24. April 2009 by student.

Divorce rates are seen by sociologists as an indicator of the health of the institution of marriage. Divorce rates have fluctuated over the years and many people now view marriage as something that is not permanent, but can be ended, and eventually, re-entered. Couples get divorced for many reasons, including marrying quick or young, conflict of values, falling “out” of love, and most importantly financial strain.

Divorce is not initially “taught” to children. It is something that they learn later in life, when they can understand the concept of divorce, usually after being exposed to it somehow.

It is often easier for younger children to deal with the effects of divorce. If a child is extremely young, they have time to grow accustomed to being around someone other than their own biological mother or father. The way that children deal with divorce depends on the individual, and also their emotional stability. Sometimes, older children have a mindset that when they hear the news that their parents are getting divorced, it is because they have done something wrong. This is probably not true at all, but this will often upset a child.

My cousin recently got divorced, so I see the effects that it has had. She has two children, and they are 5 and 8. It is hard on the family when the kids can’t come over for certain holidays because they are with their father. It’s sad, but these are the effects that divorce has not only upon the couple, but family as well.

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24. April 2009 by student.

THINK ABOUT IT

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24. April 2009 by student.

          At least once in your lifetime you would hear your parents say “son, in my time before we had all these electronics we would..” and that’s when we would roll our eyes and say “dad, things have changed.” Whether for the good or the bad, we must admit that discoveries have surfaced that we would have never imagined to until hundreds of years from now. Even though, not all countries are as developed as the United States, China, and Russia the influence these countries have on the world is enough to change cultures all together.          

          A couple of months ago I went back to my country Ecuador for vacation. Seven years had passed since I left Ecuador and it was not surprising that many changes had occurred during my absence.  Kids were no longer playing the traditional games my generation was used to. No more yo yos, kites, hide and seek. There was about 50% less kids playing in the street, those other 50% were inside stuck to their television screens playing video games. Ecuador is still considered a developing country but that doesn’t prevent it from receiving all the goods and benefits of the new innovations. Not only have we modernized in technological aspects like video games and computers but we have also boosted the popularity of other sports. Baseball for example is becoming more and more popular throughout the years.          

          While on my visit, I watched my father pay the electric bill of that month. Back when I was a kid we would ride together on the bus to the company in which we would pay the bill personally to a teller. The records were kept in a book and everything was handwritten. I doubt anyone would have imagined that anytime soon that method would change. Now to our amazement you don’t have to leave the house to pay bills. You turn on your computer and pay bills online. Along with bill paying, almost everything can be done online. In a way it’s terrific because it demonstrates how capable man is of advancing in life but at the same time it can be referred to as an economic term “creative destruction.” As we invent and create new items we destroy old ones to make space. For example we created the computer, therefore destroying the demand for typewriters. Ambition and the ever growing population are the major factors that attribute to Global modernization that’s growing at an increasing rate. These are just some examples. It’s a fact; global modernization plays a big role in our everyday life.          

          The critics of global modernization will argue that it’s the major cause of the loss of cultures, lack of family unity, and destruction of some moral values. Either way, it’s something that can’t be stopped. A perfect example of how global modernization can affect cultures is the U.S.A and the Native Americans. When we just began establishing colonies in America in the 1600s we also began the end of the Native American life style. Our ambitions led to expansion even though it meant wiping out another culture. We forced them to blend into western culture and many rituals and traditions were lost through modernization of North America. Nowadays the same is occurring in developing countries that stop their traditional rituals to make room for new and exciting state of mind.          

        When the United States was going through the industrial period, the western farmers moved into the urban cities and filled the factories. The opportunity to make money for every member of the family and to move up on the social ladder abolished most family unity. The importance of going to church, eating with family, and arranged marriages vanished. Children where working and spending their leisure time in new entertainment that was quickly growing. It seems as wealth and fame has become the center of our goals because we all are given the chance to excel.

          On the other hand modernization has many good sides as well. In the science field, medicine has advanced and the cures for plenty of diseases have been discovered. Someday we will find the cure for cancer and other diseases like AIDS. Not only scientifically but technologically have we grown. These days we have a communication so great, that to send a message from opposite sides of the world takes a matter of seconds. Mass media has revolutionized our lives because now we have the opportunity to be aware of all the foreign conflicts and all that goes on in our world. Of course, the internet is the major link that allows us to basically do anything from meeting the love of our life to building a space craft.       

