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From all of the views that I heard there seems to be one overall consensus. The lower in the social structure you are the smaller your chances are for success. However when it came to building relationships there was a mixed opinion. Some people thought that social structure only determined the activities or the conversation within the relationships while other people thought that in fact social structure not only effects the context of the relationship but how it was built and what those relationships mean to one and other.

Some of the observations by other students seem to have the opinion that it's not about class as much as race. They hold the belief that race effects how people build their relationships and that class has very little to do with it. I think that the reason that a lot of people would feel this way is because in our school there aren't very many lower class whites. By that cultural background and not financial situation. So the exposure to that culture of working class whites is not prevalent in S.O.F.

In this unit on parenting I think that there is a lot that I have discovered but still a great deal to investigate. It might have been the fact that we had exhibition week and the debates so I missed a lot of class but I wish that we had been able to learn more about some of the differences in parenting around the world. Something that I find very interesting is how kids can be very different in just their train of thought around the world. It's hard to believe that there are people out there who view a cow as something sacred, and not just a hamburger. Not only is that incredibly interesting but also the differences in our country. Something I have written a lot about is the lack cultural unity in this country. Now in no way am I advocating for nationalism or a ban on immigration but I think that presence of differences inspires this nation to a vast array of parenting philosophies.

For my question about social structure in parenting there is still a lot left to be done but I think that I have been able to figure out some interesting things. For example just looking at the student population of our school you can see how people from all different backgrounds have been changed by parenting. Whether it be the artsy kid that doesn't value traditional book smarts but is highly intellectual or the straight edge son of a banker who does well at all the book work but isn't much for abstract thinking. These are all direct results of culture in parenting. To me that difference is a highly positive thing, not only does it inspire the differences in thinking that we all appreciate around here, but it helps accurately sort people to be somewhat cold and blunt.

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Questions: What is the single most effective parenting strategy, by that I mean employing love,obedience ect.?

A (paraphrase): Love because from that it is possible for a parent to incorporate any of those other methods but love has to be the foundation.

Q: How do you think that most parents figure out their parenting strategies?

A: I think that most of them feel it out and talk to people they know with kids and probably do the opposite their parents did.

Q: What are some of the worst qualities that you think most if not all parents have?

A: Control. I think that all parents have a desire to be in total control and sometimes they do things that are in the name of principle but aren't necessarily right.

For this series of interviews I thought that it would be most effective to ask general questions because I think that's what most average students in our school have an expertise on so therefore I think that it wouldn't make sense to waste that research and try to give a very detailed and long question. Also I think that having sources to back up my generalizations about kids is going to be good for any sort of paper of presentation on this subject.

QUESTION: What do you see as the difference in parenting strategy by social class and how do you think that translates into the school system?

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Parenting is something that everyone has an experience of. Whether you were raised by your biological parents or grew up in a foster home everyone has a figure in their life that is clearly identified as the parent or in politically correct terms "guardian". The question is how should we raise kids? Well for starters I think that there is no clear answers and it all determines on a wide arange of variables. For examble the financial resources available, the neighborhood, culture, religion, available schools, all of these things can determine what would make someone an effective parent or render them ineffective. The techniques that might produce a healthy white child in westchester probably wouldn't serve as effective to a African American child in an urban environment. So from that I think that in some circumstances it would be perfectly fair for a parent to give their child "tough love" andbe somewhat mean because if you live in a dangerous area those are the skills that kid needs to have. On the other hand if you live in a very safe area with very good schools then following what the doctors say is perfectly fine. My point is that far too often people make sweeping judgements about how other people parent without considering the outside factors, and the doctors or social theorist's make their analysis far to general.

Even though the direct contact with parents is what makes the biggest difference on raising a child I do think that there's some truth to the saying that it takes a village to raise a child. You can argue that because if you think about all of the people that kids come across and all of the important people in their lives that aren't their parents the life of a child is truly determined by a lot of people. However it's still the parents overall because the path that a child take and the people they meet is determined by the parents and the circumstances tht they set forth.

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Part 1: What kind of effect does social class and economic structure have on building relationships for adollecesnts?

Part 2: Sam, your two questions seem to have great potential for coming together and making a very interesting and informative study. However I think that to find a clear and insightfull answer you should think about making your question as clear and focused as possible. For example, what kind of relationships, what sorts of action's do friends take in effecting these relationships. Also as far as the amount of friends someone has I think that some things to think about are; if one has more friends does that open up the door for bad influnces? If, yes is that inspired by a feeling of cockiness among the person with all of those friends and if no is there some kind of necessary isolation at times and is there truly too much of a good thing.

Christian, I think that one of most important interactions teenagers have are with adults and I think that with this question you really have an opportunity to explore the possible inspirations and/or traumas that come from these intereactions. Something that I think would be helpfull to your question would be to specify what kind of adults are kids dealing with and perhaps the context of the interaction; I think that if you leave the door open to different adults in different power positions it's going to be difficult to get a clear answer. Finally I think that it would be cool if you could get different perspectives from people of different backgrounds as to what their definition of a healthy adult too kid relationship is.

Part 3: I can't come up with the wording for it quite yet but I want to revise my question to be specific to two comparative groups. Also a decision hasn't been made as to whether these groups are strictly economic or maybe an ethnic or racial component could be interesting. Also I want to look into how answerable my question is and make sure that at least I can draw some conclusions that are supportable but I don't think in this format any of them are outright provable.

