Blog #6

Nature vs Nurture:

Nature- We laerned about the growing man metaphor in class, sal talked about how people are born with a potential or an aptitude toward their full conscious, but they need others to nurture it out of us.  Through our biology we were created to be social beings. 

Nurture- Works with your nature to enhance it, repress it or change the nature to something else. 

"If we do not have that nurture we cannot reach our higher power of consciousness and awareness." - Sal

Agents of socialization such as school, family, or media (nurture), all make us who we are. For example, in class we watched the video about Danielle and how some people turn out, if they grow up without the nurturing that all humans need. She was neglected by her family and was never provided with the neccesities of a child that is growing and changing. The parents set a basis for language(no reading, speaking, or writing), morals, right vs wrong, simple day to day tasks (bathroom), and most of all they never provided her with love. Sal taught us how a brain is like a sponge and while a person is young, typically 1-9 years old, its like a new sponge (dry and ready to soak up knowledge) but as they become older, the sponge becomes full, making it harder and harder for people to learn new and major things. Therefore, even after being rescued at age 14, she was not able to learn the things that are considered "simple" in our lives. 

Some examples from my own life of nurture was my mom praising me for trying my best. Even though I didn't do too well on an assignment or project, my mom would still reward me if I had truley tried my hardest. These lesson carry over to my highschool career, becuase my mom doesn't put pressure on me to do well, I do on myself. Even though I might do bad on a test, the person who seems to care more is me, because my mom knows that I tried. If she knew I didn't spend alot of time on it, then she would be disappointed. Along with this, an example of socialization is when I was in my mother's womb she ate alot of savory/salty foods vs sweet, I (not surprisingly) prefer to dig into a bag of chips rather than a candy bar. 

Blog #5

Living in America:

Living in America is not as amazing as many people believe it to be. Everything is bigger and better, but compared to other countries; it appears that we prioritize material culture far more than non-material culture.

As seen with the chart below-

American Values                                        vs. Other Cultures’ Values

Personal control/responsibility                   vs. Fate/destiny

Change seen as natural/positive/Progress vs. Stability/tradition

Time and its control                                     vs. Human Interaction

Equality/fairness                                          vs. Hierarchy/rank/status

Individualism/independence/freedom   vs. Group welfare/dependence

Self-Help/initiative                                    vs. Birthright/inheritance

Competition                                               vs. Cooperation

Future orientation                                     vs. Past orientation

Action/work                                                vs. “Being”

Informality                                                 vs. Formality

Directness/openness/Honesty                    vs. Indirectness/ritual/”face”

Practicality/efficiency                                 vs. Idealism/theory

Materialism/Acquisitiveness                        vs. Spiritualism/detachment

Achievement/Success                                   vs. Acceptance/Status Quo

Morality/judgment                        vs. Consequentialism/situational ethics

In class we watched Tuesdays With Morrie, which exhibited many of these values we have seemed to prioritize over others. The main character, Mitch was engrossed with his job leaving no time for his girlfriend, friends, or family. He spent all of his time traveling to find information for his column, putting a strain on his relationship with his girlfriend, leading to an unwanted breakup and realization that he needed to set his prioritize straight. After seeing that Morrie, was diagnosed with a terminal illness, he made it a precedence to spend some time with him. Doing so exposed him to Morrie's values (unordinary to the US), which encompassed the importance of family, spirituality, acceptance, etc. He reconized his wrong doings and was able to fix the issues with work and his girlfriend. Mitch before Morrie is what a majority of Americans lives are like, we are so focused on money and work that we hardly leave time for anything that is truly important. I observed America's skewed values, but never thought about it very deeply. This movie made me want to change my everyday concerns that wont matter years from now and focus on my family and friends.