Reflecion # 8

Our parents play an important role in out lives. They are the ones who usually teach us about life. All children including myself learn from what their parents teach them. It is the parent’s job to make sure they teach them right from wrong.

When it comes to understanding my social class, my parents taught me well. I come from a middle class Hispanic background. By that said, I am Cuban, in which my parents have always followed Cuban cultural traditions. For example, my parents always play Cuban music as well as cook Cuban food so that we don’t forget the customs. As for being socialized as a middle class family, my parents taught me that we don’t always get what we want but we live comfortably. As a child I usually got everything that I wanted, yet there were times when they would say we couldn’t afford it. However, when it comes to social class and television, that’s when it changes. In today’s world popular media is taking over and is influencing all of our lives. It is proven that children are spending more time in tune with the popular media than in school. Popular media is in introduced with in T.V., radio, computers, advertisements, and books. Whether you like what the media has to say, it offer’s important information for parents in making good media choices for their children.

In addition, getting to know your gender is an essential part of being a kid. Children usually started having and understanding of their gender as soon as their born. Once you are born you go through stages. As an infant, you start identifying gender by listening to your parent’s voices. As you get older, and become a toddler you begin to use different gender forms in playing. For instance, as a child my mother would buy me Barbie dolls and as for my brother she would get him toy cars. Another way my parents provided me with an understanding of my gender was by the clothes I wore. Girls are typically dressed in pretty delicate clothing with pigtails and bow on their hair. Boys are dressed more in cute sporty clothes. Many parents like mine involve their kids in extra activities like ballet for girls and sports for boys to show them the differences in gender.

On the other hand, understanding what sexual relations are is very important. It is vital that parents explain to their young ones about sexuality and understanding what sexual relationships are. Now a day’s teenagers are becoming more and more drawn into sexual relationships. Nevertheless, there are many parents who don’t know how to speak and take time to enlighten their child about this topic on sexual relationships. Some parents may feel too embarrassed talking about sex or just might not know how to bring it up in a conversation. I remember when I was about 12 years old and I had turned into a young women, my mother sat me down and explained to me what sex was and how I need to be carful now. My mother and I have always had an open mother daughter relationship which has always made it easier for me to tell her things as well as being able to understand her better.

In conclusion, I feel that parents play a very important part in a child’s life. Overall, parents need to remember that a child is always depending and counting on their parents for basically everything. By parents getting involved and actually educating their kids they can make a difference and could prevent many things from happening.

Reflection # 7

The Rites of passage was interesting to read about and in my opinion I think the rites of passage to be important. These rites describe the rituals, beliefs, and the customs of different cultures as they are passed on through each generation. Everyone has a different culture in which they follow. For instance, I have a friend who is Arabic and she follows a different religion as me in which it’s a custom to fast for an entire month. They also follow our rituals like when getting married they paint on a henna tattoo on there hand containing patterns symbolizing that they are Arabic. I actually find it fascinating how people have different customs they follow. Every culture is unique in its own way.

On the other hand, after reading Facing Mt. Kenya, The Sambia and Sitting Quietly, I have to disagree with the Rites of Passage. The idea of children getting abused is not something I agree with morally wrong for young kids to be harassed into having to perform oral sex on older male teenagers. As in the passage of The Sambia I think what the fellatio and fellated process in which take on these youngster in doing these things is appalling. How can these people do these types of things to these poor children. This kind of practice is totally wrong, harmful encourages unsafe sex leading to deadly disease that can be sexual transmitted. In the passage of Facing Mt. Kenya: Initiation of Boys and Girls, it talks about promoting circumcision, or trimming of the genital organs on both males and females. However it’s still a form of child abuse. I remember when my little brother was born and they asked my mother if she wanted to have the baby cirumcised and she said yes. I honestly don’t understand why should they have to go through that horrible pain when back in the old days that was not done. I guess it all about customs and traditions.

In conclusion, in relation to a formal education and the Rites of Passage, I believe as a college student our graduation is a representation of the Rite to Passage. It’s like a ritual we all go through to receive that diploma. Therefore it’s the change that takes place in form of us becoming college graduates. Overall, I found these rites to be very interesting and learning of them gave me an insight of how people express themselves through there rituals, belief and culture.

Reflection # 6

First and for most, attending a school in a community that is against integrated schools has to be extremely difficult for those of color. If I had to walk into a school listening to everyone shouting and protesting that we are not welcome due to the color of our skin I would feel extremely unwanted and rejected. I personality believe no one should be treated different or be left behind. My first reaction to this whole segregation problem would be to try and make a difference, having an opportunity to stand out and change people's opinions and thoughts can be rewarding. I have never really understood why this whole isolation issue of blacks and white happened. However, I have the up most respect for the "Little Rock Nine" to need armed guards to enter school has to be very terrifying and overwhelming.
Honestly, if I was in their position that these kids were in I think I would most likely lose interest in school. Why go to a school were your not welcomed and will be called names. I respect their ambition and loyalty to disregard all the chaos and discrimination they had to go through. By that said I look up to these kids for having the desire to still focus in school. Therefore, I would have liked to be one of the "Little Rock Nine" simply to have the advantage to make a different and change society and its views. This story opened my eyes to realize how different things use to be in the late 50's. Now a day’s segregation has reduced yet, we still see it happening all over the world. For example, we still have segregated communities like there are white neighborhoods and black neighborhoods. Even though the after so many years after laws have been pasted by segregation is still going on in schools. I believe it’s some type of mental idea people still have against colored people. We as Americans need to realize that we are all created equal and we all have the opportunity and should attempt to get along and live together in this united country as one. Hopefully in the near future we learn to do this so that we can all be a safer and happier community.

