My 'Wonder Years' Week 4 David Polanski Childhood

           I love the 1990's. I love the music, movies, and especially the memories. I was born in 1988 and I spent my ages 2-12 in that decade and cherish every moment when I reflect back to those days. Chapter 4 deals with early and middle childhood; as well as the development that occurs during this stage. From 1990-1996 I lived with my mom in my grandparents basement in the Back of the Yards neighborhood before moving to the West Lawn neighborhood of Chicago. These are not the best of neighborhoods and a lot of crime did happen but perception is everything and life is what you make it.  

I owe a lot to how I was raised. My mom did everything she could to raise me well, although we had a lot of factors working against us. We had a family member who lived with us that was severely addicted to drugs. Needless to say, I was around more 'characters' growing up than the average child but turns out they made some great stories. My family member would leave for weeks at a time and go on drug binges and at times I would go with my mom to try and find them. At the age of 6, I remember being inside crack houses hoping to find them. I never felt afraid because I was with my mom and let me tell you, this lady is not one to be messed with. Vygotsky's social development theory argues that social interaction precedes development; consciousness and cognition are the end product of socialization and social behavior. Vygotsky states: “Every function in the child’s cultural development appears twice: first, on the social level, and later, on the individual level; first, between people (interpsychological) and then inside the child (intrapsychological)”.[2] I feel that this statement sums up early and middle childhood. A child takes in their surroundings whether they are aware of it or not and the behaviors they are around will affect them in either a positive or negative manner.  

When I was little, all I knew was drugs were bad. I never knew the types of drugs until I was older but when I learned them I felt as I already knew about them. I remember going to these places and just meeting the strangest of people. I never judged them because I wasn’t sure what was wrong with them I just knew that life was not appealing. Vygotsky hit the nail in the head when discussing the social and individual level. I always have had a negative connotation in regards to drugs because I saw what they can do to someone. I did not hate drugs off the bat because I didn't know they even were but I saw how the people who were on them interacted. It was later when I interpreted this on a personal level. As I got older I was able to piece things together more easily and it became more clear what exactly my family member was doing. I saw the detrimental effects of drugs as a kid and to this day still feel strongly against them. If it hadn't been for my experiences I may have experimented with drugs. You have to take the bad with the good and look at everything as learning experience.  

I opened with this blog with how much I love the 90's and that is because they represent my childhood. I loved everything about my childhood. There are trials and tribulations in everybody's life and everyone has a story to tell. The family member I spoke about carried their drug problem up until their death in 2012. My last memory with them wasn’t ideal and I would give anything to alter that. I don’t think of them as an awful person nor do I want the perception of this blog to reflect that. Truth is she was remarkable. She had her problems but who doesn’t? It is unfortunate the outcome but that is life. We all struggle with our own demons but they should not define us. Romans 12:9-11 "Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another above yourself.", regardless of her actions she had one of the biggest hearts and always showed love. Our stories start from childhood because it is where our memory really starts to develop. This chapter talks about moral standards and their development. I owe a lot to my childhood and can attribute my morals to what I was exposed to as a child. I wouldn’t change one thing about my childhood because it made me into the man I am today. I still have a lot to work on in life but I know I am on the desired path, that stemmed from my childhood. 

Week 3: Pregnancy & Prenatal Development- David Polanski

     In 2014 I was working as a delivery driver for a uniform company. I was waking up at 3 am to be at work by 4, loading up a truck then making my deliveries for the day. I took the job because I had just moved into an apartment and needed a steady income. I knew this is not what I was meant to do in life. I started to become anxious, crabby, and just unpleasant, I needed a change. I began applying to any and every job I could have just to get out of my current job. I came across a place that I thought was a nursing home and applied. I felt this would be an ideal position to take since I had experience taking care of my grandfather for 8+ years after he suffered a severe stroke that took the use of his right side of his body as well as his speech. I received a call from this place to set up an interview for hire.

     The day of my interview I did not know what to expect. I remember walking into the main building and being asked to have a seat until my interview. As I was sitting I started to see a lot of kids with special needs transitioning around the building; this was not what I expected. As I was waiting I debated on leaving because I had never had experience working with children with special needs. Needless to say, this day I found my purpose.

