sociology field trip

Sociology Fieldtrip
I really enjoyed the sociology fieldtrip; I thought it was really cool to be able to apply sociology to real life situations. We started off with going to the Milwaukee County Courthouse. There, we were able to talk to a judge and hear about his job as well as hear some cases. Then, we went to the Hope House, which personally, was my favorite part of the trip. Lastly, we went to Habitat for Humanity, which was also very interesting.
Although I thought every part of the fieldtrip was interesting, my favorite part was going to the Hope House. It was heartbreaking and intriguing at the same time to see a place like that. Seeing what conditions human beings were in before makes you instantly lose your appetite and fall short of words. I believe crime could be one of the potential factors that could make someone homeless, without paying taxes; they are thrown out of their house. Most would consider it almost deviant to be homeless, as if there is usually something people can do to fully avoid it. If you think about it, becoming homeless is sort of like a degradation ceremony, someone is thrown out of their house, really removed from society, and made very hard for them to join society once again. Many people think of the homeless in a very ethnocentric way, they believe they are far better and do not like to associate themselves with them. This actually, is quite a disturbing way to think. People tend to use gender socialization to describe the homeless. They also use gender stereotyping, by sometimes believing that is more tragic when a women is homeless than a man. While in this country we all like to believe that we are all against poverty, and that we all do our best to end it, in reality, we fall short of those promises. Ideal culture is they way we would like to think of our society, and real culture is how our society actually runs. Those who are homeless probably don’t have a strong send of material culture, because they aren’t left with much. Being homeless really breaks a social norm, the idea of having a home and a place to stay is lost. Although it is not as strong as a taboo, it is not socially accepted. Poverty is really hurting this country and I feel very lucky to know that there are places out there like the hope house to help with people. I would love to volunteer in a place like that to help less fortunate families. Our social classes in this country are very segregated, and something needs to be done about that because in the end, were all human beings. Social inequality is very apparent in the country, probably because while some poor are very poor, the rich are very rich. Social control affects how we treat those of different groups, and while it is clear that we should do all we can do help others less fortunate then us, that is much easier said than done. I think it was very beneficial to observe something like the Hope House and in the future I would love to volunteer and help out with organizations like it.