Week 16: Shift Happens

From this video, it is obvious that students in China and India are surpassing the intellegence of students here in the United States.  I think that this can be explained by different cultural values in each country; families in the United States obviously stress that their children perform well in school but they want them to be well-rounded in other aspects of their lives such as in the arts and sports.  Because technology is always changing and updating, people today have to constantly be learning and upgrading to new systems.  Being resistant to change is very hard in today's world.  That being said, I think change is part of human nature.  We are very inquisitive and always trying things in new ways so I think that they changes in information processing are improving our lives.  But these new methods of communication have also made today's world more impersonal and cold; some people think that this is detracting from our lives while others think that this is an improvement.

The quote by former Secretary of Education Richard Riley was something that I'd heard before...."We are currently preparing students for jobs that don't exist yet, using technologies that haven't yet been invented, in order to solve problems we don't even know are problems yet."  This is really meaningful to me as an engineering student as once I graduate school, I will continuously have to adapt to new technologies that are being invented.

Pretty much every topic that we covered in class this semester can relate to this video.  India and China have really high birth rates which ties into overpopulation, family roles and relationship shows how different cultures have different values.  Obviously globalization is one of the main themes in this video because without globalization a lot of the technologies that we have in this world wouldn't be around because it takes such a huge collective of people to generate these ideas and constantly improve on other people's inventions.

Week 15: Suburban Life

I've spent my whole life in Northern Virginia.  I live in the heart of the suburbs as my house is close to multiple metro stops, I-66, and the toll road.  My house is in a typical suburban neighborhood; the houses are all pretty similiar, they have small yards, there is a community center, and a school and shopping center are both within walking distance.  I work in Loudon County and over the years I've watch suburbia spread across Northern Virginia.  What once was open farm lands is now home to sprawling subdivisons of cookie-cutter type houses.  The book talks about suburbanization and I have definitely seen the effects of this in my hometown.  More and more people work in the city each year and they need places to live.  Because of an increase in highways and other methods of easy transportation, people can live farther from the city but still easily commute back and forth.  One of the interesting points that the book brought up was how people move from "first suburbs" to newer outer-ring suburbs and to smaller urban areas.  This definitely seems to have happened around DC as people want to move farther from the city that they work in.  In the area that I live, I have noticed that people seem to value houses and shopping areas more than they value trees and open green spaces.

Week 14: Who has the power?

Democracy in the United States is definitely not a direct democracy.  As a liberal democracy, it is less of a government run by the people but more of a government run by the officials that the people elect.  I agree with Weber's theory of democractic elitism.  It is impossible for the voice of every citizen of the United States to be heard.  This theory makes the government the most effective at getting services out to the general population.  Schumpeter's statement that "democracy is the rule of the politician, not the people" is something I agree with. 

Another theory that I agree with is the pluralist theory.  This theory says that individual citizens can have little or no direct influence on political decision making but that the presence of an interest group can limit the centralization of power.  One person can't change the world but if they band enough people together, then they can make the world a different place.

One aspect of the United States democracy that I do not agree with is the use of the electoral college to elect the president.  I know that this policy was enacted by the founding fathers because they didn't trust the average man to make such an important decision as electing the leader of the free world.  But I think that using the electoral college doesn't give each person who is eligible to vote, a voice.  It clumps them by the political make-up of their state and sometimes makes people not vote because they feel as if their vote won't matter.  Because of the use of the electoral college in the United States, it leaves the most important decision in this democracy up to electors and makes it an indirect election.  If the US decided to forgo the electorial college in the future, it would be one step closer to being a true democracy run by the people.

Week 13: The Case of Walmart

Before I read the textbook and watched the Frontline documentary, I thought that the question "Is Walmart good for America?" was ridiculous.  I thought that obviously this big-box store that boasted low prices helped poorer people spend less money and really improved the economy.  Now, after reading the book and watching the documentary, I think that Walmart has been a terrible influence on America.

Even though the prices at Walmart are so low, it harms the economy because it is causing people to lose there job.  Take the example that was in the beginning of the chapter in the textbook.  Kelly worked for Raley's grocery but when Walmart moved into the area, Raley's was put out of business.  Kelly lost her job that had decent pay and great benefits and was forced to work at Walmart where she recieved a sharp decrease in pay and lost most of her benefits. 

In the end, I think that Walmart has helped countries in Asia, most specifically China and has harmed the economies of the United States.  I still shop at places like Walmart and Target but after learning about what their business practices have done to the families and businesses in this country, I'm kind of ashamed to shop there.

Week 12: Domestic Division of Labor

Completing this activity reiterated to me how my parents pretty much share the work equally between all the members of the family.  My mom works full time as a teacher while my dad works full time for the federal government.  For as long as I can remember, my parents have been giving me age-appropriate tasks to help out with the chores.  My sister and I set the table for dinner and do the dishes while my mom cooks and my dad pays bills and deals with other household issues.  Obviously my dad does more of the maintenance chores and my mom does more of the cleaning/cooking/planning but neither one of them seems to put in more work than the other.  I think that my family is pretty a-typical; I don't know many families where the kids do as many chores as I do or where the dad pitches in to do the laundry or cook dinner.  I think it is important for everyone in a family to help eachother out and pull their own weight.  The values that I learned growing up from having to help out around the house have definitely helped me become a better person; doing so many chores also makes me appreciate my parents a whole lot more.  This activity was interesting as it made me compare a stereotypical family to my own and see just how much my family is different.

Week 11: Religion in Government

Learning about and discussing different religions is always interesting to me.  I was raised non-religious; although my family celebrates Christmas, I've never gone to church and my parents have never talked to me about religion.  Both of them were raised Cathlotic but decided not to have religion play a role in the lives of their kids.

I think that the seperation of church and state is important.  We live in a free country and everyone should be free to have their own beliefs, therefore religion shouldn't dictate how the government is run.  I do believe that religion plays an important role in society as it does help create a sense of community and like the book says in the "Behind the Headlines" feature, it can help children have better self-control and social skills.  The government shouldn't control religion and religion shouldn't control the government.  Because religious people make up the various levels within the government, it is obviously going to have some influence on their decisions and such but I think that church and state should remain as seperate as possible because religion is a huge source of conflict.

Week Ten: Race & Ethnicity

Exploring the website about the Japanese internment during World War II really put the whole situation in perspective.  It is crazy to read that United States citizens were seperated from their families just because of their heirtage.  The Yasutake family was discriminated upon just because of what they looked like.  It must have been tough for the family to reenter the general population of the United States; I can't imagine that it was easy for the children to return to school.  Reading their story really shows how much of a hardship these people were put through.  I did find it interesting when the website made a reference to 9/11; can you imagine if the US government put all Muslim Americans in internment camps?