Ketcham

At the opening of his essay â€Å"A Rational for Civic Education.†Ã‚   Ralph Ketcham cites America’s forefather Thomas Jefferson who noted that to understand their rights, to maintain them, and to exercise with intelligence their parts in self-government (Ketcham 145).   Jefferson understood the great travails that people had to undertake in order to become free. He truly felt that each person to come had a civic duty to preserve this great freedom.   I am in complete agreement with Ketcham that civic education is important, but it is a harder task to accomplish than one might think.   This attitude is embodied by many adults today, but it is harder and harder to make younger people understand its relevance.Unfortunately, over the centuries, people have forgotten the original concept of freedom as a privilege and see themselves as entitled to all the rights they can claim.   How many court cases have involved some sort of rights violation, as if everybody had a right to have everything he wanted? Civic education is important for people to learn to give back to the country what the country has given to them. Instead of the country owing them, they owe the country, which was poignantly noted in John F. Kennedy’s famous words â€Å"ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.†   Decades after Jefferson’s speech, President Truman sadly noted that college graduates often fell short of the human wholeness and civic conscience which the cooperative activities of citizenship require† (Ketcham 146).Basically, Ketcham argues that this trend occurred as colleges and secondary schools began to see more and more diversity in their populations of students and faculty members and higher degrees of specialization in the teachers.   Because of all this difference, the general â€Å"one-size-fits-all† course of Civics became many course offerings at the college level to suit diverse in terests and to, perhaps, not offend one of the many subsets of citizens in the process (146-147).Civics in many high schools is taught to students as young as fourteen and fifteen years old; these individuals are too young to drive a car, vote in an election, or even to conceptualize their roles as a citizen, let alone practice civic responsibility and self-government.In his essay, Ketcham spends a lot of time discussing the mass accumulation of data that political and social science now demands and concludes that its intended purpose is political agenda, not self-governing.   Fact seeking is a safe activity, and most educated individuals know that statistics can be made to say whatever a person wants, or needs, them to say.However, another plausible explanation is that individuals are no longer learning how to serve government, but instead they are learning how to avoid serving, how to find miniscule violations of supposed rights, to keep from having to do anything they donâ€⠄¢t want to do.   It seems that many of these courses don’t teach citizenship, but teach how to avoid it.   The operate on the idea that â€Å"your rights are violated if†¦Ã¢â‚¬  rather than â€Å"for your rights, you should do this†¦.†Ketcham acknowledges that teaching the public to serve the government is difficult because of differing opinions on what â€Å"right† is.   The natural law may still be intact, but the different religions and cultures that make up the United States can make agreement difficult.   Add to that the inclination for human beings to be selfish and self-serving and the process is muddied further (148-149).Ketcham cited Reinhold Nieuhr who says that â€Å"man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible; but man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary† (151).   While some people do take civic-minded responsibility very seriously, many others do not.   It seems that Ketcham does not really trust people to undertake their civic roles independently and that he is probably correct in his hesitation.Basically, Ketcham is arguing that individuals, left to their own devices, will not automatically mold into self-governing entities.   The problem is that he doesn’t really explain how a civic education will accomplish this.   While most people agree that a civic education is important, few really know how to turn that into a positive populace.   Even those civic duties that are extremely well-understood are severely underutilized.   In this fast-paced society, people just don’t want to take the time.For example, one civic duty that is actually the source of much bloodshed around the world right now is voting.   While the recent presidential elections have been more exciting than most, the average percentage of people voting during non-Presidential election years in my state is between 12 and 18%.   These people all know that they are allow ed, even compelled, to vote, but still more than four-fifths of the state does not do so.   These numbers are similar for most states, especially among young people.   How do we convince these people to vote?   They have to know that their individual vote matters.   Most people do not really believe that.Next, another civic duty that I have had more than my fair share of is jury duty.   Jury duty is a disruptive irritation to most people.   Unless a juror is lucky (or unlucky) enough to be placed on the O.J. or Paris Hilton trial, most cases are dull and boring.   At my most recent summons, I watched as one person after another attempted to weasel out of doing the duty.   In fact, over a third of the jury pool did not show up.The bailiff assured those of us remaining that they would be subpoenaed to the judge, but few of us believed it.   The running joke is that the only members of a jury are those too stupid to get out of jury duty.   If this is the case, peopl e seem to be actively seeking ways to avoid self-government.   To make matters worse, I got a parking ticket for parking where I was told to park.   It seems that the government is actually repelling people from becoming active citizens.Unfortunately, many people will still gripe and groan.   Perhaps the best civic education would be to teach silence to those who don’t intend to participate.   Those who do participate can then assemble and appeal all they want to.   Unfortunately, it seems that only the most extreme groups have the motivation to organize pickets, sit-ins and the like.   The rest of the citizens are just too busy.   What about writing letters to the governor or congressmen?   Well, America has seen enough shows like West Wing to know that those letters barely make it to a third of fourth string aide.   If we are to be self-governing, we must be certain that our government will listen.Ketcham makes a valid argument that people should all be in troduced to a general civics course at some point during their education.   Certainly every citizen should be well versed in what it takes to be a civic-minded individual.   However, he seems at a loss about how to go from the esoteric and ideal concept of a self-governing populace to the pragmatics of actually making that happen.   If this push toward the more civic-minded citizen is to happen, the obstacles that the government and individuals have created will have to be identified, addressed, and overcome.

