Week 3 Objects

The object I chose to analyze is a ring or rings. Rings are usually referred to as a piece of jewelry. They are usually of a circular shape and sometimes have a gem, design, or charm on them. Rings can mean various things to a person. Rings can be used to represent an accomplishment, such as graduation rings when graduating high school or college or championship rings such as Super Bowl rings. Rings can represent someone's commitment to another human being, such as wedding rings, engagement rings, or promise rings. Rings can also signify personal choices a person has made, such as chastity rings. Rings can simply just be fashion object sometimes too. For me personally rings are just a fashion object. Some rings I cherish more than others if they came from someone important to me.

Rings came into existence a long time ago, people of royalty used to me bathed in jewelry, including rings. Over time rings have become to represent more than just royalty. Such as mentioned earlier, rings can signify marital status. Rings have served as an index in society for marriage. The size of an engagement ring is sometimes meant to determine how wealthy the groom may be. Wedding bands tell people whether or not a person is married or not when it comes to the dating world to prevent people of having to ask a person, instead people just look for a ring. I believe this object will still exist in the future because rings serve so many different meanings it's hard to believe that all these meaning will disappear.

As described earlier this object is used for many different reasons. Rings are usually bought and sold in jewelry stores. Rings can be special ordered too. Some rings are earned, such as the rings given for accomplishments. Other rings can be passed down from generation to generation. The existence of rings affects people differently depending on what the ring means to them. Accomplishment rings affect people by allowing them to have something to visually see all the hard work they have done has paid off. Wedding rings, engagement rings, and promise rings affect people because they represent a commitment that someone special has made to them. Fashion rings affect people by allowing people to feel fashionable or pretty by wearing a particular ring. Usually the people wearing the ring are the people who benefit from the ring. People that suffer from rings are people who have not made a significant accomplishment to get a ring, people who have not found that person to give them a special ring, or people who cannot afford the ring they have always wanted. The social interactions that stem from its use and interaction have briefly been described already. As mentioned earlier the social interaction that stems from the meaning of rings are in the dating world. People only approach people who do not have a ring because they know they are single and will not be wasting their time. People may have more respect for someone who has a ring that represents an accomplishment. I believe rings tell many things about our society. One being the fact that we value materialistic objects. Even though rings are materialistic object they have different meanings for different people. They also show us how society give great meaning to materialistic objects.

Rings do exist in other countries as as the U.S. Rings, however, tend to have different meanings. For example my dad is from Pakistan and in Pakistan rings are used primarily in fashion, at least for women. They do not have marital rings. I do not know of any countries that alter rings and used from for different meaning than the ones that have been mentioned. Rings can be made from various materials that can determine their value, from gold, silver, and white gold.

Week 2 Indexes

According to Shwalbe, learning to read or interpret an index sociologically is to see its connection to some aspect of how the social world works. There are many obvious and nonobvious indexes in the world.

One of the more obvious indexes about how the social world works are reality tv shows. For example reality shows such as "Dancing with the Stars" or "The Bachelor". The tv ratings of these shows demonstrate that millions of people are putting time aside to watch these reality shows that really have no value. The reality show "The Bachelor" is an index to why some women are still oppressed or not treated with respect. On the show twenty five women or more are all put into a house to fight over one man's heart. This show that is broadcast to millions of women is showing them how its okay to be desperate and have low self esteem. Shows like this influence girls today, eventhough they may watch it and find it ridiculous, they have still been exposed to this behavior that has been deemed okay since it is allowed on television for all to see. This index can explain why so many young girls today are dealing with low self esteem issues all the way to severe depression. The television network broadcasts whatever show brings in the rating without being sociologically mindful of who their show may be effecting.

T.O.U.C.Ch Update

This past friday, April 16th, I went to Watsonville to volunteer with T.O.U.C.Ch at the Calabasas Elementary School After School Program. I was suprised to see how many kids participate in the After School Program, it was almost a full classroom of kids. When we got there each of the volunteers were assigned a classroom to go to where they would work with a few kids at time to work on their 4 Why's worksheet. This exercise is to help them develop better strategies when taking multiple choice tests, such as their test coming up in a couple of weeks now. I volunteered to go to the sixth grade classroom and the After School Program director said I was "brave." Which kind of made me nervous after.

When I got into the classroom the kids were doing their test-prep class so I just walked around looking at their test questions to make sure I was familiar with the questions they were given. While walking around the classroom I noticed the kids were very antsy. They could not sit still or keep quiet during their test prep. This made me feel like it would be a challenge to get them to focus when I had to work with them. After they were done taking the test I got my first three kids to work with. Almost all of the kids at the elementary school speak Spanish, therefore the first thing the kids asked me was if I spoke Spanish. Sadly though after three years of Spanish in high school, I still cannot speak Spanish. At first I was a little uncomfortable because they kept talking in Spanish and I had no idea what they were saying but I quickly got over it.

For both the group of kids I worked with it was hard to get them to focus as I predicted. At the same time though, I realized that it was a Friday and the kids were probably tired of school. Eventually though I did get them to finish their worksheet. I really enjoyed doing the worksheet for them because I felt like it really got the kids to analyze the questions they were answering. When you have to explain why an answer is right or wrong you begin to see all the tricks the test makers have to make the wrong answer look right.

After the worksheet they had PE time. Since it was Friday they do not have any homework. During PE time there was not much for me to do but I paid attention to the kids so that I could get to know them better and what they liked. My first day volunteering at the After School Program was definitely a good experience and I cannot wait to go back again. Since the kids get homework during the week, it is important that people can volunteer during the weekdays. Which is why I plan on volunteering on Wednesday therefore I can see what they are working on for their homework and help them with that.

The T.O.U.C.Ch. project is very admirable. I was happy to participate and plan on participating more in the future!

Week 1 Hello!

Hello, my name is Quratulann but I go by Cori. This is my first sociology course at De Anza. This is also my last quarter at De Anza. I will be transferring next fall. I am hoping to learn the similarities and differences between psychology and sociology by taking this class.

After reading about the TOUCCh project in emails, I am looking forward to participating in volunteer work for the after school program. I have always been interested in working with children.

I am looking forward to the rest of the quarter with you guys!