The Family Spectrum

We are all part of some sort of family, normal or not. But what about the families outside blood. How similar are our different families? Although it can be argued that gaining respect in a school, work or any type of environment can be achieved by the skill and contribution you provide to the community, most of these communities work like families, where the longer you have been there, the higher you move up the family spectrum.

Let’s start with something most of us have been part of at some point in our lives, School. Generally, we start school from a very young age, and we start to make connections we keep for most of our lives. A study by the National institute of mental health, states that a child's brain is most absorbent at 3 main points in their lives. Two of which are during our school lives. The way we make connections to our family members is almost identical to how we make connections to school friends. “In a way, schools are like families. The principles act like the parents. The teachers represent Nanny’s or grandparents or in some cases, parents, and the children are well, the children.” (John Cleese) If you think about it, that is quite an accurate representation. Unless you were homeschooled, in which case, family and school for you would have been the same. It’s true that families and schools are not exactly the same thing. Family is something you stick with for the rest of your lives, and school is just a small portion of your life. But the connections you make in schools are almost like having a second family, and once we graduate school, we get welcomed to whole new types of family. Just like in our families, the longer we stay at a specific school, the higher we move up the spectrum.

This applies to most of the communities we take part in during our lifetime, not just schools. Once we grow up and get a job, we are part of a new community. This doesn’t mean we change families at every chapter of our lives. It just means we often take part in more than one or two. “Often adults aging 22-28 years old who are in their first big jobs in their lifetime, get treated as the children. In fact, whenever one joins a new job or community, they are generally the children, amongst the people on the same level.”(Robin Skynner) Here he is explaining how when you get a starting job in an office, you would be treated as the child in that office or section. Just like you get to parents or grandparents in families, in jobs you get promoted, or even of you don’t, when you are there for a longer time, you start to gain respect and move up the family spectrum. (Arun Rath, NY times) Retiring from a job is like dying. You retire when you are done with the spectrum. When you no longer have anything to contribute, and when you have learned everything that you can learn and gone as high as possible. Sometimes you leave the spectrum at an unexpected early stage, for instance if you get fired, or you get expelled from a  school. This is sort of like an unexpected death, and doesn’t happen that often. Another way you can leave the family is when you leave home, for new opportunities. This happens when you change jobs, or schools.

The family spectrum is essentially a big part of any community. It has been argued that sometimes people can join at a higher level from the start, such as CEO, or parent. But that applies to families too, as Step-Parents work the same way. Step Parents, essentially skip the lower levels of a certain family spectrum and join at the top. But they still need to gain the respect of the people below, above and at the same level as them. In schools “playground credit” is achieved not by being skilled and starting higher, it’s achieved by being loyal and there for a long time. (Mircea Agabrian) Step parents have also taken part in the lower levels of a different spectrum, essentially making them experienced but still new to their current position.

The family spectrum doesn’t always apply to how successful you are in a community, but to how much respect you are given in one. It applies to all of our various encounters during our lifetimes and will till our death. We will continue to climb up the spectrum until we can no longer climb higher.

Bibliography

• Skynner, A. C. Robin., and John Cleese. "Look Mummy, I'm Chairman of International Consolidated." Life and How to Survive It. New York: Norton, 1994. N. pag. Print.

• Rath, Arun. "How Jobs Are like Your Second Family." The New York Times. New York Times, 18 Mar. 2013. Web. 9 June 2016.
• Agabrian, Mircea (2006). Relationships Between School and Family: The Adolescents' Perspective [83 paragraphs]. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 8(1), Art. 20, http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0701208.

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What is in your food?

Fat, sugar and salt; three vital ingredients that make the food indulging. Constantly, consumers have to choose between eating healthy or eating junk food. The food industry has figured out the way to make a consumer vulnerable to eating more. The recipe calls for the perfect ratio balance of sugar to salt to fat. Salads have been known to be a healthy alternative to junk food. However, now our salads are betraying us. From the ranch dressing, the cheese chunks to the bacon bits, it is nothing but a pathway for unhealthy fat. The fast food industry tricks our brain to make us crave the junk food more.  

Before I talk about the methods and the solutions, I would like to start off by introducing the concept behind Obesity and Overweight. Overweight is when an individual's BMI is high, whereas, Obese people are very overweight. Obesity can potentially endanger an individual's organs as it can cause fatal disease: Heart diseases, Type 2 Diabetes, Cancer, High cholesterol and much more. In the United States of America, 1/3 of the adults are overweight, and another 1/3 are obese. According to WHO, 13% of the adults in the world were obese (2014). Also in 2013, 42 million children under the age of 5 were either obese or overweight. As expected the cause this was an increased consumption of foods that are high in fat, sugar and salt. Since, this an immense issue, scientist and doctors have found solutions for it.  For instance, NPS MEDICINEWISE, suggests that we should cut down our high sugar drinks and start portioning our foods. I might not have mentioned it before, but the extra energy collected in an individual's body gets stored as fat.