The Big Daddy of Social Learning

JB Garcia California Polytechnic State University Associated with Albert Bandura's work in the 1960s, social learning theory explains how people learn new behaviors, values, and attitudes. While mostly related to early development in children, social learning theory occurs at times when most people don't even realize that it is happening. There are many examples that could have been chosen to show the social learning theory but I believe there are none best than the movie Big Daddy. The premise of the movie is based on this young boy Julian McGrath (Dylan and Cole Sprouse) who is left in the care of his father after his mother passes away. When his father, Kevin Gerrity (John Stewart), could not take care of him because he is out of the country, Sonny Koufax (Adam Sandler) decides to raise the boy on his own. By dissecting key scenes in Big Daddy, it is easy to tell that this movie is a perfect example of social learning theory because of the many scenes that show Sonny trying to teach Julian who to live in both a non-traditional method and a firm parenting method with easily identifiable cognitive responses from Julian. What is the Social Learning Theory?Before beginning to dissect scenes from the movie it is important to establish a clear understanding of the social learning theory. The social learning theory  is a theory of  learning  and  social behavior, which states that new behaviors can be acquired by observing and imitating others. A popular example would be young children mimicking their older siblings around the house and striving to be exactly like that older sibling. The key tenets of social learning theory are that learning is not purely behavioral but is actually a cognitive process that takes places in a social setting. This means that by simply observing their current situation and surroundings someone is able to pickup on things and is able understand based on what they are seeing. Social learning also requires attention to the object or person being observed, remembering or retention the observed behavior, the ability to replicate the behavior, and a motivation to act the same way. For example, that same child might see a sibling receive a reward for good behavior in a public setting and imitate the sibling in the hope of getting a reward, too. Modeling is also a key part of the social learning theory because it allows learning to occur without any noticeable change in behavior. Being able to extract information from observations and make decisions based on the performance of the behavior such as a child seeing a sibling behave poorly and get away with it and try to replicate that behavior thinking that they will not get in trouble either. It is important to the person observing the behaviors is not a passive recipient of the information and that other factors can all influences the observer such as cognition, environment and reinforced behavior. Four Phases of Social LearningOne of the major focus for the social learning theory and arguably the entire basis relies on the premise that the observer is able to pay attention for a short amount of time and has enough awareness of their surrounding to understand what is happening. How the observer perceives and understands the events in their surroundings is directly effected by their perceptual abilities, cognitive abilities and the characteristics of the events themselves. In this way, social factors contribute to attention and the prestige of different models affects the relevance and functional value of observation and therefore affects attention. In order to reproduce an observed behavior, observers must be able to remember features of the behavior. Again, this process is influenced by observer characteristics (cognitive capabilities, cognitive rehearsal) and event characteristics. Bandura describes that the visual and verbal aspects of cognitive learning as the most important parts in terms of the retention process. The reproduction aspect of the social learning theory is the most difficult because the observer needs to have the ability and cognitive skill to perform the actions that they are seeing. In some cases in which behaviors are modeled after self-observation, an observer requires some form of effective feedback in order to enhance their cognitive abilities and improve their performance based on their models. All of these aspects lead up to the decision of the observer to replicate the observed behavior. The motivation to reproduce a behavior or action is dependent on the observers understanding of the expectations and understanding of the consequences that come with replicating the action. Environment and other social factors can also consequently affect the decision to reproduce behaviors. These are the four phases of the social learning theory that must occur for it to be effective. Limitations of the Social Learning Theory With a heavy emphasis on how the observers environment affects them and directs their learning, this theory is weak when it comes to the observer's own actions. Putting the focus on how setting influences behavior places more weight on the people and community that the observer is part of, and not enough weight on how the observer handles and processes new information. It neglects the observer's accountability and may go too far in stating that society directs how the individual behaves and acts. Unlike stage models of the observer's development, social learning theory doesn't hinge upon a distinct progression of learning and growth that is chronological or age dependent. The view of this theory as neglecting to consider the observer's development, across all of the domains, is a potential weakness. Although not every observer's matures at an identical rate, some of the standard milestones and markers may still occur regardless of the environmental setting.Breaking Down Big DaddyBig Daddy is a story of a young boy, Julian, and a man, Sonny Koufax, who has taken on the role of being the Julian's father. Julian is only five years old as if a very reserved child. That coupled with the fact that Sonny doesn't want to be the one in charge of him leads to Sonny giving Julian complete freedom as a part of his parental approach. In the scenes we see in the video, Sonny drops a stick on a path so that when people in rollerblades are coming down the path they will hit the stick and fall. Once Julian sees this he immediately finds the action to be funny and repeats this action with a group of people rollerblading through cones causing someone to fall and triggering positive reinforcement from Sonny. It's clear that Julian able to pay attention and replicate the action of putting the stick down because he chooses to do this on his own in separate scene. Julian's motivation to replicate this action derived from the sense of enjoyment and happiness he experienced the first time he saw it with Sonny. His actions are then reinforced when Sonny applauds and says, â€Å"That's my boy!† (Big Daddy 1999).In another scene we see in the clip is when Julian is struggling to use the bathroom and Sonny encourages him to pee in public on the door. Although afraid at first, Julian observes Sonny pee on the door and believes that this is socially acceptable. We see later in the film that Julian has been replicating and actively replicates this behavior as he begins to pee into a plant in his classroom while Sonny is speaking to his teacher about his poor hygiene and scholastic shortcomings. If it weren't for Sonny showing him to pee on the door earlier in the movie Julian most likely wouldn't have reproduced this behavior. There are some positive displays of the social learning theory in this clip as well. Julian is struggling to tie his shoes for a little and Sonny takes initiative and shows Julian how to tie his shoes properly using the â€Å"Loop and Swoop† method. The evidence that Julian was paying attention and was able to reproduce this behavior comes later in the film when Sonny is speaking to the social worker and Julian ecstatically runs up to Sonny saying, â€Å"Look I did it! Loop, swoop and pull!† (Big Daddy 1999). This shows the cognitive ability of Julian in that even though he was only shown how to tie his shoes once early in the film that even down the road he was able to replicate it and do it on his own. The Big PictureThe social learning theory is important because it should make people more aware of how their actions can influence the people around them. People tend to forget how easy it is for children to pick up on things that see or hear which are main aspects of the film Big Daddy; so using the knowledge of the social learning theory should enable parents to become more aware of what they are doing around their young children. Big Daddy is a perfect example of what children are capable of learning in the short amount of time and minimum exposure to certain behaviors. As children they may not be fully aware of every single repercussion that comes from their actions but only that the action can lead to a smile or a laugh or even a tear. Social learning theory should be used as a teaching point for young parents and even older sibling to provide their youth with proper examples of how society functions and help them make their own decisions about what is right and what is wrong. Reference SheetBandura, Albert (1963).  Social learning and personality development. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.Bandura, Albert (1971).  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Social Learning Theory†Ã‚  (PDF).General Learning Corporation. Retrieved  25 December  2013.Big Daddy (1999). (n.d.). Retrieved February 09, 2018, from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0142342/Latimer, S. (Director). (2015, January 15).Social Learning Big Daddy[Video file]. Retrieved February 4, 2018, from HYPERLINK â€Å"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mhe6p3Xkzt0† https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mhe6p3Xkzt0Loop, E. (n.d.).Social Learning Theory Strengths & Weaknesses. Retrieved February 09, 2018, from http://classroom.synonym.com/social-learning-theory-strengths-weaknesses-6592126.html

