Learning sociology really has changed the way I look at life. Even though it sounds pretty cheesy, it is completely true. I have learned to look at the broader picture for my life as well as others.
Starting with the first day with our silent lesson. As short as that lesson was, it taught us that not every class in school needs to be planned and exactly the same. Throughout the semester I learned that being in school does not mean that the students are learning. We have been taught just to go through our classes and memorize whatever we learn in order to pass the class, but we never truly learn the material. By learning this in class, I have tried to apply this to all of my other classes. When I am studying are try not to just memorize definitons, but I want to retain what I learn, so going to school can actually mean something for me. It is weird changing my habits this late in my schooling, but I have noticed it makes my study/class time more worthwhile. It is hard to do with all of my classes though, a lot of the time I just want to get my work done, but I am really trying to learn without just being a robot.
As for other people, I have learned that people are not what we make of them. It is kind of like the saying not to judge a book by its cover. This theme seemed to show up a lot throughout the year. In the deviance unit, this went both ways. When reading Saints and Roughnecks, it talked about the two different groups, and how the Saints got away with even more trouble then the Roughnecks because of the families they came from. If people would look past on what is seen on the outside of these two groups of highschoolers, they would see that the Roughnecks were not as bad as they appear, but really the Saints were. I also learned that less fortunate do not chose to be in sitations like that. I had always known that, but I didn't know the extent of it. I had never realzied that people who go to jail will most likley go back and many homeless people are in this social class because they grew up there, not always because of their life choices. Knowing this changed my service experience because I was aware of these people life situations. It was good to know that I was not helping a bunch of people who are't even trying to get there lives together, but I was helping people who try to but are not able to for various reasons.
When taking this class, I did not know that by not having multiple choice tests or a textbook I would be able to learn so much about how everything plays a role in my life as well as other people's lives. I