     Chapter 3 revolves around pregnancy and prenatal development and to my surprise this chapter opened with hereditary disorders. As mentioned in the text (pg. 57), "hereditary abnormalities occur at the level of the chromosomes or the genes. Either source of the abnormality affects the entire genetic process." These disorders develop at the early stages of life and most likely stay with the child their entire life. I work with students who have all types of disorders that range from autism, down syndrome, and cerebral palsy. Like many, I was ignorant on how you treat someone with special needs and to my surprise you treat them as anyone else, we are all people and that's the bottom line. There are so many misconceptions of people with special needs and often times are believed to be incapable of developing in a typical fashion. Working with these kids you learn of how much they are capable of doing even if it is not in the same regards of what you can do. The human race cannot fully develop unless we develop together and embrace our differences no matter what they might be.

     This section of the text made me reflect back to our last chapter that talked about stages of development. It seems that those theories are structured around the 'typical' person and would be difficult to relate to people with special needs for their developmental timing may differ from what is the 'norm'.
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     Pg. 68 brings up an important paragraph regarding nutrition and exercise while pregnant. According to Dietary Guidelines for Americans, a healthy diet emphasizes fruits, vegetables, whole-grains, and low-fat or skim milk. It also includes lean meats, poultry, fish, beans, eggs and nuts, as well as foods low in saturated fats, sodium, and cholesterol. What is interesting about this is several members who make the decisions that deem what is healthy to eat have major contributions from the egg/dairy industry. Study after study are available that prove the health risk consuming animal products. The dietary guidelines promote a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol, then goes on to recommend eating a diet high in saturated fat and cholesterol. It contradicts itself since cholesterol and most saturated fats are only found in animal products.

     I wanted to bring both of these areas up because I cannot help but feel the two can be related. We know the fetus relies on nourishment from its mother but can poor nutrition contribute to these disorders. We know that alcohol and drug abuse can cause a baby to have a disorder, I cannot help but feel diet can also do this. Money makes the world go around and what we see is rarely what we get. There are so many people chronically ill in this world and countless children being born with disorders that we have to seek truth for ourselves and apply it to our life. Educate and invest in your health. Making small changes can lead to major development to living the best life you can.

http://www.pcrm.org/health/diets/vegdiets/health-concerns-about-dairy-products

This blog is not regarding whether you should drink milk but rather understand that the choices we make can affect our development as well as our offspring's. One excerpt I wanted to pull from this is the following: "Colic is an additional concern with milk consumption. Up to 28 percent of infants suffer from colic during the first month of life.47Pediatricians learned long ago that cow’s milk was often the reason. We now know that breastfeeding mothers can have colicky babies if the mothers consume cow’s milk. The cow’s antibodies can pass through the mother’s bloodstream, into her breast milk, and to the baby.48,49." 

Week 2- David Polanski

     Chapter 2 focuses on theories of development. Throughout this chapter we are introduced to several renown psychologist and their theories. One would probably spend the rest of their life analyzing each theory and then blogging about it. Each psychologist discussed offered a major contribution to modern psychology, but touching on everything just is not possible. I would like to discuss a few areas I found most interesting while reading the chapter.

"The Freudian theory is one of the most important foundation stones for an edifice to be built by future generations, the dwelling of a freer and wiser humanity." - Thomas "Da" Mann (1939), German Author and Critic

 Most people consider Freud as "the father of modern psychology", I like to think of him as 'the godfather of modern psychology".  The quote above speaks a lot about who Freud was along with his theory. The Freudian stages of development consist of the following five stages:

1. The Oral Stage (0-1.5 yrs old)
2. The Anal Stage (1.5-3 yrs old)
3. The Phallic Stage (3-5 yrs old)
4. The Latency Stage (5-12 yrs old)
5. The Genital Stage (12 years and older)

The premise of these stages is that each stage has a major function based on developmental needs/wants in that period of life, Freud refers to these as pleasure centers (pg.30). To be honest, I had to look further into these because at a first glance I did not know what I was looking at, kind of came off a little weird. I do feel the sexual undertone was a bit strong overall, but with an open mind I could see what Freud was implying for each stage.

The Phallic Stage is when the genitals are the pleasure center of this stage and in the two remaining stages. The major function of this stage is the healthy development of sexual interest, which sometimes involves unconscious sexual desire for the parent of the opposite sex, as a male this would be known as Oedipus complex.

I had a hard time understanding this stage because I honestly could not relate to it. My dad took off on my mom around a year after I was born and I never really knew the guy. Every memory I had as a kid probably had my mom in it. I was and still am close to my mom because at times in my life she was all I had. This stage talks about developing an unconscious sexual desire for the parent of the opposite sex. This has never happened to me. I cannot say it is wrong since I never experienced what living with two parents is like. I wanted to get other's opinions on this and to my surprise I found out one friend agreed with Freud and the other agreed with myself. The reason I am surprised is because the person who agreed with me was also raised by a single parent. I would like to know more if there are any links to these type of responses.