Can ‘Death of a Salesman’ be Described as a Tragedy Essay

Aristotle first defined a tragedy in literature as a story where the main character is a hero – a very brilliant person – except that he has one major flaw which leads to his downfall, namely, death. Shakespeare then expanded on this and produced his world famous tragedies such as Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth and Hamlet. In all of these plays, the main character is a person of high social standing and exceptionally talented, however each has a very serious flaw as well. For example, Romeo is of Italian nobility and is very efficient with a sword and dagger – but he is a fool for love and falls in love with Juliet as soon as he sees her, despite already being in love with Rosaline beforehand. That is the flaw which eventually leads to his demise. This definition has over time become the benchmark for a tragedy. Arthur Miller was an immigrant to the USA and can be seen as the opposite of Willy. Willy, however, is a proud born and bred American and holds to heart the very fundamentals of the American Dream – a very capitalistic ethos. Miller, on the other hand, had communist beliefs which eventually landed him in trouble with the government. Both Death of a Salesman and another of Miller’s plays, All My Sons both have the foundations of the American Dream and also both secretly criticize the capitalistic belief. In Death of a Salesman, Willy dies just trying to live the American Dream and he never gives up on it – an indication of his extreme optimism in all things – despite how blatantly unrealistic achieving the American Dream was for him. The characterisation of Willy Loman is also quite interesting. He strives to be like a very old, successful salesman he met that worked from home, who when he died, numerous people he knew went to his funeral. He is someone everyone can relate to and make us love him, but he also has qualities that we all loathe and make us hate him at times. This is purposefully done by Miller to only make it more shocking when Willy dies in the end – despite it is made quite obvious to readers it is inevitable. His name is also carefully planned out by Miller – Willy is an average name and nothing special, but his surname is a clear reference to what he is. ‘Loman’ – ‘low man’ is clearly meant to show how ordinary he is, despite just how much Willy strives to be the opposite. Willy’s main character flaw is that he is just too proud. For example, when he is offered a job by Charley – his neighbour – after being fired, Willy straight out refuses and is quite offended as he sees it as giving up and asking for help. This is shown by when Willy says, â€Å"I don’t want your goddam job! After Charley politely offers him a good one. Willy’s strong beliefs in the American Dream are also shown when he says, â€Å"A man can’t go out the way he came in, Ben, a man has to add up to something†, by ‘coming in’, Willy means when a man is born and by â€Å"going out†, Willy means when a man dies. Also, â€Å"adding up to something† must mean being rich in Willy’s context. This follows the American Dream in that a man makes something of himself from nothing. Willy’s greatest fear has always been dying with nothing – exactly what happens in the end. A use of dramatic irony by Miller, Willy willingly fulfils his own utmost fear. That quotation is also foreshadowing Willy’s death – another intentional device by Miller. Besides his pride, another flaw of Willy is very poor and deteriorating mental health and he is subject to random flashbacks and hallucinations – often of his dead and once very successful older brother, Ben, someone Willy idolizes. An example of one of his hallucinations is when Willy says, â€Å"Ben, I’ve been waiting for so long†, despite Ben being dead at this point. The play is also cleverly structured by Miller. Music – for example a flute – plays in the background during some scenes for an added dramatic effect. This flute is heard in both the opening and ending scene. The play also makes heavy use of flashbacks, but sometimes a flashback scene plays on stage at the same time as the scene set in the present. This technique is seen in Act Two, while Willy is in the restaurant with Biff and Happy. On the whole, the structure is skilfully used to make the storyline more immersive to the audience. Although, it does not have the same level of effect when being read from a book. The historical context of the play greatly influences both the themes and language of the play greatly. Death of a Salesman is set during the late 1940s. This time setting influences both the characters and the audience, as the play first premiered on the tenth of February, 1949 – the life of Willy Loman was something Americans going to watch the play at that time could relate to. Sixty years on, more modern audiences will react differently as times have changed and the idea of the American Dream isn’t as dominant anymore. Besides the American Dream, other common themes can be found in the play. Betrayal is quite clear as Willy betrays Linda by cheating on her with the Woman, and Willy also sees the way Biff rebels against him as betrayal and as Willy himself says, â€Å"Spite! â€Å". Another major theme would be one man – Willy in this case – being kept back from his dreams by society. In addition, the language used by characters matches the historical setting and context. In performances of the play, characters do not usually have the New Yorker accent you would expect, but they talk like a New Yorker. For example, words like ‘gee’, and rhetorically asking the person they are talking to if they ‘hear this? ‘On the subject of whether we can define Death of a Salesman as a tragedy or not is not a simple question as there is substantial evidence for both sides of the argument. To begin with, those who say that it is a tragedy may argue that it ends with the death of Willy, the main character, just like other tragedies. Moreover, Willy has explicit flaws which slowly lead to his downfall throughout the play. Finally, Willy may not ever do anything that can be deemed ‘heroic’, but within his own household he is very much a figure that is looked up to – so it may still be a tragedy, albeit on a less grand scale. In contrast, you could argue that it is not a tragedy as all other characters from Shakespeare’s tragedies were people of high standing – whereas Willy is not. Additionally, Willy is not at all a hero by any definition – in fact he is in some ways a bad person as will be shown. Finally, Shakespeare’s heroes have quite dramatic flaws, whereas Willy has the same flaws as every ordinary human being. These are quite convincing arguments to why it isn’t a tragedy. We will be looking at each argument more in-depth. The play follows the tragedies of Shakespeare in that the main character dies in the end. Willy commits suicide by crashing his car so that his family would get the life insurance money of $20,000 and make life easier for them. This is of course a noble reason to kill oneself as it is very selfless. However, it would make Willy a hypocrite as killing himself is also him giving up – something he condemned. Nevertheless, his intentions were admirable and this could make him seen as a hero since he willingly died for a selfless cause.

Film Worksheet Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Film Worksheet - Essay Example Everyone in the hall was excited to watch the film due to the good reviews. I brought nuts and a few other snacks with me to enjoy through the course of the film. Because Boyhood was a coming of age film, the film involved camera technicalities in order to create a temporally shifting experience through time. The film is based on a young boy named Mason who is shown growing up over a period of 12 years. As Mason grows up, the film has captured the experiences and changing personality of a child who grows up to a young man. Hence, time is a prominent element in terms of film making in which the director, Richard Linklater has exploited the use of camera technologies to create the intended effect the situated across time. Mason is 6 years old as the film starts and by the time film gets over, he has already turned 18, a mature individual. Instead of showing the process of growing up in one moment of a scene, the director has used time lapse in order to show the entire transformation to childhood to boyhood. Judging from the name of the film as well, Boyhood is meant to be the essence of the film and time lapse filming really engenders the tempo rally situated transformation that occurs through time. The film successfully retained my attention throughout the film. I was interested to watch more and follow the story as it developed in time. In terms of the narrative part of the literary aspect, the film involved a strong storyline and one which is a crucial subject in the present times, which is, growing up. The process of growing up based much of the storyline when a child goes on from being an innocent young individual to one who is old enough to understand some serious matters. The narrative progresses with the film as seen through the lens of the child, Mason, himself. A state of disequilibrium is inherent in the process as growing up itself involves disruption. Growing

