Tag Archives: sociology class

A 12 year old is in a sociology class?

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Compared to a lot of other disciplines found in college, sociology does not have a big profile at the high school level or in the public at large. So I was surprised when I ran across this bit from the Charleston Gazette:

US Airways Flight 1549, which pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger splash landed in the Hudson River, made its way to the West Virginia Turnpike, en route to a permanent museum exhibit at the Carolinas Aviation Museum in Charlotte, N.C.

Dozens of people parked their cars along Exit 99 at Greenbrier Street or stood on the overpass to get a picture, video or eyewitness account of the Airbus 320 as it passed through Charleston at midday.

“I wanted to be the first person in my sociology class to see it,” said Haley Browning, 12, from Madison.

Browning said she has been interested in the plane since hearing about its near-tragic landing in 2009 and plans to do a project on it for school. Her mother, Judy, and sister, Jayln, were in Charleston and decided to stop and see if they could spot it.

I guess it would be interesting to see a large airplane being hauled by truck but I’ve never been one to chase “famous” items. But it was much more interesting to read about a 12 year old who is enrolled in a sociology class. Since kids who are 12 years old are typically in 6th or 7th grade, it suggests she has a middle school sociology class. How many of those are there in this country? I wonder if the content of a middle school sociology course could help teenagers make some sense of and feel better about the typical middle school troubles.

Sociology quiz turns 19 year old into local hero

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A 19 year old Canadian college student illustrates the dramatic effect a sociology quiz can have on one’s life:

Nanaimo’s Derrick Kalicum just had to stop when he saw an elderly lady trapped in her car…

The 70-year-old woman was in a Toyota Matrix that was struck by a reddish-maroon vehicle at the intersection of Wakesiah Avenue and Second Street around 12:42 p.m. The car that hit the Matrix backed away and then fled the scene…

He didn’t hesitate to stop and he credits [Vancouver Island University] for teaching him about the “bystander affect.”

“That’s something I was quizzed on the day before in my sociology class,” he said…

“I have to thank my sociology professor for explaining the bystander affect to me. I really think people should stop and help,” he said.

A little knowledge can go a long way. And they say a sociology degree isn’t worth much…

It is too bad that he wasn’t asked if he would have stopped to help this woman if he hadn’t learned about the bystander effect.

A sociology class final exam: create and be part of a flash mob

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I bet there would be quite a few sociology students who would prefer to take a final exam that included being part of a flash mob:

Montgomery County High School students who’ve spent the year studying the world’s different cultures in sociology class took their class to the streets Wednesday, or at least the sidewalks, for a head-turning final exam…

The excitement was brewing and, suddenly, a sociology class broke out. The music cranked up. One student started dancing right on the sidewalk between Uncle Julio’s and Joe’s Crab Shack. In seconds, he had company. Soon there were 55 Wootton High School students…

The kids were instructed – not just to dance, but also to study how people reacted…

It’s part of their final exam and a reminder that not everybody just follows along. Their sociology teacher is Amy Buckingham.

“Violating social norms. Doing things that are a little outside the realm of what you would normally do,” says Buckingham.

A few questions spring to mind:

1. How exactly was this graded? The story suggests students were also to be on the lookout for crowd reactions and perhaps they had to write something up about this.

2. Is this exactly what a “flash mob” is? I remember the early days of this phenomenon and if I remember correctly, the term described situations where strangers would come together to do something and then go their separate ways. What worried or perhaps excited people was that these were collections of people who didn’t know each other and who might never interact again. Now, a “flash mob” refers to a choreographed group that shows up, does something, and leaves together. These are not the same things. Imagine if the assignment was tied to the first definition and students had to recruit strangers to participate in their activity.

3. How long until these “flash mobs” are passé?

A student’s inside view of the Sociology of Lady Gaga course

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Several months ago, the Internet was worked up over a new sociology class being offered at the University of South Carolina: Lady Gaga and the Sociology of the Fame. I read numerous articles about this with a number asking some variation on the question, “How exactly is this proper material for a college course?”

A student in the course offers an inside view – and it sounds like they are doing what the course title says: sociology.

I’m four classes into “Lady Gaga and the Sociology of the Fame,” and every day, someone new demands, “What are you doing in there?” Maybe, like Cosmo, they envision that I clothe myself in bubble wrap and lunch meat as part of my pre-class ritual…

This is a serious course about the sociology of music. What it does not cover: The coded symbolism behind “Alejandro”; Gaga’s decision to wear a dress made of Kermit the Frogs; whether she has a disco stick for real. This is, as my professor underlines, a class about the social conditions that contribute to the fame of Lady Gaga.

And here is the description of the final project for the class:

At this point, we will turn in research papers detailing a single social condition contributing to Gaga’s fame – and then, we will analyze her fame. The findings of our papers will have an effect on the direction of discussion because, as Deflem argues, fame is as much about the fans that popularize the famous as it is about the artist.

Although the subject matter and the title are aimed at gaining attention (it seems to have worked to some degree as the student says some students are in the class because they are curious – though I doubt the school could have guessed at the number of outside people who ended up commenting on the class), the class sounds like a fairly normal sociology class: to explain why social life happens as it does.

And the headline, “Why Lady Gaga Class Is Not Sexy,” seems misleading as the student suggests she keeps coming back to class to see “where this semester is going and just how Gaga we’re going to get.”