Stereotypes

/in /by

When it comes to stereotypes, I feel that the majority of people do it. I might even do it myself without even realizing it or meaning to. This article mentioned that we don’t need to stop categorizing or generalizing people or things. At first I considered categorizing and stereotypes two different things, but once I began reading the article, I kind of began seeing some similarities. But I believe that those two words have different means and are used differently.

The article talks about categorizing and generalizing as a way to distinguish certain things, which is true. For example, we categorize male and female and we can even group them depending on age, but when it comes to stereotype, people usually go based of what they know and the actions or appearance of people. For example, someone might look at someone and based off the way they’re dressed, they can assume something and mentally categorize that person, and that’s where stereotyping begins.

Transcatheter aortic valve replacement

/in /by

TAVItf TAVR 1 TAVR-Diagram-Copy

Recently I had the experience of caring for patients on a hospital’s telemetry floor. One of my patients had just received a transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR), sometimes referred to as transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI). The TAVR procedure is a new cardiac procedure being performed at the hospital. TAVR procedures have been performed in Europe since 2007, but were only approved by the FDA in the United States in 2011 (Buntz, 2012). A transcatheter aortic valve replacement is used as an alternative to traditional aortic valve surgery in patients with aortic stenosis who, either because of age or comorbidities, are not candidates for traditional cardiac surgery (Khatri et al., 2013). The TAVR procedure does not require a sternotomy, but instead threads a balloon catheter with the replacement valve through the femoral artery (transfemoral approach) and into position (American Heart Association, 2015).

The research efforts of Khatri et al. (2013) investigate the adverse effects associated with transcather aortic valve replacement and attempt to identify if certain approaches (transarterial or transsapical) or types of valves (CoreValve or Sapien valve) have different adverse effects. From their research Khatri et al. (2013) concluded that heart block, vascular complications, and acute renal failure were the most common side effects of the TAVR procedure. The CoreValve was more often associated with heart block but less likely to cause vascular complications (Khatri et al., 2013). In addition, the transapical approach has lower thirty day survival rates than the transfemoral approach (Khatri et al., 2013). The study highlights the fact that most patients receiving the TAVR transapically had significant peripheral vascular disease and therefore greater comorbidities than those who’s vasculature was adequate for the transfemoral approach (Khatri et al., 2013). Further research is needed to assist physicians in making decisions about the best valve types and approach to use when preforming the TAVR procedure.

References

American Heart Association. (2015). What is TAVR? In Heart valve problems and disease. Retrieved from http://www.heart.org

Buntz, B. (2012). TAVR: Still the next big thing in cardiology? Medical Device and Diagnostic Industry. Retrieved from http://mddionline.com/article/tavr-still-next-big-thing-cardiology

Khatri, P., Webb, J., Rodes-Cabau, J., Fremes, S., Ruel, M., Lau, K., … Ko, D. (2013). Adverse effects associated with transcatheter aortic valve implantation: A meta-analysis of contemporary studies. American College of Physicians, 158, 35-46.

Hello world!

/in /by

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

September 21st

/in /by

“Struggling with Stereotypes: Users and Abuses of a Critical Concept”

This article was an interesting read to me for multiple reasons. In this article the author starts with explaining how certain words “can lose their power through overuse”. I thought to myself how true this is in everyday life. So many people say slang words or joking insults without really even knowing the meaning of the word to begin with. However the word is said so often so it seems socially acceptable. The main topic of this article was to dissect the meanings and issues revolved around generalization and stereotyping. This article surprised me in the way that it was not at all trying to say that these two topics need to be erased or looked at as a problem and nothing more. In fact the author flat out disagrees with the idea of getting rid of labels and generalizations. The author is more concerned with the public being able to make educated decisions when looking and interpreting at the world. The article gave great detail how the media is a huge factor to generalization, as the creators don’t believe they are stereotyping, when they essentially are creating a “group stereotype”. Meaning an individual could cause a label for the whole of a group of people when that is simply not the case at all, since everyone is different. The author also did a good job at not just blaming schools for the negative sides of generalization and stereotyping, instead he spoke about the difficulty of explaining such topics as they have grey overlapping areas. Another part of the article I found very interesting was when it talked about how group knowledge needs to be open to change. It sounds easier than it actually is, because people don’t like to change, if they have a particular view since they were little then they are pretty set in that thought process for the future. Labels, generalization, stereotyping etc. are a part of our world that will never go away. However if more people where open to looking at change, not necessarily accepting it but understanding it, I think it would make a difference. The article also concluded that when studying these concepts in the media it is important to look at patterns to understand just how the media causes “group generalization”.