Entre Nos Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Entre Nos - Essay Example The movie proves to us that lack of immigrants’ cultural understanding, close friendship and interpersonal relationship in a city results to frustrations, mistreatment and suffering of immigrants in the cities. As Zukin (1995) analyzes, culture is a powerful tool for controlling cities. Culture is a summation of social, economic, linguistic, and political aspects of life and how people in a particular setting execute these components in their unique way. The video is an account of an experience by Mariana; a wife and mother of two young children, Gabriel and Andrea. Mariana’s husband, whom they have immigrated to live with in New York City, abandoned the naive family at the city. Unable to settle bills, Mariana is evacuated from their rented apartment to the streets and things get worse when she discovers that she is pregnant. In addition to her lack of knowledge of the language spoken in the vicinity, she has not employment or work experience. Language is a powerful to ol in life and immigrants are sometimes constrained and limited when they can not express themselves in the middle of strangers. Inability to understand the language of New York makes it difficult for the family to adapt to the culture of the city given that culture is inculcated largely through language. One of the inevitable thing that city immigrants should establish is social network; a powerful tool that members of the society can use for survival. In the vast urban environment, such as that of New York where Mariana and her two kinds were struggling to survive, social network could have been a way of soliciting for support from friends and neighbors. For example, immigrants should have a way of communicating and associating with their fellow immigrants, neighbors or those close to them. For example, if Mariana had known another fellow immigrant in the town, she could have been assisted because not all immigrants suffered the tragedy. In fact, the story would have been differen t if her husband stayed and continued to support his family. Another survival tactic, which ensures safety and security when one gets to a vast urban environment is creating close friendships with the people one is close to; either neighbors, workmates or associates. Close friendships makes a person to acquire and amass enough social, political and even economic security because friends can help in finding a solution in extreme cases instead of learning the hard way like Mariana. Moreover, close friendship is a significant part of social life and, as noted from the movie, much of the agonies that Mariana and her two kids underwent were as a result of lack of close friendship. As it is known, men are created solitary beings, but necessity forces them to create social networks because there is no survival in isolation. In this case, cities are depicted in an influential cinema as tragic places where people are not concerned much about their neighbors. In cities like the one Mariana wa s living, the owners of property such as tenants in urban areas are exceptionally capitalistic, and they are only concerned with their economic gains and not social welfare of their tenants; it is an economic regime that does not consider those who do not have. Economic challenges are, therefore, not a concern of the owners of resources in cities. For example, we see the owner of the apartment where Mariana and

Product Design and Its Impact on Functional Product Information Essay

Product Design and Its Impact on Functional Product Information - Essay Example Marketers and academics agree that product design is important, and there exists a large body of managerial and quantitative research on design as a component of the new product development process. Consumer research on design, however, has been somewhat limited. Consumer behavior investigations into product appearance have included examinations of behavioral responses to product form (Silvera, Josephs, and Giesler 2002; Veryzer and Hutchinson 1998), the interaction of brand strength and design (Page and Herr 2002), the effects of repeated exposure to designs (Cox and Cox 2002), and the role of individual differences in response to design features (Bloch, Brunei and Arnold 2003; Holbrook and Schindler 1994). Bloch (1995) developed a model of consumer response to product form that outlined several stages in the design process from managerial goals through the creation of the products form to the consumer's response. Blochs model addressed the possibility of both cognitive and affectiv e responses to product form but did not speak specifically to how variations in product design might influence the nature of the cognitive or affective reactions. In a discussion of the different roles of product design, Creusen and Schoormans (2005) similarly mentioned the psychological role that product appearance might play but did not offer predictions as to the nature and direction of the influence. The current research contributes to the growing literature on product design by investigating how a product's appearance can influence the processing of functional product information. I examine the extent to which design signals quality, and how such a signal might interfere with the evaluation of more objective product information. Prior consumer research in product design has examined how aesthetics could influence quality evaluations in the absence of other information (Page and Herr 2002).

