Jane Addams is one social thinker that we should all take an
extensive notice on. She is at first a powerful female, which at this time in
our history a women has almost no rights and it is unheard of a women being in
a power position. In a changing time in American history she opened her home to
many different people not just women, which is commonly advertised, she also brought
in immigrants from all regions of the world, men and children included. Here
she taught useful skills to these unskilled and unfamiliar people to help them
succeed in society at this time. She followed a Democratic Social Ethics policy
which consisted of four key elements. First, no one group is more important
than any other. This applied to both men and immigrants, not just the obvious
situation of oppressed women. At this time if you were white you may not actually
be “white”. Groups of Irish and Italian people were discriminated because they
did not look as “white” as the others from different areas such as England. They
may talk differently, such as a thick Irish accent. Even though it may bring
girls to their knees now-a-days, it was a sign of shame and a tell tail sign
for an employer to not hire a person. Secondly, all people should be active agents
in the production on society. This means that we all need to work together to
reach a common goal. We all would like to live a happy and rewarding life, we
all need to work to achieve that goal, why don’t we all work together and
smoothly reach that common goal. Next we all, as humans, seek an opportunity for
kindness. Sociologists argue that we are all naturally good, there are a few
bad eggs which can influence many people, but humans are all in all nice. This element
is just that, we are all naturally good and we would like to be treated with
kindness and respect eg: the golden rule. Finally the fourth element of Adams
social thinking is we all need personal safety of each person. The people Jane
Adams was dealing with were at a very stressful time in their lives, she needed
to make sure this would be a positive institution to lead to further opportunities’
of equality for all. Jane Addams wanted to show people that threw experience we
can learn acceptance for our fellow human being, no matter gender, race or age.
This is a small town clean-up project, giving people the opportunities
to learn skills and to make the world a better place.
http://www.hillsboroughcounty.org/DocumentCenter/View/5655
I thought that you did a great job in summarizing the contributions Jane Addams made and her ideas. However, what concept or idea stood out the most to you? Was there something you agreed with or did not understand? Again, you did a great job summarizing the importance of Jane Addams, but it would have been interesting to also read about what you enjoyed most about her studies.
ReplyDeleteGood job on explaining the views of Addams. You point out that sociologists argue that people are all naturally good. Do YOU feel this way? I mean, do you think Jerrery Dahmer or Ed Gien were born naturally good? Or do you feel that these are the bad eggs in society? Or maybe they were born good and took a turn for the worst in their lives??? I think the "clean-up" project illustrates the concept of group learning well which is one of Addams main ideas. Good post!
ReplyDeleteGreat explanation of who Jane Addams was and what her contributions were to society. I like that you explained her 4 key elements of democratic social ethics. I like that you included another example of how a community can work together to better itself like the hillsborough county community clean up program.
ReplyDeleteI like that you pointed out Addams' work with immigrants. It's something that I didn't really consider when writing up my post. When people think of Jane Addams the first things that most likely come to mind are her contributions to the labor movement as well as women's rights. But her work with immigrants was also very important.
ReplyDeleteAlso, is it really true that all sociologists consider humans generally good in nature? Just a thought.