Tag Archives: Spring 2016

Why Do We Sleep?

Baby girl sleeping against drawings on blackboard, overhead view

A night’s sleep lost leads to a glut of aftereffects. That heavy gait, that groggy mind, that inability to tell words on a page from alphabet soup–all too familiar. Therefore, it baffles me that we don’t biologically know why we sleep, just that it certainly feels good. Three explanations were posited by Dr. Russell Foster during his TED Talk: sleep as a means of energy conservation, sleep as a means of physical restoration, and sleep as a means of handling memories and brain processes. Although all hypotheses are probably true to some degree, the last one seems to me the largest and most viable reason.

First, the idea that sleep is a means of energy conservation is supported by meager evidence. For instance, our bodies only save about one hundred calories per night’s worth of sleep–an amount equal to approximately one slice of bread. Even under the hunting-gathering conditions of our past, this seems to me a second-rate exchange for the dangers associated with being unconscious for eight hours.

However, there’s still problems with this. Firstly, we actually decrease our total protein production while we sleep. To me, it seems counterproductive for the body to decrease the number of essential building blocks available to it if the goal is repair work. Furthermore, stage 3 non-REM sleep is shown to be most beneficial to our physical health, and adults spend less than half our sleep time here. Contrastingly, we spend upwards of 50% in stage 2 non-REM sleep. Stage 2 non-REM sleep is responsible for memory consolidation and information processing, leading neatly to Foster’s final suggestion.

From experience, we know when we’re sleep deprived we’re fault to a number of follies like forgetting details, forgetting how to perform tasks, and being less creative in our problem solving; yet when we get a good night’s rest, our problem solving skills increase three times due to REM sleep, and our ability to retain information from the day before increases due to the time spent in stage 2 non-REM sleep. These characteristics are crucial in defining humans from other animals. From an anthropologic and historical sense, our intellect and ingenuity have led us to survive and thrive as a species for so long, and, thusly I’d say have a lot to do with our need for sleep.

I pulled the information for this post from this website. Although the authorship is ambiguous (you have to go to the “contact” page) it seems reliable as there are a number of reputable books and websites listed as the sources. Additionally, the information was presented in a clear cut manner as opposed to being superfluous, showing me the author had a somewhat put together concept of the subject material.

Sources:

Russel Foster: Why do we sleep? [Video file]. (2013, June). Retrieved April 8, 2016, from http://www.ted.com/talks/russell_foster_why_do_we_sleep#t-653233

Mastin, L. (n.d.). Why Do We Sleep? – Physical Restoration. Retrieved April 08, 2016, from http://www.howsleepworks.com/why_restoration.html

Mastin, L. (n.d.). Why Do We Sleep? – Energy Conservation. Retrieved April 8, 2016, from http://www.howsleepworks.com/why_energy.html

Mastin, L. (n.d.). Why Do We Sleep? – Memory Processing and Learning. Retrieved April 8, 2016, from http://www.howsleepworks.com/why_memory.html


Motivated Till the End

 Motivation has always been something that I feel I have managed fairly well. Growing up, my mom gave me a lot of freedom and let me make a lot of my own decisions at a young age. At age sixteen, I got a job, then a car, and it seemed like I was on my own at this point. My mom says my motivation to achieve the next level in whatever I was doing has been the reason why she felt there wasn’t much need for her to help me at most times. My current restaurant job at home is probably a good example of this. I started at California Pizza Kitchen as a part time host and I hated hosting because it didn’t pay much, but I knew upgrading to the server position and making my own “real” tips would be worth it. I used extrinsic motivation, like we talked about in class, to get me through a full year of hosting without just giving up and quitting. I knew the how to save the bit of money I was making and once I finally became a server it seemed like I had more money than I knew what to do with. 

Coming to Austin College was a very big decision for me, considering that my dream was always to go to the University of Oklahoma, like my mom and older brother. Coming from a huge high school and hoping for a larger public University, Austin College definitely wasn’t a school at the top of my list, at first. There were, however a few different motivation factors at work that led to my decision to become a kangaroo. The incentive theory was probably the biggest theory working on me in this decision. By coming to Austin College, I was going to get to play four more years of my favorite hobby in existence, football. Coach Dawson, head football coach of Austin College, called me and introduced me to the idea of playing for him and told me about this private school that I had no knowledge of. He told me how I could come in and actually get to play, no practice dummy scam or sideline soldier trick involved. That fact alone, put Austin College at the top of my list, in the number one spot. Another motivation I give credit to for my decision to attend Austin College is the arousal theory. I realized in class, when we went over the Yerkes-Dodson Law that I knew Austin College was going to be a challenge for me academically, but that was a big reason why I chose it. My job at California Pizza Kitchen has shown me that I perform much better when I am keeping myself busy and running around doing something than when I’m not very busy or being lazy. Without even realizing it, I knew that I would most likely do better at a school that challenged me and stressed me out a little bit compared to a school were I could get lazy and get by easily.

