High School Student Obesity and Fitnessgram Assessments Essay - 1

High School Student Obesity and Fitnessgram Assessments - Essay Example The surveyed students had an overall positive experience. Some teachers had positive experience while some had mixed opinions concerning the Fitnessgrams effectiveness of improving students’ BMI. Obesity is a serious problem that is becoming more prevalent among school aged children in America. The Centers for Disease Control revealed that approximately one in three American children and teenagers are obese or overweight (CDC Press Release, 2008). This is three times the number of obese children in America in the 1960s. Childhood obesity now surpasses smoking and drug use as the foremost concern of parents and the Georgia State Board of Education. The CDC suggested that the objective of all programs dealing with childhood obesity is to find ways of reducing the child’s weight while monitoring their lipid profile and blood pressure (CDC Press Release, 2008). The CDC also suggested that strong social support systems should be instituted to encourage a healthy weight among children. Parental involvement in programs created to check the development of obesity is one way this can be accomplished. According to the CDC and Krebs, Jacobson, and the American Academy of Pediatr ics Committee on Nutrition (2003), schools can also be part of the support system by providing only healthy meals for students during the day (CDC Press Release, 2008). According to the CDC, Georgia has the distinction of having the second highest rate of obesity among school aged children in America (CDC Press Release, 2008). This motivated the Georgia State Board of Education in 2011 to endorse programs like the Presidential Fitness Award to impact the obesity trends among children (Georgia Department of Education, 2011). However, according to Hirschmann and Zaphiropoulos (2012) there are still students who become obese in Georgia every month and 40% of Georgia’s school aged children are said to be obese. In 2008, Governor

