You have to be taught

Image: Children in the Madang area of Papua New Guinea.


Contact me at malcolm.mcinerney@thebartonsc.sa.edu.au 

The address for the Socialsense blog
http://culturalscene.blogspot.com.au/

The TSC Society and Culture Moodle


You’ve got to be carefully taught

What is this song from the musical South Pacific saying? At the time (1949) it caused quite a stir. Can you explain why?

Listen to it here
and also here.


Here are the lyrics

You've got to be taught
To hate and fear,
You've got to be taught
From year to year,
It's got to be drummed
In your dear little ear
You've got to be carefully taught.

You've got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a diff'rent shade,
You've got to be carefully taught.

You've got to be taught before it's too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate,
You've got to be carefully taught!

Here is the background to the song.


Do you agree with what the song is saying?

Society is...?

Contact me at malcolm.mcinerney@thebartonsc.sa.edu.au 

The address for the Socialsense blog
http://culturalscene.blogspot.com.au/

The TSC Society and Culture Moodle

WHAT IS SOCIETY

• A broad definition of society

Is the way people organise themselves. This involves groups of people, institutions, organisations and systems that people use to link themselves with others to form a society. For example our society in Australia is linked together through formal government and national identity (through sport, media etc).

• A definition of human society
A human society, is a group of people related to each other through persistent relations, or a large social grouping sharing the same geographical or virtual territory, subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Human societies are characterized by patterns of relationships (social relations) between individuals who share a distinctive culture and institutions; a given society may be described as the sum total of such relationships among its constituent members.
When we study a society we talk about the social organisation, cultural nature, economic function and political governance of a society.  All of these are distinct aspects of a sociey but are all inter-related ane interdependent.

• Any society has characteristics which work together to create identity and the ability for the society to function as a unit.

Tasks

1. In 100 words (your own), describe what you see as a society and what each of the following mean:

• social organisation
• cultural nature
• economic function 
• political governance of a society

.

Culture is...?

Image above: Festival on the Ganges River, India.

Contact me at malcolm.mcinerney@thebartonsc.sa.edu.au 

The address for the Socialsense blog
http://culturalscene.blogspot.com.au/

The TSC Society and Culture Moodle

 
What is culture?

Now that we know that society is about the organisation and functioning of communities we need to look at the critical area of society called culture. It is time we tried to clearly describe what composes culture and what we need to look at when we study a culture. We have mentioned in class that it is to do with things such as values, beliefs, dress, food, art, norms, taboos and ways of behaving. The following slideshows give a more detailed and at times contested view of culture.

Sub cultures!
Within in any mainstream culture there are many sub-cultures within a culture.
 

Watch this Powerpoint on 'What is Culture'.


Cultural groups are different around the world, but so are the sub-cultural expressions of those who feel that they are on the fringes of society.

6 Foreign Subcultures you've Never Heard of. Dandies in Congo, emos in Iraq, electro-hillbilly truckers in Japan. No matter how hard life can be, people carve out original ways of living.

Looking for issues

Contact me at malcolm.mcinerney@thebartonsc.sa.edu.au 

The address for the Socialsense blog
http://culturalscene.blogspot.com.au/


Looking for an issue of interest

Today we discussed the nature of issues in society and the need to look at our views on issues and express our opinion about them. Many of you had difficulty thinking about an issue of importance to you. I thought the following websites dedicated to exploring and providing information on issues would be a useful exercise for you to look at and see a topic/issue that you find of interest. You may even find an issue of interest that you could conduct research on later in the year when you are asked to undertake an issue investigation assignment. Start thinking about it now! Spend some time over the next week looking at these sites, identifying issues and learning about them.

Here are some sites to explore:

* Newspapers to explore for issues at http://www.theworldpress.com

* Find out the facts on a wide range of issues at http://www.encyclopedia.com

* Research issues at the Social Issue Research Centre at http://www.sirc.org

* Investigate a catalogue of issues at http://www.dmoz.org/Society/Issues

* Find out information for issue studies at http://www.ipl.org/div/subject

* Investigate a directory of issues at http://dir.yahoo.com/Society_and_Culture/issues_and_Causes

* Look at this Australian social action issue site at http://www.actnow.com.au

* Here is a site full of issue ideas http://spinneypress.com.au/

 
Images: Protesting US style on the issue of peace outside of the White House, Washington



Your task before Wednesday is to pick 5 issues to add to our 'What is your opinion' worksheet and then pick an issue from the sheet (mine or yours and do a reaction statement). The reaction statement should be at 10-15 lines in length.

