Group Projects

So far, I am very happy with my group because we all seem to be determined to make a creative and fun PowerPoint. We spent last class coming up with our main layout of what we wanted to say in the presentation. We then divided up work for each person to do on their own time. Today, we will put all of our work together to make our final presentation. Everyone seems to be willing to do their part and I am not very worried about being left with any extra work.

Community Project

I finally decided to do my community project on Club Penguin, a online social website for children. This has worked out very well for my busy schedule because I am able to observe the community anywhere. I am also really interested in what kids do on the website. In my opinion so far, Club Penguin is promoting children to live online through avatars instead of in real life. I am very interested in children, so I am going to have a lot to say about this community. At first, I was concerned about how I would do interviews. I quickly realized that most of the children I know use Club Penguin, so I can contact them and interview them. I have created my own penguin for the game and have been taking observations. I will start my interviews this weekend.

Community

I have been having a lot of trouble figuring out which community I want to observe. I want to observe a classroom, such as the preschool on campus, because I love working with children and plan on becomming a teacher in my future. I have not been able to contact the on-campus preschool, so I was thinking of observing the preschool I used to work at in Wellesley, Ma. My schedule is very hectic, so this may not be possible as well. I might resort to observing the people who play basketball every night at Kelly Gym around 7pm. Although I am not extremely interested in basketball, this may be the most reasonable community to observe with my schedule.

"It Takes a Tribe"

In David Berreby's essay "It Takes a Tribe", Berreby states that "human beings will give a lot, including their lives, for a group they feel part of- for "us", as in "our nation" or "our religion". They will also harm those labeled "them", including taking their lives" (120). I strongly agree with this statement because every human being looks to find an "us" that they can belong to. In creating an "us", you also create a "them". No matter the size or power of a group, there will always be a rival, someone to defeate, or someone to disagree with. Humans do this throughout their lives, through school, work, and social groups. It is the phenomenon that creates prejudice and starts wars. David Berreby's analysis of college life exemplifies the "us" versus "them" mentality that people carry. Although students are new to a school, they immediates become apart of the group and begin to hate the "them", usually a rival school. In life, this can be seen in wars, such as World War Two, in which Hitler turned Jewish people into a "them" and turned a nation on its own kind. Society would be a much more peaceful place without this way of thinking. Although it helps to unify people, it can easily cause violence and hatred.