This discussion board is a chance for you to reflect on what you read in the assigned readings and content from Week 1 and Week 2, which were (click on the title to access):
"What is Sociology?" in Ch. 1 of A Sociology Experiment
"The Promise" by C. Wright Mills
- What is the Sociological Imagination?
Why is the Sociological Imagination Valuable?
"The Sociological Imagination and Personal Crises".
- Step 1: Your Initial Post
Scroll down to click the "Reply" button. You will then see a text box, where you will write your answers to the following questions. After you have finished typing your answers, click "Post Reply" (the blue box on the bottom right corner of the text box).
- Your initial posts are worth 5 points.
After you have posted your reply, you will see your classmates' replies to these questions. You are then ready to do Step 2 below.
- If you need more help on how to reply to these questions on a discussion board, click hereLinks to an external site..
Based on what you have read in both C.W. Mills' "The Promise" and in the article, "The Sociological Imagination and Personal Crisis," what do you think it feels like for students to struggle with the balance of school work, paid work and family life? Did anything you read resonate with you based on what you've experienced and/or observed and, if so, how did you or the person you observed deal with their troubles?
- In "The Promise," C.W. Mills describes "personal troubles of the milieu" and "public issues of social structure," which we can just refer to as personal troubles and public issues. How can these concepts of personal troubles and public issues be applied to the article, "The Sociological Imagination and Personal Crisis"? Specifically, explain the difference between personal troubles and public issues in terms of what is discussed in the article, "The Sociological Imagination and Personal Crisis." In your answer to this, be sure to do the following:
incorporate details from "The Sociological Imagination and Personal Crisis."
incorporate details from "The Promise" or other content I've posted in the "What is the Sociological Imagination" and "Why is the Sociological Imagination Valuable" pages in the module for this Week 2.
"Details" are things like examples, terms, and explanations that appear in the readings.
Following the details you provide, indicate where you got those details from by putting the title of the source and the page numbers, if relevant, in parentheses.
I encourage you to write in your own words. You may find it helpful to use the exact phrasing from either writing but, in such cases, you must put the writing in quotation marks (" ") and then follow up the quote with an explanation of what it is saying in your own words.
Reflect on what you have learned so far about the sociological imagination and struggles balancing school, work and family. To do so the following two questions: (a) How do these articles contribute to your thinking about about the role of society in our daily struggles and experiences? (b) Using your own sociological imagination, explain what do you think needs to change in our society so that students are less likely to experience such troubles.