Socialization is how people react to the social norms. Socialization effects all of us very much, even if we don't know it. When we are young we believe what our parents and authority figures tell us no matter what. Then when we are older institutional and cultural socialization kicks in. This is where we are unknowingly socialized by the people around us. This affects my life and other peoples lifes a lot because without both of these steps I would be a totally different person.
The mask project at animas high school is a very interesting way to start off the school year and our four years we have here at animas. Its a way for our teachers to get to know us well and also for us to get to know each other well. Throughout the mask project I have found out some things about friends that I did know about them before. The mask project is also very interesting because it has an artistic aspect to it instead of just having us writing a paper. We had to make a mask to go with our paper. Our mask had to be about ways that we have been socialized and had to show various symbols representing ways we have been socialized.
When we wrote our essays in class we made lots of drafts and did lots of revisions to get them to the point they are at now. At animas we use google docs so we can share our work with our peers and teachers whenever we need. They can then leave comments about our whole paper or just a certain section. We could share our paper with whoever we wanted whenever we wanted and they could leave comments about how we could improve on our paper. I learned from this that it is very easy to miss little mistakes and that it is always a good idea to have someone look over your paper.
So far this year I am very proud of myself because I have been getting my work in on time which is something that I struggled with in the past. I hope to improve on making everything that i do my most beautiful work.
All my life I have been seen as a middle class white teenager in today's society.
Sometimes I feel like a bird flying for the first time but other times its more of a bird being caged up and locked away. As a middle class white teenager I have been socialized positively and negatively very many times , although I usually get socialized positively rather than negative.
My Paper
In today's society being a white teen is easier than being a teen of color or different race because of all the racist stereotypes. Some examples of these would be that asians study hard Because of their strict parents, or that blacks and mexicans are in gang and steal things. Even though people say oh its just a stereotype it's not true in all instances in the back of there mind they still think everytime they see a mexican with saggy pants or a bandana that that person may be in a gang or involved with sketchy business. For example, August 9th 2014 in Fergguson Missouri Michael Brown stole a box of cigars with one of his friends from a store, later to be questioned by a police man. Police reports say the police man was Darren Wilson, a White 28 year old male. According to the reports there was some struggling in the car and a shot was fired from inside the police car, Brown and his friend ran in different directions and the police man chased down Brown and shot him 6 times. Browns friend Dorian Johnson said the officer pulled up and told them to get on the sidewalk in a very rude manner and with inappropriate language. Although it is racist I, as well as many other americans, believe that if michael brown was not a black man that he would not of gotten shot and instead just would have gotten arrested for stealing.
Some other ways that I have been socialized is in the middle class. I was at the store and asked my mom for a toy. She says “No Clay we don't need this”. I see another kid who wants that same toy and there parents say “I guess you can get it its only 25 dollars”, there is one more kid in that store and he asks his mother and she says, “No we don't have enough for that.”. These are the three classes of wealth in action. The two outlier classes are the rich and the poor, And then there is the middle class which is viewed and the average american even though america is made up of mostly lower and working class.
My friends are some of the people that socialize me the the most, even though they might be the closest to me. I like to play hockey and lacrosse which are generally seen as white sports. Not very many people of color play hockey at the professional level so most people automatically assume hockey is a white sport, just like people think basketball is not a white sport because a common stereotype among white people is that they can't jump high. Hockey is also very expensive. Alot of my friends say things along the lines of “How do u afford that isn't hockey gear like extremely expensive!” or “doesn't hockey cost like three hundred dollars to sign up for!”. But hockey is not the only sport that I play. I also play lacrosse. I feel like lacrosse has been socialized in a bad way. Because of movies and other things that people see or hear most people think that lacrosse is for rich preppy white boys. I was talking to my buddy Jason Caplin about this and he said “I watch this show and it has a lacrosse team on it. The team on the show was all of the very popular, rich, and smart selfish boys. I just assumed that because the team on the show was like this i just thought that this was how most lacrosse players and teams were.”.
All this shows is that people can't see past the surface or look further into a certain situation or event. For instance, with the Michael brown case people just assumed that the police man was racist and thats why he shot michael brown. They believed this because thats what they heard from friends and family or possibly even the news. They chose to believe what was on the surface instead of going deep into it and making there own opinions on what really happened with michael brown.
Socialization is not just thing that some people think about, it has its own official cycle and is actually studied about in some college courses. The article “The Cycle of Socialization” by Bobbie Harro explains everything about it from start to finish. Its starts out with the first stage of socialization, the beginning. This is where you are a innocent little baby that believes everything that they see around them. You feel no guilt or shame and you have limited to no information about society. The second stage is called first socialization. This is the ways that we have been socialized by our parents, teachers, or people we trust. In this stage you begin to get a sense of of social norms like girls like pink or boys play sports. The Third stage is institutional and cultural socialization. This is when you start to get socialized by the groups or institutions around you. Examples would be your church or the media, even something as little as song lyrics. The next part of the cycle is enforcements. This is where you get socialized by the way you act. For example if somebody says the like the shirt you have on you might want to wear it more because of all the good reactions it getting. But it could also be your mom yelling at you for coloring on the wall. Chances are when she yelled at you it made you feel bad and you want color on the wall anymore. The next stage is results. This is how all of these stages of the cycle of socialization make you feel. Some people feel anger or disappointment with themselves, and can even be as serious as people feeling valiant or mad at everyone else. The next two almost fit together. The two are direction for change and actions. These are both about what you can do to change the cycle. You can either keep it going, or change and do your own thing.
