Which Social Problems?

"If I were a genie granting you the ability to magically wish away any five social problems, which would you choose and why?"

This was the question I posed my social problems class on the first day. Here's a compilation of the problems that got more than one vote:

42 racism/ ethnic relations
40 poverty/ economic inequality
40 substance abuse
36 war and terrorism
34 rape
33 murder
28 violence
18 sexual assault & harassment
12 sexuality discrimination
12 environment
11 sexism/ gender inequality
10 discrimination
10 crime
9 religious bias
8 divorce
8 abortion
7 starvation
6 prostitution
5 child abuse
5 adultery
4 pornography
4 justice system
2 animal abuse
2 stereotyping
2 inequality
2 apathy/mean-spirited people
2 prejudice
2 HIV
2 social class discrimination
2 sexual behavior

After they made their lists, I had them consider what values were underlying their choices, and I talked a bit about what this means for defining and labeling things as social problems. I noticed a few interesting things about the way they made their lists. First, they CHEATED! I asked for five social problems, and damn near everyone had at least one of their numbered problems be a list, like

-rape and murder
-violence and murder
-rape and sexual harassment
-war and terrorism
-sexual and gender discrimination

Those were the biggies as far as combining things goes. I thought it was interesting how many students put rape and murder together as the same social problem. One person put abortion and divorce together, which I also found interesting. I wonder what the two people who chose "sexual behavior" meant, too. I was surprised starvation was so low; I had this beauty queen image in my head "I want to end world hunger!" Only one person put homelessness. However, another person put homeless animals. I'll be asking some follow-up questions Thursday.

Also Thursday I'm going to talk a little bit about what sociology is (I went in today thinking they had all taken Intro - NOT even close to true). Then I'll weave that into how to approach social problems from a critical perspective, with a sociological eye. I'm going to present them with this tabulated result of their exercise from today, and have them come up with criteria for how they would simplify the list by making larger categories under which to place the problems. Then the next Tuesday perhaps I can compile their categories and come back with an overview of how people made their choices...