Fist Stick Knife Gun

Good morning Rutgers,

Well, where can I start? The week seemed to have just passed too quickly. We had our first quiz, started and discussed Fist Stick Knife Gun, “Violence in the Inner City” and finally on Thursday our class had the distinct honor of meeting and hosting the remarkable Camden students from MetEast high school (http://www.meteast.org/).

The class day before before the MetEast students arrived our assigned reading was “Violence in the Inner City” by Elijah Anderson. As a well-known sociologist who documented his observations of codes of conduct in the inner city, Elijah Anderson attributed the violence in the inner city to three main factors: racism, lack of jobs and drug trafficking. While we discussed the topic Professor Siegel helped clarify what Anderson describes as the two orientations inhabiting the inner city, “decent” and “street.” Compared to our first reading assignment, the article was both easier and more enjoyable. It is important, however, to point out that Tuesday was also our first class quiz based on all previous discussions and readings. Frankly, the fuss made over such a small quiz by fellow honors students was disconcerting and the apathy and discontent seemed much more embarrassing when the high school students from Camden arrived and were more prepared to discuss the readings. Yet, on a lighter note, most of us left class eagerly anticipating the arrival of the students from MetEast. Most of us had no idea what to expect, and we had heard such impressive things about them.

The Ever Popular Honors Seminar

This blog is proving to be more popular than we imagined.  So, we are giving it its own blog.  Once again, all class members are welcome to contribute.  Here’s Alex Jeria’s latest report:

A Perspective on Perspectives

Hi again Rutgers,

Since my last blog entry, several new things have happened in class. In my last entry I wrote about my predictions and high hopes for this class as a model for similar classes. The past two classes have been filled with new material and various discussions covering the topic of children and violence. However, of those two days I specifically wanted to share a story which occurred on this past Tuesday (September 9^th) that I feel describes a typical day in class.

For our first assignment, Dr Siegel wanted us to read and prepare to discuss the Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 2006 National Report. As the title adequately states, the extremely comprehensive report, compiled from a conglomeration of sources, highlighted various statistics to show trends in juvenile crime and victimization. Yet, for all the information the report held within its pages, the sheer amount of statistics, graphs and main points made it difficult to glean meaning out of the report.

Children and Violence–2

Robert and I enjoyed meeting everyone last week and we look for more reports from the Children and Violence seminar.  All are welcome to participate, just email your contribution to awoll@camden or raemmons@camden.  Here’s the photo we took above.  Help us out and tag the photo at my Facebook page so we know who everyone is.  My link is at the right–AW  (Friends, welcome)

Children and Violence–I

Starting with this post, we are opening the blog to our students who might want to include information about their Honors Seminar.  Professor Siegel, who teaches Childen and Violence, has invited bloggers to provide updates on her class.  Our first contributor, Alex Jeria, a pre-pharmacy major, offers his thoughts.