Gender Comparisons in Cognitive Abilities Essay Example for Free

Gender Comparisons in Cognitive Abilities Essay Gender differences are not only noticeable in physical and reproductive areas as far as men and women are concerned. These physical and reproductive differences are minimal in terms of the determinants of how men and women operate as far as other issues relating to their cognition are concerned (Gur et al. 1999). Sex hormones that are secreted during their development are responsible for the difference in brain organizations of men and women. Men and women have been shown by several studies to learn differently due to the difference in their cognition. Kimura (2000) postulated that even at infancy, girls gaze at objects longer than boys an argument that gives premise to the fact that boys have attention problems. Their sensory systems show a discrepancy even at such a young age, something that persists into old age. In addition to the above, women tend to remember some things like land marks better than the men who remember directions and distance. These are the spatial cues that the men are better off in as opposed to women (Kimura 2000). A myriad of other differences have been suggested especially in linguistic, interpersonal, logical and mathematical, musical, intrapersonal and linguistic among other areas. As the environment starts acting on the individual boys and girls after birth, they already have wired brains that show differences in how they respond to the above areas that lead to the differences. The females and males differences in their intellectual faculties lie in their abilities rather than their Intelligence Quotient, which may be the same in girls and boys, all other factors held constant but the sampled girls and boys will have differences in their linguistic and most probably their spatial abilities. Different areas of the brain are suited for various tasks and which the males and females have differing usage abilities in. Spatial differences On average, studies have found that male outperform female in spatial activities/ spatial visualizations like in situations that require the rotation of objects in a given space or in manipulation of objects in one way or another or just mental rotation. They are also able to outdo women in tasks which deal with maneuvering of their way through a maze of routes but this does not include grasping of landmarks for use as a means to remember their routes while women are able to recall landmarks more than men can. In addition to this, men are better off than women in the accuracy with which they target objects either in movement or in their static positions. They also do well in disembedding hidden objects. This extends to interception or guiding of projectiles and ability to realize any movements in the field of vision. This performance cuts across all ages as shown by Kaufman et. al (1999) that used the Weischeler Adult Intelligence Scales-Revised (WAIS-R) in determining fluids and crystallized differences in men and women. The study states that the ability to target an object develops well before puberty. The performance of men and women on Block Design, Digital Symbol and Information showed that men outperformed women in Block Design and Information while women did better than men in Digital Symbol. Verbal fluency In 2003, Shaywitz et al. were able to discern differences in gender as far as the brain’s language functional organization is concerned. They used a study called the functional resonance imaging and through this, females showed more abilities in verbal fluency than men. This included their manner of acquisition and longer spans of attention in conversation unlike men who lagged behind. They also tended to excel in memory tasks like fluency in generation of synonyms and better rapidity of identification of matching objects or items because their perception skills are better than those of their male counterparts (Shaywitz, B et al. (1995,). Kimura, 1996). They demonstrate better recall ability linked to verbal fluency than men in addition to having a higher episodic memory. They also show a greater ability to reckon words that begin with a certain letter more than the men can do. The fields of priming, semantic and primary memories do not however show any difference in men and women. Men on the other hand showed better performance in semantic measures and a higher order in the crystallized factor of intelligence. Due to the bigger cortical space in females assigned for language and its functions, there is less space left for the working of the spatial space which implies that females cannot be better than men in both language and spatial abilities. Problem-Solving Tasks There are differences in gender as far as the brain’s problem-solving tasks are concerned as reported by Gur et al. (1999) that conducted various studies and presented test to a sample of men and women under same condition. The results were basis for the conclusion drawn. First, arithmetic differences tests showed that men are higher cognitive abilities in terms of mathematics calculations and reasoning than women. In this test, set of mathematical based questions were asked to the selected sample; men responded more accurate and quick than women who displayed slowness and inaccuracy in calculated responses. In another experiment, a piece of paper was folded with a punched hole, and then the participants were asked to determine where punched hole shall fall if the paper shall be unfolded. Most men responded correctly and quickly in determining where the hole shall fall should the paper be opened than their female counterparts. Moreover, objects and images were placed before the participant and asked to rotate objects and manipulate the images. Men excelled better than women on this problem-solving task. Lastly, studies show that when men and women are targeting or aiming at an object, men are more likely to get their target than women can. This implies that women are less accurate in target-directed motor skills for example intercepting projectiles. To assert this finding, the practical example that can be used to explain this target-direct motor skill is by essence that men are good at target involving games like dart playing than women. Therefore, problem-solving task favors men than women in the sense that men perform better than women in spatial undertakings like tasks that involve mental rotating objects. Emotional coping Cognitive abilities of an individual to great extend help in process of coping with stress or depression. The essence that facilitates connection between coping with emotions and cognitive abilities is because through use of intelligence that a person can think, perceive and react to the surrounding. In this regard, intelligence needed to cope with emotions is defined as cognitive ability and content of the thought which differ greatly in men than women (Shaywitz et al. 1999; Gur et al. 1999). The meta-analyses studies conducted found that men are less affected with emotions than women. For instance, women were found to be affected by maladaptive or negative thinking about an emotional problem than male. Men usually indulge in alcoholism, aggressive behaviors and violent behaviors. While women are worse affected by the emotional since are usually depressed and can develop various eating and psychological disorders like bulimic or anxiety. Differences in precision in manual tasks Women are a bit faster than men in precision as far as some manual tasks like placing pegs in the holes on a given board. Coupled with their ability to recall the positions of objects more precisely than men, women show a greater likelihood of replacing an object to its initial position with a greater accuracy than men or state whether a given object had been displaced or not. Women therefore show a better fine motor coordination as compared to men The neuroanatomic difference in males and females has been found to contribute to cognitive abilities especially those that are sexual in nature. Females have XX genetic make-up while males have XY. These genes play a great role in differentiation and it is due to the absence of the Y chromosome in females that leads to the release of androgens which are the male hormones. These hormones cause the female to develop. Some periods when there is the release of sex hormones, there is an impact in the brain which leads to differences in cognition from the periods when there is no hormonal release. Prenatal development period has shown the greatest levels of hormone release according to several researches done (Shaywitz et. al 2003). During puberty the levels of the hormones do rise again and these fluctuations continue throughout one’s life span. Research has established that girls who were exposed to high testosterone levels were shown to display greater spatial skills when compared with other girls who had not been exposed to the hormone. This shows that the male hormone testosterone is responsible for the spatial abilities that males have. Males show some excellence at problem-solving in school more than females in addition to working out multiple choice tests better than females. Such examinations like SATs are performed in better by males than females who, apparently do well in written and untimed tests while getting higher overall grades in their schooling years. Girls have also proved to be better performers in math than males up to high school level where they drop, an aspect that has been attributed to the inclusion of m ore spatially oriented math in which the girls appear to be lower in performance than males (Shaywitz, B et al. 1995). Males are known to have a larger brain than females with a size which is 10% larger than that of females. Some researches have indicated that there is a correlation between the size of the brain and intellectual abilities. The males’ brains have more cerebrospinal and white matter than the brains of females. More white matter according to Gur et. al 2000 (cited in Shaywitz et. al 2003) is responsible for the information transfer to other regions of the brain thus contributing to their superb spatial abilities while the women who have more of the grey matter enhance greater processing capacity and efficiency. As has been stated earlier on, the brain is laterized such that one hemisphere dominate t6he other in a given or given fuction(s). The brain’s two halves are more laterized in the performance of some cognitive functions. In males, the laterization is more pronounced than in the females due to the neurohumoral interactions mediated by the testosterone hormone. Fourie and Stuart (2006) carried out an investigation on the role of gender and temperament in Functional Hemispheric Asymmetry and perception of emotional stimuli. In this investigation, they used a total population sample of 112 with females being 58 and men 54. The sample had four groups of students who were right-handed and chosen in terms of their gender, and temperament. Their levels of neuroticism, introversion and extroversion were measured using a personality questionnaire. The Divided Visual Field Technique, their differential hemisphere performance regarding latency and accuracy were determined. After the use of T-square test (Hotelling’s), the results showed that the accuracy in terms of the response time scores in men and women had a great difference in the way the two genders process their emotional stimuli. Women were found to do so faster and more accurately than their male counterparts in the processing and response to emotional stimuli. There are also some gender differences in maladaptive thinking and coping with stressful situations. The risk of depression in men is 8-12% while in women it has been found to be between 20-26%. Disorders related to depression affect about 70% of women and 30% of men due to the fact that women show uncontrollability in perception more than men (Kaufman, 1999 Voyer, 2005). Individuals with unilateral brain lesions or damages were studied (Inglis Lawson 2001) and it was found that males lost their verbal ability more than the females after both genders suffered damages in the left hemispheres. Men also lost their spatial abilities after a brain damage on their right hemispheres. Women were found to be better off than men in verbal ability even after suffering the same damage on either lobe. This justifies the fact that language and spatial abilities are bilaterally represented less in men than in women. Brain organization The human brain organization is an important part aligning for performing the cognitive tasks. The human brain has two hemispheres which are specialized in carry a specific kind of activity better that the other hemisphere. Brain organization for male is more lateralized to its cognitive functions than women brain. The major difference in lateralization of the brain is the hormonal roles (Shaywitz, et al. 1999). For instance, the testerone hormone facilitates neurohormonal linkage during early stages of cognitive development creating dimorphism in cerebral (Kimura, 1992). On the other hand, women brain is less lateralized with more of its portion assigned to verbal or language tasks. In electrical activities, men show they use their right hemisphere for spatial activities as opposed to women who use their left hemisphere. Conclusion In conclusion, the paper has discussed with illustrations the major gender cognitive difference between men and women. In the discussion, the paper has Spatial differences, Verbal fluency, Problem-Solving Tasks, Emotional coping, Differences in precision in manual tasks, and Brain organization. However, a point of worth to note is that there is distinct difference between the female and male cognitive abilities which is influenced by brain structures such as hypothalamus region. Moreover, SDN (sexually dimorphic nucleus) is smaller in women while larger for males. References Gur, RC et al. (1999) â€Å"Sex differences in brain; correlations with cognitive performance† Journal of Neuroscience, 29, p. 4042-4059 Kimura, D. (2002). â€Å"Sex, sex hormones and sexual orientation influence on human cognitive function† Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 16, p. 261-268 Kimura, D. (1998). Sex differences in the brain, Scientific American, 10, p. 26-31 Kaufman, A et al. (1999), â€Å"Intellectual growth pattern and decline across the adult life-span for women and men† Journal of Clinical Psychology, 37, p. 759-802 Shaywitz, B et al. (1995), â€Å"Sex differences in the functional organization of the brain for language† Nature, 363, p. 595-610. Shaywitz, S et al. (1999). â€Å"Estrogen changes functional organization of brain† Journal of the American Medical Association, 271, p. 1103-11513. Voyer, D. (2005) â€Å"A meta- analysis of Magnitude of sex differences in spatial abilities† Psychological Bulletin, 107, p. 252-273

