Office Hours, week of November 2

Image by Edith OSB via Flickr

My schedule has been changed for next week because of several meetings that were scheduled.

Here are the revised Walk-In Office Hours:

• Monday Nov 2:  none, classes not in session
• Tuesday Nov 3:  9:30-10:30 a.m. in Tower 3652
• Wednesday Nov 4:  1:30-2:30 p.m. in Tower 3652
• Thursday Nov 5: 9:30-10:30 a.m. in Tower 3652
  (this is the regular time)
• Friday Nov 6: 1:30-2:30 p.m. in Tower 3652
  (this is the regular time)

Extra Credit #3

Here are Extra Credit opportunities that I know about:

• Tues 27 Oct: Crossing the Line Video (about protests at the School of the Americas)  featuring Susan Sarandon, Martin Sheen and several CSS students at 7:00 in Tower 3150.
• Thurs 5 Nov:  “The U.S. and the Muslim World: A New Beginning?” Dr. Fawaz Gerges, Chair of Middle Eastern Politics & International Relations, Sarah Lawrence College 7 p.m. in the Mitchell Auditorium
• Wed 11 Nov: Diversity Panel, 5:30-7 p.m., Intercultural Center
• Thurs 12 Nov: “American Muslims: The Next Generation” Kashif Saroya, Islamic Resource Group of Twin Cities 7 pm Somers Main Lounge

Instructions for getting Extra Credit are available in the tab up above.

Office Hours this week

My Office Hours this week have some changes:

• Tuesday 27 October: 1-1:45 pm in Tower 3652

• Wednesday 28 October 1:00-2:00 in Tower 3652

Vote on the P2 Assignment

This is the first time I have used this type of PowerPoint assignment in this class.

Please VOTE on the 4 poll-questions to help me decide whether to continue to use this assignment.

The poll questions are entirely anonymous. You can see how others have voted (percentages).

If there were things you particularly liked about this assignment, suggestions for improving it, or ideas for similar assignments in the future, please write a comment in the comments section below.  (Click on the word “Comment”)  Comments are not anonymous, but they don’t affect your grade.

Exam 2 Study Session

Image by davidsilver via Flickr

Exam 2 Study Session will take place this Thursday, October 22 at 6:00pm in room Tower 3410.  It will last for about an hour or a little bit more.  Please bring any questions about the objectives and we’ll try to get through them all.  Hope to see everyone there!!

“Risk factors” for poverty

Gordon-Kahl image of US Class Structure

Kaitlyn asked what the phrase “risk factors” for poverty means in the study guide – does it mean the causes or the consequences of poverty?   It’s a good question, so I thought I would post an answer.

Risk factors refers to a status or social location in which the risk of being poor is higher.

• We know that people are likely to have the same social class as their parents, so being the son or daughter of a poor person is risk factor for poverty
• Poverty is more common in some regions of the country (which ones???) so living in those regions might make poverty more likely
• Certain types of jobs either lack benefits or wages large enough to prevent poverty, so working in those jobs (which ones???) would be a risk factor for poverty
• The culture of poverty approach combines individual factors with structural ones to say that a person may grow up withvalues and patterns of behavior which increase the chance of a falling into poverty.

“Risk factor” means you might become poor. “Consequence” means what sorts of other problems occur as a result of being poor.

Academic Honesty vs Cheating

Live the values:  Cor et Anima

To those who have not cheated: First, I  apologize to the majority of students in the class who have not cheated.  I commend you for your honest behavior: it  is a credit to you. That is what we expect of students at a college like St. Scholastica.

I am grateful to the students who reported the cheating to me.  If others  are aware of cheating, but did not know what to do about it – I would be happy to hear from you.

Cheating Reports: I received multiple reliable reports of cheating on the quizzes.  Some reports indicate those who cheated with sufficient accuracy that I may be able to identify them.

Faculty are expected to apply penalties for cheating, and to report all instances of academic dishonesty to the  Vice President for Academic Affairs.

Penalties:  The CSS Academic Honesty Policy, which is found in the Student Handbook states the consequences for  cheating:

• The minimum penalty by the faculty member is failure of the quiz, test, or assignment.
• The maximum penalty by the faculty member is failure in the course.
• Departments have the right to deny admission to a  major or to dismiss any student who has engaged in academic dishonesty.
• The Vice President for Academic Affairs may exclude students from extracurricular activities because of academic dishonesty.
• The Vice President for Academic Affairs may expel a student for academic dishonesty.
• These penalties can be applied even on the first offense.

These are serious consequences.   It is just not worth it for a few points on a quiz!

Violators: If you have engaged in cheating, your best course of action is to come to see me, admit the action, and work out a plan with me so that I can be sure of your honesty moving forward.  I will not pursue penalties for past cheating for anyone who comes to see me about the problem.

