Sunday, September 25, 2011

How we Feel Music


                 Someone (unknown) once said that “music is what feelings sound like”.  Music can be used to express an emotion and to match any mood we have.  There is a genre for every occasion.
                While I was growing up in my house we listened to a lot of Rod Stewart and Aerosmith.  That was what my parents liked so every road trip we went on consisted of hours upon hours of Aerosmith live or ACDC in the car.  My brother and I could sing along to every song word for word.  That was how we started our love for music.  Ever since then music has kind of been what my brother and I have bonded over.  We have a similar taste in music and listen to most of the same bands.  Every time I’m home we’ll just listen to vinyl for hours.
                One of my favorite bands is of course The Beatles; I could listen to them for hours and never get bored of them.  The first time I heard them I remember getting goose bumps.  That’s my favorite part about music is just hearing a really great song, and being blow away by it.  I can listen to The Beatles for any mood I might be in.  They have songs that you can just relax to and songs to get you really pumped up and ready to go.  The entire era The Beatles are from would probably have to be my favorite.  There was something about the 60’s and 70’s that made music so great.  People could use the music then as a form or expression and protest.  For example Bob Dylan, another one of my favorites, used is music to talk about things he saw wrong in society and the rebel. 
Music no matter what the decade it is during always seems to have a way of expressing what people are thinking and what is important to people.  Through music you can feel any emotion you want and express yourself freely.
               

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Panopticon and Education

             In the Panopticon Letters by Jeremy Bentham, he describes an observation house primarily to be used for prisoners.  He explains how in this house the guard will be able to see everyone prisoner however the prisoners will be unable to see where the guard is.  He explains that this concept can be used for other facilities such as mental hospitals and schools also. 

The purpose of the panopticon is to improve behavior of the prisoners or people inside of it.  Bentham believes that the use of this system in schools will allow for not only improves behavior but also in improved education and studying habits.  He believes that with the use of these observation houses you can always have someone watching the students during study hour, also since each student is in his own cell they will not be distracted.  Thus leading to better grades and smarter students.  Often today we see some uses of security in schools that mimic the ideas of the panopticon.

The use of security and the ability to watch over students to monitor behavior has greatly increased in the past few years.  For example in my high school we had security cameras in everyone hall, some rooms, and the parking lots.  This reminds me of the panopticon very much. When the school installed these cameras they had assemblies for all the students so inform them of the new technology.  They let us know that at any time of the day or night the cameras would be on and if we caused any trouble or miss behaved they would automatically know about it.  After that most of the kids acted and presented themselves better when they thought they were in the presence of the cameras.

Also I feel like there is uses of panopticon principals in this school to an extent, for example I the dorms.  With the use of the RAs the school can better monitor your behavior in the dorms.  The RAs have the ability to go in the rooms and check to make sure you don’t have any illegal substances and they can also monitor you based on your noise levels and what they may be hearing from other residences.  Because of this most people are very cautious of how they act in the dorms.  You act with a better manner because if you are caught doing something wrong you could be written up or kicked out.
Through these examples and the letter by Jeremy Bentham we see that the idea of the panopticon is very effective.  The idea that it will make people behave better because they always think they are being watched seems to be true.