Tuesday, December 20, 2022

13.5.4: Violence

13.5.4: Violence 

The man stalked the high school’s hallways. He pressed his ear against a door, trying to determine if students were in the classroom. Hearing nothing, he moved silently to another classroom and did the same thing. Going from one locked door to another, he proceeded down the length of the entire hallway. Students were behind each door, but they remained absolutely quiet. Still hearing nothing, the man smiled. The man smiled? Yes, because he was not a sociopath seeking random victims. This was a teacher checking how well the school was performing in a lockdown drill. In some schools, the safety of students and teachers is so precarious that armed guards, metal detectors, and drug-sniffing dogs are permanent fixtures. In an era of bomb threats and armed sociopaths, some states require lockdown drills: Teachers quickly lock their classrooms and pull down the shades or blinds on the windows. The students are told to remain absolutely silent, while a school official wanders the halls, like an armed intruder, listening for the slightest sound that would indicate that someone is in a classroom. Students are even warned that the glow of their cell phones could make them targets (Berne 2019). Although hope springs eternal in the human breast, it is unlikely that we will return to a time when school shootings are unknown. But certainly a good teaching–learning environment starts with safety. How much worse are school shootings getting? The answer—in the following Thinking Critically about Social Life—might surprise you. Thinking Critically about Social Life School Shootings: Exploding a Myth The media sprinkle their reports of school shootings with such dramatic phrases as “alarming proportions,” “outbreak of violence,” and “out of control.” They give us the impression that dangerous people walk our hallways, ready to spray students with gunfire. Parents used to consider schools safe havens, but no longer. Those naïve thoughts have been shattered by the media accounts of bullets ripping through our schools, children hovering in fear, and little bloody bodies strewn across classroom floors. Have our schools really become war zones, as the mass media would have us believe? Shootings such as those at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Columbine High School, Virginia Tech, and the Mary Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, make us think so, but we need to probe deeper than screaming headlines and startling images. This frame from a surveillance camera at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, shows Eric Harris, on the left, and Dylan Klebold, on the right, as they search for victims. Credit: Kevin Moloney/Hulton Archive/Jefferson County Sheriff's Department/Getty Images When we do, we find that the media’s sensationalism has created a myth. Contrary to “what everyone knows,” there is no trend toward greater school violence. In fact, we find just the opposite—the trend is toward greater safety at school. Despite the dramatic school shootings that make the headlines, as you can see from 

Table 13.1, deaths at schools are decreasing. 

Because school homicides are high one year and low another, to see trends we need to average them out. Here is where we get the surprising results. The average number of annual murders in U.S. schools for 1992 to 2000 is 29. For 2000–2010, it is 20.4, a drop of 29 percent. Then the most recent average, based on data for 2010 to 2016, drops again to 17.8. Using estimates for later years, incomplete data but that include the horrendous Parkland, Florida, death toll, and others, the average comes to 19.6. Table 13.1 Exploding a Myth: Murders at U.S. Schools1 Homicides of students ages 5-18 at U.S. elementary or secondary schools, including victims who were “on the way to or from regular sessions at school” or while they were “attending or traveling to or from an official school-sponsored event.” These are the latest totals available in the source. 1Homicides of students ages 5–18 at U.S. elementary or secondary schools, including victims who were “on the way to or from regular sessions at school” or while they were “attending or traveling to or from an official school-sponsored event.” *Author’s estimates based on news reports. Awaiting official counts. Sources: National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). “Indicators of School Crime and Safety, 2018,” May 2019, Centers for Disease Control (CDC). “Characteristics of School-Associated Youth Homicides,” 2019k.


Homicides of students ages 5–18 at U.S. elementary or secondary schools, including victims who were “on the way to or from regular sessions at school” or while they were “attending or traveling to or from an official school-sponsored event.” *Author’s estimates based on news reports. Awaiting official counts. Sources: National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). “Indicators of School Crime and Safety, 2018,” May 2019, Centers for Disease Control (CDC). “Characteristics of School-Associated Youth Homicides,” 2019k. I don’t think you’ve seen any screaming headlines proclaiming this decrease in school killings, right? Violent deaths at school are a serious problem. Even one student being wounded or killed is too many. But contrary to the impression fostered by the media, school deaths have dropped. Headlines like “No Shootings This Month!” or “Schools Safer Than Ever!” simply don’t get much attention—nor bring in much advertising money. Can you see why we need sociology? Sociologists can search behind the headlines to quietly, dispassionately do research that helps us better understand the events that shape our lives. The first requirement for solving any problem is accurate data. How can we create solutions based on hysteria? The information presented here may not make for sensational headlines, but it does serve to explode one of the myths that the media have created. For Your Consideration → Why do you think so many people think that school shootings are worse now than in the past? → Why are people’s ideas often based more on headlines than on facts? Hearing from the Author: School Shootings Listen to the Audio