The Study of Elementary and Special Education Teaching Essay

The Study of Elementary and Special Education Teaching - Essay Example hat Charles should not be denied admission into the new school and he should be accorded the necessary education services, which will ensure that he has the ability and power to attain the desired success level. Another regulation, which Charles parents need to adopt in making their accusations, is the part 2 (11), which talks of language or speech impairment that is based on communication disorder. This is relevant to Charles articulation and stuttering problem, which makes him to communicate very fast and not pause while typing. Therefore, the parents have to use this regulation to argue for provision of education services, which will enable Charles to overcome the communication disorder he is suffering from. Charles parents have to argue that Charles is not an anti-social person and nor does he cause harm to other peers. This is because he has the ability of interacting with the other peers effectively. The only challenge he has is that of communicating effectively. As such, the s chool environment has to accept his nature. The parents have also to argue that they have lived with Charles for long and they have not seen any negative effect or impact he has on the other children. In fact, Charles has responded positively in previous school where he been taught to communicate and type slowly with pauses. This is what the new school has to embrace in order to ensure that this child realizes the goals and dreams of education. Moreover, during the previous sessions where Charles has been taught, he has not depicted any form of challenge in terms of taking instructions. Therefore, the new school has to ensure that it provides instructions to Charles in an effective manner. Actually, Charles does not need to be isolated from the other children since he likes the company of... This paper makes an analyzes a boy Charles's and his parents' behaviour. They have to argue that Charles is not an anti-social person and nor does he cause harm to other peers. This is because he has the ability of interacting with the other peers effectively. The only challenge he has is that of communicating effectively. According to the paper the philosophy is aligned to Constructivism Theory as postulated by Jerome Bruner. In this theory, the learner selects information and transforms such information, constructs hypotheses, and engages in decision making process. As such, this theory is based on the need for knowledge construction based on beliefs, previous knowledge and personal experiences. Therefore, as an educator I focus on encouraging students to discover principles and knowledge on themselves. This includes proving an opportunity for students to interact among themselves and the teacher. The curriculum is developed in a spiral manner such that students are able to develop based on what they have already learned in class.One can modifies teaching strategies to encourage students to engage in information, analyzes, interpretation and prediction during the learning process. The paper makes a conclusion the author's philosophy is based on Progressivism education philosophy, which is based on the curriculum development and design. The curriculum will focus of enhancing progress and development in society and individual level capabilities. The main emphasis will be in creation of interpersonal relationships, developmental thinking skills, and improvement in learning process. As such, students will have an opportunity of creating and expressing individual ideas and appreciate differences, which may occur among them. My task would be to push students towards achieving their goals and stimulate curiosity in scientific inquiry and problem solving ideas.

Comparative criminal justice Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Comparative criminal justice - Assignment Example I found these three aspects interesting because they aim at making a prison stay comfortable. While prisoners should not live in squalid conditions, they still seem to be tended to with great care and many options to ensure that they thrive while in prison. The difference between prisoners’ rights and prisoners’ privileges is that rights must be granted to all prisoners, while privileges must be earned based on good behavior. Rights are determined by government and privileges are determined by the individual prisons and are not offered to all prisoners. A prisoner has the right and is entitled to healthcare and protection from bullying by other prisoners, but they must earn the opportunities to receive additional visits from friends and family. At the reception on the first day, prisoners are checked in and assigned numbers. They are interviewed and assessed so that they understand the rules of the prison and their rights, as well as available courses and required healthcare. All new prisoners are strip searched, and then given prison-standard clothing. The prisoners are then inspected by a nurse to determine if a prisoner is under the influence of drugs or prescribed medication, or are feeling suicidal. In the case that a prisoner is violent or considered a risk to themselves or others, segregation cells are made available for the prisoner to remain for a short period of time. Female prisoners are allowed to keep their infants with them in prison if the child is under eighteen months, or the woman gives birth while in prison, and the admissions board deems the situation required for the well-being of the infant. If the prisoner is denied their child or if the child is older than eighteen months, or if there are no available mother-baby units in any potential prison, outside arrangements must be made for the care of the child. Such arrangements can be made with family or Social Services, who will see to it that the child is cared for in a

Literature Review on Digital Economy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Literature Review on Digital Economy - Essay Example Experts report that during the time of introduction of this tool to the world, policymakers explored the possibility of IT making a large impact, but in vain. This failure of IT became reinforced again in the 1990s, when IT began to revolutionize the world economy but again plunged into disaster with the â€Å"dot-bomb† implosion, the 2001 recession, and the NASDAQ collapse. These disasters have led to experts and policymakers forfeit confidence in the concept of IT and digital revolution. Nicholas Carr (2003, pp. 10) evaluated this technological tool by claiming that the improvements that it had the potential to bring about had either already been introduced, or were in the process. This statement represented the prevailing view of IT at that time, as people had started considering it insignificant for individual firms as well as the overall economy. This conclusion was a premature and incorrect one; as the technology went on to completely revolutionize the economy much more than initial prediction. This literature review aims to analyze the reasons behind this faltering confidence during these times. As one can observe in the world today, digital development in the economy is at a level that far exceeds earlier forecasts. However, contrary to predictions, this revolution has not come about due to a rise in e-commerce and other internet-related phenomenon. Instead, the main factor behind this revolution was the way people have managed to adopt IT in almost every aspect of life, inside as well as outside work. This digitally enabled economy was then able to achieve immense growth and prosperity in every aspect: education, business, trade, as well as monetary policy. One large factor behind this accelerated growth was the investment that firms made in software, hardware, as well as services related to IT and communications. It boosted productivity up to five times more than other capital such as buildings and plants could. The large role of IT in this major economic development i s apparent in the fact that sixty-seven percent of total factor productivity growth during the period of 1995 and 2002 was due to IT implementation in the US (Jorgenson et al, 2005). It also boosted the labor productivity in developing nations, and it is considered the main driver behind innovation and productivity growth in the recent years. Despite the major contributions of IT to the economy, not much research has gone into exploring the depths of this contribution. Through this literature review, we attempt to carry out this exploration. More specifically, we will be looking into the contributions of IT in ‘improving the quality of goods and services. A common misconception is that the scope of digital economy is limited to e-commerce. Its actual scope includes all applications of technology in the economy, including that of hardware, applications, and telecommunications. Each of these tools of IT has important applications in areas such as intercompany transactions, data management, internal processes in organizations and vendor-customer relations. These benefits apply to firms regardless of whether they belong to the public sector or the private sector. The revolution to the economy that information technology has brought about is comparable to the revolution that hardened steel brought to the industries a century ago, when it taught them how to construct steel tools that helped boost productivity immensely. Furthermore, it is difficult to grasp the true pervasiveness of IT in the world. It not only exists in technological

