This Class is Actually Relevant!

One thing that I hear a lot of kids complain about classes is the classic, "When am I ever going to use this?" Just over the past week or two, I've actually found myself applying quite a few thing from classes to things in the real world. These connections have been made not just in applying AP Lang, but various other classes including AP Psych, Japanese, and Sociology.

For instance, over the summer I went to the ELCA gathering in New Orleans where Lutheran churches from all over the nation come together under the Superdome to worship God and do service for the community. One of the days we were there, we had to share a bus with members from other churches, including one from a small town in Georgia, and were forced to sit next to someone we had never met before. As it turned out, the girl I had worked with was the daughter of a woman from Japan. As a result, she also spoke Japanese and we were actually able discuss difficulties in the language and even have a short conversation in the foreign language. It was a good application and test of what I had learned in the past few years of study.

The previous example is also a good starting point for a good application of sociological principles as well. Research has shown that even a complete stranger can be connected to you by an average of six people. The study went like this: one person was given the name of a random stranger and was only allowed to send it to one person asking if they knew that person. If they didn't, they would do the same, so on and so forth until the e-mail got around to the person. The point of the experiment was to show just how interconnected everyone is and it is most likely a result of events such as the aforementioned gathering.

On a slightly different note, some things can even be applied to something as simple as television show. Many youths and adults alike are watching the hit show Big Bang Theory, which is actually pretty informative as far as information goes. Just last week, we were learning about logical fallacies in AP Lang and watched a few clips of the show demonstrating them, specifically post hoc and reductio ad absurdum. However, as with most informative shows, it does have its errors. In one episode, Sheldon attempts to condition Penny by giving her chocolates for what he perceives to be good behavior. While the original premise, is sound, he slips up on one aspect of it. At one point, he says that using  positive and negative reinforcement techniques, he could reduce a certain behavior pattern of Penny's. The problem is reinforcement is used to increase a behavior, the opposite of what Sheldon would be attempting. What he would want to use is positive or negative punishment if he wished to obtain the desired result of decreased behavior.