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13.5.3: Cheating

 13.5.3: Cheating The cheating I’m referring to is not what you might have seen in your social studies or math class in high school. I’m referring to cheating by teachers and school administrators. Listen to this: Computer scanners showed that teachers in 191 schools in Atlanta, Georgia, had erased students’ answers on reading and math tests and penciled in correct ones (Gabriel 2010). Thirty-five teachers were charged with conspiracy. Some were sentenced to probation and weekends in jail. Three high-ranking administrators were sent to prison for seven years (McWhirter and Porter 2014). The superintendent of Atlanta’s school system, who apparently led the cheating, was charged with theft for taking $500,000 in bonuses for producing good test scores. She died of cancer before she could be tried. The school district was facing pressure to show that their teaching had improved, and cheating was the way they produced the “improvements.” Now look at this: Mississippi keeps two sets of books: The one sent to Washington reports the state’s graduation rate at 87 percent. The other, which the state keeps, reports that 63 percent of its students graduate. Other states do the same. California reports its totals at 83 percent and 67 percent. (Dillon 2008) Why do high school administrators across the nation fake their graduation rates? The reason is that federal agencies publish these reports, and states don’t want to look bad. Also, Washington might reduce the money it gives them. It’s like a girl telling her parents that she received a B in English when she really received a D. She doesn’t want to look bad—and her allowance might be cut. 432 School administrators can be quite creative in faking their numbers. Some count the number of students who begin their senior year and report the percentage of these seniors who graduate. This conveniently overlooks those who drop out in their freshman, sophomore, and junior years. Some even encourage high school students who are doing poorly to drop out before they reach their senior year. This way, they won’t be counted as dropouts (Dillon 2008). The Solution to Cheating The solution to this cheating is fairly simple. Zero tolerance. Require all states to follow the same measurement of student performance and high school graduation and fire teachers and administrators who cheat. A simple measure is to compare the number of those who graduate from high school with the number who entered high school in the ninth grade, minus those who died and those who transferred out, plus those who transferred in. Federal officials can spot-check records across the nation. With loss of job the punishment, we could expect honesty in reporting to jump immediately. Knowing students’ real performance and real graduation rates can help pinpoint where the problems are, letting us know where to focus solutions. If you don’t know where it’s broken, you don’t know where to fix it. Let’s turn to the third problem.

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13.5.2: Overcoming Mediocrity

 13.5.2: Overcoming Mediocrity 

How can we overcome mediocrity? By raising standards. Raising Standards for Teachers It is one thing to identify problems, quite another to find solutions for them. How can we solve mediocrity? To offer a quality education, we need quality teachers. Don’t we already have them? Most teachers are qualified and, if motivated, can do an excellent job. But a large number of teachers are not qualified. Consider what happened in California, where teachers must pass an educational skills test. The teachers did so poorly that to fill the classrooms, officials had to drop the passing grade to the tenth-grade level. These are college graduates who are teachers—and they are expected to perform at the tenth-grade level (Schemo 2002). I don’t know about you, but I think this situation is a national disgrace. If we want to improve teaching, we need to insist that teachers meet high standards. A Warning about Higher Standards If we raise standards, we can expect to upset students and their parents. It is soothing to use low standards and to pat students on the head and tell them they are doing well. But it upsets people if you do rigorous teaching and use high standards to measure performance. When Florida decided that its high school seniors needed to pass an assessment test to receive a diploma, 13,000 students across the state failed the test. Parents of failed students protested. Did they demand better teaching? No. What they wanted was for the state to drop the test. In their anger, they asked people to boycott Disney World and to not buy Florida orange juice (Canedy 2003). What positive steps to improve their children’s learning! Let’s look at a second problem in education.

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13.5.1: Mediocrity

 13.5.1: Mediocrity 

Mediocrity refers to being inferior or second rate, characteristics that are inexcusable when it comes to the U.S. educational system. The Rising Tide of Mediocrity Since I know you love taking tests, let’s see how you do on these three questions: How many goals are on a basketball court? a. 1 b. 2 c. 3 d. 4 How many halves are in a college basketball game? a. 1 b. 2 c. 3 d. 4 How many points does a three-point field goal account for in a basketball game? a. 1 b. 2 c. 3 d. 4 I know this sounds like a joke, but it isn’t. Sociologist Robert Benford (2007) got his hands on a copy of a twenty-question final examination given to basketball players who took a credit course on coaching principles at the University of Georgia. It is often difficult to refer to athletes, sports, and academics in the same breath, but this is about as mediocre as mediocrity can get. Let’s move to a broader view of the mediocrity that plagues our educational system like pollution plagues gasoline engines: Arizona officials gave their high school sophomores a math test covering the math that sophomores should know. One of ten passed. Arkansas officials get their students out of high school by dropping the passing score in math to 24 out of 100 (Urbina 2010). In Washington, D.C., most of the students who graduate from high school operate at about the fifth grade level. How do they graduate? When they fail a course, they take something called “Credit Recovery,” which does not require a test (Rossiter 2012). In Florida, only 27 percent of the state’s fourth graders passed the reading test. That didn’t sound good, so the state lowered the grade required to pass, and suddenly 80 percent passed (Kristof 2012). Much better. 430 Now here’s the icing on the cake. In states where students are failing so miserably, 95 percent of the teachers are graded as “highly effective” or “effective” (Bernstein 2014). “Effective at what?” you might ask. It must be at impeding their students’ learning. Certainly these teachers are not effective in teaching. Some graduates of prestigious law schools were having difficulty getting jobs. This reflected badly on these proud law schools—Georgetown, Golden Gate University, Loyola Law School, Tulane University, and New York University. They found a quick solution. To make their graduates look better, they raised everyone’s grades (Rampell 2010). Much better-looking transcripts—all in a flash. The letter grade C used to indicate average. Because more students are average than superior, high school teachers used to give about twice as many C’s as A’s. Now they give twenty times more A’s than C’s. Students didn’t get smarter—grading just became much, much easier. Grade inflation is so pervasive that 55 percent of all college freshmen have an overall high school grade point average of A. But grading is tightening up. Two years ago, 59 percent entered college with A averages (Statistical Abstract 2017:Table 298; 2019:Table 300). Any way you look at it, many of today’s A’s are the C’s of years past. Easy grades and declining standards have been accompanied by social promotion, passing students from one grade to the next despite their failure to learn the basic materials. One result is functional illiteracy, high school graduates who have never mastered things they should have learned in grade school. Some even have difficulty with reading and writing. Some high school graduates can’t fill out job applications; others can’t even figure out whether they get the right change at the grocery store. Hearing from the Author: Mediocrity Listen to the Audio Listen to the Audio

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13.5 Problems in U.S. Education—and Their Solutions

 Problems in U.S. Education—and Their Solutions 

13.5 Discuss mediocrity in education, grade inflation, social promotion, rising standards, cheating by school officials, and violence in schools. Now that we’ve looked at some of the dynamics within the classroom, let’s turn to three problems facing U.S. education—mediocrity, cheating, and violence—and consider potential solutions. Watch Are Public Schools in the United States Fixable?