          Therefore, global modernization can take a good or bad role, but for sure it is something that’s inevitable. Personally, I believe that everything is good as long as you have a balance and control on what you do. The world is changing every day as technology advances and our population grows, but we must adapt to these changes without letting them take away our moral values, and beliefs.   

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24. April 2009 by student.

The Florida Department of Education defines the FCAT as the Florida Comprehensive Assesment Test, which measures student knowledge and understanding of reading, writing, science, and mathematics content as described in the Sunshine State Standards. According to the FCAT fact sheet, the purpose of the statewide assesment gathers two types of information–because parents, teachers, and students need FCAT data information about mastery of a student’s skills, and the general public needs FCAT data to understand the “educational health” of students to hold schools and districts accountable for progress.

There is a lot of controversy surrounding the FCAT. Should a single test determine if a student is either promoted to the next grade level or retained?

 When I was in 10th grade, I had a great English teacher, who not only taught us but also made us understand Bloom’s Taxonomy. I really do believe that this helped me to pass the FCAT.  It isn’t uncommon for a student to not excel in test taking. Not enough sleep, nerves, and numerous other factors can influence the performance of a student taking a test.  

I’m not saying that the FCAT is a “bad” test. The FCAT is a pretty good assesment of a student’s knowledge. However, in a certain sense, I feel that sometimes a school can be so concerned with their overall “grade”, that they don’t do as well of a job teaching students other skills that are necessary for success. I’ve had a couple of teachers in the past who have really focused on teaching the whole class to pass the FCAT, and it seemed like they put this subject before anything else, as if it were the most important thing to study.

If a student doesn’t pass the FCAT their sophomore year in high school, they just have to continue to take it until they pass it. In my opinion, I don’t think that juniors, and especially seniors in high school should have the big FCAT rain cloud hanging over their heads. Generally, juniors and seniors in high school are busy looking into colleges, sending in applications, taking SAT’s and ACT’s, and so on. They shouldn’t have to wonder whether or not they will actually be graduating. This is a lot of pressure for a high school student to take, and most people don’t realize that.

 Works Cited

http://fcat.fldoe.org/pdf/fcatfact.pdf

Posted in Introduction to Sociology | 2 Comments »

24. April 2009 by student.

blog-on-hate-crimes.doc

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24. April 2009 by student.

Racismmay be defined as the hatred of one person by another because of skin color, language, customs, place of birth or any other factor that reveals the basic nature of the person.(Vezyte) Racism is everywhere today especially after 9/11/01, ever since then I feel that racism towards anyone who even looks like they are from the middle east has skyrocketed. You see it everywhere, its in the airports, on the streets, in schools, and even in the workplace.

Where I come from, the dominant race is white, and there are a lot of people who are considered “racist”. I too have been placed into this category by my peers. I don’t consider myself to be racist, I just have my own opinions and feel that I am supposed to present my ethnicity and culture to its highest potential. People say that I am too close-minded and have no consideration for other people. The way I see it, if you are calling someone out for representing their ethnicity and their home country, then you are just as “racist” as the rest of us.

Whenever I go home, I see instances of racism just about everyday. At work, if someone of African or middle eastern descent walks into the store, you can see many people staring them down and wondering what they are doing. They do not treat them with the same respect as they would a white man. No I don’t think that this is right or even fair, but there is nothing we can do about it. People today have the right to think and speak freely, and some of them just exercise it more than others.

Racism will always be in the air, and there is nothing anyone can do about it except the person that is doing it. It is up to the racist to change his or her ways of thinking. Yes there is a chance that nothing will change, but I’ve noticed that the more that people are educated on other ethnicity’s the more open-minded they become. So if more people are educated on other races, there is a chance that this world can get rid of some of its hatred.

~http://vezytes.blogspot.com/2007/11/social-problem-racism.html

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24. April 2009 by student.

