In my own opinion, I find it hard to determine either ‘yes’ or ‘no’ for the answer to this question. I am aware that Scotland is well known for its unhealthy foods such as irn bru, deep fried mars bars, tablet and shortbread, however this does not mean that we are totally unhealthy. Scotland has a lower life expectancy than other countries, but it has increased by about 7 years in the last 34 years, so surely this is evidence  that we are trying to change our health habits. I believe that yes, some people’s diets may not be very good but I don’t think it’s fair to brand everyone as unhealthy as there will be many people who are very healthy and eat well.

The Glasgow Effect is the low life expectancy and poor health of people living in the area. Poor health is often related to low levels of income. A study shows that the most deprived areas of Glasgow, Manchester and Liverpool are very similar, however in Glasgow, premature deaths are 30% higher. The life expectancy of men in Glasgow is almost 7 years below the national average and for woman it is 4 years below. alcohol consumption, smoking and obesity are all factors leading to poor health which is why the mortality rate is lower.

Yesterday was our first class on Inclusion and Equality. At the beginning of the lecture, we were asked to work with a partner and discuss the meaning of Inclusion and the meaning of Equality. I had thought that the two meant roughly the same thing, however, I soon learned that they had different meanings. I found out that inclusion helps the policies that support diversity and also give individuals a voice and choice. This is important because if we fail to promote this may lead to oppression. People who are at an advantage ignore the life experiences of those at a disadvantage because they do not have to deal with those realities.

Equality is making sure that each individual has fair equal rights. Equality often gets mistaken as meaning ‘sameness’ and not ‘fairness’.

I found yesterday very useful as I learned a lot which I was not aware of. I learned the real meaning of Inclusion and Equality. To further my knowledge of this I will engage in further reading.

Today’s class was very interesting and educational. I learned a lot about new scholars and went into more depth regarding unchurched spirituality. I learned that Max Weber was a German Philosopher who believed that religion  is important in our lives, whereas, Karl Marx believed that religion is the ‘opium of the people’. He said that it is the drug that deadens the soul. He also believed that religion’s promise of a greater life after death was a capitalist illusion.

I found the videos and information about Jehovah’s Witnesses very useful as I was not aware that they do not wish to receive blood transfusions for medical treatment.

Today has made me further aware of religious aspects I had not known before. In order to find out more, I will engage in further academic reading.

Personal Response to ‘Room’

I do not particularly read very often, but when I do I struggle to put the book down. I enjoy reading fictional books that are similar to ‘Room’, because I like the thriller-like storyline that is told. I enjoyed reading ‘Room’ although I faced challenges at some points. When I first began to read the novel I found myself getting very confused with Jack’s language. For example, “Ma leans out of Bed to switch on Lamp, he makes everything light up whoosh.” At first, I thought that the ‘he’ that was being referred to was a man that was in the room with Jack, who he gave the nickname ‘Ma’. I also found that I was not able to skim my eyes over the text in order to read it that little bit quicker because of the language that was used to convey the character of Jack. At times I found myself having to read over the same sentences a few times to be able to make sense of it. I think that it is very clever in the way that it has been written from the perspective of Jack and used the same language that he would. It is written in the way in which a 5 year old boy would speak, and even more so, the way in which Jack speaks as we know he lacks some knowledge and understanding of word order and other grammatical rules. I had not previously considered how a fictional book could have been used in academic study. Reading ‘Room’ has greatly increased my understanding of language acquisition and language development. I am aware that some of Jack’s language would be the same as any other 5 year olds language, however I am also aware that in order for language to develop and keep growing, you have to interact with lots of people and lots of different things in the world. I have definitely recommended to others who have the same reading interests as me to have a go at reading this novel as I informed them how much I enjoyed it. I feel that reading this novel has developed my reading skills because I had to have patience to read it, I was not able to glance over the words on the page. I was required to carefully read it thoroughly in order to fully understand the story that was being told. It has encouraged me to read other novels and get back in to reading as I feel very relaxed when I sit down to read a book, and reading more and more will help me to further develop my reading and language skills.

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