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13.4.3: Self-Expectations

 13.4: The Symbolic Interactionist Perspective: Teacher Expectations 

 13.4.3: Self-Expectations 

In the section on conflict theory, you read about how social class affects students’ chances of going to college, which denies advantages to some and heaps advantages on others. You just read about how teachers’ expectations influence students’ performance. In the following Applying Sociology to Your Life, let’s switch the topic to self-expectations—and how they can help you get through college. Applying Sociology to Your Life You Want to Get Through College? Let’s Apply Sociology As you just read, students from low-income homes are less likely to go to college than students from more privileged backgrounds. And if they do go to college, they are more likely to drop out. Why? On average, their scores on the SAT tests are lower, so some might think they aren’t as intelligent. This, in fact, is close to the main problem—but not quite it. These students are not less intelligent. Rather, the problem is that they think they are less intelligent. And this has huge consequences. Students from low-income homes arrive at college with more self-doubts than do students from higher-income homes. When problems occur, as they will, such as doing badly on a test, these self-doubts come into play. Students from low-income backgrounds tend to see the self as the problem. They are more likely to think something like this: “I’m not sure I’m smart enough to get through college. Maybe this is the wrong place for me.” Seeing problems as a sign of self-deficiency sets these students on a self-defeating course. When the same thing happens to students from higher-income homes, they tend to say to themselves, “It’s just a situation. I didn’t study enough.” Or maybe: “The teacher threw in some unexpected material.” Thinking like this deflects blame away from the self. It moves the fault away from the individual’s abilities and places it on a temporary situation. Look at how vitally different these self-expectations are. Students from the less privileged backgrounds tend to see the cause as flaws within the self, while students from the more privileged backgrounds tend to shrug off the problem as a temporary situation. These contrasting self-expectations direct students onto different paths, ones that have resounding consequences for the students’ lives. What I have just told you is not simply an idea. It has been demonstrated in a remarkable set of experiments run by David Laude at the University of Texas (Tough 2014; Kirp 2019). Laude followed good scientific methods. He randomly divided incoming freshmen according to their SAT scores and parents’ income. During their orientation, the control group of students read neutral essays, while the experimental group read an essay about how intelligence increases as people study and learn. The low-scoring students from low-income homes who read the essay about intelligence got better grades as they went through college, and they were more likely to graduate than students from this same background who did not read that essay. Hardly anybody could believe the results of Laude’s experiment. Could reading a little essay really have such a deep impact on students? It did. But how? Without the students realizing it, the essay changed self-expectations. It provided a new way to interpret problem situations in college. “Ah, my brain can grow. My intelligence can change. I can get smarter.” If there is a low grade on a test, the self, then, is not the problem. The problem is the low test score, a temporary situation to overcome. For Your Consideration I wrote this Applying Sociology to Your Life with two purposes in mind. The first is to illustrate the power of self-expectations. I find this to be a fascinating application of symbolic interactionism. You can apply it to many situations in life, not just to college. The second reason is to encourage students. It is good to realize that how you think about the problems you face makes a significant difference for your life. Research shows that your brain continues to develop and your intelligence can continue to increase. When you confront obstacles in college—such as a low test score or doing poorly on a term paper—do not think of the problem as your lack of ability. Rather, think of the problem as a particular situation that you can overcome. You can make it in college. So do it. If this analysis turns out to make a difference in someone’s life, helping to set positively predictive self-expectations and self-interpretations, my ultimate purpose, I will be most pleased.

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13.4.2: How Do Teacher Expectations Work?

 13.4.2: How Do Teacher Expectations Work? 

Sociologist George Farkas (Farkas et al. 1990a; Farkas et al. 1990b; Farkas 1996) became interested in how teacher expectations affect grades. Using a stratified sample of students in a large school district in Texas, he found that teacher expectations produce gender and racial–ethnic biases. On the gender level: When boys and girls have the same test scores, girls, on average, are given higher course grades. On the racial–ethnic level: Asian Americans who have the same test scores as the other groups average higher grades. At first, this may sound like more of the same old news—another case of discrimination. But this explanation doesn’t fit, which is what makes the finding fascinating. Look at who the victims are. It is most unlikely that the teachers would be prejudiced against boys and whites. To interpret these unexpected results, Farkas used symbolic interactionism. He observed that some students “signal” to their teachers that they are “good students.” They show an eagerness to cooperate, and they quickly agree with what the teacher says. They also show that they are “trying hard.” The teachers pick up these signals and reward these “good students” with better grades. Girls and Asian Americans, Farkas concluded, are better at giving these signals so coveted by teachers. Why do some students who have the same test scores receive higher grades? “Signaling” that one is a “good student” may influence teacher perceptions. Credit: John M Lund Photography Inc/DigitalVision/Getty Images 428 So much for Texas. How about the other states? Their interest piqued, other researchers examined data from a national sample of students from kindergarten to the fifth grade. The results? The same. Regardless of race–ethnicity, if girls and boys have the same test scores, the girls, on average, receive higher grades (Cornwell et al. 2013). The researchers asked the teachers to rank their students on their “interpersonal skills,” how often they “lose control,” and how “engaged” they are in the classroom. The teachers reported that the girls had a “better attitude toward learning.” Like the Texas researchers, these researchers conclude that the teachers are responding to the children’s behavior. We do not have enough information on how teachers communicate their expectations to students. Nor do we know much about how students “signal” messages to their teachers. Perhaps you will become the educational sociologist who sheds more light on this interesting area of human behavior.