A goal of mine is to work one direction for change more and change the cycle. By doing this other might join in and soon enough there would be no cycle and people would be free to do what they want and not feel like they are being judged because of what they do or wear.
The mask project at animas high school is a very interesting way to start off the school year and our four years we have here at animas. Its a way for our teachers to get to know us well and also for us to get to know each other well. Throughout the mask project I have found out some things about friends that I did know about them before. The mask project is also very interesting because it has an artistic aspect to it instead of just having us writing a paper. We had to make a mask to go with our paper. Our mask had to be about ways that we have been socialized and had to show various symbols representing ways we have been socialized.
When we wrote our essays in class we made lots of drafts and did lots of revisions to get them to the point they are at now. At animas we use google docs so we can share our work with our peers and teachers whenever we need. They can then leave comments about our whole paper or just a certain section. We could share our paper with whoever we wanted whenever we wanted and they could leave comments about how we could improve on our paper. I learned from this that it is very easy to miss little mistakes and that it is always a good idea to have someone look over your paper.
So far this year I am very proud of myself because I have been getting my work in on time which is something that I struggled with in the past. I hope to improve on making everything that i do my most beautiful work.
All my life I have been seen as a middle class white teenager in today's society.
Sometimes I feel like a bird flying for the first time but other times its more of a bird being caged up and locked away. As a middle class white teenager I have been socialized positively and negatively very many times , although I usually get socialized positively rather than negative.
My Paper
In today's society being a white teen is easier than being a teen of color or different race because of all the racist stereotypes. Some examples of these would be that asians study hard Because of their strict parents, or that blacks and mexicans are in gang and steal things. Even though people say oh its just a stereotype it's not true in all instances in the back of there mind they still think everytime they see a mexican with saggy pants or a bandana that that person may be in a gang or involved with sketchy business. For example, August 9th 2014 in Fergguson Missouri Michael Brown stole a box of cigars with one of his friends from a store, later to be questioned by a police man. Police reports say the police man was Darren Wilson, a White 28 year old male. According to the reports there was some struggling in the car and a shot was fired from inside the police car, Brown and his friend ran in different directions and the police man chased down Brown and shot him 6 times. Browns friend Dorian Johnson said the officer pulled up and told them to get on the sidewalk in a very rude manner and with inappropriate language. Although it is racist I, as well as many other americans, believe that if michael brown was not a black man that he would not of gotten shot and instead just would have gotten arrested for stealing.
Some other ways that I have been socialized is in the middle class. I was at the store and asked my mom for a toy. She says “No Clay we don't need this”. I see another kid who wants that same toy and there parents say “I guess you can get it its only 25 dollars”, there is one more kid in that store and he asks his mother and she says, “No we don't have enough for that.”. These are the three classes of wealth in action. The two outlier classes are the rich and the poor, And then there is the middle class which is viewed and the average american even though america is made up of mostly lower and working class.
My friends are some of the people that socialize me the the most, even though they might be the closest to me. I like to play hockey and lacrosse which are generally seen as white sports. Not very many people of color play hockey at the professional level so most people automatically assume hockey is a white sport, just like people think basketball is not a white sport because a common stereotype among white people is that they can't jump high. Hockey is also very expensive. Alot of my friends say things along the lines of “How do u afford that isn't hockey gear like extremely expensive!” or “doesn't hockey cost like three hundred dollars to sign up for!”. But hockey is not the only sport that I play. I also play lacrosse. I feel like lacrosse has been socialized in a bad way. Because of movies and other things that people see or hear most people think that lacrosse is for rich preppy white boys. I was talking to my buddy Jason Caplin about this and he said “I watch this show and it has a lacrosse team on it. The team on the show was all of the very popular, rich, and smart selfish boys. I just assumed that because the team on the show was like this i just thought that this was how most lacrosse players and teams were.”.
All this shows is that people can't see past the surface or look further into a certain situation or event. For instance, with the Michael brown case people just assumed that the police man was racist and thats why he shot michael brown. They believed this because thats what they heard from friends and family or possibly even the news. They chose to believe what was on the surface instead of going deep into it and making there own opinions on what really happened with michael brown.
Socialization is not just thing that some people think about, it has its own official cycle and is actually studied about in some college courses. The article “The Cycle of Socialization” by Bobbie Harro explains everything about it from start to finish. Its starts out with the first stage of socialization, the beginning. This is where you are a innocent little baby that believes everything that they see around them. You feel no guilt or shame and you have limited to no information about society. The second stage is called first socialization. This is the ways that we have been socialized by our parents, teachers, or people we trust. In this stage you begin to get a sense of of social norms like girls like pink or boys play sports. The Third stage is institutional and cultural socialization. This is when you start to get socialized by the groups or institutions around you. Examples would be your church or the media, even something as little as song lyrics. The next part of the cycle is enforcements. This is where you get socialized by the way you act. For example if somebody says the like the shirt you have on you might want to wear it more because of all the good reactions it getting. But it could also be your mom yelling at you for coloring on the wall. Chances are when she yelled at you it made you feel bad and you want color on the wall anymore. The next stage is results. This is how all of these stages of the cycle of socialization make you feel. Some people feel anger or disappointment with themselves, and can even be as serious as people feeling valiant or mad at everyone else. The next two almost fit together. The two are direction for change and actions. These are both about what you can do to change the cycle. You can either keep it going, or change and do your own thing.
A goal of mine is to work one direction for change more and change the cycle. By doing this other might join in and soon enough there would be no cycle and people would be free to do what they want and not feel like they are being judged because of what they do or wear.