Making sense!

Image above: A different world http://www.wimp.com/vegetablemarket/






 * Contact me at malcolm.mcinerney@thebartonsc.sa.edu.au

* Society and Culture TSC Moodles
   Moodle for Malcolm's class
   Supporting Moodle (disregard assignment documents)

* Society and Culture Scoop.it called Just real interesting Making sense of Society and Culture

The aptitude (competency – skill/ability/know-how) - to do a certain kind of work at a certain level) and attitude (person's perspective towards something or someone) ...
to do Society and Culture at Stage 2 comes down to 11 things.

A Society and Culture student needs to work at being able to:

* be inquisitiveness
* be empathetic
* be objective
* observe and deconstruct what is studied and see component parts
* research to be informed
* analyse – to see clearly what is happening
* suggest ways forward – recommendations and possible actions
* document the learning
* present the learning in a variety of forms
* discuss for a range of purposes and in a range of settings

We are on about sense making as we look


Go to the Forum to discuss

Why do we study this?

Image above: 1915 at the beach in Atlantic City in the US. How society changes.


* Contact me at malcolm.mcinerney@thebartonsc.sa.edu.au

* Society and Culture TSC Moodles
   Moodle for Malcolm's class
   Supporting Moodle (disregard assignment documents)

* Society and Culture Scoop.it called Just real interesting



The Socialsense blog

I have developed this blog to support the Society and Culture classes at Thebarton Senior College (TSC )in South Australia. The college is located in Adelaide and caters for young people determined to gain an education for their future. The South Australian Certificate of Education (SACE) Society and Culture courses have been designed to provides students with the opportunity to explore, analyse and consider the complexities and interconnections of our societies and cultures in the Australian and Global context. This is the first of many, I am sure, as the course progresses.

The Socialsense blog is called socialsense because many of the aims of the SACE Society and Culture courses is for us to try to make sense of our society and cultures in Australia and around the world. The SACE Society and Culture course outline describes the reasons why we do the course as follows.

We study Society and Culture for you to have the opportunity to:

1. investigate and analyse different aspects of, and issues related to, contemporary societies and cultures, in local and global contexts
2. demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the nature and causes of social change
3. investigate and analyse ways in which power structures operate in societies
4. evaluate and use a range of sources and perspectives to communicate informed ideas about societies and social and cultural issues
5. collaboratively plan, undertake, and evaluate informed social action as a result of an inquiry
6. demonstrate understanding of ways in which societies and cultures are connected and interdependent.


In a sense, our class is a micro-society with a culture with many of the characteristics of society and cultures on a larger scale. To get to know us I thought the following introductory activity would be a worthwhile exercise to know who we are and what we think. Intoductory activity

Looking beyond the brand! Ethical purchasing

Contact Malcolm at malcolm.mcinerney@thebartonsc.sa.edu.au

The address for the Socialsense blog
http://culturalscene.blogspot.com.au/



"Money is a vote which you can use every time you go shopping. By using your spending power wisely you can help in the struggle towards a better world."

* Firstly watch this video on chocolate and ethical purchasing

* Read this article on the clothes we buy and conditions they are made under.

* Fashion Victims: Four Corners June 27, 2013


* Making our toys (Ipads, Iphones) in China
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gypZoLbEvJo 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxmD2xPBJ2w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F03kFZvdUjE 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIAsBPsA27I


* Some sites to explore ethical purchasing and Human Rights

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethical_consumerism

http://www.ethical.org.au/get-informed/why-shop-ethically/

http://www.ethicalconsumer.org   

http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/shoppingethically/topethicaltips/whybuyethically.aspx

http://www.cdhrsupport.org/2012/03/02/ethical-consumerism-and-the-purchase-of-human-rights-clothes/