Class Quizzes:   I am consulting with other faculty members to consider appropriate courses of action to take with regard to future quizzes and Friday’s exam in this class.  I will keep you informed about new policies.

Related articles by Zemanta

• A honest kid who was given an Empire. (imperfectaction.com)
• The Root Of Honesty (andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com)
• Can You Be Truly Honest? (lifehack.org)

Extra Credit Opportunities

• Monday, Oct 19 – “What Do Protestants Think About …Marriage?” Pastor Kathy Nelson, United Church of Christ, with response by Fr. Dale Nau.  7:00 PM, Somers Main Lounge
• Tuesday, Oct. 20 -  “We’re Better Off Than We Think We Are” - Michael Cox.  7:30 PM, Mitchell Auditorium.  (Peace and Justice lecture series)
• Wednesday, Oct. 21 - Undergraduate Student Research Poster Session - Somers Main Lounge, 4-6 PM.   Choose ONE student’s research, speak with that student about how he or she chose their topic and carried it out.  Ask them to explain why participating in research is important to their college career.
• The Laramie Project - if you see this presentation, you can use it as an Extra Credit opportunity

If you become aware of a talk or documentary film or play that has sociological comment, be sure to ask if this could be used for Extra Credit.

What are the requirements to get Extra Credit? Click on the “Extra Credit Info” tab up above and you’ll find all the information you need.

Learning Objectives – Chapter 7

These are the learning objectives for Chapter 7 – some of the narrative questions on the next exam will be based on these.

1.      How do patterns of mate selection and courtship vary around the world?

2.      What are some sex/gender differences in loving?

3.      What is meant by sexual orientation and what are Americans’ attitudes toward gays and lesbians?

4.      How is sexual behavior influenced by scripts?

5.      How are sexually transmitted diseases affecting the American population as well as other populations today?

6.      What are the current trends in cohabitation?

Scripts – Parallel, Modified, etc

Someone wrote to ask about the language of scripts. This summarizes the discussion in class.

Sexual scripts guide sexual behavior; gender scripts tend to guide gender relationships.

A traditional or complementary script prescribes that there is some work that is appropriate for men, usually paid work outside the home (if any) or the heavier, riskier, or more distant work on a farm.  Other work is prescribed for women, often work inside the home, childcare, cooking, making clothing and other necessities for the home.

A parallel script – which is rarely found in any society – prescribes identical roles for men and women.  Both of them do paid work. Both of them do the same kinds of work in the home – child care, cooking, cleaning.  Their lives are parallel.

A modified parallel script – common in some developed nations – prescribes primary responsibility for earning an income to men, with some work in the home, and primary responsibility for the home to the woman, who also contributes to the income.  If the woman works full time and has much of the responsibility for the home, you see the second shift phenomenon that the textboook describes.

A modified complementary script is more likely to occur in developing countries that used to have very traditional roles – a woman may do most of her work in the home, but have do some income-producing activity. For instance, she might make tortillas that she sells in the market one a week, or raise sell some of the eggs from the chickens on the family farm, while the man in the household may grow the primary cash crop or work for a wage.

Jethro and the Clampetts

From 1963: for those who want to understand “You can’t marry Jethro without getting the Clampetts” from Friday’s class.  This is a 5-minute section from an episode in which the Clampetts were trying to learn the cultured ways of the rest of Beverly Hills.

Race PowerPoint and Video

From class on Friday 10 October.

Citing Sources

Someone asked about citing the sources of the photos. I’ve included some screenshots that show how to use the Library citation resources. If you are not having any problems with citations, there’s no need to look at it.  If you want to know what’s available, click to

Social Class – Slideshow with Links

From class 9/29/2008

For Friday 16 October

Your syllabus tells you that there is a handout to read for Friday’s class.   But there is NO reading: we will do it all in class.

Here’s what I do want you to do in preparation:

Look back through the textbook, especially the last 3 chapters, where we have learned about some of the ways that families differ from each other.   People carry their family of origin with them when they come into a relationship – they are not a blank slate.

Bring to class two specific things that, if you found someone romantically attractive, it might be important to know about that person’s family background (i.e., not the person’s own likes and dislikes, but characteristics that might come from his or her family).  Write them down on a piece of paper, along with a page number from the text showing where they came from.