Reflection # 5

After reading the article on Culture I was able to gain a better understanding of what culture really means as well as how the human sprit plays a part in it. In my opinion, the human sprit is the aura that we portray as a person. It’s like the vibe you receive when you get after meeting a person. In addition, when taking a look at culture it’s not only becoming acquainted with the culture but being a part of it to really value that culture.
Fashion can be compared to culture. In the fashion industry, haute couture is considered to be the finest. Those who could not afford this high fashion are looked down upon. This leads to people trying to fix in, which is happening all over the world. For example, last summer I took a trip to Cuba to visit my family. Once I arrived everyone was looking at me immediately knowing that I was not from there. I remember when I got to my family’s house all my cousins asking me what the brand of clothing I was wearing was. I had told them that it was named American Eagle and that it came from the United States. Usually in Cuba or as in other countries in south and Central America people often travel to the United States just too actually purchase these different name brands. I ended up actually leaving all my clothes giving it to my cousins. The reason after all this is so that they feel and be a part of what they consider to be the higher class. To them they feel that this can symbolize as different and unique being able to have something that is not stole in there own country.
However, it is not only in these countries but all over the world in general. For instance we travel to New York, London, Japan and so on just to get the last style and trends. I actually when to New York recently to see what the lasted fashion was just to know before it started here. Overall I believe it is not about what you wear or the materialistic things you might have but, what one has to offer as a person with in. At the end of the day we all come from the same place and should get along with one another. By that said, we need to realize that we are all equal as one.

Reflection # 4

To begin with, diversity is recognizing that we are all different in our own ways; as well as acknowledging and respecting our individual uniqueness. After reading Samantha’s story I could totally relate to her. I have always had the desire to become a teacher but, I know there are many aspects we need to take into consideration to become good educators.
When it come to being well-prepared for diversity an experience I can relate to is when I first started at Miami-Dade College. As I started taking classes was expecting to be around different people. However, being a student has really prepared me to deal with different people around the world. I am now able to understand their different cultures, religions, some languages and so on. Interacting with other students and professors is mainly what helped me understand and appreciate diversity. For example, I took speech class and in that class I learned so much of the Indian culture. I was put into a group where we choose to work on the difference between our culture and the Indian culture. It was an experience were I was able to learn how to value the uniqueness different countries have from one another. Therefore, this makes diversity in my life so positive and challenging.
Overall the areas in which I feel well- equipped in are acceptance and respect, dealing with diverse genders, ethnicities, races, religions and so on. As a child I was raised to always taught never to judge a book by its cover or just anything less than who they really are. In conclusion I consider myself well fix to work with diversity.

reflection # 3

A paradigm is your way of thinking and the way you approach a situation due to previous experience. Paradigms play a huge role on society and how we perceive all the different components of our everyday life. I also feel that paradigms play a huge role in the conglomerate we call marketing. Several companies spend millions of dollars on marketing strategies to keep their company in the right light of the public. If companies can maintain a positive outlook , people will use them because their mental paradigms tell them that it is a good company to work with. For example, I want to bring up the company McDonalds… they still happen to be at the top of the fast food chain ,yet they did experience a downfall a couple of years back. The public always perceived McDonalds as a convenient company for purchasing food when your in a hurry, and several people ate McDonalds religiously but then the movie Super Size was released and millions of paradigms changed. Many people stopped purchasing McDonald products when they realized how unhealthy their food is. People were now aware of how unhealthy their food is, and whenever they see a McDonalds they rather not eat their knowing the affects it will have on them. Their paradigms shifted, they no longer believe McDonalds is a great good
Paradigm shifts are always occurring and it is this that keeps our society moving in a promising direction. Without paradigm shifts, civilization wouldn’t progress, we would keep going back to the same things, regardless if they’re good or bad. Paradigm shifts, allow people to develop cognitively and it portrays whether or not we’ve learned from our mistakes. I strongly feel that it is vital for teachers to have paradigm change, because it allows their students to broaden their horizons. With a teacher that constantly changes his paradigm, students will began to think for themselves and they will be more active in class. Students will start to think for themselves, and that I believe is the prime definition of learning.
Reading these articles made me realize that I actually did have a recent paradigm shift of my own. I use to be extremely wasteful, and recycling didn’t even exist in my vocabulary but then I took a biology class and I wanted to change. In my biology class I learned how important it is for us to maintain this earth for our future generations. I use to believe that recycling was unnecessary and a complete waste of time, but after that course I began to recycle and I became an avid member of the whole “go green” movement. My mental paradigm completely shifted!
Furthermore, I would like to conclude by stating how much I agree with Kuhn’s idealistic views on paradigms. I believe that it is very important for us to continue shifting paradigms; it would reflect off of us by showing people how open minded we can really be.