is now a movie starring Michael B. Jordan.  I was planning to read this at the end of our semester.  Many colleges are reading it as part of their curriculum.

The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg is a great book about how to change habits.  Some of the book is sociological, like how societies can change habits of their people and how organizations like businesses or schools can change their habits.  And it is also psychological, like how individuals can make changes in their own habits.  It is a great book for you to change anything you want whether it is get heaty, or study better or anything like that.  But it may also be a good resource if you are in a leadership position.  It will help you think about how to make small changes in your organization that have a big impact.

 The Years That Matter Most by Paul Tough.  It's a sociological analysis of college and it is a scathing indictment of the college board (you might enjoy that part :-)

 Mindset by Carol Dweck is a book we will talk about in our lessons to come, but the book is worth reading fully.  It changed the way I think about myself learning but also it changed how I parent and how I teach.  It would be a great book to read before college.

This Book Is Not Required by Inge Bell and Bernard McGrane is a sociology book written for freshmen in college.  It covers a number of subjects that will confront you in college like: choosing a major, dating, moving away from home, returning back home, etc...  The book has both sociological insights as well as practical advice for transitioning to college.


Are there books that you would recommend?  Tell us in the comment section.


3. Be creative.  Find some outlets for you to be creative.  This might mean writing your own poetry, choreographing your own tik tok videos, making humorous videos (saw some great ones here), painting (I am painting my kid's bedroom), learn a musical instrument, make music playlists, take creative pics, start blogging, make a website that reviews something - movies/restaurants/books/sports teams/players.  Shakespeare likely wrote King Lear and others while the London theater was shut down because of bubonic plague.  Even if you are not into arts, be creative about making a new workout routine, rearrange your bedroom, re-organize something - closet/backpack/desk.  Learn to cook something.  Whatever you do, it doesn't have to be good - just stimulating.  It can be an opportunity to learn something new.

4.  Exercise.  This can be built into some of the ideas above (1-3).  Make time to get some exercise in.  Whether it is cardio or weight training it relieves stress and sharpens your mind.  It will help you sleep better, have more energy and boost your mood.  You can be creative too - shoot hoops in your driveway, dribble and do ball handling in the basement, do yoga using youtube, or make up a crossfit routine like pushups, situps, burpees, lunges and then record your progress.

5.  Socialize.  The quarantine is about people being in groups, but not about communicating with each other.  Call someone each day who you haven't talked to in a while - old friend/relative.  Facetime friends.  Talk to family members in a way that you haven't before - ask questions like what was your first job?  What what was your favorite childhood memory?  Humans are storytellers.  I think technology has gotten us away from that a bit and made us more visual - instagram, tik toc, etc... But stories tell us who we are and where we came from.  They help us connect and relate.  Interview a grandparent, a parent, or someone else and have a deep, sustained meaningful conversation.

6.  Occupy your hands.  There are therapeutic reasons for using our fingers - like people who knit or crochet, (Rainbow Loom anyone?).  You can also do puzzles, sudoku, or coloring books, stress balls, or fidget spinners.  Here is a list things to do to help occupy your hands.  From Psychology Today, Working With Your Hands Does Wonders For Your Brain and from CBS news, How Busy Hands Can Alter Your Brain Chemistry.

7.  Find a way to help.  Don't feel powerless or meaningless. You can help people.  Find a friend that needs help on school work or even a younger sibling.  Tutor them.  Do a chore around the house - dishes, laundry, clean the bathroom, sweep, vacuum.  Donate blood - there is a nationwide shortage of blood.  It is safe to donate.  Search Lifesource locations near you to donate blood.  Clean out a closet and donate what you do not need.  Go to the grocery store for an elderly neighbor or an at-risk person.

8. Make moments of peacefulness.  Carve out moments - even just a minute or two to be peaceful.  No media, no distractions.  Try to focus on yourself - acknowledge your feelings then relax.  Feel your tension loosen.  If you pray, this is a good time to do that, or you can meditate.  Do the bell meditations that we have done in class - even if only in your head. Ring the bell. Quiet the noise inside of you. Breath out your stress and worries.  Listen for the constant change. Every moment is different. Every moment is a step closer to getting past this outbreak. Listen for how far the noise travels. There is no telling how far your noise travels; you influence the world and you matter.  Create a home retreat.