Learning Objectives – Chapter 6

Following are Learning Objectives for Chapter 6 on Race and Ethnicity

1. In what ways is the United States becoming increasingly diverse?
2. What are current trends in immigration to the United States?
3. What is the difference in the terms race, ethnicity, and minority group?
4. Be able to discuss the social construction of race and ethnicity
5. Be able to explain the difference between racial prejudice, racial discrimination, and racism?
6. About what proportion of the U.S. population is Hispanic? African-American? Asian? Native American?  Is the proportion of each group growing or shrinking?
7. What are some of the salient characteristics of each of these groups, according to recent data and research?
8. How does race and ethnicity influence family relationships?
9. Be able to explain the “doll research” seen in the video “A Girl Like Me”

P2 Info – Question from Student

A student wrote, in the comments to the assignment:

I am trying to decide on which assignment I want to do. I think that the race and ethnicity one seems interesting but im not really sure on the information that was given to us what you are really looking for in this assignment. Could you give me any ideas?Thanks!

Multicultural Crayons
Image by nathangibbs via Flickr

My response:

I can’t tell from your question exactly what information will help you best, but I’ll share some things that have helped students who stopped by during office hours.

They seemed to be struggling with the fact that, whether it’s social class or race/ethnicity, the topics are big.  How could you choose just 5 photos to illustrate the concepts? How could you do a good job of linking them to the textbook?  Using some structure can be helpful.

• For each of the social classes, the source of income is mentioned. You could pick five of those sources of income and locate a photo of a person engaged in that activity.  (The textbook mentioned at least these sources of income: inherited, business ownership, salaried professional work, mid-level manager or highly skilled blue-collar work, less skilled blue-collar or “pink collar” work, low-paid service jobs, welfare. )
• Alternatively, you could pick one social class and use 5 photos to illustrate different dimensions of that social class. For instance, the upper-middle class section lists professions in which people work, mentions that the line between work and leisure are blurred, the great likelihood of a two-career family (ie, two high-paying jobs), marriage at a later age than average and delaying having children (what would the parents look like with their first baby?), to be involved in leisure pursuits, to be involved in political and civic affairs, to value education for their children.
• A similar approach works with race/ethnicity. 

Typology Assignment info

Image via Wikipedia

Some people had trouble because WebCT did not show them the “P2.2″ Assignment. A few just used one of the other P2 assignments, but some were just stuck.

The P2.2 assignment will remain open through October 11 to let those folks who were stuck have a second try at the upload.

Personal note: Some of you asked for an update so here it is:

I’m at a conference titled “Secularization and Revival: The Fate of Religion in Modern Intellectual History.”  The conference is at Baylor University, which is the largest Baptist University in the world, located in Waco, Texas. The campus is huge, and most of the buildings have spires or steeples.

Yesterday, I presented a paper based on my research with Benedictine oblates (lay people who associate with a monastery to follow the Rule of Benedict in their everyday lives).  The presentation went very well, with people asking questions afterwards.  In addition to talks by other faculty like me, some world-class scholars are making “Plenary” sessions which everyone attends at once.

Social Class Lecture

Here’s a link to the lecture file; it will take about 2 minutes to download to your computer:

I have heard that the Lecture file is not working for some people.  DO watch the Nickled and Dimed video even if you can’t listen to the lecture first.  The Nickled and Dimed video is odd – the lyrics in the song at the end are part of the message.

SocialClass.avi

Here’s the video clip of Nickled and Dimed for the 2nd part of the lecture:

P2 Question from Student: Stereotype vs Social Construction

Image via Wikipedia

A student sent me an excellent question:

I am doing my power point on masculinity and discovered that our book doesn’t give a clear definition of masculinity.  Our book does give society’s opinions about it, which is what I have been basing my explanation of the photos on.

I don’t however want to be stereotypical.  So, I guess I am having trouble explaining why a certain picture is masculine without stereotyping the man or boy in it.
Example: I show a picture of a boy playing with a toy that looks like a piece of construction equipment.  I point out that the boy is wearing blue, and that the toy is geared to a boy because it is also blue and that the majority of construction workers today are men.
Example: I also show a man teaching his grandson how to throw a football.  I explain that by teaching him football, (a male sport) he is demonstrating masculinity.  I also say that because he is fathering the boy he is demonstrating masculine traits as well.

My answer:

There’s a very fine line between a stereotype and a social construction.

A stereotype is based on an assumption about the nature of that group (men/women, working class, etc).

Examples would be: Men are physical; working class people are lazy (like the teenager in the video on Monday who called his mother “lazy” when she walks 10 miles to get to work!), etc.

A social construction is an image that is promoted by society, and might be based on some observable situation (social fact).  It does not claim that the thing observed is due to the nature of the group.

The agents of socialization are the people who pass along the social construction. The old fashioned picture on this page, taken from an old magazine, shows that men should be confident and strong, while women will be timid and in need of coaxing to try something as adventurous as swimming. The magazine is part of the media, one of the agents of socialization.

