Archive for month: October, 2014

Last week Julian made me realize i was neglecting my writing by not creating an outline before writing an essay. Even i was thought how to create an outline i find myself skipping it because i feel its less work ,but in the end i realize i take longer writing a paper and my grade is lower. So i will be working on my outlines now before actually writing a paper  because this lesson made me realize that in the long run its worth it. After we got into groups and did a couple different activities focusing our attention to a minority group we tend to ignore the disabled. I really enjoyed every activity and i feel that us actually trying to put ourselves in their shoes is exactly  what more people need to do in order to actually get an idea of what people with disabilities actually go through on a daily basis. My favorite activity was the wheelchair because i never realized how difficult it is just to push the chair around let alone do everything in a wheelchair, it opened my eyes. Ironically at the same time i was confused because i realized that even though i may be trying to be kind and offer to maybe open the door for someone in a wheelchair they may take it the wrong way and maybe get offended. As i was in the chair i noticed how people would stare ,at that moment i could only think about what goes through their mind in a moment when eyes connect. I found myself avoiding eye contact in my situation i felt a little embarrassed and looked down upon  by others and honestly didn’t want to keep doing the activity anymore. Now i imagine having to go through this everyday actually being permanent and not having the same resources as everyone else does is extremely difficult and i can honestly say i admire anyone who may be going through a similar situation, but i still wonder how can i help without offending them?

In this weeks reading we partially focus on women who decide to pursue a career in the stem field and the gender gaps that still exist and how they negotiate gender while pursuing the field. The article Lipstick and lab coats was very informative i never realized how low the number of  women in fields like technology, math, science and engineering was and how people really seem surprised when a women actually pursues it. Looking back i can only recall one women in one of my classes mentioning she was a math major and like the article said people are amazed and i was, but most interestingly the article mentioned a lot of the women pursuing this field are Indian and she was Indian. This made me realize Indian women and families really value family so maybe that’s why they pursue it because they have strong bond with them. We also focused on the LGBT community and its history and how they till this day are discriminated and like minority groups are looked down upon and are fighting for rights, But i never thought of them as a minority as well but to me it seem they are because they go through similar struggles like minority groups do. The history was very interesting because in order to actually consider  LGBT first a  man named Mathew Sheppard was killed then it was consider serious.    Till today some LGBTs don’t want to identify themselves with the LGBT label because they are afraid of rejection.

Last week we were given a presentation about outlines. Julian went over the basic steps on creating an outline and even showed an example using someone’s topic idea. I think it was a good reminder of how to format our essays. The thing that I found useful were the pointers we were given on how to include a counter argument in our introduction. But i had a question about counter arguments in the body paragraph. Can i place a counter argument after presenting a topic? I had forgotten about how much better essays turn out to be when using an outline, but maybe that is the best way to get a paper done. Last week’s class was fun. We were all divided into groups and we all had to do an activity on what it was like to have a certain type of disability. Each experience was different but at the end of the day having to use a wheelchair or any other kind of walking aid was the one that was most challenging for me. Like I mentioned in class to me it felt like being in a wheelchair might cause someone to become more aware on their space to know that they have not come across a situation that might affect their mobility. I feel that sometimes people tend to take mobility for granted, and when we are exposed to someone who does not have the privilege we usually get stuck not knowing what to do. On the other hand, I think people with disabilities should try to change the way they perceive others when someone is offering help. If they get offended once, the person might not want to help someone who needs help again. It’s a cycle that should be broken. I feel that it would be a good thing if people with disabilities spoke up to tell the communities and even the government about how we can help them achieve their full potentials.

This week’s reading focused on gender inequalities in the U.S. In the article lipstick and lab coats, were given insight to the discrimination that females face when pursuing a degree in science. Some of the women in this study talked about some examples of how men are still not used to seeing women in the STEM field. The lack of knowledge leads to making the women feel like they have to adjust their behaviors to not offend anyone who was not pursuing the same major. This was coined as “playing down”. In the article “Beyond a Binary: The Lives of Gender- Nonconforming Youth” we are presented with a notion about youth who do not identify themselves as part of a certain category when used to describe their gender orientations. These people become targets to society norms because they are not viewed as accepted. People who identified as queer, gay, lesbians, and bisexuals sometimes transformed themselves completely into the body they felt most comfortable with. After having been harassed and attacked by others they became transgender and it made them feel good because they were finally able to be accepted for who they truly were on the inside. Gender stereotyping huts many not just some. For both females and the LGBT communities, it is difficult to try and break the stereotypes but it is not impossible. Maybe one day in the near future women will finally be able to break that glass ceiling and the LGBT be acknowledged for their individuality.

I wasn’t able to make it to class last Friday because of a knee surgery I had two days prior to that class. My surgery went better than expected, as I did not have to have the major ligament   reconstruction as the doctor had expected to do.  I still had a major meniscus repair and something about a bone chip. I’ll know more at my appointment with him next week. From reading the other blogs, it sounds like I missed some interesting classroom activities. Maybe I can get Julian’s outline tips  during his office hours, as he has already offered to look at some of my essays I have been writing, and struggling with, for another class. I’m really missing my stem courses! Although this class is pretty cool. The activities I missed regarding some of the obstacles disabled people have to overcome would have been given me some additional appreciation for our disabled brothers and sisters. I already have the utmost respect for disabled and handicapped people. I have no idea what it is like to navigate through life without something such as eyesight, hearing, use of legs, or mental issues such as dyslexia, and the hundreds of other physical and mental disabilities that we are all susceptible to. I think I can speak for a lot of people that we often take our health for granted. It was nice to read about the disability act of 1990 and that the department of education in Washington D.C. is implementing programs to make it easier for the disabled population to feel welcome in our schools.