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13.4.1: The Rist Research

 13.4.1: The Rist Research Why do some people get tracked into college prep courses and others into vocational ones? There is no single answer, but sociologists have found a surprising one: Children’s early interaction in the classroom sets them on paths that last throughout their education (Calarco 2011; Kozlowski 2016). Let’s look at a classic study by sociologist Ray Rist (1970, 2007), who did participant observation in an African American grade school with an African American faculty. He found that after only eight days in the classroom, the kindergarten teacher felt that she knew the children’s abilities well enough to assign them to three separate worktables. To Table 1, Mrs. Caplow assigned those she considered to be “fast learners.” They sat at the front of the room, closest to her. Those whom she saw as “slow learners,” she assigned to Table 3, located at the back of the classroom. She placed “average” students at Table 2, in between the other tables. 427 This seemed strange to Rist. He knew that the children had not been tested for ability, yet their teacher was certain that she could identify the bright and slow children. Investigating further, Rist found that social class was the underlying basis for assigning the children to the different tables. Middle-class students were separated out for Table 1, and children from poorer homes were assigned to Tables 2 and 3. The teacher paid the most attention to the children at Table 1, who were closest to her, less to Table 2, and the least to Table 3. It didn’t take long for the children at Table 1 to perceive that they were treated better and came to see themselves as smarter. They became the leaders in class activities and even called children at the other tables “dumb.” Eventually, the children at Table 3 disengaged themselves from many classroom activities. At the end of the year, only the children at Table 1 had completed the lessons that prepared them for reading. This early tracking stuck. Their first-grade teacher looked at the work these students had done, and she placed students from Table 1 at her Table 1. She treated her tables much as the kindergarten teacher had, and the children at Table 1 again led the class. The children’s reputations continued to follow them. The second-grade teacher reviewed the children’s scores and also divided her class into three groups. The first she named the “Tigers” and, befitting their name, gave them challenging readers. Not surprisingly, the Tigers came from the original Table 1 in kindergarten. The second group she called the “Cardinals.” They came from the original Tables 2 and 3. Her third group consisted of children she had failed the previous year, whom she called the “Clowns.” The Cardinals and Clowns were given less advanced readers. Rist concluded that each child’s journey through school was determined by the eighth day of kindergarten! As we saw with the Saints and Roughnecks in Chapter 4, labels can be so powerful that they can set people on courses of action that affect the rest of their lives. What occurred was a self-fulfilling prophecy. This term, coined by sociologist Robert Merton (1949/1968), refers to a false assumption of something that is going to happen, which comes true simply because it was predicted. For example, if people believe an unfounded rumor that a credit union is going to fail because its officers have embezzled their money, they all rush to the credit union to demand their money. The prediction—although originally false—is now likely to come true.

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13.4: The Symbolic Interactionist Perspective:

 13.4: The Symbolic Interactionist Perspective: Teacher Expectations PT The Symbolic Interactionist Perspective: Teacher Expectations 13.4 Apply the symbolic interactionist perspective by explaining the significance of teacher expectations. As you have seen, functionalists look at how education benefits society, and conflict theorists examine how education perpetuates social inequality. Symbolic interactionists, in contrast, study face-to-face interaction in the classroom. They have found that what teachers expect of their students has profound consequences for how students do in school.

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Dis9 ( Extra Credit) - Discussion #9- Population

 

  • Dis9 ( Extra Credit) - Discussion #9- Population

    8 unread replies. 32 replies.

    This discussion assignment has 1 part, and is NOT a mandatory, graded class assignment.  This assignment is worth a maximum of 3 extra credit points. 

    No late work accepted under any circumstances... discussion board will close at 11:59 pm on the deadline date.  WRITE THE WORD COUNT AT END OF EACH RESPONSE.... NO WORD COUNT....NO FULL CREDIT

    1.  ( 3 pts max)   Please write a 150-200 word response to the questions(s) below.  Responses less than 150 words will receive reduced credit.  This should be in your own words, using your own thoughts and ideas.  DO NOT RESEARCH for these questions, and do not give statistics, or information from other sources. Do not paraphrase or cite other sources.  ANSWER ALL PARTS OF THE QUESTION(S) FOR FULL CREDIT CONSIDERATION.      Hit "reply" button to submit an original response

    Are you concerned with over-population in the world?  Do you think we currently have a problem with over-population, or do you think it will become a problem in the future ?  Why or why not ?  Please explain.  

    ( remember to write a minimum of 150 words, and write an accurate word count at end of response)

    Please remember...NO LATE POSTINGS ALLOWED.   Students have multiple days to complete this assignment, so loss of power, loss of internet, and broken technology is NEVER an excuse for missing deadlines.  

     EXTRA CREDIT DISCUSSIONS DO NOT NEED A RESPONSE BACK TO A CLASSMATE 

     

     

     

     

    This topic was locked Dec 11 at 11:59pm.
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  • I have not contemplated the topic of over-population before, now thinking about it I suppose it is an issue worth discussing. Over-population will be problematic because shelter and food may become scarce. There will be a loss of ecosystems such as wetlands and forest that will have potential to be  destroyed to accommodate the growing population. Air pollution would be shockingly higher due to the vehicles needed for transport. I think over-population can become a problem in the future, children are having children at a very young age and they have more than one child. I believe over-population can diminish the life expectancy years over time. Lack of medical personnel and nutrients that are needed to maintain a healthy stable life will not be enough for the population. The government may also be heavily relied to help with government assistance for people that will need help to stay afloat. Over-population would put many people of out jobs causing an alarming unemployment rate. 

