Assignment From University of Phoenix....Rock and Roll

I have talked to you about my experience of being an ol' fart and attending college with a bunch of "whipper snappers". We are all assigned to learning teams. This is a part of the so called learning process that the University of Phoenix has as part of their curriculum. The learning team concept is modeled after corrupt corporate America's team building concept. The concept is supposed to encourage leadership skills, communication skills, working as a team on projects and so on and so forth. Personally I think it looks good as a theory but in reality, well the reality is a different story. The one problem with the team concept is that it is made up of "people". In my view when you put different people with different attitudes, personal problems, different goals and values it is difficult to come together for a common goal. There are examples of teams of people that have come together, in sports, the corporate arena, volunteer events you name it, that have come together and been very successful. But it has been my experience, in life, having been involved in not only school but in politics, service organization and business associations that there are the "let's get it done crowd" and the "gosh isn't this fun to sit back and watch those other people do all the work and I get credit for it" crowd. But when your grade or employment depend upon the "team" to succeed the "let's get it going " crowd drag the rest of 'em along.
    I find it ironic or just plain disgusting that in our society today greedy corporate America and the greedy, corrupt icons of that industry that receive bailouts, perks, special consideration (like not going to prison) and tax benefits galore are the loudest to rail against some government policy (like health care) that is "undermining the free market system" and claim that it is "socialism" are the same ones that advocate the "team" concept which is about a socialist as it gets.
   Anyway as I climb off of my soap box I will continue on with the purpose of this article. My team "Learning Team E" and the rest of the learning teams have been assigned a team assignment to write a thesis statement and a corresponding supporting paragraph. The class we are currently in is discussing the different forms of media and how they affect our culture. We could chose from movies, television, music or books to illustrate our thesis statement. The supportive paragraph is to be at least 350 words. For me 350 words is a walk in the park but you should hear the moans and groans from some of the "whipper snappers". Of course they spend untold hours tweeting and texting and facebook and whatever the hell else they do but heaven forbid trying to think and put it down on paper. Hell they don't even have to put it down on paper it is all electronic with spell check, word count and we can submit our parers to "Write Check" for grammar and punctuation errors. The University of Phoenix also provides a "plagiarism check" because heaven forbid even though they promote socialism they certainly don't promote plagiarism. I wish that they would promote "hedonism" so it could be a little more interesting. Or how about this one "truthism", what a novel concept that would be. I see that I have climbed back up on my soapbox.
   Back to the learning team assignment. The "team" met on Monday (11-08) at the University's resource library. Well as it turns out we all three had some different approaches which is to be expected and in fact I encourage it. I always look at it as I am willing to justify my research and argue to support it so the "young 'uns" can too.  So after some deliberation we were able to come up with a convergence of ideas to be able to complete the team assignment. The basis of our thesis statement was how the liberal and graphic nature of rock and roll lyrics had an affect on the rising teen pregnancy rate of the 1970's and 1980's. Here is what we submitted.....

While other documented factors may of had an influence, because of the increased graphic lyrical content to rock n roll, our society experienced an increase in teen pregnancy.

In the early days of rock n roll the lyrics were highly censored, restricted and benign.  They focused mainly on schools, cars and “puppy love”.   As rock n roll changed and the lyrics became more graphic and less censored, the country saw a spike in the teen pregnancy rate. (Boonstra, H. 2008)  From a high in the 1950’s there was a downward trend before the 1970’s.  In the 70’s there was a dramatic spike leading into the 80’s.  Rock n Roll has historically had an influence on teen sexual activity.  With the introduction of more graphic lyrics and less censorship, this caused a spike in the teen pregnancies. ZZ Top, and their graphic lyrics of an oral sex act in “She wore a pearl necklace”, and Aerosmith’s reference to male genitalia in “The big ten inch” directly influences the sexual mindset of the listener.  In the 80’s there was Madonna with “Like a virgin” and Van Halen  “Hot for teacher” that depict more lewd and sexual acts upon the listener.  With the introduction of music videos in the 80’s, this allowed visual interpretation of graphic lyrics.  Not until 1985, through pressure of various parental organizations’ did the music labels provide warning for people under the age of 18. 

Well here it is the culmination of old and young. This is what I get to do in school. I must give credit to the other two authors of this statement and accompanying paragraph (Erdmann, E, & Luciana, J 2010).

So there you have it.

Oh by the way

Please buy something from my eBay store

I need the money to pay for this edumacation that i am getting.

Until we meet again

Happy Trails

Duane