19. April 2009 by student.

                Stereotyping is something that everyone has to face in their lives. People just assuming something about people because of the way they look, dress, talk, or anything else you can think of. I believe this is a really big problem for people in our time and many others to come. Stereotyping people can cause a lot more than just making fun of people and them being sad for a few days. This can kill their self esteem and make them secluded. I personally have been very stereotyped in my lifetime and it has not changed me, but it is just very annoying.

                There are so many ways you can stereotype people in the world and we should just stop this all together. Before just judging the person you should actually get to know them and then determine if you like them or not. Don’t just assume things like if they are wearing tight pants they must be gay or that person has a lot of tattoos and piercings, so they must be weird. To be honest I have meet a lot of interesting people in my life and so very odd looking ones as well. They are not all as bad as people portray them to be. I am going to use myself as an example. I don’t usually wear the same clothes as others because I like wear my shirts and pants tight. I like my shorts to be above my knees and most people think this is very weird and strange. I was just recently at the movie theater and I was wearing a white shirt and cut off jeans that are above the knees. When I walked into the theater these two kids about my age just stared at me. I just love knowing what people are thinking when they stare at me and they just think; wow this kid is really weird and is probably gay. It just so funny to me because these people just judged me based on the shorts I was wearing and to be honest that is so sad.

                Another think people really stereotype others on this their taste in music. This is something I believe will never change. I have been in this situation many of times as well. I do not look like the kid that would listening to insane screaming music where most of the time you do not understand what the person is talking about. I usually get to know people before I tell them what music I listen to because of things that have happened to me in the past. In my high school for junior and senior year I was in class with people that were not even close to being like me. Our teacher told us to bring in some of your music to share with the class to like break the ice and get to know people better. I knew this was going to be a horrible idea, but I just went along with it. I went home and searched my Itunes for the softest music I had and I came up with some songs that were not too bad. When it was time to share our music for some reason everyone wanted to hear my music. I think people just wanted to know what music the kid with shorts above the knee listens to. The teacher popped in the CD and people were silent. When the first song came on people just started screaming to turn it off. I was so shocked people like me have to listen to their rap music all the time and we never complain and God forbid they hear something they don’t want to listen to, they freak out. Once that happened people just looked at me weird and it took them some time to realize I was not a weird kid that cuts myself or something. The good part about that was one girl actually had a lot of friend that listened to that music, so I actually had one person to talk to. Over the course of the year everyone did not think I was crazy anymore because they actually started talking to me and noticed that I was cool.

                These examples just prove to everyone that you cannot just judge people based on appearance or what they like or do. You really just need to get to know them and find out who they are and then base you decision on that. I really hope that people read this and become inspired and not judge people so quickly.              

Posted in Introduction to Sociology | 1 Comment »

19. April 2009 by student.

Sexual education is perhaps one of the most important subjects that can be taught in school, and its lessons will probably stick with you much longer than any math course you may have taken. So it is shocking to me that many private Christian school wont even touch this subject. Now, I am speaking from personal experience from my own high school so i’m sure this wont be the case in all the schools, but im told it is the same way in many Catholic schools as well. When teenagers want to spend time with eachother they will find a way to do so, teens these days are probably the most resourceful as well, so telling them to “just dont do it” probably wont cut it. The administration of these schools say it is the job of the parents to educate their children on the subject, which is of course a reasonable thing to assume, but many parents dont like doing it and the child will most likely be very uncomfortable to listen to it. While on the other hand, if schools dedicated a few days or a small course on the subject, they can have the peace to learn with a more anonymous and comfortable atmosphere. Saying that all sex is wrong before marriage is just going to make them want to do it more, and for the religious schools to stick their head in the sand when it comes to these events is quite ignorant and unprofessional. Even if it is against their beliefs, this will still happen, it is better to educate on what might happen than to be left in the dark and unprepared when it does happen.

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19. April 2009 by student.

There is an old saying that goes something like this; An Atheist and a Christian are debating with each other about our creation. The Christian says “you are wrong, God created the universe and everything in it.” The Atheist says “no, you are wrong, the universe was created over billions of years and life was created by chance.” Then the Atheist asks where God comes from, the Christian replies with “he just sort of appeared out of nowhere”. Then the Atheist was asked where the big bang came from, and all he could say was “it just appeared out of nowhere as well”.