 These next three remaining years of undergraduate school and then three years of physical therapy school after that will be the toughest years of my academic life. I plan to use the motivation of the future I’ve pictured for my family and I to get through it all. I know that failing a class, not getting all my prerequisites done in time, dropping out, having kids early, or simply losing focus will all result in me not being able to achieve the future I have pictured in my head right now. It really is a “work now, play later” type of mentality but much more long term than that phrase is usually used for. I guess I just understand that it will all be worth it in the end and that’s all I’m going to need to push me through these next several years.


Leave People Alone

Right off the bat, it seems orthorexia is a cop-out for diagnosing someone with anorexia. Anorexia shares many symptoms with this eating disorder, but there is a key element for someone to be diagnosed with anorexia: the person’s body mass index (BMI) is highly suggested to be at least 15% below a normal BMI for someone their age and height to be diagnosed with anorexia. Orthorexia doesn’t have to have a BMI measurement at all. Orthorexia seems to be an incredibly specific type of anorexia, and aimed at a specific group that gets their identity from what they eat. Both disorders seem to stem from self-image and confidence issues. That should be what the focus on, not how “obsessed” someone is with eating healthy. If it makes them happy, let them be. If it doesn’t make them happy so to speak, causes physical harm, and fuels their body issue problems and self-identity crises, then there is a problem that needs to be addressed. If the problem is there, it should be diagnosed as anorexia since it meets the criteria.

The orthorexia essay written by Dr. Bratman seems to be more of a cautionary tale than a mental disorder. He became obsessed with how organic, pure, and clean his food was and eventually overcame this and it affected him physically. The physical aspect, the self-identity crisis, and the obsessive control over what he wanted to eat are grounds for an eating disorder. It can be diagnosed as anorexia though, especially if the BMI measurement is lifted from the diagnosis criteria. When eating healthily results in negative symptoms in a person, mentally and physically, there should be concern, but if the person enjoys eating like that, and is not displaying poor physical health, then there is no need to necessarily be concerned.

Reading Dr. Bratman “What is Orthorexia?“, he claims there are differences between anorexia and orthorexia. Orthorexia, he says, is much more apart of a person’s identity, and the controlling aspect of each disorder. Orthorexia focuses on where the food came from, how was it prepared, etc. while anorexia is just about losing weight. On the contrary, it doesn’t matter how the food is controlled; the part that should be concerning is to what degree the food is being controlled. There should not be controlling classifications for eating disorders, especially two that are very much alike. With the identity argument, frankly, if I was someone with anorexia, I would be deeply insulted by his comment on identity. Anorexia is a terrible, consuming disorder with high mortality rates, and it takes years to overcome if someone can actually do it. Anorexia and bulimia  become intricate parts of someone’s identity that constantly must be battled on different levels of complexity. Bratman sounds a little entitled in finding a new eating disorder to describe his. Honestly, this orthorexia disorder is actually starting to reek of a little bit of sexism. Teenage girls are the main demographic of anorexia, and a new name on the same disorder can open the door for more men to be diagnosed with an eating disorder. This isn’t the first time the psychology community has done this (see Borderline Personality Disorder versus Narcissistic Personality Disorder). 

Not surprisingly, the vegan and vegetarian community has scoffed at this disorder, and offered most of the backlash against this possible eating disorder. Freelee the Banana Girl, a prolific vegan Youtuber with very colorful language who people say is orthorexic, makes sure her viewers know she is absolutely against this disorder. While I don’t exactly agree with every video she posts or even everything she says in this video, she does state she’s only obsessed with healthy eating because it makes her feel good, and she is making a conscious effort to put good things in her body. She posts pictures and suggests different kinds of “junk” food to eat while you are eating vegan/vegetarian. She claims people just “want to give a fuck about what they eat”, and to a certain level, I agree with that, but there are people out there who become distressed and suffer physically from consuming too much of a vegan diet or exercising too much without eating enough calories in their preferred diet. I’m pretty sure she doesn’t have a doctorate or anything like that, but she offers interesting insight to the more passionate side of the vegan community, and she brings up a great point about the access of junk food in the vegan world.