    Word Count: 165

  • I know this is such a common concern, however, I don’t live in a very populated country where we need to fight for resources so it is hard for me to be concerned about overpopulation. In my home town, Hong Kong, the birth is actually really low the government encourages each family to have at least 3 kids. In my 2nd home Australia, it is also not a very populated country, sometimes when I go to a football game then I would feel the place has too many people but this is just because of the football game that many people choose to go. 
    I guess for some countries like India which is extremely populated, that would be a concern for people to need to fight for resources and is not enough clean water, food, and power supply. However if the government can foresee the problems and fix the infrastructure to accommodate the growing population, the problem might be resolved. 
    I think some cultures tend to like big families and many others don’t, so it will balance out. I think the important thing is to make sure we have an environmental plan to make sure we don’t sabotage mother earth with the growing population before we run out of resources.  (204 words)

  • I am not overly concerned with overpopulation in the world, but I am starting to become a little concerned. It hasn't become a really obvious problem, but once you look more in-depth at how society works with this population, you start to realize that one day, it will make living harder with so many other people to care about. For instance, the amount of babies being born is definitely more than the number of nurses and doctors we get. Eventually, we will reach a point where resources will be significantly harder to obtain and each life will become less important to the societal eye because there are so many others to worry about. I don't think it's a really big problem now, but it might be in the next 50-100 years when global warming hits hard, and natural phenomena force us to become competitive. So far, our government hasn't established it as a concern either but it should be something to slowly look out for. Overpopulation might not cause immediate effects, but we should expect to see a more competitive state where each human is basically fighting for themselves (like natural selection). 

     

    W/C: 192

     

  • I think that overpopulation is an issue that should be discussed more often. Overpopulation is a big factor in many environmental issues. It makes the variety of environmental problems we already have much worse. The problem with overpopulation is that it is hard to control and will just exponentially get worse overtime. Currently, the problem of overpopulation does not feel like a huge deal because the effects of it cannot directly be felt, but thy are there. I think that because it is something that will just continue to get worse, we should treat it equally as important as any other environmental issue. China had a one child policy for a while and that helped their issue, but I do not know how beneficial that would be in other countries like the US.  I am aware that younger generations are more likely to have less children, not because of overpopulation but because of preference and changing ideologies. This can be beneficial for the issue, but more definitely needs to be done.

    Word count: 171

  • I would say I'm concerned with over-population but I can see how it can be an issue all over the world as some places aren't as structured as we may be. When we look around we see many people with no homes here who are hungry , need a place to stay, etc but it can be so much worse in a different part of the world. Watching the news you see poverty all over the world with many trying their best to make it by but really struggle because of living. With jobs , housing , space it can only be a matter of time before more and more can start to really struggle. I can also see a lot of situations getting better but I don't think the right things would happen in order for that to happen. In my opinion, I think that with how the world is going there is going to continue to be these problems in the world with more people than we can ever imagine.

     word count - 172

  • This discussion makes me start concerning the problem of over-population which I never think about it before. I think we don't have the over-population problem currently as we are not facing any big problem like lack of resources right now but it will probably happen in the future as most of the resources are limited. If there is a problem of over-populated there may create a lot of problem respectively. For example If a country that is over-populated they may lack of resources like education or health services. In the worst case, people may not get enough food and clean water to support their daily life. In addition, more large-scale of disasters will happen frequently as we have more people. Also, the climate will change unstably and even of the problem of global warming may become serious than before as we have more people, more pollution produced like water and air pollution. 

     

    Word Count 154

     

  • I am concerned with over-population quite a bit in the current situation. Currently, there are not enough houses, apartments, and other places to live to accommodate everyone, nor are there enough jobs for every person. I think that we currently have a problem with over-population, but I do not believe that we will have that problem in the future. There are a few reasons for why I think so. The first one is that there are already solutions being implemented to the problems over-population is causing, and there are many people, who are working towards getting more and more solutions out there. Soon, I believe that we will catch up to the problems and fix them. Another reason is that the world population is likely to stagnate at some point in the future. Because of these reasons, I believe that over-population is a problem that we will be able to deal with at some point in the future.

    Word Count: 160 

  • I am currently not living in a populated country. Therefore, I am not too concerned about overpopulation. However, with climate change, where the earth is getting hotter and natural resource is reducing, this issue will significantly impact the younger generation in the future. Although having kids is not their priority with the younger generation, overpopulation might not be affected by them that much compared with the climate change, where the natural resource will be limited. For example, in India or Africa, they do not even have enough water or food because their government does not foresee or prepare for the situation. Hence the people there are suffering and fighting for survival while we live in a technological world that is supposed to improve our lives. Governments and everyone should be cautious about how we use natural resources, preparing a plan to deal with the growing population shortly before it is too late. 

    Word count: 154 words

  • I am concerned with the overpopulation of the world. It is not the overpopulation itself that is the problem, but what the earth and its resources will suffer from at the hands of all these people, affecting them back. We currently have a problem with overpopulation but perhaps it is not so bad in comparison to what future generations will experience. Overpopulation will become worse in the future because more people means more wants and needs have to be fulfilled, thus more natural gas, coal, oil, etc. have to be drilled, and more trees are cut, increasing pollution and carbon footprints. I think it will be a problem caused by prior generations, suffered and made worse by future generations; because even now, many peaceful environmental activists are being threatened and jailed by governments for trying to create more awareness about climate change. Even if most of the population is educated on environmental issues, many will still exploit resources for profit. Furthermore, with overpopulation, more people will compete for the increasing resource scarcity, therefore conflicts and crime rates will likely increase. Overcrowded areas will also increase the chances for certain diseases to mutate and transmit.