Trends in Human Population in the Cook Islands

/in /by

In looking at larger scale trends in environmental quality, we have pulled together population data over time across the Cook Islands. This is the overall trend (summing across all 15 of the islands that comprise the Cook Islands): Here is a bit more complicated graph wherein an island representing each of the temporal patterns we […]

Prepare for interviews using HackerRank

/in /by

Go away Sterotypes

/in /by

Greetings from disneyland,

 

Personally when it comes to  Race stereotypes I greatly become angry and frustrated about how the word becomes so closed minded.Honestly I detest stereotypes, personally I don’t believe they have a reason for being around.  When the article says that “We need to stop categorizing and generalizing people” it’s the sad truth that we as a society are to focus on putting  labels on anything. Thnik about it, you have tv movies displaying the jocks as brainless people (for example think of glee, they preseve Noah Puckerman’s character as a stupid football player who liked to sleep with Cheerleaders. Or take the Nerds of the big bang theroy, the show allows people to think smart people are loners that may or may not find someone to accept them.) But in all honestly this article has officially kind of gave me a new look on it. I do believe we need to stop stereotyping, but in this article I can see why we need to look at it in a different light, mainly that this could change for other people if we teach them to see that being open to others and their ideas will prevent stereotyping. Our open minds can bring us to a better place than generalizing and creating problems for other people.

 

Do We Still Believe in Civil Rights?

/in /by

On March 15, 1965 a man from Giant Oaks California by the name of James J. Sloan wrote a letter the Congressman Harold T. “Bizz” Johnson urging support of the Civil Rights Bill. Which entailed for the most part the abolishment of the prerequisites required to vote, as well as the discrimination against minority groups when voting.

FullSizeRender (3)Mr. Sloan then progresses throughout his letter and continues to give support of federal troops in the south or “whatever means taken to guarantee the safety of individuals of whatever color.”  In bring this statement up he was referring to Bloody Sunday which had taken place in Selma, Alabama. Bloody Sunday is the name referred to the events that took place on March 7th where over six hundred SNCC and SCLC activist marched to support The Civil Rights Act. Where they were held to a stop by the Alabama State troopers a demanded to turn back. Once they had refused they policemen then open fired with teargas and beaten with billy clubs, leaving over fifty people were hospitalized.

The letter then precedes to urge the congressmen to pass the bill explaining it is the right thing to do and it would extend America. How simple this may all sound It is not the only thing I had stumbled upon. After going though simply one other folder I found a completely different radical view than what Mr. Sloan had expressed.

No more than three years later another letter was composed by Eugene P. Bayliss on the date of March 20th nearly exactly three years later from the first letter. The tone of everything changed, the two new big bills were the Civil Rights Act of 1968 and Title VIII.  Both the Civil Rights Act of 1968 also known as the Fair Housing Act and Title VIII were laws that prohibited discrimination concerning the sale, rental, and financing of housing.

Bayliss throughout the letter is completely against the passage of both these act FullSizeRender (4)and actually  insults America and trashes African American remodels. She even questions exactly whose Civil Rights the government is fighting for stating “Whose Civil Rights…the phony civil rights of the Stokely Carmichaels, Rap Browns, and Martin ‘Lucifer’ Kings.” She urges the denial of this “un-American bill”

What is startling to me is that the general public of California in 1965 had been pro-civil rights and had wanted the African American citizens to be able to vote, but in a short time span the citizens would be totally against Title VIII. It leaves a total unanswered and real question of is discrimination an segregation really over even after fifty years or is it only others thinking on the behalf of their own good?

Blog #2 – Structural Factors and Generalizations

/in /by

Childhood as we know in today’s society can be described as a time of innocence, fun, and carefree. However, after reading Karen Sterheimer’s take on childhood, my perspective of this word and the meaning behind it completely changed. She states that “childhood is constantly shifting and changing, and it becomes defined based on the needs of society” (27) meaning that what we know of what childhood is now may have not been the same during a different time in America. Jazmine touched on a key point about childhood when she mentioned that different factors such as social status, living environment, ethnicity, and immigration status are predictors into determining different childhood experiences. Thus, as a society we cannot truly blame popular culture for its “negatively effect” on changing childhood. Rather, Sternheimer explains that structural forces is what influences change within childhood.

