Power and Control

A) I believe that there are many different definitions of power but to me it is about having the ability to make someone think, feel, act, do what you want, etc... To me this sort of sound like describing manipulation, but i fell that this is the best way to define power. Control on the other hand is much different. Control is basically having control over other people, one example is like laws or constant rules. There are two different types of control though, formal mechanisms of social control, and informal mechanisms of social control. Formal mechanisms is more along the lines of what i defined contol as, laws rules etc... Informal is differen though, it is more "laid back" persay, it is more based off of costums traditions and normalities.

B) I am a gymnastics coach, so i myself seem to be using power every day, with the children that i coach. I have one particular class that i have to use my power with especially. I coach a class with 8 three year old girls and boys, 6 girls and 2 boys. This in particulas is the craziest class that i have ever coached. In order to keep the children safe we rotate around stations set up in the gym, but being only 2-3 years old, usually they have other plans. Most commonly they are running around the gym like crazy people... and i have to figure out how to contain them while being nice. Sometimes i end up with one kid over my shoulder and 2 in my arms bring them back to the group of kids in the station who are not actually doing gymnastics but running the station like it is a speed way. :) Latley i have found that just telling them to do something doesnt work at all, so this is where i use my power. I found that if i tell them "if you guys all listen very nicely and try hard doing your gymnastics, and stay with the group then we can have extra play time on the trampoline and in the foam pit at the end of class" Most of the time the bribe works and they listen nicely and class runs smoothly. But everyonce in awhile i have to tell them that if they are not going to listen to me then they dont need to do gymnastics any more today and they can sit and watch everyone else have play time, while they sit upstairs with mom or dad. This more harsh bribe works very well also. In my case i think that power over the children is very necessary :)

C) I think that studying power and control from an anthropological standpoint is very important and i think would be very interesting, epecially studing children and their parents, coaches, teachers etc...I think that it is so amazing that what these kids are learning in the gym, not only gymnastics but life skills; determination, listening, politeness, honesty, and more. They will grow up with these skills learned by parents, teachers, etc... From an anthropologist point of view, i think that it would be very benificial to learn to only about the kids, but about what the parents are teaching them, through their power.

D) The lecture notes gave me a good base and knowlage of what the basics of power and control really are.