On YouTube, there’s also videos saying orthorexia is a real disorder, one such video coming from a Youtuber called The Balanced Blonde. She says she suffered from orthorexia, and she lists several symptoms of the disorder. Note she gives special thanks to Dr. Bartman in the video description. While I support her getting help for her eating disorder, there are too many overlapping symptoms with anorexia. I don’t know if it would have been better for her to be diagnosed with anorexia since I don’t know her personally, but she’s making a difficult case for orthorexia to stand on its own. I do agree with the video’s message of one diet doesn’t fit everyone, however.

I think it’s going to be incredibly difficult for the overall public to back up this disorder, and for this disorder not to clash with anorexia. Overall, I don’t believe this is a valid way to define a boundary between an eating disorder and healthy eating.


Week 10 Blog Prompts – Motivation

Hand writing on a notebook

Here are the two prompts for this week. Regardless of which one you choose, please use the tag “Motivation.”

Option 1

America is currently facing an obesity epidemic that some experts have labeled the biggest public health threat we have today. We have all heard the recommendations to eat healthier and get regular exercise. Some people, however, are taking the message of healthy eating too far. A new mental health disorder called orthorexia nervosa has been proposed, in which eating healthy food becomes an obsession. One set of proposed criteria are available here. Look over the criteria and comment on whether or not you think this is a good way to define the boundary between eating healthy and having a mental disorder. Also find two sources that discuss orthorexia and describe what information they add to your opinion on whether this is really a disorder or not. Make sure to include an assessment of each source’s credibility.

Option 2

Motivation is not a stable force, but often waxes and wanes. Throughout your time at Austin College, your motivation for school will undoubtedly be higher at some times and lower at others. How can we use the principals of motivation we discussed in class and read about in the text to help ourselves push through times of low motivation? Specifically, I want you to discuss why you chose to come to Austin College and use 2 different theories of motivation to explain your decision. I also want you to plan an intervention for yourself for how you can maintain motivation to succeed until graduation.

I look forward to seeing what you write!

Header image: CC by Flickr user Caitlinator

 

Synesthesia

In 2011 Icelandic author Daniel Tammet gave a TED Talk about perception and how it shapes our knowledge of the world. He elaborates on this point by describing his experiences with synesthesia, a condition I also have.

What is Synesthesia?

Synesthesia is defined as a “neurological phenomenon” in which two senses are irrationally, but consistently, coupled. Although this linkage can be just about any combination of the senses, the two most common are color-grapheme and color-auditory synesthesia. In the former, a synesthete perceives letters and numbers as being written in a certain color or pattern. In the latter, sounds illicit a visual cue, usually taking the form of colored light. The location of these phenomena vary. One synesthete may report them occurring in her actual visual field while another describes them as being more within the mind’s eye (Gross, n.d.).

My form is a fairly rare one. Whenever I listen to someone speak or sing words, I “feel” them somewhere in my head or have the urge to produce their movement. Honestly, the best description I can give isn’t even a description but a demonstration. Kinetic typography is a type of animation that puts words into motion like in these videos… So imagine that but “felt.” I can only  “see” them if I focus hard enough.

Surprisingly, synesthesia is a very real condition with a defined biological cause. For instance, fMRIs demonstrate a difference in synesthetic and non-synesthetic brains: when exposed to a triggering stimulus, a synesthete’s brain will activate in areas correlated to their coupled senses (Rossengarten, n.d.). Dr. Richard Cytowic (2013) claims this to be the result of “hyper connecting neurons” between the two areas. Interestingly, there appears to be a genetic component to the condition since many synesthetes report having similarly affected relatives. Makes me wonder if any of my relatives have it.

Still, synesthesia is not considered a disorder since it does not adversely affect the individual to any great degree. In fact, it’s common for a synesthete to not realize until later in life his perception of the world is any different. (I didn’t know most people didn’t have personalities assigned to some numbers–related to synesthesia– until a few years ago.)

This returns to ideas brought up by Tammet.  Perception is a completely individualized endeavor; therefore, we all have different ways of seeing situations and acquiring knowledge from them. According to Cytowic, this works as a great advantage for a synesthete’s creativity since he would be able to extract very unique metaphors from her surroundings–evident in Tammet’s video, where he demonstrates his  way of viewing multiplication and is able to abstractly connect the word “hare” to something fragile in a Keats’ poem. I found this so cool. Never in my life had I considered the potential for inventing new methods of learning via synesthesia since I’m so used to my type just getting in the way. (Upon further reflection, this is actually how I piece together sentences: by using my synesthesia to feel out how things ought to sound or to make some weird, convoluted lyrical twists.)