    Word count: 194

  • For the time being, I don’t think overpopulation is a problem, but it will be soon. I think our natural resources and technology can support the current population. I noticed the population growth trend, in some Asian and African countries it is increasing at an alarming rate, but not that much in some European countries. Overpopulation can be a means for conflict because of competition for scarce resources like fresh water, agricultural land, petroleum, and others. We have already been able to witness conflict for freshwater, For example, the Blue Nile river, becoming a means of conflict between Ethiopia, Sudan, and Egypt. In addition, as the population increases, deforestation and the emission of greenhouse gases like CO2 will also increase. But, if we can advance technology, and can use renewable natural resources to fulfill many of our demands in a more environmentally sound way, I believe we can reduce the effects of overpopulation.

    (Word count - 153)

  • I do not believe that the issue of overpopulation currently threatens the world. I think that the earth is more than capable of housing the current human population and that it will have the resources to house future generations of humans. I do however believe that the current standard of living is unsustainable with the population that we do have. I think that the luxuries that we currently enjoy are truly unsustainable issues and that we should take measures to cut back on the current wastefulness of the majority of first-world countries. Once these issues have been addressed, and a balance can be found, I believe the future technologies and the possibility of space travel will allow our species to expand and live comfortably. Until that is a reality, we need to be conservative and preserve as much human quality of life as possible. Otherwise, we'll foolishly use up our resources too quickly, and the possibility of overpopulation will become a very real reality. 

     

     

    164 Words

  • I think I am concerned with overpopulation in the world because of the depletion of resources. Using more resources and advancing technology is needed to keep up with the population increase. Currently, we are already dealing with a lot of environmental issues, shortage of housing, food, unemployment, and health disasters so I feel that it will only worsen as the population increases. I am not sure if we currently have a problem with overpopulation because I have not searched for the statistics, but I do feel that we do not have adequate resources for everyone. I have observed that in countries and cities like Hong Kong that suffer from over-population, the standard of living is low and a large majority of people struggle with poverty, economic issues, and inadequate housing. Inadequate housing and the high cost of living bring conflicts to a majority of people that don't have a job that can afford housing for their families, which can contribute to poverty. 

     

    (163 words) 

  • I am concerned with overpopulation in the world. Right now, the problem is not very apparent, but if the trend continues, it will become a worrying issue. With overpopulation, resources such as land and food could become scarce.  I think the problem with overpopulation now is that more land needs to be developed into living spaces, so the environment is being harmed as a tradeoff.  To make more living spaces, humans will be forced to make developments in nature that could potentially ruin ecosystems and harm the environment. Moreover, it would raise property prices even more because of the scarcity of land and could force people out of their homes because of this. To the more extreme end, there could be food and water shortages as well. There would be too many people and not enough land for agriculture, raising the prices of food and water. In the end, only those with money can survive and those who are less well-off will have a hard time staying alive.

     

    word count 168

  • Over-population is a valid concern in the world. In America, we might don't really struggle all that much with this issue compared to some Asian countries. Only in cities in America does it become a slight concern but at least for now in America, the problem hasn't escalated yet. Problems such as resources are also an issue that comes with overpopulation. There have been some movements that have been put into use to counteract this such as dealing with air pollution in the future. Companies are starting to come out with alternatives to things that use gas. Looking at cars is a great example of this as they want to be able to create a world where most of the population uses electricity instead of gas in the incoming years. Other shared resources such as food may be an issue as the population continues to grow but I believe that people will create something to deal with this issue. Space is an issue but looking at the cities they have always expanded upwards and there is still a lot of time before that becomes a problem.

    186 words.

  • I think that over population will be a future problem. Due to us already having limited resources as well as inflation. As well as the pollution that will be added to our Earth. We already have many homeless people as it is. What if it gets bigger? We won't have enough shelters. We do have other shortages such as housing, food and etc. I am concerned of over-population. Im scared of what will happen to all of us when it gets too crowed in our country. I feel that over-population can lead to a disaster not just for us in California but also in Asia. As over-populated they already are. Does this mean that in the future we will have more land to grow crops and resources ? Or will it be limited due to people needing a housing as well as an addition to the air quality we already are dealing with. 

     

    WC: 153

  • I didn't think about the problem of overpopulation before, but I did have some concerns. In 2005, China's population exceeded 1.3 billion, while the population of the United States was only 300 million in the same year, that sounds terrible, so China has a rule that a family can only have one child because of overpopulation. Overpopulation will lead to lack of food and water, and overpopulation will consume more of the earth's resources, it is also harmful to the environment, and a large number of forests will be cut down to build houses. However, due to the serious aging population and low birth rate in recent years, China has now opened up the two-child policy. I think the population is still under control at present, although it may cause some burden in the future (China currently has a population of 1.412 billion), for now, I think newborns represent fresh blood, which is conducive to the development of the country.