Often people think that consuming sugar, fat and salt is bad for an individual's health, and try not to eat it. Carbohydrates (release energy from sugar) can be either good or bad. It depends on how it enters someone’s body. Pritikin (website on healthy living), says that good carbs are: “High in nutrients, and, low in saturated fat and sodium. However, carbs that are not good for your body would come from refined sugar, such as corn syrup or even honey.” The three vital ingredients can be found in anything, like Ketchup, Bread, Crackers and much more. How do these components make us eat more?  Based on the article about taste buds on Kidshealth.com, “Taste buds have very sensitive microscopic hairs called microvilli. Those tiny hairs send messages to the brain about how something tastes, so you know if it is sweet, sour, bitter, or salty.” The neurones in the human’s taste buds will start to fire when in contact with food. The stronger the stimuli or the taste, the more neurons fired. Most human beings and animals crave a variety of dishes, from sweet to savoury to bitter. However, high-sugar and high-fat food will channel our reward centre into thinking that this is the best food.  According to David. A Kessler, the neurons in our brains release opioids. That chemical makes us feel pleasure, thus making us indulging in the food more. As a whole, we should not avoid consuming sugar, fat or salt as it beneficial for our health. Instead, we should know what form of the sugar, fat and salt are good. For instance, Healthychildren.org, states that fat is essential to form of energy/calories which help us grow. However, nutritious fat is found in “Fish, Poultry and lean meat (broiled, baked, or roasted; not fried).” The meat found in fast foods is not nutritious as it has been fried many times. The same theory is applied for sugar.

Artificial ingredients are often found in many foods that we consume in our daily life. It can vary from cheese to chickens to eggs. Canthaxanthin is a chemical compound used to make the egg yolks have a golden/yellow colour. Once this has been inserted the egg is no longer natural, furthermore large amounts of this could damage the eye's retina. Where else, others like Kantha Shelke, a Ph.D. would say that most people follow the norm of not eating it unless it is pronounceable. She wants us to educate ourselves and learn about the ingredients. “Take riboflavin, cobalamin, and pyridoxamine. They are big words and sound like things you do not want in your food, but they are all forms of vitamin B, and skipping them can be detrimental to your health,” she mentioned.

As a conclusion, many factors can tame your brain into eating more. However, at the end, we are responsible for what we eat. Have you ever wondered what makes a burger, chocolates, or fries, so irresistible? The food companies would claim that it is the fresh ingredients, but it all lies in the hand of salt, sugar and fat.

The Voices Of Disabled Youth

Envision being turned away from school because you are unable to hear. Think about how it would feel to be excluded from a party due to cerebral palsy. These are not just arbitrary thoughts to stimulate discussion - this is reality. The melancholic discrimination that disabled youth go through is just like picturing a peacock without its feathers.

Let's take a step back. So what is a disability? A disability is a physical or mental deficit in an individual which affects his/her normal functioning. Consequently, the individual has trouble in undertaking normal activities or even comprehending issues.

All around the world, on a daily basis, numerous incidents take place that discriminate disabled youth from society. Most ordinary people don’t empathise with disabled youth and struggle to embrace the fact that the world is full of different people.

An extensive survey conducted by Scope ( an organisation set up to enable disabled people to have the same opportunities as others),in 2014 revealed that, 2 in every 3 children in Britain are afraid to include the disabled in society and hesitate to speak to them. Nevertheless, disabled youth are segregated from the outside world just like birds in a cage are.

Additionally, Nisha Farah, a local service officer in a prestigious school, UWCSEA East in Singapore, asserts that, “Disabled people are getting isolated from society just because they may be somewhat different compared to others.” She continued to share that they are perceived to be abnormal. Keeping them from being integrated into society. There are actually many gifted disabled people who shouldn’t be underestimated due to their disability- instead they should be able to have their voice heard in society. Ms. Farah also shared the mind- boggling anecdote of a young Myanmarese disabled girl without any arms, painting magnificent artworks by using her legs. This anecdote helps to illustrate that disabilities can’t hold anyone from exhibiting their talents.

Furthermore, research from Columbia University shows that both the worldwide public and disabled youth believe that more everyday interactions and greater awareness about disability will increase understanding and acceptance of disabled people. By minimizing negative notions , we can be one united society. When there is acceptance, people will find ways to include the interests and capabilities of friends with disabilities. The challenge is in acceptance and compassion.

Overall, it's critical to change our perceptions about disability. Disabled youth have competencies and potential which needs to be uncovered. They feel as if their wing is being clipped in their prime youth. In order to decipher the same, social awareness and a positive perception towards them could facilitate a better understanding and empathy for disabled children. Moreover, inculcating moral values among students necessitates their positive approach towards the disabled. If you see disabled youth feeling excluded -------- do your part ; be open-minded, introduce yourself, smile warmly and stand up for them.