Living in the 21st century it is not surprising that we are finding new ways to fix problems faster.  A lot of this is due to technology and what scientist are able to invent for us.  Doctors are also creating new tings everyday to benefit our society.  A new finding that will be a beneficial addition to the medicine world is naltrexone,a pill that will help alcoholics recover and be able to be sober quicker than normal rehab.  There are many different opinions and emotions regarding this discovery.  Some believe that it will really work, others thin that people should just do abstinence from alcohol and become sober the normal way.  The world is growing and changing and I think we should accept these new findings that are coming our way.  The pill is said to be “a part of a new generation of anti-addiction drugs that may turn the world of rehab on its head.”  Some people may be sceptical because they fear change; but isn’t that one of the main aspects of life?  To be able to find new discoveries and work with them and learn new things through them and grow.  Walter Kent is a perfect example of a recovered alcoholic thanks to this pill.

Many people did not believe Kent could do this because they claimed it was “playing with fire.”  This due to the fact that Kent was a hardcore alcoholic for 50 years, drinking Heineken and brandy or any alcohol that would come his way.  Kent says he is not tempted in the least thanks to this medication.  Scientist are agreeing that alcoholism has reached the point that depression did 30 years ago when Prozac began to get popular.  So it only makes sense that this medication would start to get some spotlight in the help of people becoming sober.  I think the reason some people are quick to judge and say that it will not work is because of what we are taught.  We are taught that addictions like these are only fixed through rehab in which you don’t rely on a pill to fix your problems.  But if one can use a pill to help depression or anxiety why can’t we use a pill to help alcoholism?  Alcoholism and addiction can be said to be a brain disease, not just a failure of willpower.  So it makes sense that this pill could be prescribed by doctors to alcoholics.  Naltrexone blocks the release of brain chemicals that are linked to pleasure and excitement.  This pill is not an addictive pill unlike other pills that have been tried for addiction in the past.  The patient is not going to quit one addiction and pick up another one due to this pill.

Although Kent and others agree that this pill really does help some doctors are still on the fence.  One believes that, “Naltrexone has reduced drinking, but once you’re addicted, there is no such thing as ‘OK’ drinking. This is one of those cases where there’s a real schism between the research and actual practice.”  I believe if we are able to see some results we should try it.  We just need to accept that there are different ways to solving problems these days.  Even though we have our challenges in this century we also have our benefits and are able to find new ways to cure and solve problems.  If this pill will help a good amount of people form their addiction then why stop them.  The societies definition of “normal” ways to fixing problems is changing and we should embrace this.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/04/15/addiction.cold.turkey.pill/index.html

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24. April 2009 by student.

There are sex offenders all over the world. A sex offender is someone who committed a sex crime, which involves rape, and sometimes murder. Some sex offenders have been captured, others have been released, and some are still on the run. There are approximately 25,000 sex offenders in the United States, most are male. This number has increased every year. Sex offenders are people with various ages, from kids in kindergarten to a man as old as eighty. There once was news that three kindergarten kids had sexual harassed one girl in kindergarten at the spot that shouldn’t be touched. So the age of people knowing about sex has grown younger and younger. There are jails for sex offenders on an island, but it is believed that the jails are starting to be full and there will be no place to keep these offenders. There are people who give rewards for those who give clues or help to capture the sex offender that have not been caught, such as Opera Winfield, and the parent of victims.

The victims are the most affected person in rape crime. They have to live like this for the rest of their life and have to remember what has happened to them. There are some cases that after the victim got raped, and they later had a mental problem. So I think there should be a support group set up for these victims. This can be the place to express themselves, and also they can get help from others. Most people don’t know what to do after this problem, so the people who have gone through this problem can help them. The victim also needs comfort from others, so this maybe a place for them to go to if they can’t find a person to tell their story. There are some cases where the victim was raped and ended up pregnant. This is the hardest thing that can be handle for the victim. Either gives birth to the child and whenever you look at your kid and remember the thing the father of your child had done to you, or one could have an abortion, which meant you killed your own baby. These kinds of cases not just affect the victim, but also everyone around them, such as their family members and friends and their neighbors as well. They will not know if the next victims are them, but they just know the sex offender is in the area.

