Blog #4

I can recall several times where I have been morally muted. I remember when I saw a coworker of mine stepping to the back to pray because it was a fasting period for them and a time to pray. For this he was allowed to stay on the clock since the prayer was only 10 minutes. I remember hearing managers make fun of him and also clock him out. They were adjusting his hours in order to cut his pay and take advantage of his labor.They were not allowed to do that and also very hurtful. I could've stepped up and let the person know they were being cheated but I didn't because I was afraid of what the management could do to me. I did't speak up and until this day it kills me that I let them do that. This is an issue because I let my own self get in the way from speaking up about an issue especially to someone who is so vulnerable.
After much reflection it made me put myself in that position. I felt so hurt to know that someone who could've stepped up and let me know what was happening wouldn't. The issue would be ongoing and unfair. They treated the person so badly and every chance I had to report it to corporate I didn't because of my own fears and the sake of my pay and also my reputation. Someone having the best interest and being just is a very important value to me so for me to do this says otherwise.

Blog Post 3

I took the age preference test which tested my ability to distinguish old from young faces and my result is described as 'automatic preference for Young People'. I don't know if I necessarily agree with that completely. I am strongly for both young and old people. Maybe even more for older people because they mean so much to me and I feel it is our job as the younger ones to treat them with extra respect and care.
 I also took the sexuality test which tested my ability to distinguish words and symbols representing gay and straight people. My data suggested that I had a slight automatic preference for straight people compared to gay people. I am not really shocked by this because my family and religion is strictly against gay people and although I am a person who tries to treat everyone equally there is a bias I have that may have made this true. 
Lastly, I took the test that was about abled vs disabled individuals. My data suggest a slight automatic preference for abled persons compared to disable persons. I would have to strongly disagree with this because I have a passion to help disable people especially because I deal with so many in my life. 
This testing does not demonstrate my preferences accurately. I was rushing to hurry and give an answer because when I took my time to see what was shown and match it I couldn't get any results. Although I understand the rush it can really mess up someones results. I also think that there shouldn't be a pattern in the test because then someone can become so focused on the test pattern and follow it and still placing the wrong picture in the wrong category like I did.

Blog Post 2

I chose this clip from the movie Freedom Writers. Hillary Swank acts as Erin Gruwell. This is a young teacher who inspires a class full of at-risk students. The entire community including their staff at their school have gave up on these students. However, Erin teaches these students to learn tolerance, apply their selves completely and even continue education past high school. No one takes her serious initially because they are very set in their own ways and don't know anything but that. One of the major things that Erin notices was the separation among each race and group of people. Their own identity is what placed them in their group of friends. She immediately broke that separation and forced the students to comply with sitting by someone they wouldn't normally sit by. This was a big challenge and even cause fights but she was determined to do this. Eventually they were able to do this alone and even without issues arising. It became a choice to them and something they wanted to do. As I mentioned before these kids were hopeless because their own community gave up on them. She came in and brought a sense of purpose that pushed these kids in a better direction. Eric assigned them work to do which was writing in these journals to share their own story the same way Anne Frank did. This is where major improvements came in when she showed them that they had more in them that they never saw. Prior to this these kids didn't take any of these talks serious.  The attitude of these kids from the beginning to the end changed dramatically. She definitely uses all aspects of the relational leadership model. Her ability to empower and bring that sense of purpose is definitely in this clip. Although her efforts were the cause of this major turn around she gives the credit to the students their selves which I think might help them to step up more and take more initiative and have more hope in their lives.