Both arguments always end up leading to the same conclusion, where one tries to prove their point with the Bible and the other with Science, but neither are absolute. Instead of labeling ourselves as people who believe in a God or gods, or maybe no God at all, perhaps we should just label ourselves as human and put religion on the side while allowing science to dominate. Dont get me wrong, religion is a great thing for society, it helps bring together familes and form a set of rules to live by that benefits everyone. But when these things come in the way of advancing our entire race as a whole, perhaps it is time to kick our superstitions to the curb, because the last thing we need is another Dark Age where science is condemned as “witchcraft”.

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

19. April 2009 by student.

Steroid use today can spell disaster in the future for the estimated 500,000 to 1,000,000 student athletes who take performance enhancing drugs. While young athletes using steroids think that they are improving their performance, they may be causing damage to their bodies and damage that will last far longer than their athletic careers.

Some of the major effects of anabolic steroid use can include liver tumors, jaundice, high blood pressure, fertility problems, and heart disease. Steroid users may also suffer excessive irritability, delusions, and extreme mood swings. At Congressional hearings on steroid use, government officials and professional athletes alike were moved to tears by families who spoke of their athletic, popular, teenage children committing suicide after using steroids.

Most high schools have mandatory orientation meetings for athletes and their parents at the beginning of the sports season. Parents should be given a list of symptoms to keep an eye out for including emotional, physical and behavioral changes that could reflect steroid use. Student athletes are usually required to get a physical before being allowed to participate in extracurricular sports.  Even though the health risks are abundant, steriod use by high school students has climbed in recent years and is at all time highs. Some doctors even recommend that high school athletes not even take creatine, a popular, legal supplement used by many professional athletes to shorten recovery time and improve training even though no studies have established long term effects of creatine use.

Federal authorities have subpoenaed a long list of prominent athletes, to testify about their interaction and possible usage of steroids. In a recent article, some high school athletes on the Antioch’s Deer Valley High football team were asked their opinions on the issue. Half of them thought the users were cheaters and they would personally would never consider using steroids. The other half think if its a way to improve performance and you do not get caught, why not do it. It does however scare the heck out of everybody, the risk of getting caught and possible side effects on your liver at 45.

In a time of intense competition for college scholarships and the chance at professional riches, the temptation is strong to use drugs known to increase size and strength. A high school junior, 6-foot, 220-pound running back talked about working out at an unsupervised gym and how he was sure steroids were being used especially when some guys gain 30 or 40 pounds over muscle over one summer. Coaches often do not know or do not want to know the extent of steroid use among their players. Everyone is looking for a shortcut but the best players do the work themselves. You have parents and coaches with unrealistic expectations, they think or want the kid to be better than he really is which can lead to steroid use to live up to what is expected. Parents should be more understanding and supportive of their children and coaches should be more aware of what their athletes are doing.

Unfortunately we live in a society where athletes make more money than physicians who save lives on a daily basis and teachers that influence our children ’s future everyday. Although, there are some things that we can not change we can educate on the lasting and long term effects of steroid use to our children, friends and family. The pressure to be the best will always be there, now it is for an individual to decide what being the “best” really means. I believe in fate and that no matter the time, place or situation the truth always prevails. It is a shame that these professional althletes that our children look up to fail them and do not deserve to be rolemodels. This is an issue that affects all of us whether directly or indirectly, we need to reinforce the importance of playing the game, following the rules and being the best that you can be…. NATURALLY !

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

19. April 2009 by student.

The war in Iraq is of big controversy and it is being considered a huge social problem since it is affecting our society so much. Not only is our economy getting affected by this war, but we are also loosing innocent lives and nothing is being done about it ! Have you seen how many soldiers are being pulled away from their family to go fight for something that has no name.. yes I believe this war is something pointless!  I know there are many different opinions about why this war is taking place, but mines is that we are just fighting to prove the United States is a strong country, when in reality by fighting we are just deteriorating our own country. Theres many things been said that Iraq was making a progress but have you noticed how they are progressing and we are just staying behind.. There have been 1.2 million of soldiers killed and so much money is been used to provide guns and stuff to contribute to the death of these poor soldiers that nobody has enough money to even eat.. I mean let’s be real.. what’s the point of wasting money on bombs and guns when we can spend it on those people dying of cancer and that actually do need the help!

Therefore increase the peace and decrease the death of those poor soldiers!   

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