A Holiday Deconstruction :: essays research papers

A Holiday Deconstruction By RA   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Everyone looks forward to holiday entertainment. Jordan has faithfully kept the tradition of mounting a holiday show for the entertainment of the student body, staff, and students parents. Notice how à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“communityà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? does not follow à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“staff.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Anyway, after watching the show A Holiday Celebration I was appalled by the misuse of Christmas themes. So many things were wrong with the show. First off, the Ghetto Holiday Skit: ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s starts off as a predictably funny opening between two half-witted burglars who take too long too enter the damn house, and when they do, they have the audacity to continue (discussing) or alluding the window. What completely destined a potentially comical skit was the sexual insinuation that shamelessly demoted those with an alternate lifestyle to objects of derision if anyone with a social conscious saw the skit; they had to notice the aforementioned.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Secondly, the Santa Claus bit: Okay, I will give you this: we all need comedy in our lives. However, do we need comedy at the expense of other? Ask yourself this, how did overweight people feel about being made fun of? à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Damn these childrenà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? Do we need children to be damned more than they already are. I mean, what is wrong with this? We grow up believing St. Nick exists but do we need to also believe that he is a drunk who holds grudges against kids? Think about it.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Third, the models: lack of professionalism on their part. Who models their own style? (Own clothes) But hey, at least they incorporated à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“bigà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? people.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The two main problems with the show or any Jordan shows is the lack of diversity. Jordan is a tapestry of diverse cultures, yet only one is predominantly represented onstage. If youà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢re intelligent, you might figure which group of people! If we preach diversity, lets practice it, please. The other problem is the gospel singing.

My professional philosophy statement Essay

My goal is to provide a safe, nurturing, child-centered environment with a high-quality educational program that serves diverse children and families. Philosophy My philosophical beliefs are based in my knowledge of child development, theories of child behavior, and acceptable best practices for educating young children: Understanding children’s play and the teacher’s role in guiding and facilitating cognitive, social, emotional and physical development through play. Building relationships with children and families through dialogue, understanding, and interactive experiences. Encouraging children to make decisions while learning and to understand how their decisions affect others. Guiding children through teacher-planned, child-initiated activities based on children’s interests. These activities enhance children’s skills in all areas of development. My goal is to provide an environment that is safe, accessible, interesting, and child-centered. I want to provide nurturance, guidance and experiences to maximize children’s total development. This is based on following statements: All children have the right to be accepted, respected, and embraced as competent. Children are continuous learners and learn best within the context of family and their everyday experiences. Children construct knowledge by active participation with real materials and the environment. Free play is essential in developing the cognitive skills of children. Development of the â€Å"whole child† with a focus on promoting social, emotional, cognitive, and physical development should always be the main goal. Assessment of children should be on-going, reflective of children’s experiences, and occur within the context of daily classroom activities. Children’s family/cultural backgrounds broaden the curriculum for all children. Collaboration between families and teachers supports the development of the child and home-school relationships. My continuous professional development enhances my abilities to teach.

Comparing and Contrasting Wong’s “Noodles vs. Sesame Seed Buns” with Dash’s “Rice Culture”

