Social Class In the Classroom

Part of growing up is finding where you belong amongst the people around you. Many children experience this first through school. As a child, most of the time you are categorized in a classroom by your social class. Once you get to a certain age, the other kids around you begin to realize where your from and whether your family comes from money or not. Then, for many people, you get judged for having, or not having money like the other children around you. I had this experience in grade school. Many of the children around me were much wealthier than I was and it definitely affect the way I learned in the environment. Teachers often tend to tune out when it comes to social class even though small things like these can powerfully impact a young person’s life.

In many instances, we see people push aside social class as an issue in classroom scenarios. Race and religion are the main focus of many people’s concerns with equality in the classroom. In an article written by Adj Marshal, he discusses the effect of bringing social class into the classroom and touches on how the weight of this on children is sometimes overlooked. He says, “Compared with race or gender, class is less obviously inscribed on the body and more poorly understood, with more gray areas and fewer shared terms for social categories, making identity development a slower and more fraught process.” In many cases social class is a large part of a child’s identity, so not making it a larger part of the discussion in the classroom, like Marshall says, it could potentially damage a child’s image of themself.

Personally, I have had social class affect me negatively in a classroom environment. I was in the second grade when I realized my peers were not raised the same way I was. I attended a private school on a partial scholarship while my mom had to scrape pennies to pay the other end of my tuition. Meanwhile, many of my classmates never had to worry about not being able to go to school the next month because their parents couldn’t meet the tuition deadline, or if they would be able to pay for the newest pair of uniform shoes.  They took these things for granted. The day after after winter break I walked into class wearing my new winter coat that my mom had just bought me for Christmas. All of the other children were sitting playing on their new Nintendo DSI’s that they had received over the break. One of the kids asked, “Louisa, where is your DSI? Don’t you wanna play with us?” I didn’t know how to reply at first. As the nervousness settled into me, I said, “I didn’t get one for Christmas, I got this new coat instead.” Just as I could get the words out of my mouth another kid said, “She didn’t get one because she’s poor.” Immediately, the tears streamed to my eyes. The feeling of shame and embarrassment welled through me as the other kids just stared.

This is an important point to be noted not only because the children used this as a form of bullying, but because it made me feel uncomfortable to participate in the class. Social class is much more important than it is viewed as by most teachers. In an article on social class in the classroom, written by journalist Meghan Smith, she discusses a series of tests performed on a class of children to prove the effect of social and economical class on children. When discussing the results of one of the tests she says, “This can lead to students in lower social classes, or with lower familiarity with a task, to perform even worse than they would have. In other words, highlighting performance gaps with no explanation for the gap can make the gap even wider!” The gap she refers to is that of the gap between children in different social classes. Even though children don’t quite understand what kind of stress and embarrassment child of a lower class feels.

Even though social class is generally looked over now, in the future teachers should be more aware and even create an approach to avoid tension in the classroom. A good solution may be to begin teaching children about social and economic classes from a younger age so that they will have the information they need before they judge someone.  Teaching young children about social class could also allow them to view the world around them in different ways and avoid them creating future prejudices. Social class is something that causes children to learn differently and feel uncomfortable in some learning environments, but it never should be. My hope for the future is that someone will break the chain, so that children will never have to feel too embarrassed to learn.

The Projection of Fear

Projection is a natural occurrence where humans press their feelings and emotions on to other people or sometimes even imaginary things. Humans project their emotions into theoretical things because they want to try and make their fears less scary by including them in reality. Many would identify projections as a hallucination, but does this justify the irrational or violent actions that can be caused by them?  The savage behavior displayed by those who project their emotions could be completely avoided if the fears were never instilled in their heads. For some people there is nothing more frightening than the unknown. When humans allow these fearful projections to take over, they engage in violent and other unsafe behavior.

In the book, The Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, a group of young boys survive a plane crash on a deserted island and are left to fend for themselves. This causes them to begin to hallucinate and project their greatest fears into something they call “the beast.” One of the boys, Simon, has had the most encounters with the so called “beast,” even having a conversation with it at one point. Later, the beast is renamed as “The Lord of the Flies” and appears to Simon as a talking pig’s head on a stick. “‘Pig’s head on a stick.’ ‘Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill!’ said the head.”(143) One of Simon’s greatest fears, along with almost all of the other boys on the island, was this so called “beast.” Due to this fear, Simon hallucinated, or projected, this onto the pigs head to include the beast as a part of his reality. As the reader sees in this scene of the book, Simon thinks that he is speaking with the “beast” in the form of a pig’s head, when really, this “beast” is just a projection of his fear. Simon’s withdraw from the real world and adults, causes him to fear the things he has never had to do himself. His fears of starvation, dehydration, and death, are the ones who cause him to project his emotions into the beast.

In a later scene of the novel, Simon makes it back to the camp where the boys were living and things take a turn for the worst. The other boys believe that Simon is connected to the “beast” and end up murdering him for what they think is their own safety. “With the running of the blood Simon’s fit passed into the weariness of sleep. He lay in the mat of creepers while the evening advanced and the cannon continued to play.”(145) The boys projection of fear lead them to go as far as killing one of their own allies. This so called “beast” triggers them to do irrational things, such as killing one of their own allies who they believe the beast is connected to. This is a prime example of how the projection of emotions can lead to atrocious and deadly actions.