Lipstick and labcoats was an interesting read for me. As I mentioned in the first part of my blog, I prefer science and math classes over most other types. I have taken many STEM type of classes over the years and now that I look back and think about it, there was an equal amount of women as men in my STEM classes the last few years at Ventura College. However in the early 1980’s at Moorpark College there was definitely a much higher percentage of men than women in the LET (laser electro-optics technology) program I was in. I think things have changed as far as women entering the STEM fields, but just as we have learned in the other weekly readings, there is work to be done to make it just as equal for a women to feel welcome and to be encouraged to enter these STEM fields as men do today. I think stereotypes have gone down somewhat as far as what sex a person should be to do any particular job, but as author Goldman points out, that as of 2006, only 26% of our nations engineers were women. She also found research that pointed to a lack of role models for women as a significant reason for the gender gap.

I know very little about the LGBT community, and apparently I am not alone, as the authors on this reading point out that “The vast majority of college students, classroom faculty, student affairs educators , and administrators have a tremendous amount to learn about gender diversity. I have learned in a few different courses that all populations in this world have a certain percentage of androgynous people in their society. That is a person who was born neither a male or female. How a society accepts these people have varied. I learned that many American Indian cultures accepted these people as a third gender and treated them with equal respect. I agree with the authors suggestions that colleges and universities expand the “gender” category on the application forms to enable gender-nonconforming students to self-identify, and also to implement a gender identity harassment policy similar to the sexual harassment policies that are in effect.

As far as Chick-fil-A vs. Ventura High School, I will say I like them both a lot. The owner has a right to his religious beliefs and his franchised stores have come out publicly to say that they do not necessarily share the owners beliefs and they have no public stand on same sex marriages. The principal of Ventura High is an awesome lady who I have met a few times. Ventura High has a very diverse population, rich, poor, and representing most cultures. It has a very friendly, peaceful and tolerant culture, and it starts from the top. There was a front page article in the paper, comparing Ventura with other similar schools and Ventura had an extremely low number of problems and incidents compared to the other schools. Principal Wyatt didn’t like the way Chick-fil-A went about getting into the stadium, as an outside vendor, behind her back.

Here we are again. Another good day , fresh breeze of the ocean and wait what on earth just happened? The winning team just go their winning streak taken because one big shot, loud mouth thinks he is the leader and thinks there is a “snake” within the group so he wants to blame it on the girls.  Excuse me for a foul language but he is an idiot.

So the episode shows with one of the Hunapu winning yet another game. Coyopa is on the ropes. Drew was picked to go to exile island and now he thinks he can just win everyone’s heart if he acted like a boss when “he” as everyone states is the lazy loud mouth of the group.

In the chapter we describe this sudden conflict as “Competitive” conflict. Drew brings this unintentionally to the group. He in some parts in due respect thinks he could persuade people to be at his side and take out any bad influences. In the other hand he also thinks he is the leader and his method is absolute. Therefore when one of the girls acted “disobedient” to his rule he wanted her out. With Keith and Jeremy at each other, Drew and the girls at each other and others just not wanting in on this side picking made drew even more competitive. And in the end he just gets kicked out….and to be fair he thinks he did well to others and some viewers he was some show off that just thought he was doing the right thing and made all a mess on the tribe. Did not do much for the tribe and thought he was the boss.

Episode 4 of Survivor Blood Vs. Water was highly amusing and a prime example of conflict in groups.  During this episode, a member of the constantly winning tribe of Hunahpu named Drew, makes it known to the viewers that he is not the biggest fan of Kelly.  When the original flint is found near their tribes fire, Drew gets the idea to trade back their unused flint for the fishing gear they had to forfeit.  Kelly thinks this is a ridiculous idea, and at the reward challenge makes it known that she does not agree with Drew’s actions of bartering what so ever.  Further angering Drew, when the tribe wins reward, he is chosen to go to Exile Island.  While on Exile Island he wants to continue to stroke his own ego and boast to Jacquelin that he is the leader of his tribe and to help out her tribe he is going to throw the immunity challenge to help cleanse his tribe.  In the book Working In Groups, conflict is defined as, “the disagreement and disharmony that occurs in groups when members express differences in regards to group goals; member ideas, behavior, and roles; or group procedures and norms.”  With Drew’s obnoxious attitude and want to barter at the reward challenge for the fishing gear he wont shut up about, he is initiating conflict between his tribe that will prove to be detrimental to his existence in the game.

Substantive Conflict, as described in Working in Groups, “occurs when members disagree about issues, ideas, decisions, actions, or goals.”  After throwing the immunity challenge and forcing his tribe into tribal council, Drew initiates substantive conflict when discussing the goals and decision of his alliance.  Drew’s alliance doesn’t agree with voting off Kelly, and feels Drew is a little bit weird for being so passionate and paranoid about voting her off.  To Drew’s surprise, he is blindsided at tribal council and his plan of cleansing his tribe of untrustworthy members resulted in himself going home early.