  • I have never really thought about the chance of overpopulation before, but I guess thinking about it now, I to think it is very capable of becoming a problem. I think overpopulation could potentially result in the loss in ecosystems, meaning we will be cutting down forests, wetlands, which all have animals and specimens of their own living in them. The loss of ecosystems due to overpopulation could potentially be extremely harmful because all living things have a purpose and have certain "jobs" in the world so the environment can function properly. I also think the amount of food and shelter people have will become a huge issue, which will ultimately make the homelessness population skyrocket. Another concern is healthcare. The ratio of babies to doctors would be unmatchable. I think already there is such a need for healthcare providers. even today it is difficult to schedule your annual physical,  let alone a more pressing health issue. So with that being said, if we do reach overpopulation, there is a very high probability that healthcare providers will not be able to keep up with the amount of patients, leaving many people to suffer 

    193 words 

  • I believe that the world is over-populated and it is growing substantially day by day, I believe there is a problem with the population because it fluctuates and is very abnormal to have such a large amount of people fill and grow cities that are usually desolate and small. All this growth may explain some traffic jams on freeways, this is why I can’t get anywhere sometimes in Los Angeles. But in all seriousness I think over population is a problem for the future because it can cause setbacks for income or opportunities. I truly believe that those problems can cause chaos and would bring about some problems with production or giving out jobs. I think with all the population growing at a excessive rate it causes cities to spend a lot of money to increase property growth and build new schools to withstand and hold such a huge amount of people. I believe also with the increase in population, inflation can go up and increase prices.
    WC:167

  • I am very concern about the overpopulation problem in the world nowadays. Being one of the world's most concerned problems in the world right now, I think many people are also concerned about this problem. Overpopulation brings us many other problems, such as food and resources shortage. Although it seems not a very important problem in many people's eyes, but being a people who have lived in a over populated city in the past 18 years, I know that this is a problem that we need to solve quickly. Nowadays people are having children very young and as technology is very advance right now, people are living more longer which will lead to more new born lives and more elderlies. This will lead to more consume on many precious resources such as water, and other non renewable energy which will runs out in very short period of time. As many ancients have said human will be distinct due to shortage of resources, which will lead to wars between countries. 

     

    Word Count: 169

  • I don't think I am concerned about overpopulation in the world as a whole, but there are some areas of the world that are definitely more people dense than the others which could cause some resource allocation issues. Given, the more well known and considered prosperous cities and places have more inhabitants. I think that those areas definitely need more attention as when there are too many people condensed in one area it can create biological, infrastructure, as well as many social problems. For example, disease can spread more quickly and viciously in denser areas and food prices will go up if there is too much demand.I think it depends where you live to see if there's an overpopulation problem or not, like comparing somewhere like San Jose to Vacaville. More densely populated areas will have overpopulation issues in the future as they are famous as they are right now, it will be worse later when more people decide they want to come in. 164

  • Although I do not think we, in America (or rather my local region of the Bay Area), currently have a problem with over-population, there is the concern for specific locations and strained resources. So while I’m not concerned with overpopulation, I would say that it leads to my concern on population density and the distribution of resources. I am more concerned about the growth of centers of population than the global population as a whole. Fast-growing areas like China and India that have many overcrowded cities and suburbs sprawl don't really seem to have an understanding of environmental respect. I believe that this is the real issue at-hand; in no way is Earth overpopulated at the moment, but we lack the necessary skills to rearrange people and resources to be evenly spread. In this case, I think overpopulation or rather, the distribution of resources will become a truly frightening problem in the future; at the moment, many third-world countries are left with little food and shelter, but that will only continue to worsen if we continue with our current systems. So no, we don’t currently have a big problem with overpopulation/resource distribution at the moment, but yes, I am concerned that it will become a problem in the future. (210 words)

  • I think overpopulation can definitely become a problem in the future, as Earth has a finite amount of its resources. With the world population rising everyday, demands for food, housing, and even healthcare will rise as well. Most of the world lives in a society where people are consumers, and with more consumption opposed to supplying those needs, our resources can only be depleted. There is also the issue of climate change, and how the addition of new people as well as new communities is only making the earth warmer. As of right now, I don't believe the issue is as prevalent, but I can envision is being a serious problem in the future. With countries like China even implementing a "one-child policy," the issue can only grow larger and begin spreading to other regions. I believe that as long as our human population is growing, Earth is going to be left with fewer resources. 

    (155 words)

  • Overpopulation is an issue that I am concerned with in the world. We all know that Earth has limited resources which I do believe has enough to go around after the population curve starts to settle. But that runs on a lot of pretenses as well as in a more utopian ideal. To my knowledge the current issues reside after the industrial revolution. In this period advancement was the driving force behind humanity where we started getting into territories that are planet altering. With this comes the current issues of overpopulation. In the current society a single human takes up much more resources than what humans did in the past. This combined with longer life spans and lower death rates exacerbate this issue. As more nations develop and the production methods value short term goals of matching the rising consumption level of humans this is why overpopulation is an issue. It's not just about the flat number of humans because the planet is capable of hosting much more than 7 billon people but it is rather about how much resources each of those 7 billion people use and what effect that has on the planet. This is why I think overpopulation is already an issue and will only continue to become a larger one. 

    215 Words

  • I think over-population is a concern but I personally have not taken the time to think about this issue. I feel that this is because I can't directly see it so I don't think it affects me. After taking the time to think about it, I am concerned with over-population because it is a link to environmental problems. I think we currently do have a problem with over-population but it is not as big as a concern that people are doing anything about it. Over-population hasn't been an issue that has directly impacted us yet so it doesn't seem a big deal right now. I think in the future it will become an even bigger problem but I think the new generation may make it less of an issue. This is because the newer generation will have less kids compared to generations before. The newer generation has different ideologies so this could impact the number of kids each family will have. (161 words)