(Image of man teaching grandson to play football):
Stereotype: Men are strong and physical, so they play sports.
Sociological: Sports are traditionally associated with men and their greater musculature, so family members are more likely to make sure a young boy knows how to play sports than they are a young girl.

(Image of boy playing with construction equipment):
Stereotype: Boys have a natural fascination with equipment, especially big earth moving equipment. Therefore this is a boy’s toy.
Sociological: Construction work is a predominantly male field, and it is associated with men because of their greater height and physical strength. Young boys are given toys that prepare them for the kind of role society expects them to play, as seen by this young boy playing with a model earth-mover.

Who is family and why it matters

Quite a few people missed one or the other part of the narrative question about the definition of family.  It’s worth clarifying.

Birth vs. Blood

The U.S. Census Bureau defines a family as people who (a) reside together and (b) are connected by birth, adoption, or marriage.  These are all legal relationships which can be documented by searching public records.  Every birth certificate includes the name of the parents of record.

Karen Seccombe, the author of the textbook, uses the term blood in her definition.  Blood relations are not always legally documented – if your brother’s girlfriend becomes pregnant, but he doesn’t acknowledge paternity or marry her, the Census Bureau would not recognize that child as part of your family.  Seccombe’s definition would.  “Blood” refers to any linkage of family ties that people can trace – distant cousins, and the like.

Birth is a legally documented characteristic.  Blood is a socially constructed one.

Why it matters

Many people noticed that the Census Bureau excludes some groups that are generally accepted as families.  True – but it only matters if it has some outcome other than people having hurt feelings.

Families have legal, financial and social rights and benefits, and legal, financial, and social responsibilities.

Rights and benefits include inheritance laws and tax provisions, benefits under a variety of programs such as Social Security and Medicare, special treatment in a variety of circumstances, from military housing to disaster relief, the involvement of the courts when a relationship ends in divorce, and hundreds more.  Most of these are not available to cohabiting couples (regardless of their gender).

An article in the New York Times last week estimated that a gay/lesbian couple with children will, over the course of a lifetime, will have to spend between $41,196 and $467,562 more than a married couple with two children.  The analysis is not perfect – and they neglect the fact that much of the cost is not because the couple is gay but because they are not married – but the dollar amounts can be quite large.

Responsibilities include financial responsibility for the costs and debts of the home and children, the provision of care for children, non-violent behavior in the home (domestic violence is against the law), and many more.

P2.2, P2.3 and P2.4 – Instructions now available

Image via Wikipedia

See the following page for instructions for P2.2, P2.3 and P2.4.

Click on P2Info in the menu in the banner to see the assignment.

(click through to Wikipedia for an explanation of the image. It includes a list of types of  “kids gone bad” in a tongue-in-cheek sort of way.)

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• Social norms (sethgodin.typepad.com)
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• Kids’ social class plays big role in school success: experts (canada.com)
• Income Inequality: How The Wall Street Journal Got It Wrong (huffingtonpost.com)
• In search of the middle class (guardian.co.uk)
• Michael Moore’s ‘Capitalism: A Love Story’: Exclusive Clip On Merrill Lynch And The Reagan White House (huffingtonpost.com)
• Letter from Africa: Colour and class still count in SA (guardian.co.uk)
• U.S. can afford to house homeless kids (timesunion.com)

Learning Objectives – Chapter 5

Image via Wikipedia

The following are the learning objectives – questions you should be able to answer (and may be asked on Exam #2) for Chapter 5 on Social Class

1. What is meant by social class and social stratification?
2. How many social classes are there, and what proportion of the population belongs to them?
3. What are the differences between a class system and a caste system?  Can you give an example to illustrate the differences?
4. What are the ways that social class affect family relationships in each of the social classes?
5. What is the difference between an ascribed status and an achieved status?
6. What are the risk factors for poverty in the United States?
7. In what specific ways does poverty affect families to cause negative outcomes?
8. What is meant by “resiliency” in families? Give examples
9. What factors may assist individuals or families in overcoming poverty? Give examples.
10. What are the types of protective factors that help families? Give examples.

Exam 1 Grades

All the grading is finished for Exam 1 taken on Monday, Sept. 28.  The scores are posted in WebCT.

You will see 4 scores:

• Ex1-MC is your score (out of 70) on the multiple choice questions
• Ex1-N is your score (out of 30) on the narrative questions
• Ex1-Total is your total score
• Ex1-Grade is your score as a percentage of the top score in the class, which was 96 points.

Your Grade for the exam is based on the last of these – it’s a little higher than your total score.

You can look at the statistics to see how you did, relative to the whole class, on each part (multiple choice, narrative) and overall.

Planning for the next exam:

Tough Guise – video from class

The 7-minute video clip about images of masculinity and male violence, from class.