Although the book is fictional, the world sees situations like this happen all of the time in the real world. For example, in 2014 two teenage girls attempted to murder their friend because they were convinced that if they did not a fictional character called “the Slenderman” would kill their families. People create unrealistic scenarios in their heads because they are unable to live with their fears, and this can sometimes can cause the person themselves to become the one to fear. In a article about the case from the LA Times, it states, “The two girls came to believe internet folklore about Slender Man so strongly that they thought he would kill them or their families if they didn’t attack.” This is a prime example of how projection can lead people to commit outrageous acts and sometimes even go mad themselves. The girls who tried to commit the murder are now both serving time in mental facilities and will be there for 20 plus years.

Much like the girls in real life, the character’s in the book were fearing the unknown. The boys in the book greatest fears being  starvation, death, and dehydration, while the girl’s fears being the death or harm of their loved ones. These fears can lead some to try and commit fatal actions, but others could be lead to actually committing them. The fear of not having control over something is enough to drive people mad, so people are willing to do anything to conquer this fear and feel like they are the ones in control of the situation. When people fear things they tend to let it take over them, but with projection, people push that fear on to other things, rather than themselves. For many this is a way of coping. But does that justify irrational or even violent actions that may come along with that? This debate continues in real life, as the sentencing of the two girls did not go how many thought it would. Many people disagree with the fact that the girls are serving their time in a mental facility instead of an actual jail.

The projection of fear can lead to crazy things. Humans see this in real life, and in fiction everyday. Some people blame fictional characters as to why people may do bad things, others would just blame the mental health of those responsible for the actions. Looking through a sympathetic point of view, one could think that the girls in real life, and the characters in the book only have the mental health of themselves to blame. They both allowed their projection of fear to take over and this lead to their violent and semi-fatal actions. Although their actions were wrong, because of their state of mind, one could argue that they could not help their own actions. All of these savage actions could have been avoided if the fears had never been planted. If everything is presented as the way it is created to be, then then there would be no fear to project.

Works Cited

Golding, William. Lord of The Flies. New York: Penguin, 2006.

Cosgrove, Jaclyn. “The Story behind 'Slender Man' and How Fear of This Fictional Character Nearly Ended in Murder.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 22 Dec. 2017, www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-slenderman-sentencing-20171222-htmlstory.html.

“Psychological Projection.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 4 Apr. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_projection.

Hello again, my name is Louisa Strohm and this is the last blog of three about my personal experience with Mild Cognitive Impairment. If you would like to read my first and second posts, you can find them linked here. For a short summary I have discussed my personal experience with MCI and shared my story about taking care of my grandmother. Throughout the entire project I have expressed my deep passion in putting more information for at home care of those with MCI or Dementia.

I had a lot of time to think about what I wanted to do for my agent of change. I went through a lot of ideas but finally decided to go with making a website, so people can access my personal story and tips for living with and caring with those with MCI and Dementia. I made this website because in my personal opinion there is a huge lack of information on how to care for these people at home. This lack of information is leading to people checking their loved ones into nursing homes and assisted care facilities. Although it may seem like the best option, for some people who only have mild Dementia or MCI, it may be better to keep them at home where they feel most comfortable.

Getting back onto the topic of my website, the sites name is Caring for Cuzzies. You can find the link to website here I chose this name because Cuzzie is my grandmother’s nickname and I want people to be able to know how to care for all of the Cuzzies out there. When you visit my site you will find three tabs. The home tab, where you can find five tips for caring for those with MCI or Dementia. The next tab is the ‘My Story’ tab and here I shared my story and personal experience with my grandmother’s disease. The last tab is the Contact tab where I put my email.

The process of creating the website was pretty fun. I learned a lot of new things about how websites work and how to make them. I enjoyed writing the tips and I really hope that it helps someone who’s lost in the sea of information about MCI and Dementia. Sharing my story out there was really scary at first, but once I started writing, and realized how passionate I am about this topic, it doesn’t even phase me.

Picture of me creating the website

Doing the You & The World Project at first was very intimidating. I found that as I worked more and more, did extensive amounts of research, and put my heart into my topic, I really could make a change. Having my family, friends, and peers support pushed me to make this difference and want to help people. I think this project has made me a better person. Learning my grandmother’s full story, and help other people going through the same thing my family did, I think will make an impact on the rest of my life. This project will stay with me for the rest of my life and I think I will always remember my time at SLA through this.

Screenshot of the website's front page.

My element is Germanium and its atomic number is 32. My element is mainly used for electrical engineering. It can be found in wires, transistors, and circuits. It can also be found in many camera lenses. That is where I got the inspiration to draw a camera and do my print. First I did the initial sketch for my print. Then that sketch was transferred onto the foam plate and outlined. We then put ink over the imprint of our sketch and we transferred that onto paper. We then let them dry, then cut them out, and matted them on construction paper. I would try an put some more detail into the sketch if I had to do it all again. I enjoyed doing the initial sketch because I like to do drawings. This whole project was very interesting and fun to complete with my peers.

