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The Buried Life, Not Just an MTV Show.

By AmandaChi on April 8, 2010 11:22 AM | 1 Comment

How many times have you asked yourself about the goals you want to accomplish before you die? If not, why haven't you? Have you ever heard the quote "Carpe Diem" which means to seize the day. Or even enjoy being a kid while you can, because it goes by too fast. Well the Buried Life guys have, and according to them life moves fast, so we should slow down and enjoy it.

 

You might have met the Buried Life guys if you're a fan of any shows on MTV. It is likely that you have seen a trailer/shows for the TV show called The Buried Life. Meet Ben, Dave, Jonnie, Duncan, four guys who share the same ideas about life and the world around them.

These four guys were originally from the same town, and knew of each other; however it wasn't until 2006 when they discovered that they had the same goals and aspirations about their life, focusing on the question "What do you want to do before you die?" This question led to these four guys making a list of things they wanted to do before they died, starting out at 50 items. After making this first list, they set out on a journey to complete these tasks, and making a documentary of it. Along the way, they wanted to help others cross of things on their lists as well. On their first trip they were able to cross off 26 items on their list, and help 24 people. This led to the development of the list with 100 items on it, and the guys decided they did not want to put a quantity for the number of people they wanted to help, they just want to help as many people as they can. The Buried life eventually are going to making a film of their documentary of all of the 100 items they accomplish.

 

When talking about these guys, we have to go back to the basics of motivation which of course is goals. Their 100 item list is of course their goals. These goals come in a variety of skill level, some more difficult to achieve than others. Along with that, Ben, Dave, Jonnie, and Duncan all have high levels of the need for achievement. You can see this just by looking at how far they have come in achieving all of their goals. These guys first started out just talking about this journey in 2006, and its now 2010, and they have crossed off yet another item on their list "Making a badass TV show" with their show The Buried Life on MTV. Their ultimate goal consists of every item being checked off, and a documentary film to show it all. Along with their goals, they try to help others achieve a goal of theirs. With this, the Buried Life guys are gaining feedback from the people that they help. This feedback is obviously positive, and provides feelings of happiness, joy, and even feeling accomplished.

 

Although it appears that the Buried Life guys are just trying to complete a list just to be able to say they did those things, I think it is something a little more than that. Reeve (2009) talks about the six dimensions of psychological well-being, including self-acceptance, positive relations with others, autonomy, environmental mastery, purpose in life, and personal growth. By pursuing these six dimensions, individuals are ultimately defining your concept of self. The Buried Life Guys are continuously working on many of these dimensions. While helping others along their journey to complete their lists of things to do before they die, the Buried Life Guys are establishing positive relations with other people. Not only that, they are networking, and establishing connections which benefit not only themselves, but also the people that they would like to help. It is evident that these four guys also have high levels of autonomy because they have chosen to take on these goals, and to go to great lengths to achieve them despite if others don't believe that they can. Overall, through everything the Buried Life guys are accomplishing, or going to accomplish, they are building and figuring their purpose in life, and have high levels of personal growth.  I'm not sure if the Buried Life Guys would agree, but I would say it seems like their purpose in life is to help others. It seems like they received a lot of joy and happiness out of it, and it helps them grow as a person as well.

Ben, Dave, Jonnie, and Duncan have motivated other people to make their own lists of goals to do before they die. The Buried Life has even influenced a networking site called The Buried Life Network. If you're interested in watching their show on MTV or just learning more about the Buried Life visit these two websites. http://www.theburiedlife.com or http://www.mtv.com/shows/buried_life/episodes.jhtml.

 

As Ben, Dave, Jonnie and Duncan state, if they ever come to your town, you better be ready to answer the question "What do you want to do before you die?"

Students rally at state capitol for a better education

By Andrea Vignovich on March 11, 2010 2:20 PM | 3 Comments
http://blogs.desmoinesregister.com/dmr/index.php/2010/03/11/hundreds-of-students-rally-lawmakers-save-our-schools/

This article is from the Des Moines Register and covers the rally of Des Moines area students at the state capitol on March 11th. The article states that roughly 500 students used their day off from school to hold a rally in support of funding education for the arts at the capitol. The students played as loud as they could in the middle of the building and to get the attention of state lawmakers. They demanded that they would not be overlooked, and they weren't. The goal was to persuade lawmakers to give arts education the same amount of money that it has used to grow over the past couple of years. Since the budget cuts are so large and affecting nearly every area of the state budget students, teachers, and parents are banning together to make sure they are not on the chopping block. If funding gets cut the cost for schools to continue educating the arts skyrockets to $70 million dollars annually. No school in the Des Moines area, or the state for that matter, can afford to keep the arts alive at that cost.