Speaking of… What’s It Like Living With Synesthesia?

Living with synesthesia is extremely frustrating to articulate because it’s nearly an existential experience, but it’s honestly not that big of a deal. If you’ve always traveled through the world a certain way, that’s just how it is. You kind of get used to it, you know? It can even be a sort of nifty party trick. I, for example, have fun telling people what their voices “feel” like. If I had anything negative to say, it’d be that it gets annoying to write when the words I want to type don’t quite line up with how I think they should be moving. Punctuation, especially, is idiotic. I should be able to use them wherever, whenever, or never, just because that’s how it sounds like it should feel. Conjunctions besides “and” are also so… choppy.

My case is pretty moderate though. It exists in my mind’s eye and is really more of a weird bodily sensation than anything else; however, a lot of synesthetes like Youtuber Ariel have more extreme forms. In her video“Living With Synesthesia”, she describes her life with color-grapheme and spatial sequence synesthesia, revealing that the latter especially causes anxiety because it causes a hyperawareness of her location. For instance, while on vacation, she was constantly reminded where she was–not very fun if you’re just trying to relax. Additionally, since she sees the weekdays on a map in front of her, and they have personalities/colors of their own, some days are just automatically predisposed to being “bad.” I found this one most horrific though: since her color-grapheme synesthesia only has an index up to about 30, she’s terrified of ever aging past that. It’s a void. Pretty freaky.

References and Validity

A. (Director). (2016, March 11). Living with Synesthesia [Video file]. Retrieved March 31, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnfZYGWnmKM
  • Validity: This is a personal account and therefore is likely to be as accurate as possible. I doubt she’d have a reason lie.
Cytowic, R. E. (Writer). (2013, June 10). What color is Tuesday? Exploring synesthesia [Video file]. Retrieved March 31, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkRbebvoYqI
  • Validity: After researching Cytowic, he appears to be a valid research scientist/medical doctor who really pushed for synesthesia to be examined with new neurologic techniques. In addition, TED does a pretty good job of presenting good facts in general.
Gross, V., Dr. (n.d.). Synesthesia Project | FAQ. Retrieved March 31, 2016, from https://www.bu.edu/synesthesia/faq/
  • Validity: This was my original source, but I got so interested in the  prom that I found the others. It’s a generalized overview of synesthesia in the form of an FAQ put together by Dr. Veronica Gross, head Boston University’s synesthesia research team. I feel like it’s valid considering it’s basically the backbone of an acclaimed college’s research project.

Rossengarten, R. (n.d.). FMRI Scans: Synesthesia is Real. Retrieved March 31, 2016, from http://neurologues.qwriting.qc.cuny.edu/fmri-scans-synesthesia-is-real/

  • Validity: If you look further into the website, you discover that the author of these posts are college students. I think it’s actually an assignment a lot like this one. However, I decided to trust it because a) most students can summarize a report pretty well, and b) the facts provided here were also mentioned by Gross.
T. (Producer). (2011, March). Daniel Tammet: Different ways of knowing [Video file]. Retrieved March 31, 2016, from http://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_tammet_different_ways_of_knowing?language=en
  • Validity: N/A

 

 

 


Intelligence

Jane Elliott’s classic blue eyes/brown eyes experiment: Jane Elliott teaches her class what arbitrary discrimination means by separating them into two groups the inferior blue eyed students and the the superior brown eyed students. By separating them with collars; the students really understood what discrimination was because they were put in situations where they got called names, and couldn’t hang out with one another. Two of the students got into a altercation because the brown eyed student felt “stupid” and left out. One of the students makes a connection and say thats “it’s like other people calling black people niggers.” Elliott’s experiment shows that kids learned about power, and how using power could make people feel useless and worthless and make one group feel superior.

Claude Steele explaining stereotype threat:  In this experiment a group of black and white athletes were instructed to do a golf related task. The task of athletic ability, was done better by the african americans and for as the task of strategy the Caucasians did better. So throughout this experiments we learned about the stereotype threat and how it effects people.

Rosenthal & Jacobson’s discovery of the Pygmalion effect: In this experiment Rosenthal and Jacobson took the Pygmalion effect and show the teachers expectations do have and affect on a students progress. The students names were put into a hat and randomly drawn and they said those students progress will increase over time. So for the teachers giving those students more attention; in the outcome we see that yes students do better when their teacher expects them to do better.

