socio 570.

monday in class we discussed how the urban ghettos are being flipped by wealthy entrepreneurs into million dollar condos. this displaces thousands of poor individuals all over the U.S. you can see this in the P&L district in downtown kansas city.

we talk about how wealthy suburbanites get to go to school, get a degree, and ultimately utilize their privilege to change the face of the world, and we talked about how the poor don't have this privilege and are subject to whatever the wealthy decide to do with the world. they don't really have a choice; hence, why they're being displaced by the wealthy business grads.

my class is comprised almost entirely of white kids - most from johnson county - who are taking this course as a required sociology elective in order to graduate. as i sit in class i start to realize that this class is just another handful of white suburbanites who will go on to have their way in the world while those less forunate are forced to deal with the consequences.

every time the class meets i'm tempted to chime in with something to the effect of "what are we going to do to change this?" or "so are we just another generation of wealthy entrepreneurs?" or "is there something we can do - after taking this course - that would go against the typical flow of privilege?"

it's interesting, and i feel like i'm actually learning something (a rarity for me in public education), but i wish every single day that my professor would turn the corner and move the class away from "this is what is happening" to "here's what we can do about it". i guess that's not the point of a public education, but i can't help but think that would be a little bit more motivating.

maybe i'm just more interested in social justice. who knows. but i certainly would have liked to have been challenged more in school - not just with a larger workload - but challenged on a more personal level instead.

-ap.

relatively unrelated thoughts to social theory.

yesterday i spent five hours overwhelming my brain with sociological theory, so far i've only really landed three thoughts that just barely pertain to the information i've been staring at.

1. sociological theory it is a bunch of malarkey.

malarkey - (mə-lar'ki) - n. total crap; completely made up information; something not the slightest bit grounded on anything worth anyone's time : sociological theory is such malarkey.

i officially decided this at about 8:45 PM CST when i finally put away my study guide of about 112 words that i was responsible for defining.

my word-defining spree has carried over on to my blog in my definition of malarkey. i also determined the phonetic spelling of the word on my own.

2. i should have pursued speech pathology instead of sociology.

however this would have put me at this school for another 3 years probably, and there isn't a chance i'd ever subject myself to any more of this place than may 2009. i've been in school for 20some years now, and i'm counting down the days...213.

but phonetics is the class-related topic i've been most interested in since coming to college by far. linguistic anthropology has been my favorite college course. easily. it was challenging, yet really fun. and i was good at it. unlike sociology. its neither challenging or fun.

but truthfully i feel like i'm on the right path - the fast track out of college - i'm very ready to begin the next phase of my life. it's starting to piece together somewhat. and lastly...

3. friday can't get here soon enough.

-ap.

like whom does my future look?

every once in a while i have to sit back and think, "what if youth ministry isn't where i end up?"

here is the progression of what i do next:

1. wet my pants.
2. change my pants.
3. try to figure out what people with sociology degrees actually do.

so i did some detective work. in my research i discovered the following people all have/had sociology degrees: martin luther king jr., ronald reagan, regis philbin, and paul shaffer. this brought a terrific sigh of relief because these are all people i admire. except i continued to dwell on these names and realized the following: reagan double majored in economics too, dr. king obviously continued education and got his doctorate, and paul shaffer has some seriously natural musical abilities.

that leaves regis.

i wouldn't mind being like regis someday. hosting a tv show, hosting a game show (so great), and holding the world record for most time spent on camera (something like 16,000 hours of air time and counting). so that's comforting - that someone with no real direction after graduation can turn out like that.

maybe i'll grow up to be regis philbin someday. that wouldn't be so bad. these fresh pants would look good on camera too.

refreshing bit number two: martin luther king jr's course of action sounds remarkably like mine: socology followed by an interest in ministry (he graduated with an mDiv and then got his PhD in systematic theology). he strikes me as a bit more driven individual than i am - duh - but it still feels good to read. i wouldn't mind being like dr. king someday, that's for sure. talk about something to aspire to...wow. maybe if i start getting excited about school i could somehow achieve something to that 'degree'.

anyway. after discovering this fact about these gentlemen, i've decided to read a biography or two about each of them in order to see if my life does actually parallel theirs in anyway. maybe i'll end up being a slight blend of the two - some sort of on-camera theologian who changes the world and gets assassinated while running some sort of marching game show in alabama...and i'd be half black.

this would be nice. it gives me hope that my life isn't going to be a total failure.

merry september,
-ap.