â€Å"What did you have for dinner? † is a question asked thousands of times every day. Admittedly, people are facing a difficult problem of choosing what to eat, given the variety of options such as Chinese cuisine, American cuisine, and Japanese cuisine, not to mention many variants within each style. Throughout the years, the food industry has incorporated traditional methods as well as adaptations to a changing society. Fast food, for example, has grown exponentially over the past half century. By contrast, traditional foods such as rice remain a crucial part of food culture.Two essays that highlight this contrast are Seanon Wong’s â€Å"Noodles vs. Sesame Seed Buns† and Julie Dash’s â€Å"Rice Culture. † Wong’s essay illustrates the significance of fast food, whereas Dash’s essay discusses traditional cooking methods. While both authors talk about food and cultural traditions, Dash uses an informal voice to discuss preserving her traditions, whereas Wong uses an academic voice to describe the evolution of food traditions in Chinese culture. The main topic for both articles is food.Wong reports on the flourishing of fast food in Hong Kong, showing how Chinese fast food companies have made inroads into the Hong Kong market. For example, as Wong points out, â€Å"Hong Kong’s fast food industry†¦ is dominated by Chinese companies such as Cafe de Coral, Fairwood and Maxim. † (123) By contrast, Dash’s â€Å"Rice Culture† clearly narrates her own rice tradition. Dash begins by telling us â€Å"I come from a family of rice eaters† (138). Apparently, food is the main idea of both Wong’s and Dash’s passages, and therefore, they use food as a reason to develop their stories.Additionally, both authors discuss food in a manner that acts as a springboard to analyzing food’s cross-cultural dimensions. Rice is, admittedly, a basic food in the Eastern world. Howeve r, â€Å"Rice Culture† tell us how Dash and Aunt Gertie cook rice American style. â€Å"Before cooking, Aunt Gertie would wash her rice, really scrub it in a bowl of water until all the water was clear† (Dash 140). She also asserts that â€Å"in the years that followed, the South Carolinian African captives played a major role in establishing a powerful rice culture in the antebellum South† (139).American and African cultures were blended, Dash argues, through the South Carolinian method of introducing a African influence into the American form of rice cooking. Just as traditional cooking benefitted from cross-cultural pollination, so too did fast food, which, Wong argues, created a mixture of American and Chinese food culture. In â€Å"Noodles vs. Sesame Seed Buns†, he finds that â€Å"As American fast food chains have boomed in Hong Kong over the last three decades, the demand for fast food — American or otherwise — has grown even fasterà ¢â‚¬  (123).The cross-cultural issues are ostensibly merged. Moreover, both Wong and Dash illustrate the ways in which food terminology and language are altered cross-culturally. Dash’s â€Å"Rice Culture† looks at foreign terms used to describe German foods. She compares â€Å"German spritzal to†¦ elbow macaroni and cheese† (138). In this case, â€Å"spritzal† is explained as a kind of German noodle dish. Similarly, Wong uses â€Å"foreign† or non-native vocabularies as a way of introducing Chinese food.His article states â€Å"In 1996, Daniang Dumplings was merely a community restaurant in Changzhou in Jiangsu province with only six employees selling arguably the most prototypical of northern Chinese food — Shuijiao†. (126) â€Å"Shuijiao† is a foreign term that describes Chinese boiled dumplings. Both Wong and Dash explore the ways in which native foods are influenced by vocabulary and foreign influence, and this is a similarity in comparing the two articles. Although both Dash and Wong focus on food writing and the intersections between Western and Eastern cultures, there are noticeable differences in tone and voice between the two articles.One huge distinction lies in their respective formality of language. In Dash’s â€Å"Rice Culture†, she narrates the story in first person. She says, â€Å"Today as I stand over a bowl of cold water and rice, scrubbing, I feel Aunt Gertie watching me. † (Dash 140) â€Å"I† dominates the article; her goal in the passage is not to make larger statements, but rather to share her personal experience of cooking rice. The first person tone is intimate. By contrast, Wong’s tone is formal and quantitative, a technique he employs to establish credibility and grab the reader’s attention.He relies on facts, evidence, and statistics, in contrast with Dash’s more qualitative narration. In â€Å"Noodles vs. Sesame Seed Buns †, Wong cites statistics such as, â€Å"over 60 percent of the city’s denizens eat at take-away restaurants at least once a week, compared to only 41 percent and 35 percent in mainland China and the United States respectively† (123). For most readers, these numbers help to establish Wong’s credibility and are more persuasive as arguments rather than simply stating an opinion.The tone of voice contrast between Wong and Dash can subtly lend credibility to their assertions. By analyzing our two main contemporary food models—modern and traditional—Seanon Wong and Julie Dash give us contrasting and complementary ways of looking at food culture. Dash brings up a method of how her aunt cooks rice, â€Å"Before cooking, Aunt Gertie would wash her rice, really scrub it in a bowl of water until all water was clear,† (140) Dash illustrates â€Å"Sometimes she would change the scrubbing water up to ten times! (140) this is an unorthodox and rarel y used method, at least in the modern world. Thus, it can be regarded as a traditional way of cooking food, one that served the Aunt Gertie of the world well, but a way that even Dash finds hard to emulate. By contrast, Wong summarizes the fast food industry in Hong Kong. In his article, fast food represents a new, modern model for people who eat outside, or for people whose time constraints don’t allow for more traditional ways of cooking. In â€Å"Noodles vs.Sesame Seed Buns†, Wong says â€Å"Considering the omnipresence of McDonald’s, KFC and Pizza Hut, American fast food has been a revolutionary force in China’s everyday culture. † Undoubtedly, in Wong’s account, this is a kind of cultural invasion, in which he thinks that Western modern fast food has been detrimental to the values and traditions, not to mention health, of Eastern societies. The pervasiveness and variety of food culture and the importance of cultural distinctions are inc reasingly obvious in the contemporary world. This awareness is especially important where cultures intersect.In these two essays, both authors come to terms with their own food culture, and address cross-cultural issues which are increasingly common. Dash uses a narrative voice to tell her traditional way of cooking rice, while Wong quantifies the modern fast food trend in Hong Kong. The traditional approach seems to emphasize quality, while the modern approach (with fast food signifying modern) emphasizes convenience. Most likely, the food industry of tomorrow will be more mixed, finding a way to integrate quality and offer convenience.When that happens, we will have the best of both worlds; Dash’s traditional approach melded with Wong’s modern sensibilities. Word Count: 1260 words Bibliography Dash, Julie. â€Å"Rice Culture. † Mirror on America: Essays and Images from Popular Culture. Ed. Joan T. Mims and Elizabeth M. Nollen. 5th ed. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. M artins, 2009. 138-41. Print. Wong, Seanon. â€Å"Noodles vs. Sesame Seed Buns. † Mirror on America: Essays and Images from Popular Culture. Ed. Joan T. Mims and Elizabeth M. Nollen. 5th ed. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martins, 2009. 