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Essay Example for Free

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Essay Characters: Huckleberry Finn The protagonist and narrator of the novel. Huck is the thirteen-year-old son of the local drunk of St. Petersburg, Missouri, a town on the Mississippi River. Tom Sawyer Huck’s friend. Tom serves as a foil to Huck: imaginative, dominating, and given to wild plans taken from the plots of adventure novels, Tom is everything that Huck is not. Widow Douglas and Miss Watson Two wealthy sisters who live together in a large house in St. Petersburg and who adopt Huck. Jim One of Miss Watson’s household slaves. Jim is superstitious and occasionally sentimental, but he is also intelligent, practical, and ultimately more of an adult than anyone else in the novel. Pap Huck’s father, the town drunk and ne’er-do-well. Pap is a wreck when he appears at the beginning of the novel, with disgusting, ghostlike white skin and tattered clothes. Plot: The story is all about a young boy named Huck, and a slave named Jim. Huck had faked his death and left town and then met the runaway slave,Jim.The two of them travel on a raft up the Mississippi river and meet and have to overcome many obstacles which bring them closer together as they both learn lessons all the way through to the end. Conflict: When Huck’s dealings with Jim, as Huck must decide whether to turn Jim in, as society demands, or to protect and help his friend instead. Climax: When Huck considers but then decides against writing Miss Watson to tell her the Phelps family is holding Jim, following his conscience rather than the prevailing morality of the day. Instead, Tom and Huck try to free  Jim, and Tom is shot in the leg during the attempt. Denouement: When Aunt Polly arrives at the Phelps farm and correctly identifies Tom and Huck, Tom reveals that Miss Watson died two months earlier and freed Jim in her will.  Ending: When Jim is free, Toms leg is healed, Huck still has his $6,000, and Aunt Sally has offered to adopt him. Lesson learned: I learned that I learned that we should never judge people by their appearances.