Connections with the videos; With the first video I honestly though it was very interesting how fast people could view other people by separating them into two separate groups. For the second video I can kinda relate to it as in the aspect of people calling Hispanics/Mexicans maids a lot, just because one can’t afford a decent job and have t0 become maids for the wealthy doesn’t mean to discriminate them. It is just apart of life and one has to do what they got to do to keep their life going. For the last video I can relate to it because in elementary school I went to a all minority school and for me i was the star student that was always called on in class and always was the teachers pet, and the other students were not the same, they seemed not to care about the class, where as I was and the teachers would constantly call on me and I succeeded well. Another thing is that I think if a student wants to learn and be engaged in class it should be on them to want to do it. With the school systems i honestly think that no school or student have to be discriminated, hated, or even bullied because it affects the students.

 

 


How Using the Pygmalion Effect and Other Psychological Tricks Might Make Education Better

The modern public education system is flawed, I’ve heard no argument to that. Most of the controversy is over how to fix it. I feel that if teachers would use the Pygmalion effect and proper manipulation of stereotype threat, we could see a boost in the system’s efficiency. If we know that the use of stereotypes can affect performance by effecting the students’ confidence levels, then maybe we could find a way to use a positive and encouraging stereotype, like that African Americans are good at sports, to help boost the students’ confidence levels, allowing them to learn better and test better. Also, simple expecting students to perform well can lead to more elevated results. If we could get teachers to have more faith in their students and maintain high expectations for all, then the students should be able to learn better and over all perform better in school. I appreciated these two YouTube videos because I plan on teaching in high school and these might help me to be a better teacher for the kinds of students I’m likely to teach if I move back home and teach at my old high school. The third video however, I found slightly disturbing. I felt that the blue eyes / brown eyes ‘study’ that the teacher, Jane Elliot, conducted on her 3rd grade students was a little immoral. The brown eyed kids must have felt awful. And I’m sure later on in life the blue eyed kids felt terrible for what they did to their classmates, once they were old enough to understand what they did. By dividing the class by eye color and telling them that the kids with blue eyes were superior, Mrs. Elliot created a nasty bullying problem within her class. The kids with brown eyes felt awful. While I do see benefits in doing such a thing, like how after some time and once the kids are old enough to understand it, a lesson could come through. By living through the experience of discrimination, they would likely learn to not discriminate as adults in the functioning world. I feel like in my field of teaching in high school, such a lesson might be better taught to freshmen or sophomores. Of course the students wouldn’t be the ones discriminating so as to prevent excessive bullying, but it would still be an interesting lesson for them that might help them develop. Cycling back to the Pygmalion effect, I remember my high school English teacher, Mr. Kuligowski, held high expectations of me, and I wrote better in his class than I did in any classes before him, or at least I felt like I did. He was one of the first teachers I had that actually seemed to have a personal investment in me, like he actually expected me to do better, not just my class. My take-away from that is that if all teachers could find some sort of investment in all of their students, it might encourage them to put forth more effort and help them perform better in school. All three videos show something that can be applied in school and have a positive long-term effect on students. Of course all three factors wouldn’t work the same way as I the videos, they would have to be tweaked. But after they are tweaked and deployable in the class room, they might help to patch up our broken education system so that it may be at least bearable until a better, broader solution is found. I know that at least one works, Mr. Kuligowski and his high expectations made me write better, so why wouldn’t it work for other students?


Don’t Judge Me

In the first video, I observed how discrimination can be learned when even small differences are found between two people. The value of each type is weighed and the trait that is deemed superior gains a sense of power that is unnecessary and harmful to the community. Children who had blue eyes were determined as having a higher intelligence and value than the children who had brown eyes. After learning this, the brown eyed children were treated differently because they were seen as lower. In the class, there was fighting and hating that hadn’t been there before.

In the second video, I learned how stereotypes are not always applied to other people, but can be applied to ourselves because of threat. Stereotypes threaten people because they feel like they are doomed to be judged by others. The negative stereotypes prevent individuals from performing their best or presenting their true self because the image of the stereotype gets in the way.

In the final video, I learned about how the pygmalion effect and positive expectations can help students increase their intelligence. The first factor is being nice to the students that are given the positive expectations. The kindness in the tone and words of the teacher helps the child to respond positively and increase their efforts. The second factor is the input factor where teachers give more information to students they believe will be able to learn more and won’t waste their time on children who won’t be able to. The third factor is the response factor where children who have more expected from them are called on more and have longer time periods to answer questions. And the last factor is feedback, giving positive feedback to students with positive expectations and negative or no feedback to students with low expectations.