  •              Overpopulation could affect the world in many ways.  I am concerning about the over-population can become a problem in the future because it related with many problems in our society. In developing countries and some poor countries lack family planning caused over-population such as India, Bangladesh etc. The main cause of overpopulation is poverty. Over-population causes environmental damage such as global warming, climate changed, faced weather issued, overcrowding, increased poverty, more demand for over used resources and demand for food production which deplete and damage natural resources, increased air pollutions from the wasted of industries, which caused more environmental pollution and waste materials. In some places started facing overpopulation issue shortage of housing and shortage of employment opportunities because of greater number of people than job opportunities. Unemployment also directly relating to the crime rates. Over-population can cause more diseases and more chance to deal with epidemic and pandemic issue. We should look into it seriously and prevent over-population and also, we should balance and implement on the negative affect of over-population and create a better world. (177words)

  • Overpopulation is not something I was too concerned about but we have a problem with overpopulation. I think overpopulation is the reason why we are seeing more and more homeless people around. I also believe in the future it will only get worse. A few days a week when I go on social media I see either someone I know or someone who has gone viral and is announcing their pregnancy. Overpopulation has also affected other factors such as pollution due to millions of cars being used every day, as well as more and more factories being built. It has also caused a higher cost of living making everything from groceries to houses more expensive. It has also caused a lot of people to be unemployed because since everything is more expensive a lot of people don’t shop often and if they do it is limited. So people from retail stores, restaurants, fast food places, and others don’t have a lot of hours to give their employees. 

    word count: 167

  • Five years ago, I heard about overpopulation in densely populated countries like China, the USA, and Japan,... I'm very concerned about this, and I always imagine how long the Earth can survive if people keep being born without a plan. Depending on our situation and economy, we should have a family plan. I agree that if each family can afford and can afford to pay for all the hospital bills and problems for their children's future, how many children they can have is up to them. But if the family belongs to a poor household, does not have a stable job, and keeps "reproducing," the overpopulation is very high, and there is a high chance that the children born without a happy life will not have a happy life. happiness or even not going to school. Currently, in China, Hong Kong, or Taiwan, you cannot imagine a family of 5 living in a tiny "room" without any open space. The toilet comes with the kitchen, and the living room is the bedroom for the whole family... Also, because of the problems of overpopulation, many laws have been introduced that a household suspending should have two children, but giving birth is a gift from heaven, so only if we know how to live and plan the earth in the future will not meet chaotic scenarios like scientists and astrologers. predicted. 

    Count Words: 229

  • Over population has never been something that has been a worry of mine, however with recent changes to the climate over-population has been a growing concern. With the climate getting hotter progressively the supply of food will also go down with it, yet our population is rising. Eventually an ecosystem will dissolve with such a trend. If we progress on the same path we are going over-population will become a huge problem because so many problems will arise beyond not having space for people to occupy. For humanity to avoid increasing problems with over-population we have to increase awareness on the topic firstly and also fix problems with littering and other things affecting the environment. If things do go as they are though, forests won't exist and food will be scarce as ever, the problem will only become worse and humanity won't be able to maintain in conditions with lack of resources.
    wc: 154 

  • I personally have not thought much about over population recently but I think that there is a concern for it in the future. At the same time I am slightly split since the upcoming generations, sos far, have expressed that many of them don't plan on having kids, or just don't plan on having many. While on the other hand there are others that are having many kids such as eight plus, and making it seem glorified. While I understand the joys and goals of some people having big families, I also believe there could be "too many", but that is just my opinion. Hopefully the very large families, and the new generation of people who plan to not have any kids will slightly balance each other out, but in the long run I do believe there will become a huge problem with over population, and in some areas of the world, they are already experiencing consequences of over population.

    (160 words)

  • The idea of over-population in the world to me seems very intimidating. Resources are very limited which can cause a chain of reactions to occur: people would have a lesser chance of achieving certain necessities, inflation would go up, car and landfill pollution will exponentially increase and many more. Currently, I think we are or might be hitting the starting stages of overpopulation on earth. I recently heard that we hit 8 billion people on earth when I remember growing up with the knowledge of 7 billion people in the world. One change I saw that will prevent one of the problems to increase is the law in California where in 2035, the sale of new-gas cars is banned. If we do have more than 8 billion at that time, CA could have less air pollution as gas cars now would be close to outdated. Undoubtedly, we cannot keep all 8 billion people and more in check so we have to stay diligent for the next few decades.


    Word count: 168

  • Word Count: 173


    I am a little concerned with overpopulation and think that in the future it will affect the world negatively. Despite overpopulation being seen as a concerning issue now and a huge concern for so many people I do not believe it will actually negatively start impacting us until way in the future. Some scary things to think about overpopulation is that we can start running out of food and jobs. Places even such small towns will start filling up and being overpopulated. I’m saying that it even started happening today. My grandparents live in a small town where a lot of people do not live there. It is not crowded. For my whole life they have lived there and I’ve never had a concern about there being too many people and it being busy. Recently a lot of people have started moving there and the town has been filling up quickly. It has gotten more crowded over the past few years. Everywhere this will start happening as the population increases. 


    • Our planet earth's population just turned 8 billion a few weeks back. My concern about overpopulation is not about that one day we will run out of space on this planet but more about sustainability and impact on climate where certain regions seem to be overpopulated. Poverty and health problems due to poor sanitation, lack of access to food and water, and other ills continue to cripple such regions. People and children in such regions mainly in the southeastern part of Asia and some parts of Africa suffer from malnutrition and lack of opportunities to maintain a healthy lifestyle. With the scarcity of natural resources like clean water, such issues can cause social protest and violence in some countries. But on the other hand, we have regions like Europe, Japan and the Korean peninsula where population growth rate has been stagnant for decades. With an aging workforce, different kinds of problems are being faced by these countries. The best solution would be to find a way to control the population in certain third world countries, but find a way to increase population in certain first world countries where they have seen a decline for many years. {wc 196}

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