A solution for this problem is to give a death penalty to the sex offender. Sex offenders who are 18 or over should be punished by the death penalty, because this is the maturity age and they should know what they are doing.  In the Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology, “Louisiana’s Newest Capital Crime: the Death Penalty for Child Rape”, Annaliese F. Fleming wrote that Louisiana has passed a state law which include,

Whoever commits the crime of aggravated rape shall be punished by life imprisonment at hard labor without benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence. However, if the victim was under the age of twelve years…the offender shall be punished by death or life imprisonment at hard labor without benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence, in accordance with the determination of the jury. (717)

This law was passed in 1995, but was believed to be struck down by the Supreme Court, because it is a violation of the Eighth Amendment. Even though this law has been struck down because of the violation of the amendment, but I think the death penalty should be passed throughout the United States for those who rape a child under the age of 12. Even though this is a severe punishment, this laws will set example for sex offenders and to let them know not to do it again.

            The death penalty should not only focus on the sex offender who commits a sex crime for children under 12 years of age, but also those who committed multiple sex crime, and also those who rape and kill. Most people think that, “why give the death penalty for only raping once?” If a rapist can rape one person, this means that they could do it again. But everyone needs a second chance. So I think the sex offender should give an amount of time to be imprisoned and also give them treatment, after their release if they commit another crime they should be given the death penalty. The death punishment can solve lots of problem. First, this can set an example for other sex offenders not to commit this kind of crime, or they may get the same punishment. Second, there are more and more sex offenders being caught and put in to jail, but this causes the jails to be overload, and no place to keep these prisoners. So the death penalty is a solution for overload of prisoners. One of the problems for death penalty is the cost, for some reason, the government put lot of money for killing someone. But the money that is given for treatment, and also the money for investigations for crime that sex offender committed can  be cover the cost of the death penalty. 

Another way to help sex offenders from committing another sex crime is to give them treatment. One issue about these treatments is the cost, not everyone can afford it, and this may take several years. There also time when parents don’t want their child to be different from others, so they won’t let there child to get treatment when issues are not that bad. Another issue is that after the treatment there are no guarantees that the person will not commit another crime. According to the “Adolescent Sex Offenders Issues in Research and Treatment” a book edited by Emeline M. Otey, “most sexual offenders begin their abusive and deviant behaviors during adolescence, research indicates that the majority has also been sexually, physically, and/or emotionally abused or neglected during the development years” (133). So basically, during sexual offender is a growing process, they have been abused by a person and later when they grow up, they abused others like that person has abused them. This is an example of influence by other. Some of the causes for sex offenders to commit sex crimes are because of family issues, lack of parenting, and lack of environment when young. Lack of environment is when there personality are developed by the there neighbor, school, the place they live in, or things the around them.

There are some ways to capture sex offenders. For example, in “DNA Databanks Giving Police a Powerful Weapon, and Critics; DNA Giving Police a Weapon, and Critics” from the New York Times, Carey Goldberg wrote, “a computer discovers the identity of a killer or rapist by matching DNA from blood, semen or saliva left at a crime scene with a DNA profile in a database. A criminal is fingered by his own genes” (A1). This is very helpful for police to know who the rapist and/or killer is. But there are some cases that this will not be helpful. For example, if the sex offender is a person from some other country and illegally migrant to the United States, there will be no DNA profile in the database. So this is one way to solve most of the rape crime.

There are sex offenders who have served their time in prison and later get released. One question that most people ask is, “Will these released sex offender commit another crime?” There has been Internet sites showing some of the sex offenders near your area and also letters are sent to your house to make sure you watch for those released sex offenders. But do we have to worry the rest of our life if we live by these sex offenders? According to the Custom Newspaper, “Cold Comfort; Florida’s Sex Offender Law has Emotional Appeal. But it’s Not the Best Way to Stop Sexual Predators from Preying on Children”, a device was used in the lab experience called Global Positioning System (GPS); this bracelet is to be wore by a released prisoner on their ankle, like Martha Stewart. This device is to stop released prisoners from going out of the zone area. The only problems about these devices are that they are very expensive, and the amount of money that researchers have can only develop the GPS for experience only, so this is just an alternate solution.