I thought the rally was actually really cool. Especially that the students would take their free day to protest, it really shows how important it is to them. What do you think?

Joining Gangs for Love, or Fear?

By rkac on February 24, 2010 8:45 PM | 5 Comments
A few summers ago, I had the opportunity to intern in Denver, Colorado at an organization called TASC.  TASC is a diversionary program for juvenile delinquents.  Here, I came into contact with numerous individuals - the majority of whom were involved in gangs.  This is also when I became more interested in gang involvement, especially among adolescents.

According to the Violence Prevention Institute (http://www.violencepreventioninstitute.org/youngpeople.html), there are several reasons that an individual joins a gang.
1. To gain an identity
2. For protection
3. For fellowship
4. Intimidation

As we have learned in class, humans have a need for affiliation.  We also know that we have a need for support and love.  Reeve (2005) states that "the need for affiliation is rooted in a fear of interpersonal rejection" (p. 185).  According to the website, research has demonstrated that gang members' families lack structure.  This deficiency causes them to reach out to others to gain their sense of family, or the closeness that families are supposed to have.  The gang culture allows them to achieve this intimacy and bonds that others receive from their family members - the understanding of unconditional love, having each others' backs, etc.
Another reason, according to the site, that individuals join gangs is for protection (#s 2 and 4).  In "seedy" neighborhoods, some individuals fall victim to threats from other gangs.  This causes them to join for protection from the rival gang or to join the gang threatening them to stop the harassment.  Reeve (2005) discusses fear and anxiety as motivators to achieve our need for affiliation as well: "When afraid, people desire to affiliate for emotional support" (p. 186).  For most of us, this is hard to understand, because whenever we were afraid or being bullied, our parents protected and comforted us.  However, for individuals who eventually join gangs, their parents generally don't provide that support.  Therefore, they join these gangs because they fear the repercussions of not joining and having protection.  As many of us would do in a fear-producing situation, we do whatever we can to survive - joining a gang (whether to gain protection from a rival gang or because they know joining the gang will result in the threats ceasing) is their way to survive.

Overall, however, I believe that people join gangs to satisfy their need for affiliation.  These individuals need for affiliation is higher because they lack social interaction.  They feel lonely and/or rejected, and desire true interpersonal relationships.  Whether they join out of fear, anxiety, etc., the underlying cause is for affiliation.

Inspiring children to do good

By Andrea Vignovich on February 24, 2010 7:16 PM | 0 Comments
http://www.ted.com/talks/kiran_bir_sethi_teaches_kids_to_take_charge.html

Last week I commented on a post that focused on the website ted.com. This week I decided to go back to ted.com and see what I could find. The video that stuck out to me is the one I posted above. In the video Kiran Bri Sethi, an Indian school teacher, discusses a way to blur the lines between education and the real world. She suggests that if you teach the children through experience then they will comprehend what was learned and incorporate it into their lives outside of school. The first example she showed was having her children make small utensils all day. In her own words "they worked until their backs were broken, then they understood that child labor was unacceptable." The children took the knowledge that they had freshly obtained and translated it into their community. The children are shown advocating the importance of abolishing child labor to the adults in the community. Kiran Bri Sethi and her students decided it was time to show the rest of the schools and the rest of the community how much of a difference this type of learning can make. They marched into city buildings and took the town by storm. The city ended up closing down the busiest streets for a day each month in order to allow for children to play. The children were alloted an enormous amount of space to put on plays and use their imagination. Soon the community decided it was time to show all of India all of the power that this idea was made of. It was looked at foolishly by many school teachers. However, children embraced the idea of making a difference. In the end, all that was needed was the drive of the children. They held auctions, went door to door, and did anything that they needed to do to show that they could make a difference and would be heard. And they were. The non-believers were put to shame, they only had one question left. How are the students preforming on paper?

It turns out that the children that were involved in the program had better grades that those that were not in the program. Not only were they doing good, they were doing well. Which is just about all that a parent, educator, or citizen can ask of the children that are the future of their country.

Obviously, we are all in a class that integrates learning into our lives in a way that most of our other classes have not. So, we have all experienced a dramatic shift in types of education. How did this video make you feel? Do you think that this class, like the classes in India, blurs the line between an educational institution and the real world? Though, we are not preforming the same "do good" activities that the children in India are preforming, and I'm rather certain that Cedar Falls does not intend on closing down Hudson Road so that we can all bounce of a trampoline for the day, I still feel like the point of our hybrid classes are to learn more about how the real world reflects what we are learning.
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