Warning: Critical Thinking Ahead
Over the past few years I have found myself frustrated with my social problems classes. It seemed like I covered important issues, but found my students bored or uninterested in much of the material.
In an effort to energize the students in Social Problems, I have chosen to use Stanley Eitzen's (2009) Social Problems text. This text does not define and describe as much as it attempts to "look behind" the typical expectations associated with social problems. As the essentialists would contend, our text attempts to look past observable society, the descriptive level, to the causal level, which is often abstract and difficult to understand.
Students may find some of the material in Eitzen highly controversial. They may, in fact, vehemently disagree with some of the points raised. This is GOOD! You don't have to agree with the material. It is, after all, only a perspective -- a way of looking at the social world -- and we all have perspectives. I would hope that, in the process, students share their points of view. I would also hope that students will be open to understanding the perspectives encountered. There are seldom right or wrong answers in Sociology -- only perspectives. The trick in a class like this is to be open to multiple perspectives.