124-27. Print. Comparing and Contrasting Wong’s â€Å"Noodles vs. Sesame Seed Buns† with Dash’s â€Å"Rice Culture† â€Å"What did you have for dinner? † is a question asked thousands of times every day. Admittedly, people are facing a difficult problem of choosing what to eat, given the variety of options such as Chinese cuisine, American cuisine, and Japanese cuisine, not to mention many variants within each style. Throughout the years, the food industry has incorporated traditional methods as well as adaptations to a changing society. Fast food, for example, has grown exponentially over the past half century. By contrast, traditional foods such as rice remain a crucial part of food culture.Two essays that highlight this contrast are Seanon Wong’s â€Å"Noodles vs. Sesame Seed Buns† and Julie Dash’s â€Å"Rice Culture. † Wong’s essay illustrates the significance of fast food, whereas Dash’s essay discusses traditional cooking methods. While both authors talk about food and cultural traditions, Dash uses an informal voice to discuss preserving her traditions, whereas Wong uses an academic voice to describe the evolution of food traditions in Chinese culture. The main topic for both articles is food.Wong reports on the flourishing of fast food in Hong Kong, showing how Chinese fast food companies have made inroads into the Hong Kong market. For example, as Wong points out, â€Å"Hong Kong’s fast food industry†¦ is dominated by Chinese companies such as Cafe de Coral, Fairwood and Maxim. † (123) By contrast, Dash’s â€Å"Rice Culture† clearly narrates her own rice tradition. Dash begins by telling us â€Å"I come from a family of rice eaters† (138). Apparently, food is the main idea of both Wong’s and Dash’s passages, and therefore, they use food as a reason to develop their stories.Additionally, both authors discuss food in a manner that acts as a springboard to analyzing food’s cross-cultural dimensions. Rice is, admittedly, a basic food in the Eastern world. Howeve r, â€Å"Rice Culture† tell us how Dash and Aunt Gertie cook rice American style. â€Å"Before cooking, Aunt Gertie would wash her rice, really scrub it in a bowl of water until all the water was clear† (Dash 140). She also asserts that â€Å"in the years that followed, the South Carolinian African captives played a major role in establishing a powerful rice culture in the antebellum South† (139).American and African cultures were blended, Dash argues, through the South Carolinian method of introducing a African influence into the American form of rice cooking. Just as traditional cooking benefitted from cross-cultural pollination, so too did fast food, which, Wong argues, created a mixture of American and Chinese food culture. In â€Å"Noodles vs. Sesame Seed Buns†, he finds that â€Å"As American fast food chains have boomed in Hong Kong over the last three decades, the demand for fast food — American or otherwise — has grown even fasterà ¢â‚¬  (123).The cross-cultural issues are ostensibly merged. Moreover, both Wong and Dash illustrate the ways in which food terminology and language are altered cross-culturally. Dash’s â€Å"Rice Culture† looks at foreign terms used to describe German foods. She compares â€Å"German spritzal to†¦ elbow macaroni and cheese† (138). In this case, â€Å"spritzal† is explained as a kind of German noodle dish. Similarly, Wong uses â€Å"foreign† or non-native vocabularies as a way of introducing Chinese food.His article states â€Å"In 1996, Daniang Dumplings was merely a community restaurant in Changzhou in Jiangsu province with only six employees selling arguably the most prototypical of northern Chinese food — Shuijiao†. (126) â€Å"Shuijiao† is a foreign term that describes Chinese boiled dumplings. Both Wong and Dash explore the ways in which native foods are influenced by vocabulary and foreign influence, and this is a similarity in comparing the two articles. Although both Dash and Wong focus on food writing and the intersections between Western and Eastern cultures, there are noticeable differences in tone and voice between the two articles.One huge distinction lies in their respective formality of language. In Dash’s â€Å"Rice Culture†, she narrates the story in first person. She says, â€Å"Today as I stand over a bowl of cold water and rice, scrubbing, I feel Aunt Gertie watching me. † (Dash 140) â€Å"I† dominates the article; her goal in the passage is not to make larger statements, but rather to share her personal experience of cooking rice. The first person tone is intimate. By contrast, Wong’s tone is formal and quantitative, a technique he employs to establish credibility and grab the reader’s attention.He relies on facts, evidence, and statistics, in contrast with Dash’s more qualitative narration. In â€Å"Noodles vs. Sesame Seed Buns †, Wong cites statistics such as, â€Å"over 60 percent of the city’s denizens eat at take-away restaurants at least once a week, compared to only 41 percent and 35 percent in mainland China and the United States respectively† (123). For most readers, these numbers help to establish Wong’s credibility and are more persuasive as arguments rather than simply stating an opinion.The tone of voice contrast between Wong and Dash can subtly lend credibility to their assertions. By analyzing our two main contemporary food models—modern and traditional—Seanon Wong and Julie Dash give us contrasting and complementary ways of looking at food culture. Dash brings up a method of how her aunt cooks rice, â€Å"Before cooking, Aunt Gertie would wash her rice, really scrub it in a bowl of water until all water was clear,† (140) Dash illustrates â€Å"Sometimes she would change the scrubbing water up to ten times! (140) this is an unorthodox and rarel y used method, at least in the modern world. Thus, it can be regarded as a traditional way of cooking food, one that served the Aunt Gertie of the world well, but a way that even Dash finds hard to emulate. By contrast, Wong summarizes the fast food industry in Hong Kong. In his article, fast food represents a new, modern model for people who eat outside, or for people whose time constraints don’t allow for more traditional ways of cooking. In â€Å"Noodles vs.Sesame Seed Buns†, Wong says â€Å"Considering the omnipresence of McDonald’s, KFC and Pizza Hut, American fast food has been a revolutionary force in China’s everyday culture. † Undoubtedly, in Wong’s account, this is a kind of cultural invasion, in which he thinks that Western modern fast food has been detrimental to the values and traditions, not to mention health, of Eastern societies. The pervasiveness and variety of food culture and the importance of cultural distinctions are inc reasingly obvious in the contemporary world. This awareness is especially important where cultures intersect.In these two essays, both authors come to terms with their own food culture, and address cross-cultural issues which are increasingly common. Dash uses a narrative voice to tell her traditional way of cooking rice, while Wong quantifies the modern fast food trend in Hong Kong. The traditional approach seems to emphasize quality, while the modern approach (with fast food signifying modern) emphasizes convenience. Most likely, the food industry of tomorrow will be more mixed, finding a way to integrate quality and offer convenience.When that happens, we will have the best of both worlds; Dash’s traditional approach melded with Wong’s modern sensibilities. Word Count: 1260 words Bibliography Dash, Julie. â€Å"Rice Culture. † Mirror on America: Essays and Images from Popular Culture. Ed. Joan T. Mims and Elizabeth M. Nollen. 5th ed. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. M artins, 2009. 138-41. Print. Wong, Seanon. â€Å"Noodles vs. Sesame Seed Buns. † Mirror on America: Essays and Images from Popular Culture. Ed. Joan T. Mims and Elizabeth M. Nollen. 5th ed. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martins, 2009. 124-27. Print.

