Monday, November 25, 2013

Dorothy Smith: Standpoint Theory (Sumblog 11)



“It’s Only Me.” is an interesting article I found online This article refers to several children including an eleven year old boy from Higley, Arizona who threatened to kill the girl he liked and the boy who had kissed her. The boy later stated that he never meant to go through with it but felt like it was the only way he could get their attention. Another eleven year old boy from Phoenix, Arizona was arrested after he threatened to shoot a teacher's tape player and then the teacher. This was caused because the boy thought it would be the only way to get across to the teacher that he did not like the music she played. Elizabeth Bush was eighth-grader from Williamsport, Pennsylvania who wanted to grow up and become a human-rights activist or a nun. She ended up shooting the head cheerleader of her school in the school’s cafeteria. Elizabeth yelled, "No one thought I would go through with this," as she fired the gun. Nancy Gibbs  gave these examples of children in different age groups who felt the pressure to commit a school shooting. These children all had one thing in common, they felt as if they were not able to voice their opinion and that their opinion did not matter anyways. Gibbs noted that if each of these individuals had someone to talk to and if others were able to see things from the perspective of the children, many of these cases could have been prevented.
The article by Gibbs  provided a perfect example of Dorothy Smith’s standpoint theory. All of the examples provided were instances when the students felt like they had no say in either their school, friends group, or other aspects of their lives. The children felt as if they did not have much of a standpoint and that no one was viewing things from their perspective. Dorothy Smith felt as if the views of women were almost invisible and forgotten to the rest of society, much like these children felt like their views and ideas were invisible.

3 comments:

  1. The article you found is amazing. It really does go long with Dorothy Smith's views but brings it to modern day. Women were treated like they were invisible and children can feel that way too, especially the way some are treated in their home lives.

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  2. The articles that you have found did a great job on explaining and understanding Smith’s standpoint theory. I thought you took an interesting approach on introducing the concept. It really draws the reader in and gets their attention right away. Great job.

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  3. I agree, and also the fact that the children where a great example. Male, female, race, or anything else, mostly everyone has the ability to relate to children, because we use to be that young. To show that they thought that was the only way to get attention does relate to Smith's standpoint theroy.

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