Gibson, Justin. "What's Wrong With This Picture?." Washington Post 3/18/07: n. pag. Web. 18 May 2010. .
This article is a first person account of what it is like to be involved in a interacial coupling these days. What I thought was so interesting about this article was the differences between generation. The author said that he felt that amongst members of his own generation there were little to no problems but he felt that he was viewed as an outsider or not accepted by older generations. I thought that this would be helpfull because I think that a lot of our perception of forging relationships differs from older generations and an interacial relationship is a deffinate cross roads of society.

Maiese, Michelle. "Establishment Of Personal Relationships." Beyond Intractability. N.p., September 2003. Web. 18 May 2010. .
This article is basically a run down of relationships and what there importance is to society and how they can have lasting effects on peoples function's in the world. I thought that this would be a good source for my study because to understand the differences in relationships it's helpfull to know something about how relationships work in general.

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The Myers Briggs test was really interesting because it gave a specific personality type. I think that the questions it asked were phrased in a way where you didn't necessarily feal that your giving away a lot of information about your personality which I think contributes to the accuracy of the results. Also when I took this test I was unaware of how it graded you and what the letters meant so I think that helped me give the most accurate answers possible. At the end of the test I was told that I am a esfp, which is apparently someone who is very in the moment and spontaneous and so forth. I think that I fill that role but I also think that if I got any of the personality types that I would find some things in common with that type. So therefore a fun experiment would be to give someone the test and tell them their result was different then it actually was and see if they agree with the outcome.
Something that I found interesting about the results were that a lot of my friends that took the test were also esfp's or had a lot of the letters in common. What I thought about most was how are these types developed or are people born with some natural brain alignment which causes them to think a certain way. My geuss would be some combination of both; I think that people are not only raised with a certain movement to one side or the other but people also are born with some type of pre-deposition. However I think that the majority of these personality types are compatable with one and other but if people put too much stock into the results people become trapped and feel profiled which is certainly not a good for anybody because then they could possibly loose their beliefs about their own life.

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Taking the survey was just like any other survey that I have taken. I didn't feel like any of the questions were going to surprise anyone or make anyone think differently about any of the topics covered. I think that the main reason for not taking it that seriously is that we all know how the test is going to be looked at and what the test is looking for. I think that if your taking a survey and you don't know how its going to be measured someones more likely to tell the truth or at least provide a more interesting response.
One of the main things I noticed in the survey is that when it came to family matters people seemed to all be in line. Now to some that would make them think that we have a school full of people with happy home lifes but I think that its pretty coincidential. In my oppinion this is example of how the survey isn't fully accurate. I just have a hard time believing that everyone has these totally different views on sexuality or what not but at home everybody is living the same life. Mostly for the reason that many views that people have and experiences they have are inspired by or a direct result of their upbringing.
I think that the survey done by the department of education was most likely a lot more accurate. The main reason that I say that is because I think that since people know that the results are just going to some beuracrat somewhere and being anlyzed in an office in midtown and not like our survey being looked at and analyzed by people we know and encounter everyday. I think that because we deal with the people that wrote the survey and are looking at the survey somehow that makes people think that their more at risk to being exposed. Besides that the department of education survey was also able to spark some more revealing answers. Particularly answers regarding the racial disparity and lack of contreception among certain ethnic and geographical groups.

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The basic principle of human interaction is that people are in need of other attention and desperate to feel a connection with other people. I think people feel this way because there's a natural feeling to not only bond with other people but also feel like your doing something right in the world and get emotionally compensated for what your doing in the world. Furthermore there are clearly certain techniques that people use to draw different kinds of attention and therefore forge different kinds of relationships.
One of the main reasons people try to connect is because of death. Everyone wants to be remembered after they die and the thought of dieing and knowbody ever rememberin use is tragic. I think deep down people would rather die thought of as a bad person rather than not thought of at all. This can be seen clearly through the sentimentality that people display all the time. "Remember when we went to.. Oh the time he did...". That feeling of sentimentality can be different for different people. I think that some people use it to bring the people around them up so to thereore make themselves look better. However there are some people that shy away from sentimentality. These individuals tend to be older people who have a hard time coming to bear with their age or whatever and don't like to think about how old they really are.
Truly it's really quite diffiuclt to be alone in the world; truly alone where there is no contact or a feeling of belonging or obligation to something. Even the kid who sits in the back of class and won't talk to anyone isn't really alone. We have endless back ups; our family, our country, our neighborhood, politics, nationality. All of those things give people a sense of belonging, and even if those traditional elements don't spend an hour looking up random stuff on the internet and you can find people who bond over the weirdest and most unthinkable things. So even though we have communication and bonding no matter what the real game is to get as much communication as possible. The more people you can bond with the more respected you are, and who cares whether or not people are being lied too because people like being lied to knowbody wants to hear the truth.
Finally I think that overall its healthy to want to be heard and liked by other people. I think this because people inspire the best out of other people. We are the driving force for everything good in the world. Unfortunateley were the driving force for everything bad as well. It is true that it takes a village to raise a child. We are all dependent on someone somewhere for something. Why do we do what we do? Evolution and natural desire. Maybe. Probably not.