Morrison The Playground Gets Even Tougher Pamela Paul The New York TImes October 8th, 2010 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/10/fashion/10Cultural.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1
In "The Playground Gets Even Tougher" by Pamela Paul, parents, teachers, and social scientists have begun to encounter bullying by girls as young as about five years old. Many are complaining about the cruelty exhibited by these "mean girl" kindergartners and are questioning why children so young are exhibiting this type of behavior. Throughout the article, Paul attributed the behavior to various distinct reasons but the overriding theme I found was imitation. These kindergarten mean girls are imitating the behavior they witness when they consume media or from their "mean girl" mothers. This form of imitation reminded me of George Herbert Mead and his theory on play stages. I believe that to an extent these little girls are imitating the behavior that they witness through the media and at home without having a full understanding of the consequences of what they do. They are simply imitating the behavior and playing the role of a mean girl while attempting to understand and build their own sense of self. Unfortunately in this type of play, the little girls aren't being bullied themselves so they have no idea what it feels like and I doubt that at five years old they know how their victim feels like.
1. sr71-745 2. The Playground Gets Even Tougher 3. Pamela Paul 4. NY Times 5. 10/08/2010 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/10/fashion/10Cultural.html?_r=1
This article demonstrates Mead's theory of the development of role taking. He describes 4 stages as imitation stage, play stage, game stage, and generalized other. In this article we are able to see bullying take place within younger generations than previously thought. Instead of beginning in later elementary school levels, bullying is taking place at kindergarten levels. In this story one kindergarten girl is bullying another kindergarten girl by teasing her and excluding her from activities. The play stage of Mead's theory can be seen in the example of kindergarten life portrayed in the article. The bully girl is forming a band but she is not allowing the other girl to join. They are playing roles where the one girl is the boss and makes the rules and is able to exclude the other little girl. Through this the other girl that is being left out understands her role and accepts the idea that she can be left out because that is the role she has assumed in her kindergarten class. It also relates to the game stage because each girl not only understands their role but is learning to understand each other's roles as well. So when the bully girl says that she cannot join the band, the little girl understands that the bully girls role is to decide what she can and cannot do.
1 rr69?376 2 Book tells stories of the wrongly imprisoned 3 Matt Cherry 4 CNN.com 5 October 7, 2010 6 http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/10/07/wrongly.imprisoned/index.html
When reading this article the social theorist that almost immediately came to mind was W E B Dubois and his concept of double consciousness. The reason that this article made me think of him was because it discussed a number of black men that are in the prison system that have been imprisoned even though the reasons behind their imprisonment are false. This concept of Double consciousness comes into play because those men that are imprisoned see themselves as not guilty and worthy to be freed. But at the same time the judge and the court sees them as guilty and justly incarcerated. Though we are America and a free country are there still African Americans being oppressed even as W E B Dubois was speaking of even today? Dubois would argue that it is still going on very much so especially in the prison system.
This article just like Dubois spoke of the two-ness though the African American men are Americans, some of this unjust behavior that they are exposed to is believed to be because they are African American. The power that is given to the more authoritative officer, usually acts to ostracize African American men from the rest of society due to unjust causes. They do this because of the cultural norms that are different than the European Americans. The elements of Power, Isolation, internal conflict between norms of African Americans and European American proves that the three manifestations of double consciousness that Dubois defined are still active in the society that we live in.
At the top of each post you must list the following information: 1. Your Codeword 2. Title of the news article you choose (see suggestions below) 3. Author of the news article 4. Source of the news article 5. Date of the news article 6. Link (url) to the news article
Those six lines should be followed by your reflection from the perspective of the social theorist you choose from the list of options for each due date. A reflection is not a summary. Instead, what you are expected to do is to thoroughly read the news article of your choice and reflect on it from the perspective of one of the assigned Social Theorists. Note that your reflection may include a bit of summary, but it must not consist entirely of summarizing the article. Good reflections will analyze the issue discussed in the article from the perspective of one of the assigned Social Theorists; outstanding posts will even take the voice (write in the tone and style of) the Social Theorist. Reflections should be a minimum of one paragraph. They must be posted no later than 4pm on the due date below and the article you choose must have been published within two weeks of the due date. There are 3 points possible of Extra Credit for each post.
Morrison
ReplyDeleteThe Playground Gets Even Tougher
Pamela Paul
The New York TImes
October 8th, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/10/fashion/10Cultural.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1
In "The Playground Gets Even Tougher" by Pamela Paul, parents, teachers, and social scientists have begun to encounter bullying by girls as young as about five years old. Many are complaining about the cruelty exhibited by these "mean girl" kindergartners and are questioning why children so young are exhibiting this type of behavior. Throughout the article, Paul attributed the behavior to various distinct reasons but the overriding theme I found was imitation. These kindergarten mean girls are imitating the behavior they witness when they consume media or from their "mean girl" mothers. This form of imitation reminded me of George Herbert Mead and his theory on play stages. I believe that to an extent these little girls are imitating the behavior that they witness through the media and at home without having a full understanding of the consequences of what they do. They are simply imitating the behavior and playing the role of a mean girl while attempting to understand and build their own sense of self. Unfortunately in this type of play, the little girls aren't being bullied themselves so they have no idea what it feels like and I doubt that at five years old they know how their victim feels like.
1. sr71-745
ReplyDelete2. The Playground Gets Even Tougher
3. Pamela Paul
4. NY Times
5. 10/08/2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/10/fashion/10Cultural.html?_r=1
This article demonstrates Mead's theory of the development of role taking. He describes 4 stages as imitation stage, play stage, game stage, and generalized other. In this article we are able to see bullying take place within younger generations than previously thought. Instead of beginning in later elementary school levels, bullying is taking place at kindergarten levels. In this story one kindergarten girl is bullying another kindergarten girl by teasing her and excluding her from activities. The play stage of Mead's theory can be seen in the example of kindergarten life portrayed in the article. The bully girl is forming a band but she is not allowing the other girl to join. They are playing roles where the one girl is the boss and makes the rules and is able to exclude the other little girl. Through this the other girl that is being left out understands her role and accepts the idea that she can be left out because that is the role she has assumed in her kindergarten class. It also relates to the game stage because each girl not only understands their role but is learning to understand each other's roles as well. So when the bully girl says that she cannot join the band, the little girl understands that the bully girls role is to decide what she can and cannot do.
1 rr69?376
ReplyDelete2 Book tells stories of the wrongly imprisoned
3 Matt Cherry
4 CNN.com
5 October 7, 2010
6 http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/10/07/wrongly.imprisoned/index.html
When reading this article the social theorist that almost immediately came to mind was W E B Dubois and his concept of double consciousness. The reason that this article made me think of him was because it discussed a number of black men that are in the prison system that have been imprisoned even though the reasons behind their imprisonment are false. This concept of Double consciousness comes into play because those men that are imprisoned see themselves as not guilty and worthy to be freed. But at the same time the judge and the court sees them as guilty and justly incarcerated. Though we are America and a free country are there still African Americans being oppressed even as W E B Dubois was speaking of even today? Dubois would argue that it is still going on very much so especially in the prison system.
This article just like Dubois spoke of the two-ness though the African American men are Americans, some of this unjust behavior that they are exposed to is believed to be because they are African American. The power that is given to the more authoritative officer, usually acts to ostracize African American men from the rest of society due to unjust causes. They do this because of the cultural norms that are different than the European Americans. The elements of Power, Isolation, internal conflict between norms of African Americans and European American proves that the three manifestations of double consciousness that Dubois defined are still active in the society that we live in.