• Our Group: Mayah Gold, Donald Moses, and Louisa Strohm
  

During this project, we went through some creative obstacles. We started out with not exactly knowing what to do, but we figured it out. However, challenge did strike when the first of working one group member was not present. So we couldn’t get much done that day. However, we were nothing but productive the next day.

While writing the script, we really wanted to get a sense of the loss that Rob experiences throughout the book, as well as how he copes with it. I believe that we really captured that through our trailer.

Hello again! My name is Louisa Strohm and this is a second blog post in continuation to my first post about Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). If you would like to read that one first, which I do recommend you can find that here. In my first post I talked about what MCI is and what kind of effects it has on elderly people physically and mentally. I also talked about my personal connection with MCI, which is my grandmother. She was diagnosed with Mild Cognitive Impairment in 2013, and it affected not only her, but our entire family. We changed the way we did things around the house to try and help her condition. In this blog post I’d like to talk about some new facts and statistics I’ve found. I also got to sit down with my grandmother and my mother, her caretaker, to ask some questions about MCI and how they deal with it.

The first interview I conducted was with my grandmother. The first thing I had her tell me about was her daily routine. She told me that 3 days a week she babysits her 2 year old grandson Leo. If she isn’t watching him she’s doing laundry, watching her favorite game shows such as The Price is Right, or if it’s nice out she sits on the front porch, or she gardens. She also told me that during the spring and summer there is one thing that she never misses and that’s the Phillie’s game. During my interview she expressed many times that the medication she takes makes things much better. At the end of our interview she told me specifically to let the people know that if she didn’t have us girls, referring to me my sister, and mother, she would be sad, she said that she would hate to be alone.

The next interview I conducted was with my mother, the caretaker of my grandmother. She told me that her initial reaction to being told her mother has MCI was that she was upset with herself at first for not recognizing the signs and in denial about my grandmother’s condition. She told me about some of the things she does like leaving notes and filling my grandmother’s medicine for her that may not sound like they make a difference, but they do. She told me that she she normally is fine with my grandmother but sometimes gets frustrated with having to repeat herself but knows that it’s just part of her condition. She got emotional towards the end when I asked things people might not know when living with a person that has MCI. She got teary eyed and told me that it takes a lot of patience and love to care for anyone with any disease.

Since my last blog I’ve done some more research on the effects and ¨cures¨ of MCI. This Scientific American article I found, suggests that the risks of MCI and dementia are falling. Studies done in America and Europe tell us that over the past 25 years the risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease has been steadily falling. A study led by Carol Brayne at Cambridge University surveyed people over the age of 65 once in the 90’s and again somewhere around 2010. The results led them to believe that the dementia rate was decreasing by 24 percent.

There is lots more to discover and uncover in the always moving world of MCI, Dementia, and Alzheimer’s. I hope to come to some more conclusions and help more people overcome MCI.

If you would like to see my sources here’s the link to my Annotated Bibliography.

Louisa Strohm

Soy yo

la hija,

La hermana,

Producto de la Bulizzi familia.

Veo mi madre amor

Saboreo mi abuelas manzana pastel

Huelo mi mamas perfume

Oigo mi hermana canta

Toco mi mantanas y almohadas

Vengo desde Filadelfia

Me gusta bailo y canto

Yo cocino con mi familia

Siempre necesitare a mi familia

Somos producto de Filadelfia

Somos italianos y alemanes

Hablamos ingles

Vivimos en America

Mi familia y yo en completos

This image was found at, Medical Daily. The bottom row shows a scan of the brain throughout the progression of Mild Cognitive Impairment.

Many people with Mild Cognitive Impairment are checked into nursing homes or assisted care facilities. Although this may seem like the best option, it may not be. Many people in nursing homes are more likely to become depressed, causing their conditions to worsen. Due to lack of familiar faces such as family and friends these people would get at home, patients tend to close themselves off. People with this depression tend to deteriorate physically and mentally.

Printmaking is a type of art where someone carves an image, covers it in ink and transfers the image onto a piece of paper. Print making was one of the first means of transporting communication. It was created in ancient Egypt.

Hola, somos Louisa, Benjamin, Janiya y Octavain. Somos estudiantes de Science Leadership Academy. SLA está en Filadelfia, Pensilvania. Ofrecemos drama, ingeniería y bioquímica uno y dos. Es lleno de color y la gente es muy simpática. Está cerca de Wawa, Dunkin Donuts, Arch Gourmet. Science Leadership Academy es muy divertido.

The first thing I did with my slide was pick a color scheme. I read up on how to choose colors to make my pallet aesthetically pleasing and chose a light gray background, with bold black letters for my name, and a medium blue color for the other information. I chose the font Bree Serif. I not only chose this because it’s  a nice font, but because it is a very bold font and can be read easily. I put my full name in black letters at the top in bold letters so itś the first thing you see. The shape of my slide is two dimensional. Since the hue is mostly gray, the value would be middle gray since it’s not black or white.
I let my picture bleed off the side of the border to show the negative space between the picture and the text. That is how I created my slide.