One Size Does Not Fit All

One Size Does Not Fit All One Size Does Not Fit All One Size Does Not Fit All By Maeve Maddox Creating a piece of writing can be compared to building a house. Both activities involve practical and aesthetic considerations. A builder needs to know what is to be built and who will be using it. A writer must have a clear purpose and an intended audience. A builder who specializes in building houses probably would not have the tools or experience necessary to build a cathedral, and might even consider some of the tools or materials required to build such an edifice unnecessary, time-wasting, or elitist. A writer must first consider what is to be written. Is it an advertising flyer or a paper for a scientific journal? Is it a reference book for astronomers, or a popular guide to the stars? Is it Wind in the Willows, or Gone With the Wind? Whatever the writers purpose, the basic tool kit is the same: a reasonable grasp of English grammar, vocabulary, orthography, and idiomatic expression. Writers acquire this basic writing kit from elementary and secondary education and from general reading. As adults they refresh their memories by consulting dictionaries and style guides like Elements of Style and Zinssers On Writing Well. This basic tool kit serves well for most kinds of no frills writing. Non-fiction writers add to the basic equipment by reading widely in their areas of specialization. They may study the style of scientists who write well, such as Peter Farb (Face of North America: The Natural History of A Continent). Fiction writers increase the furnishings of their minds and find their own voices by reading fiction and nonfiction in many genres and from various historical periods. All writers operate from the basic tool kit, and, like builders, have the option of using the tools that suit the project in hand. They may not need every gadget in the box, and they may use some of the tools in unorthodox ways. Screw drivers and putty knives can be used for tasks other than the ones theyre designed for. And while older tools like magnetic stud finders may be superseded by electronic ones, they can still do the job. The writer, like any other craftsman, will think carefully about which tool is needed for a particular job. Once upon a time there was a dear little girl who was loved by every one who looked at her, but most of all by her grandmother, and there was nothing that she would not have given to the child. We could edit this first sentence of Grimms tale of Little Red-Cap according to what we learn from White and Zinsser: Everybody loved a little girl, especially her grandmother. The result is shorter and gets to the point faster. Perhaps a modern story teller would begin that way, but the revision destroys the fairy tale magic. While crisp, no-nonsense prose may be exactly what we want most of the time, sometimes we may wish to slow our writing for effect. Once upon a time there was is a way of saying to the reader Dont worry about going anywhere. Settle back and give yourself up to this fictional world for awhile. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Fiction Writing category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:7 English Grammar Rules You Should KnowHow to Play HQ Words: Cheats, Tips and TricksPeople vs. Persons

Free Essays on Boston Freedom Trail

INTRODUCTION Near Boston Common is the Granary Burying Ground, where the graves of Paul Revere, Samuel Adams, and the victims of the Boston Massacre are buried. Some blocks away, the Old South Meeting House still stands, where determined community meetings were once held to discuss the British "Tea Act," which led to a night of throwing away tea into Boston Harbor. A few miles away, the Bunker Hill Monument towers over Charlestown neighborhoods reminds us of the battle of the colonists with the British soldiers. These sites are all part of Boston's Freedom Trail, a 2.5-mile trail marked by a red line on sidewalks that connects from Boston Common were Quakers were once hanged to the Bunker Hill Monument, passing through many of the city's historical spots. BOSTON FREEDOM TRAIL In 1951, William Schofield an editorial writer for the Boston Herald- Traveler had the idea that Boston’s sites could be made more accessible to residents and visitors, his primary goal was to preserve the historical sites located throughout the city. Seven years later in 1958 the trail was established, the sixteen historic sites between Boston Common and The Bunker Hill Monument in Charlestown were connected by a red line painted on the sidewalk or, in some places, red brick or granite paving stones, providing a excellent way to explore the city and learn about its rich history. This 2.5 mile trail tells the story of America’s first patriots as they fought for freedom against the royal army. The sixteen Freedom trail sites in order of appearance are: 1) BOSTON COMMON. In 1634, realizing that a more northerly site would be unacceptable for settlement, the government of Massachusetts purchased land from Boston, the Boston Common , a 50 acres open land and oldest public park in the United States. It has been used for many different purposes during its long history, until 1830 animals grazed the Common, until 1817 public hangings ... Free Essays on Boston Freedom Trail Free Essays on Boston Freedom Trail INTRODUCTION Near Boston Common is the Granary Burying Ground, where the graves of Paul Revere, Samuel Adams, and the victims of the Boston Massacre are buried. Some blocks away, the Old South Meeting House still stands, where determined community meetings were once held to discuss the British "Tea Act," which led to a night of throwing away tea into Boston Harbor. A few miles away, the Bunker Hill Monument towers over Charlestown neighborhoods reminds us of the battle of the colonists with the British soldiers. These sites are all part of Boston's Freedom Trail, a 2.5-mile trail marked by a red line on sidewalks that connects from Boston Common were Quakers were once hanged to the Bunker Hill Monument, passing through many of the city's historical spots. BOSTON FREEDOM TRAIL In 1951, William Schofield an editorial writer for the Boston Herald- Traveler had the idea that Boston’s sites could be made more accessible to residents and visitors, his primary goal was to preserve the historical sites located throughout the city. Seven years later in 1958 the trail was established, the sixteen historic sites between Boston Common and The Bunker Hill Monument in Charlestown were connected by a red line painted on the sidewalk or, in some places, red brick or granite paving stones, providing a excellent way to explore the city and learn about its rich history. This 2.5 mile trail tells the story of America’s first patriots as they fought for freedom against the royal army. The sixteen Freedom trail sites in order of appearance are: 1) BOSTON COMMON. In 1634, realizing that a more northerly site would be unacceptable for settlement, the government of Massachusetts purchased land from Boston, the Boston Common , a 50 acres open land and oldest public park in the United States. It has been used for many different purposes during its long history, until 1830 animals grazed the Common, until 1817 public hangings ...

