Opening Eyes: Education and Sociology

Varun Jaitly

English 1S/242A

Lewis, Brian

Due: 10/3/2013

Sociology has been around for a long enough time that we can make conclusive statements about the topic. However this amazing topic that has the ability to take a normal individual and throw that individual into the deepest parts of his unexplored mind and extract understanding that makes that person more eloquent in understanding their own as well as everything around them. So why the hell have we not brought this into the classroom? why do we allow our students to continue writing shallow, skin deep essays with meaningless observations that cater to the whims of whatever teacher wrote their objective. Yet Sociology has the ability to aid in the expansion of an individual's understanding and ability to reach deeper into places that would allow them to become more accepting and open. Sociology through writing, reading, and understanding the Social Imagination can further the mind of our brightest and help our weakest tap into areas that will help them further themselves.

Taking that into consideration, sociological Imagination still seems like a contradictory statement,  but in reality it really is not. There is an Individual and then there is History. Not time which most people think is the same as history, I mean literal History. As individuals we do not look back and talk about the past by citing the exact date and time. We start with a memory, a nuance, and a moment that marks that point on a line that we refer to as history. History is not the past or the backwards revision of time  but the moments that collided together to make what we have as something to look back at. When we think of the 60’s most people do not know exact dates, but they remember the “Red Scare”. Or the threat of utter annihilation, they remember huge tv sets with tiny screens. When we think about the 40’s we do not say “remember 41? that was fun” we instead say “remember when Sterling Moss got that victory for Aston Martin in 41? Man was that a defining moment for those guys”. History is made of moments and actions that changed the world little by little, and at the roots of those actions are Individuals. The Red Scare was not just one government or a community. it was the overwhelming belief shared between individuals that communists were out to destroy our way of life. During World War 2, people were untied like never before against a common enemy. people left their professions and their normal lives to make guns, planes, and bullets. Everyone was together but it was the individual chains that really made the difference. The Sociological Imagination is the ability to see the painting and at the same time be able to admire the subtle brush strokes that make the painting work as a piece that moved someone so much that they called it a masterpiece.

The common misconception about sociology is that those that study the topic know something the normal individual does not know. Of course that for the most part is not true, everyone perceives things through their own lense. however as Peter Berger so eloquently states it  “It can be said that the first wisdom of sociology is this-Things are not what they seem. This too is a deceptively simple statement”. He is right most things are not what they seem, to me they seem orange but to the reader they seem purple. the point here is that sociology is not the study of how to change someone to think like every other sociologist, there are no schools of thought. Sociology teaches the individual to hone their abilities to look within themselves and the world around them through a more analytical aspect. No sociologist has the same opinion as another, the whole point is to question and that is a real issue in classrooms. Kids rarely ask questions, despite the fact that most english classes in America actually cover a broad range of brilliant topics that relate to the world they live in. The analysis that can be done in catch 22, or Fahrenheit 451 is astounding but students look at it as something beyond their realm of need to know. Due to the social media movement everything in the youth society has become a “need to know” level of understanding. That makes for a horribly boring human being, that also makes for a human that fails to be a very good human. For instance, someone with the ability to analyze a situation can go deeper into ones own feelings and experiences to help them empathize with other individuals. If people are only capable of looking at the facts and regurgitating them or being messengers rather than contemplators then there is a massive movement towards mediocrity. Sociology in its truest form helps people peel away layers of concepts and allows them the rare opportunity to change these concepts over time as they delve deeper into themselves and deeper into this concept. If all a person knows how to do is read a statement and then regurgitate it to their friend then what use is that person? The practice of analysis and forward movement through understanding is something that my generation desperately needs, past the screens, and the emoticons, there are individuals with feelings and brains and capabilities that can in some way better society. However if we leave them be than these individuals will face moments where their inner feelings, and their emotions will come out and they will have to face these emotions in the face without being able to analyze them or fully understand them. A lack of Empathy is equated to many social disorders, some that can easily be avoided if the individual was given the attention but was also aided in the maturing process through means of utilizing sociology.

