A Bronx Tale: Groups

The whole point of the story is to show the various groups that C does belong to as he ages, and how they vary accordingly. As a child, he belongs to many of the same groups that we belonged to at his age: his own group of friends, a part of e neighborhood, a family, and school. However, this all changes when he witnesses Sonny commit murder. Sonny immediately takes interest in the boy since he feels there's something "special" about him (besides not ratting on him for homicide?). Anyways, C begins to stray from his initial groups as he becomes more involved with the mob, and by the time he turns seventeen his affiliation with that mob essentially becomes his master status. This is showcased by his willingness to accept Sonny as a father figure and his growing disrespect for his father and the "common man." He lives his life according to the things he witnesses from Sonny, even though Sonny explicitly states not to do so. This remains stagnant until a pivotal point in the movie, when he is silently called upon to participate in a habitual beating of a rival gang. Instead of joining in and kicking some biker ass, he ducks in the corner, trying to hide his cowardice. He never really does recover from that scene, as he grows more confused up until he witnesses the murder of his idol, Sonny. By the end of the movie, I think his master status changes back to the son of his father. I say this because of his interaction with Joe Peschi's character: he tells C to contact him if he ever needs anything, and C basically tells him that that won't be necessary. It's an interesting character study and the film does a good job of showing the influence that one's surroundings can have on his/her actions.

When am I gonna need this?

You know when you're sitting in math class and you actually stop for a moment to think about what you're doing and why you're doing it? I had one of those moments today and I just looked at the worksheet in front of me and though to myself "why am I doing this?" I had just finished a problem that took a good fifteen minutes of following numerous intricate formulas, only to arrive at an answer that was utterly meaningless to me. I think I calculated the amount of time that it would take for a bacteria population to grow over time...but how does that affect me? That bacteria could be wiped out by the Black Plague and I wouldn't miss a beat because, simply put, it just doesn't affect me. But at the same rate, if I am so disconnected from this information then why did I just spend the past fifteen minutes of my life figuring out the problem? I'm not going to wine and say that math is useless, because I don't think that. I believe that doing problems like this promotes logical thinking and allows promotes fluency with complex ideas and concepts. But I will say that I begin to question certain subjects, especially the relevance that those subjects have to my life and life in general. Odds are that in my future profession, I will never have to calculate anything remotely like this problem. I guess I'm just really confused...
I think it's also interesting to note the strong dislike that many of the social studies teachers share for math. I think this is due to two very, very different outlooks on life. On the one hand, a math person would see the world in terms of numbers and equations. They would notice patterns and try to draw disscernable mathematical conclusions based on these observations...after all, isn't that what a math equation is? It's simply an observed pattern that never fails. On the other hand, you've got the outlook of someone who's not neccessarily a math person. I'm not really sure how someone who falls under this category would view things, but I can say with confidence that I will be one of these people.

Oddyssey

So Oddyssey was this week, and I didn't have very high hopes going into it due to a very bad experience two years ago (the only class I remember was Music Therapy which involved everyone closing their eyes and listening to a lady play the harp...little strange). But my first day of this Oddyssey this year actually wasn't too bad. I got to play some handbells which was pretty fun, and I also got to watch the faculty rock band which was defintely the highlight of the two days. Watching Mr. Wilms rip a solo to Zeppelin's "Rock & Roll" made those two days totally worth it. As for the sociological point of view, I guess the main purpose of Oddyssey is to broaden the learing of students and acknowledge that there are important things to be learned that are not taught inside of a classroom. It's a shame that so many kids have an unpleasant experience with this because I really do think that Oddyssey could be a great thing. If the classes were tailored more to student's interests (last time I checked I was not planning on becoming a Hawaiin dancer when I graduated, not that there's anything wrong with that) then we would all enjoy Oddyssey much more. For example, I really wanted to hear one guy speak who spent some time as a radio DJ. Unfortunately I didn't get that class, but that would have been something that I had a genuine interest in. I commend Stevenson for the idea and orginzaition of Oddyssey since I do believe it's intentions are good, but I would like to see classes that are of more interest to the students.