This site focuses on social class; namely working, upper, and middle class. It reminds us that “Class is not just an abstract concept — people deal with class differences in their lives every day. “
I thought the site has many interesting features and was very interactive. The only down side was that you had to load Real player and Shockwave in order to play two of the games and access film clips. The game ‘Chintz or Shag’ has very funny profiles of the TV show type ‘experts’ who represented the 3 classes. I wish that there had been more categories to choose from when decorating my room as it was hard to find a piece of furniture that matched what I would consider to be my taste.
In the ‘Resources’ link you can type in a zip code to get a profile of the kinds of people who live in a certain area. I tried where I live and where I work and both profiles were fairly close to what I see as reality.
The ‘Teacher Resources’ link had extensive lesson plans, documentary links, and related activities which makes me wish I taught older students so that I could utilize this thoughtfully crafted, engaging, multi-faceted teaching guide.
Apart from the frivolity of playing games and getting excited about the powerful teaching resources, the ‘Stories’ link is the part of the website that made me think the most and is what I will take away from the experience. The common thread between the 5 stories is that class affects peoples’ relationships with their families. It really shocked me that as families grew and changed when children grew up and met husbands and wives or had children, the peoples’ relationships became strained with either their parents or their children because of the differences in their social classes. It leaves me wondering how common these stories are in families where different generations become connected with classes other than what they grew up with.
I completely agree with you about the choices/options for some of the games. I felt forced to make a selection that was not even suitable to my taste at all. I found each choice very sterotypical and was uneasy with making a selection just to see what the end result would be. The sight was very interactive and I enjoyed browsing it, but I did find the "stories" section very real and it was sad to hear what has happened to so many people because of the class they are categorized into.
ReplyDeleteHi Nikki,
ReplyDeleteI too agree that the games were streotypical but I had laugh at the little comic people popping up as I was choosing the set up of my living room!(I wish I had more choices too) It also was very interesting to see the different documentaries and how social class plays such a huge role in these people's lives. One quote that I remember was that "Americans 5 to 1 prefer white bread to wheat bread and wheat tends to be consumed by the educated people." Ha, ha! I consider myself educated and I love Pannera bread so am I going to pick wheat or white asigo? You take a guess!
See you tommorow.