In America's education system we have set a standard for how we teach students, we explain it, we drill it in like a hammer on a nail, and then we quiz it till its a stone etched process. With something as important as writing, regardless of creative, or informative we need to change this method. Writing cannot be taught the same way since writing like sociology is not an exact level plain of thought, in fact its a dynamic method of communicating your thoughts, and when done right can not only present but invoke ones feelings and emotions. That may sound like something reserved for a fictional or creative piece but in fact the main objective for a persuasive document is to do exactly that, invoke an inner understanding of the authors feelings and their opinions. Human are capable of empathizing but its easy to understand someones logical points but its difficult to feel the emotional connection someone else has to an issue or topic. Fictional writers fill us with intense emotions with their novels, yet we arent able to teach teenagers or professional adults to do the same with their persuasive arguments and documents. For instance the debate on gun control is a very heated topic and both sides have very good points to offer, however neither can level with the other on an emotional level. I have yet to see a publication from either side that can successfully help me level emotionally with either ones arguments. Why do AMericans have such a deep connection with their guns? Why do some AMericans want to take away something that is legally allowed in a country? these are very easily debatable yet there is clearly emotion behind it, unfortunately no one can clearly communicate that. If we had taught the most involved individuals how to write such eloquent and deep hitting texts maybe their debates would be better understood or their points. To a regular individual the people who are fighting gun control sound absolutely insane, however they are standing up for something that they feel so strongly about, maybe if we could empathize better through publications and being good receivers of emotions we could iron this situation out a lot easier. That is why the need to teach more dynamic and eloquent writing styles is so necessary, how else will strongly opinionated individuals get their point across? In the 40’s Ghandi was able to go on long fasts, nearly killing himself, that was his method of communicating how strongly he felt about his cause. Now we have such a well connected world that getting someones word out is not hard. however it seems individuals are losing the ability to convey deeper more intimate connections through text. Also the ability to understand or absorb such emotion is also lost, what is the point of an eloquent writer if the reader is shallow and narrow minded. That is why there is such an obvious need to mature our method of teaching young adults how to convey messages through text. No matter what it is, fact, fiction, editorial, persuasive essay, them and their peers need to be able to eloquently be able to communicate their point as well as have the ability to be open minded and receive and understand what is written. As stated by Loiuse M. Rosenblatt ““Moreover, every reading and writing act can be understood as falling somewhere on the efferent/aesthetic continuum, as being predominantly one or the other.” (Writing and the Transactional Theory). Rosenblatt quantifies in her essay how the intimate relationship between the writer and the reader allows for both to grow from the cross fertilization and understanding they share between the text.

Education aside, the average teenager that spends most of his or her day in front of a screen, these screens can’t display emotions. These screens take away from the lessons taught by human interaction, the same interactions that help us mature. For instance “Antidepressants were the third most common prescription drug taken by Americans of all ages in 2005–2008 and the most frequently used by persons aged 18–44 years” (CDC.gov) I am not going to blame education for this or for the rising rate of Psychiatric outreach by teenagers. However when teenagers are not out socializing or succmbing to their feelings and facing them or questioning them, they are being hurt. Eventually ones emotions will come out and fight then and what happens if you aren’t used to dealing with your emotions, that leads to a very stressful and harsh way to live. sociology is the understanding of ones place, if anything it is a method of self discovery that can lead to answering the hardest questions in life. If teenagers grow up in an environment that promotes shallow understanding and a failure to empathize then the youth as a whole are headed for dangerous waters. Society puts so many burdens and stress on the shoulder of children, yet we dont give them the tools to fight for themselves and achieve a greater understanding of the world they enjoy. We allow shallow existence and failure to comprehend deep subject matter. What we don’t do is prepare for an ever changing world where only the creative ones have any shot at changing the world, where those individuals who questioned everything and found the answer buried deep, can be successful. The ideas taught in school can be expanded on and better understood if taught from a standpoint that promotes analytical thinking and questioning. Problem solving skills, something we hold so high on the spectrum of developmental milestones, these can become  much stronger, and reinforced in ways and at ages that allow for a healthier adulthood.

Finally one considers, what happened? when did readers go from Alistar Mclain, and Jules Verne, to those writers that fail to use not just the english language but powerful emotions to convey the point of a story. There are plenty of good books out there from this generation but its hard for them to rival the stories that personally moved me. For instance, my favorite novel is 20,000 Leagues by Jules Verne. At the tender age of 10 I read that book cover to cover twice, and it changed me in ways I could not comprehend. I instantly connected with Nemo the Infuriating Sea Captain whose anger seems out of place till you realize how the painful origins shaped him and the true meaning behind his whole purpose.  since then, there has not been a single book that shook me to my core like that did, and from there I too began to question everything. Yet no teacher was able to satisfy this ability to question continuously, and most school systems and educational institutions like high schools dont promote this constant battering of oneself. Unfortunately it is natural for humans to question everything and when the time comes for teenagers to face their emotions, whether personally or professionally, they are going to need that methodical mind that comes with a sociological education.