Work Cited

“Cold Comfort; Florida’s Sex Offender Law has Emotional Appeal. But It’s Not the Best Way to Stop Sexual Predators from Preying on Children.” The Houston Chronicle [Houston, TX] May 10, 2005: P8. Custom Newspapers. Thomas Gale. Edison College Library, Ft. Myers, FL. 19 Feb. 2006. <http://find.galegroup.com/

Fleming, Annaliese F. “Louisiana’s Newest Capital Crime: The Death Penalty for Child Rape” Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology. 89 (1999) 717-750. Business. JSTOR. Edison College Library, Ft. Myers, FL. 19 Feb. 2006 <http://links.jstor.org >.

Goldberg, Carey. “DNA Databanks Giving Police a Powerful Weapon, and Critics; DNA Giving Police a Weapon, and Critics” New York Times. [New York, NY] 19 Feb. 1998: A1+. New York Times – Historical. ProQuest. Edison College Library, Ft. Myers, FL. 19 Feb. 2006. <http://proquest.umi.com/>.

Otey, Emeline M., ed. Adolescent Sex Offender. Issues in Research and Treatment. Rockville: DHHS Publication, 1985.

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24. April 2009 by student.

A student at FGCU posted something about immigrants going back to where they came from. This is VERY close minded. Think about it, if these people did go back we would have the jobs to fall back on, but on the flip side, we as americans are sometimes over prideful and the jobs that these immigrants do are the ones that we as prideful americans don’t want to do. They do the farming, house building, and many other jobs that many would not want to do. I would say that many of them do the jobs that the educated students in both Edison College and Florid Gulf Cost would not want to do. We are going to school to become career based with great pay and much experience. The immigrants that come into our country, for the most part, do so to get away from their oppressive governments and are trying to make a living not only for them selves but also their families back home. They work twice as hard as many americans do at the jobs that pay the least.  Lets make this into a comparison. Every time we buy a tomato or a pack of strawberries it was probably gathered by an immigrant that only get payed a portion of the cost of the fruit or vegetable. The reality is that it is only a fraction of what the companies get for the sale. This lack in pay, which for us seems miniscule, is a lot for a family in Mexico or Cuba. They can live off of about 50 bucks or less a month, where here in the U.S. we live off of at least 300 a month.Let us also look at the history of the U.S. We have always been the home for the free. Those who want to be taken in by our country should be allowed to do so. For many americans even our own ancestors were not born here.  They were in many cases “illegal immigrants” from Germany, Ireland, Scotland, Africa, Cuba, etc. They were hated for decades until the already stabilized american culture grew comfortable with there presence. The same thing will happen with immigrants from Mexico and Cuba today. The only reason that i know this is that history ALWAYS repeats its self. Just as we grew comfortable with Chinese immigrants in the 50’s and 60’s so will we with Mexican immigrants in the next several years.

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24. April 2009 by student.

Being able to marry a person having the same sex is a difficult thing that half of the sociality can’t take or agree with. I think it is alright to marry a person with the same sex as you. Even though, this can set a bad example for modern marriage of the nation, but the United States is the land of the free. Stopping a gay couple from getting married won’t stop people becoming homosexual.

Marriage is a “commitment of caring for another person, for better or worse, in sickness and health, till deaths do you part,” with which I do agree. You don’t marry a person because of sex but because you care for the person and want to live together with them. Now a day, there many people, homosexual and heterosexual, lives together but they are not married, because they know it not time for them to be serious. Marriage is just a paper work that gives a couple the rights to be together. When the person got hurt you want to be the first person to be call or to know there situation; that is what the advantages of a marriage. Without a marriage license, you are unable to see the person when the person is injured. Another advantage of homosexual is that they can’t have children, but there are ways for them to have children, for example adoption. This can help reduce the growth of population, and children from becoming orphans.

Some people said, “I don’t believe homosexuals can handle marriage responsibly.” But there are no way people can tell if a person can handle there marriage responsibly for both homosexual and heterosexual. Heterosexual people sometimes don’t take responsibly for there marriage that why they get divorce. There was a saying, “A man’s responsibilities to a woman,” with which I do not agree. To me, marriage couple has the equal responsibility to the other person, not just a man to a woman.

So why do we need to be against same sex marriages, when they don’t do any harm to us people, and people do have the same right as other people. Marriages is just another types of procedures when you love someone, and you want to let people recognize how much that person is to you and wanted to care for them for the rest of their life.

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