Effect of Substance Abuse on Child Upbringing

Effect of Substance Abuse on Child Upbringing Need for Treatment Women with children According to Miller (2001), the number of substance abuse treatment facilities for mothers with young children is very limited and therefore, implementation of local outpatient programs is very important to meet their specific treatment needs. Substance abuse treatment for single mothers is given a lower importance than the sufficient provision of their children in terms of safety and physical needs (Miller, 2001). Treatment of substance abuse and prevention of lifetime relapse requires various approaches (Miller, 2001). According to the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) (as cited in Miller, 2001), more than one-third of females who abused drug have undergone major depressive episodes and shown symptoms of mental health problems. Therefore, women who are abusing substance are more likely to experienced mental health problems as well. On the other hand, there is a high possibility that they will end up becoming the victims of domestic violence or experience partner violen ce (Miller, 2001). Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) (as cited in Miller, 2001) stated that when problems regarding domestic violence failed to be addressed, it will interfere with the effectiveness of treatment and might lead to relapse. Moreover, the high rate of women involving in the legal system is also associated with substance abuse (Miller, 2001). Furthermore, women who are involved in substance abuse lack parenting skills, overreact with harsh discipline or neglecting their children due to their previous experience with same dysfunctional family patterns during their childhood years (Miller, 2001). By looking from the social learning perspective, this means that they are unaware that their children are seeing them as role model and might follow their footsteps in abusing substance. Need for treatment success In order to achieve successful participation in substance abuse treatment, the various needs of patients need to be known. Miller (2001) stated that mother with young children will only be able to focus on her addiction after basic needs such as food, shelter, and water of the family were addressed. Therefore, if any of the needs are affected, it may cause the mother to abandon the ongoing treatment. Besides that, in order for the treatment to be successful, clients must believe or have a positive perception towards the treatment that it will help them alleviate their addiction. Catalano, Ashery, Robertson, and Kumfer (as cited in Miller, 2001), found that including parenting program to clients in substance abuse treatment will significantly decrease the chances of relapse after treatment besides improving preservation because these clients believe that having good parenting skills is important. Miller (2001) pointed out several steps that can ensure a successful treatment program. One of it is to remove attendance barriers by permitting mothers to bring along their children to participate in the treatment program. Besides that, providing child care, training skills for children, and knowledge on substance abuse will make way for the identification of their emotional and behavioural problems. Likewise, providing parenting skills training and support services will help mothers with young children to increase their self-esteem. According to Miller (2001), he stated that funding basis is very important to develop and expand substance abuse treatment program in order to promote and nurture better stability in families by helping mothers to deal with their addiction while at the same time to become a better parent to the children. Amongst child welfare cases in which parents are having substance abuse is concomitant with increasing rates of child re-victimization, higher possibility of out-of-home placement, longer placement in care, and higher rates of child adoption and parental rights termination (Kaufman Oliveros, n.d.). Therefore, it is important to focus on several needs and factors besides addressing treatment barriers to ensure the success of treatment completion. One of the ways to ensure treatment completion is with the introduction of Family Treatment Drug Courts (FTDC). According to Kaufman and Oliveros (n.d.), several studies on FTDCs found that they are associated with a better substance abuse treatment initiation, lengthier stay in treatment, lesser days in out-of-home placement for children, higher frequency of family reunification, and higher chances of treatment completion. Kaufman and Oliveros (n.d.) continued to state that parents who attended FTDC and have completed the treatment quicker have almost 90 percent chance of reunification and have their children returned. A study found in the work of Kaufman and Oliveros (n.d.) suggested that it is important to work with extended family and natural supports to enhance permanency outcomes for children. Creating cross-system collaborations and placing a substance abuse specialist in child welfare institutions seems to be an effective