Overall, these videos have taught me that not all teaching styles are equal. As I remember back to my own experiences, I can recall these different types of learning that happened in the schools I attended. To fix this, teachers will need to learn and understand the importance of equal opportunities in the classroom.


Intelligence

Jane Elliot’s Experiment: The study about brown eyed students vs. blue eyes students opened my eyes up to a lot of what is present in the schools these days. At first, the blue eyes students were considered superior to the brown-eyed students according to an authority figure(the teacher), which prompted the blue-eyed students to become more aggressive towards the brown-eyed students. The study portrayed the power of negative expectations placed on the brown-eyed students, causing their scores to significantly lower than the blue-eyed students, along with a diminished outlook of themselves due to the persecution and discrimination.

Claude Steele’s Experiment:  The study displayed the threats that stereotypes have on individuals even when it’s unintentional. If the stereotype is true, it could possibly diminish the individual’s results. When students in a health class were tested for athletic ability with their knowing, the African American students had better results compared to the Caucasian students. When tested for athletic strategy and reasoning capabilities, however, Caucasian students had better results.

Rosenthal & Jacobson’s Experiment: When compared to the experiment that Jane Elliot performed, this study is assessing the power of positive expectations. The study was testing the Pygmalion Effect which is the extent that teachers’ expectations influence kids’ intelligence. The researchers drew some names from a hat of kids who were in the class and made the teachers believe that those kids were “late-bloomers” even when no studies were done to prove that. Based on this fact, the teachers began to treat those students differently, having more expectations for them to excel in the class. The increased teachers’ expectations on them caused the “late bloomers” to think more positively about themselves and show more intelligence gain than others. There were changes in climate(teachers were more nicer), input(teachers taught more to those kids), response(teachers expected those kids to participate more in class), and feedback(teachers gave more praise to those kids) when this experiment was followed through.

Throughout my years of education, I have encountered many teachers and situations. It is very true according to the above experiments the influence that teachers’ expectations have on the performance of the students. When I first came to America, I was put in third grade with little to no knowledge about the American culture, language, or customs. Even though there were teachers who got tired of explaining things to me, a few teachers believed in me enough to stay after school for me to understand concepts or give me more chances to participate in class. I truly believe that it is because of those teachers who put effort into me in my younger days that I am where I am today. More than just a gain in intelligence, I was able to experience a boost in my self-esteem and I believed more in myself to achieve goals that people said I couldn’t.

If there are any improvements I would suggest for the school systems in this current time, it would be to have a more accepting outlook on different types of intelligence. Intelligence is not just based on an individual’s science/math capabilities. It is based on a passion that an individual has on a certain topic, regardless of what it may be, and the portrayal of that passion. If a student lacks academic intelligence, a teacher shouldn’t just focus on the other students in the class. Instead, give an equal opportunity for each student to excel in academic intelligence as well their own passions.

 


Acquired Intelligence during School

In the first video dealing with the blue and brown eyed children, I felt highly sympathetic for what Jane Elliot purpose was. She successfully presented to young children what, and how discrimination or racism works. With a simple and nearly harmless experiment procedure she has and will permanently change people’s perception. Coming from self experience she was right when she noted that discrimination happens fairly often. Moreover the aspect of feeling the power of superiority over others who are different is a logical and reasonable explanation for it all. In the second video stereotype threats are discussed. This video sheds some light on the different kind of pressure that students might have to deal with in school. Just like discrimination, I also believe that stereotype threats have an affect on a significant amount of students. The experiment gave an good example of what actually goes on in school and reality. In the last video where they discuss the Pygmalion Effect, I would not say that I agree with this video as much as the other ones. While there were obviously one or two factors that played a big role in student’s lives, the others seemed to be less noticeable. It will take a lot more to convince me that the other factors play an important role as well. The experiment gave a good representative of how possibly students are affected by all four factors. Throughout my school career I have witnessed as well as been victim to these problems discussed today. Some I have dealt with more than others however I didn’t not have it as bad as others in the world. Definitely something needs to change within our education system however I cannot specify what exactly needs to be done. If it were so easy to fix the problem it would have been solved ages ago but that is not the case when dealing with these. Hopefully a change will come so that students are not discriminated, mistreated, or had a feeling of inferiority because of school.