William Quantrill and Jesse James

William Quantrill and Jesse James It wasn’t always possible to determine on which side certain individuals fought for during the U.S. Civil War, especially when Confederate guerrillas were involved in the State of Missouri. Although Missouri was a border state that stayed neutral during the Civil War, the state provided more than 150,000 troops who fought during this conflict- 40,000 on the Confederate side and 110,000 for the Union.   In 1860, Missouri held a Constitutional Convention where the main topic was secession and the vote was to stay in the Union but to remain neutral. In the 1860 Presidential election, Missouri was one of only two states that the Democratic candidate, Stephen A. Douglas, carried (New Jersey being the other) over Republican Abraham Lincoln. The two candidates had met in a series of debates where they discussed their individual beliefs. Douglas had run on a platform that wanted to maintain the status quo, while Lincoln believed that slavery was an issue that needed to be dealt with by the Union as a whole. The Rise of William Quantrill After the onset of the Civil War, Missouri continued its’ attempt to remain neutral but ended up with two different governments that supported opposite sides. This caused many instances where neighbors were fighting neighbors. It also led to famed guerrilla leaders like William Quantrill, who built his own army that fought for the Confederacy. William Quantrill was born in Ohio but eventually settled in Missouri. When the Civil War started Quantrill was in Texas where he befriended Joel B. Mayes who would later be elected as Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation in 1887. It was during this association with Mayes that he had learned the art of guerrilla warfare from Native Americans.   Quantrill returned to Missouri and in August 1861, he fought with General Sterling Price at the Battle of Wilson’s Creek near Springfield. Shortly after this battle, Quantrill left the Confederate Army in order to form his own so-called army of irregulars that infamously became known at Quantrill’s Raiders. At first, Quantrill’s Raiders consisted of just over a dozen men and they patrolled the Kansas-Missouri border where they ambushed both Union soldiers and Union sympathizers. Their main opposition were  the Jayhawkers- guerillas from Kansas whose loyalty was pro-Union. The violence got so bad that the area became known as Bleeding Kansas.   By 1862, Quantrill had approximately 200 men under his command and focused their attacks around the town Kansas City and Independence. Since Missouri was divided between Union and Confederate loyalists, Quantrill was easily able to recruit Southern men who resented what they perceived to be the harsh Union rule. James Brothers and Quantrills Raiders In 1863, Quantrill’s force had grown to over 450 men, one of whom was Frank James, older brother of Jesse James. In August 1863, Quantrill and his men committed what became known as the Lawrence Massacre. They torched the town of Lawrence, Kansas and killed more than 175 men and boys, many of them in front of their families. Although Quantrill targeted Lawrence because it was a center for Jayhawkers, it is believed that the terror that was imposed on the cities’ residents stemmed from the Union imprisoning family members of Quantrill supporters and allies, including the sisters of William T. Anderson – who was a key member of Quantrill’s Raiders.  A number of these women died, including one of Anderson’s sisters while imprisoned by the Union.  Anderson who was nicknamed Bloody Bill. Quantrill would later have a falling out that caused Anderson to become the leader of most of Quantrill’s group of guerrillas which would include sixteen-year -old Jesse James. Quantrill, on the other hand now had a force that only a few dozen. The Centralia Massacre In September 1864, Anderson had an army that totaled approximately 400 guerrillas and they were preparing to assist the Confederate Army in a campaign to invade Missouri. Anderson took about 80 of his guerrillas to Centralia, Missouri to gather information. Just outside the town, Anderson stopped a train. On board were 22 Union soldiers who were on leave and they were unarmed.  After ordering these men to remove their uniforms, Anderson’s men then executed all 22 of them. Anderson would later use these Union uniforms as disguises. A nearby Union force of approximately 125 soldiers began to pursue Anderson, who by this time had rejoined his entire. Anderson set a trap using a small number of his force as bait which the Union soldiers fell for. Anderson and his men then surrounded the Union force and killed every soldier, mutilating and scalping bodies. Frank and Jesse James, as well as a future member of their gang Cole Younger,  all rode with Anderson that day. The Centralia Massacre was one of the worst atrocities that occurred during the Civil War. The Union Army made it a top priority to kill Anderson and only one month after Centralia they accomplished this goal.  In early 1865, Quantrill and his guerrillas had moved on to Western Kentucky and in May, after Robert E. Lee had surrendered, Quantrill and his men were ambushed. During this skirmish, Quantrill was shot in the back causing him to be paralyzed from the chest down. Quantrill died the following as a result of his injuries.