strategy for increasing intake rates (Kaufman Oliveros, n.d.). Motivational Interviewing (MI), a person-centered and collaborative form of counselling that stimulates and reinforces motivation for change is an extremely effective approach to improve treatment initiation and completion as well increase treatment entry among substance abuser (Kaufman Oliveros, n.d.). Furthermore, substance abuse treatment initiation can be enhanced by outreach and engagement strategies (Kaufman Oliveros, n.d.). Outreach and engagement strategies are also effective at increasing substance abuse treatment completion rates when used with FTDC (Kaufman Oliveros, n.d.). On the other hand, today, FTDC and the newly developed home-based treatment intervention for substance abuse seem to be the most promising treatment program to improve treatment outcomes (Kaufman Oliveros, n.d.). Home-based substance abuse treatment program has an advantage of dealing with poverty related treatment barriers by bringing the program to those who cannot afford to access other substance abuse treatment programs. Treatment approaches that are delivered must not only emphasize on reducing the symptom but must also increase environmental stability and improve social functioning (Belcher, Briggs, Suarez, Titus, 2012). In order to achieve treatment success, structural resources that assist bonds among providers must be developed or enhanced to nurture more integrated service sectors (Belcher et al., 2012). Treatment services can only be fully integrated after changes are implemented across the whole system rather than within individual treatment programs (Belcher et al., 2012). Berlin (2002) stated four main common concerns that every treatment should have. The first concern is that treatment must be multi-dimensional and comprehensive by identifying numerous domains. Treatment must also include resources or access to services. Next, family therapy must be included to enhance communication among family members besides improving parental and guidance skills. The last concern is that after-care mu st be included in order to prevent relapse from occurring. Pressing Problems Parents who abuse substance are associated with the significant increase risk of child maltreatment and it is frequently under reported by child protective services (Bellettiere, Chuang, Cross, Wells, 2013). Family functioning and the well-being of children are also at risk when parents abuse drugs and alcohol (Bellettiere et al., 2013). Besides that, there is a high possibility that caregivers who abuse substance will engage health risk behaviours and mistreat the children in their care (Bellettiere et al., 2013). On the other hand, the children of parents who abuse alcohol and drugs will probably experience problems in terms of their emotion and behaviour as well as cultivate their own substance abuse in their later stage of adolescence and early adulthood (Bellettiere et al., 2013). A number of costly and alarming social problems can be associated directly to drug dependence. Recent studies estimated that the United States government has to spend around 67 billion dollars annually in crime, low productivity of work, foster care, and other social problems caused by drug dependence (Kleber, Lewis, McLellan, O’Brien, 2000). Volkow and colleagues (as cited in Kleber et al., 2000) found that the dopamine system of individuals who abstain from using cocaine was impaired three months after their last use. Other studies (as cited in Kleber et al., 2000) found that there was sustained variations in the stress response system after former substance users abstain from using opiate or cocaine. The response of encountering an individual or something that is earlier associated with drug use that might create conditioned physiological reactions and craving for the drug can combine to produce the feeling of loss of control (Kleber et al., 2000). The relapse frequencies which were reported to be very high are a clear sign of the negative reinforcement that alcohol and drugs have on people (Berlin, 2002). Alcohol causes more than 150,000 deaths each year and alcohol kills more Americans compared to other drugs other than tobacco which caused 440,000 deaths annually (Wu, 2005). Alcohol consumption has a negative effect on the central nervous system and brain that will cause those who consume alcohol to be aggressive and engage in risk taking behaviours (Wu, 2005). National Institute on Drug Abuse (as cited in Wu, 2005) stated that marijuana might induce impairment of short term memory, attention span, judgment skills, coordination and balance, learning skills, and other cognitive functions. The withdrawal symptoms of marijuana include irritability, restlessness, decreased appetite, insomnia, tremor, chills, and increased body temperature (Fisher Harrison, 2013). Besides that, cocaine will cause someone to have decreased appetite and sleep, increased heart rate, muscle spasms, and convulsions (Wu, 2005). The withdrawal symptoms of cocaine include intense drug craving, irritability, dep ression, anxiety, and lethargy (Fisher Harrison, 2013).