     Jean Piaget and his stages of cognitive development I felt needed some recognition in my blog. I always had an appreciation for Piaget, especially after reading The Moral Judgement of the Child. The insight Piaget offers into the child's mind is surreal. To better understand these stages let's take a look at them: (pg.35)

1. Sensorimotor: birth- 2 yrs old- Infants' sensory experiences with the environment form patterns that lead to cognitive structures; object permanence develops.
2. Preoperational: 2-7 yrs old- Use of symbols; rapid language growth.
3. Concrete operational: 7-11 yrs old- Can reason about physical objects.
4. Formal operational: 11+ years- Abstract thinking leads to reasoning with more complex symbols. 

I found the concrete and formal stages to be most intriguing when I related them to my life. When I was 6, my mom and I moved from a terrible neighborhood to one that was just bad (movin' on up!). I grew up around violence from gangs, drugs, shootings, and everything else we hear on the new at 9 in Chicago. I always remember thinking to myself that I never wanted to end up in that lifestyle. However, a few of my good childhood friends seemed to worship that lifestyle and unfortunately some of them went down that path. Reasoning about physical objects can possibly foretell the way you perceive life and how you will form your formal operational stage. When you begin to reason about certain things you form an opinion on them, some could be good, bad, or disposable, either way they help shape who you become. At the concrete operational stage a child can start to make sense of their surroundings and understand they can form reasoning to things that they come across. I do feel that the concrete operational stage can directly impact the formal operational stage. In 1997, just two years after I moved into our new neighborhood my cousin shot just two blocks from where we lived. I always knew gangs were bad but this situation made my mind start to reason exactly what was happening. After this had happened I just became aware where I was living and always second thought where I went and who I hung out with. I saw the hurt that this had brought my family and before this I never experienced a traumatic event. I saw that life can sometimes hurt but you have to reason with yourself about the choices and decisions you have to make in life, even if they aren't always the easiest.

Turn and Face the Strange--Week 1 David Polanski

   
     "Lifespan development refers to an examination of the biological, cognitive/psychological, and                            social changes that occur over the course of a human life."- Fiore, 2011

     There is an old saying that the only guarantee in life is that you are going to die. This goes without saying but we also will all develop to some extent. We develop at every moment in our lives to some degree. Developmental levels vary for everyone and can include an array of changes. To gain more insight on the process let us break down the term. Fiore defines lifespan psychology as the study of human development from conception to death and development as the process of changing and the change that occurs through the lifespan.

    I am 28 years old. A few weeks ago I was thinking about when I was 18 and came to the realization I have become almost everything I have once stood against. They say wisdom comes with age but wisdom should be sought after. I feel I have been experiencing a great amount of change within the past year than I have in the past ten. As a kid, I thought when you became an adult you were set. I thought adulthood was this magical place where I was in charge of everything and would have all the answers, and even if I did not I would not have to answer to anyone. To my surprise, I was entirely wrong. George Vaillant (2002) describes this by stating, "Adult development is neither a footrace nor a moral imperative. It is a road map to help us make sense of where we and where our neighbors might be located." I feel this quote possesses a lot of power and makes a valid point.

     I spent a great portion of time in high school involved in wrestling and boxing; after graduation I got involved with power lifting. All of these activities put a huge emphasis on diet and exercise. I always recalled remembering the importance of protein. My diet for years consisted of whole milk, raw eggs, beef, chicken, protein shakes, and turkey. Last year I faced my biggest development ever; I went vegan. I used to ridicule and mock vegans in my earlier years. I would call them hippies, tree huggers, you name it I said. Last June, I was killing time on YouTube and came across some videos about what goes down in slaughterhouses. Anyway I looked, there was no way I could support an industry that abuses, tortures, and rapes animals the way that factory farming does. The more I researched, I came across more studies how animal products are the leading cause of death in the world. About 610,000 deaths in the United States alone are due to heart disease. It is hard to argue facts and just found myself backed into a corner with no answer to continue to eat meat other than my own selfish reasons. It just made sense of what I needed to do and where I needed to go. The older I get the more I realize things we are told are not always what is right. I would argue until I was blue in the face that meat is healthy for us just as I thought that Columbus was a solid guy. Seeking truth is essential for certain kinds of development because it leaves us with nothing that is sugar coated. The hard part about truth is that it is not always easy to swallow but from time to time we have to accept it in order to grow.