Further, generalizations, stereotypes, and labels are what our society utilizes to communicate with one another, however, learning how to properly utilize them can be confusing and difficult not only for children but also for adults. The article states that “we need, use, and draw upon generalizations to make sense of the world around us” which is true, however, when generalizations are used in a negative way to make assumptions about individuals who may not necessarily fit that specific generalization, then that becomes an issue. As Alexa stated, it is in our human nature to make generalizations about certain groups, institutions, topics, etc., to helps us understand how the world around us works. Often times, however, the media tends to make generalizations/stereotypes about certain groups without specifically targeting them which in turn creates a misunderstanding on how society sees them.

With that being said, I wanted to ask if you all were convinced by Sterheimer’s argument on structural factors as being the means for negatively affecting childhood as well as what are your thoughts on generalizations being utilized by the media.

Inclusive Leadership and Poverty; A Diversity Framework-Inclusive and Differentiated (POLICY VS HEART)

/in /by

This week’s reading brought to mind the experience of a friend of mine several years ago. She is white, her husband is black. They have 2 children a boy, and a girl, who are a couple of grades apart in school. School policy had changed, allowing her to choose between two elementary schools equidistance from home for her children to attend. Upon registering, she was told that her son could not attend the school because the quota of caucasians to keep the school in balance was already attained. However, they might be able to allow her daughter to attend because that grade level was not out of balance. Rather than argue, she quietly left. Later she returned with her two children (whom had visibly black characteristics) and calmly, but demonstrably, asked which part of their color was going to be the deciding factor…their black or their white. I won’t expound on the various issues at play with this example, but it illustrates that policy and regulations to force diversity are not the most effective answer. Of course, policies of diversity in schools have changed since then. The level of diversity, and it’s definition have changed also.

As the readings point out, there is a large and increasing diversity in our more globally connected world. There is tremendous intersection between diverse groups makes it difficult and dangerous to group people statistically. I would argue that there is even an intersection between “privilege” and “disadvantage”. There is change power when educators (as leaders) use their awareness of diversity to find enough empathy to be willing to change their practices where necessary, access the knowledge fund of the students and community, to strive for access and excellence in education for all students regardless of the diversity. More than searching for particularly diverse teachers and leaders, I think we should instead search for ‘concerned’, ‘willing’ ‘diversity-minded’ teachers and leaders from any background. “Culture takes longer to change than climate, and it must be framed so that diversity can be facilitated rather than obstructed.”(Smith, 2015. pg. 73) I am beginning to realize that I believe in a more ‘grass roots’ change, than one from the top down using policy and regulations.

Although reading Smith was laborious I did find value in it. I think that a focus on building ‘human capital’ in institutions, in conjunction with a focus on building ‘human capacity’ and “…reframing the issue of diversity as an institutional imperative concerning education and excellence…”(Smith, 2015. pg. 88) Making decisions to change, or not change in the school culture using the seven guidelines on page 77 makes some sense to me (Smith, 2015. pg. 77).

Another quote hit home for me because of my current teaching assignment, “Poverty is not an excuse. It is a harsh reality.” (Diane Ravitch quoted in Smith, 2015. pg 40) It is hard work teaching at our school. Because of the poverty and related issues it requires heart, courage, understanding, and an ability to deal with many problems in addition to the basic classroom instruction. As the book shows, there is a lot of experiential deficit that needs addressing as well. It is a harder to staff school with more openings each year than other schools as teachers move on to easier schools. This results in a core of highly motivated teachers who remain because their ‘heart’ is in it. Even so, there is quite a bit of resistance when challenging curriculum is introduced. Some well-meaning teachers tend to shy away from challenging students and continue in low-level curriculum because they can see success more rapidly. Teaching higher levels of curriculum to students of poverty who are also EL requires excellent teaching practices, and you become VERY tired completing a day of instruction. I have found that my students DO rise to the expectations. The challenge is for the teacher in such situations to be able to maintain this level of instruction…it does require extra work with 98% of your students requiring pre-teaching and/or reteaching, and experience building.