Court observation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Court observation - Essay Example Some of the residents questioned by the police admitted to the three being drug dealers. The court used the evidence presented before it to either hold them accountable or rule otherwise (White 120). Ten minutes before the proceeding, the audience who are to follow the whole process took their seats in the courtroom. As one of the audience I took to the front seat in order to follow keenly and closely. At exactly 9 am we are guided into a standing ovation as the presiding judge entered the court room. Then the suspects were brought into the courtroom under a tight security (White 129). One of the clerks ordered silence. The judge requested one of the assigned clerks to read the case for the suspects to confirm their case. He proceeded to read to the suspects the democratic rights that they enjoy while in the court. The court rules were then read out to the court. That people were to remain silent during the sessions and no misconduct in the court. The suspects were asked to corporate and the lawyers to treat each other with respect. The police provided evidence they collected during their investigation and bared witness that these were the real suspects they caught. The witnesse s were given time to testify. They were called one by one and questioned in detail by the prosecutor, lawyers and the suspects The accused were given the chance to prove that they are not guilty. All of them pleaded not guilty. They did not agree with the prosecutions brief facts. The court was then subjected to hear the evidence from the prosecution and the accused listened to the facts, whether to agree with them or not (White 145). After conviction, the prosecutor then notified the court of the previous crime records of the accused. He mentioned two cases which three were suspected of other counts of crime including possession of illegal weapons. After the case was confirmed, the first

Analysis of Soft Systems Methodology in Relation to Construction Essay

Analysis of Soft Systems Methodology in Relation to Construction Projects - Essay Example .................6 Methodology of SSM in Construction Project Risk Management.............................7 Limitations of SSM and Need to use Hard Systems..................................................8 References..................................................................................................................10 Analysis of the Soft Systems Methodology in Construction Projects Construction projects are complex processes that incorporate many skills, materials, and different operations (Sears et al, 2008). There is therefore a need for numerous skills and techniques to be put together to ensure the best results are attained, not only for the contractors but numerous stakeholders involved in the project. Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) seeks to inquire about the perceptions and preferences of different stakeholders in a given construction project (Andrews, 2000). In other words, SSM is a method of giving some kind of legitimacy to a project by trying to understand th e desires and needs of various people who affect or are affected by the construction project at hand. SSM tries to investigate complex issues and problems that are not well defined on the basis of numerous stakeholder views and demands and upgrade the knowledge about a project and integrate them in the project (Checkland, 1999). Basically, SSM is a system of investigating and understanding the environment within which a construction project will be undertaken. ... Information is solicited from the various stakeholders through questionnaires or through external consultants. This information is collated and present to the project managers for incorporation into the full project. Merits of Soft Systems Methodology in Construction Projects Tayyab et al (2005) identify that construction projects face challenges that cannot be underestimated due to safety, competition and complexities. This is because the failure of a construction project can potentially lead to unimaginable fatalities that can have far-reaching effects on human lives. Secondly, competition in the building industry requires that all the stakeholders in a given project are satisfied otherwise there would be consequences for a construction company. Additionally, the harmonization of standards around the globe and the desire for high standards by various stakeholders in the world today require critical satisfaction of customer demands. Traditional approaches to the management of projec t systems that are focused on operations and technicalities are therefore not good enough any more (Tayyab et al, 2005). There is the need to satisfy all the needs of the various stakeholders to ensure that a construction project meets its objectives and does so very well. Soft Systems Methodology ensures that purposeful and deliberate action is undertaken to understand and upgrade the knowledge of the contractors to ensure that the construction project at hand is completed according to the demands of various stakeholders. The CATWOE model enables all the various stakeholder needs and demands to be put into perspective and honour them as the project is being undertaken.

Living in new country Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Living in new country - Essay Example The second effect is learning how to incorporate the new culture into one’s daily life as well as accepting the new society. It is therefore hard to fit into a new society as new set of cultural practices may change a person’s view on various aspects of life. This notion can also create positive encounters as one tend to discover new things (HÃ ¼seyin & Hassan, 15). The adjustment helps in mental development since it promotes self internal and external discovery. A new life away from home creates a sense of independence. The new changes build a character in a person due to the challenges that the person encounters during the adjustment process. However, the notion of inevitability in change helps a person to settle quickly (Ronald & David, 33). Living away from home is an important experience as it held in the adaptation of cultural diversity. It protects breaks the home monotony by creating new experiences in an environment that is different from home (Palffy, 12). Living in a new country promotes mental nattering as it fosters maturity and self

Global Trading Systems of the 18th Century Essay

Global Trading Systems of the 18th Century - Essay Example By the year 1700 potatoes and maize had been exported to China from the Americas and these crops would contribute to the increasing population in China during the 1700s. This increase in population resulted in China's immense increase in a demand for silver and gold fed by the production of the mines that the Spanish had conquered 200 years earlier from the Aztecs and Incas. Some of the metal would be moved into Asia by way of the Philippines where Spain had established a colony in 1571. However, most of these metals would usually not flow directly into China, but rather through a complex global trading system. The silver and gold would be shipped to Spain where Spain would use it to finance their military, exploratory, and war expeditions. Dutch armament and shipbuilders often supplied these endeavors. The precious metals would make their way from the Dutch and into the hands of European bankers that would finance further trade missions into China and the Indian Ocean. Here the gold and silver would be traded for the exotic cloth, spices, and gems prized by the Europeans and the colonists in the Americas. The slave trade was also instrumental in the increasing production of other key agricultural products, most notably sugar and tobacco. The initial expansion of the slave trade into the Americas resulted in marginally cheaper sugar and tobacco though it had no great direct economic impact on the British economy at the time. However, with the further increase in the slave trade, and the growing plantation environment for producing agricultural products, tobacco and sugar were able to reach an economy of scale and become profitable on the world market. Once again, there is a complex set of trading partners that promoted the movement of products and wealth around the globe. Agricultural products and raw materials such as foodstuffs and timer were taken to England and distributed throughout Europe and Asia. Finished goods from Europe and Asia were taken to Africa and traded for slaves. These slaves would be transported to the America's to supply the labor for the production of the agricu ltural goods. Sugar had a significant impact on trade in during the 18th century. There was a high demand for sugar in England and Europe, but there was also another trading system that supplied the demand for Rum. Sugar and molasses would be transported from the Caribbean to the American colonies. Here it would be distilled into rum. The rum would be shipped to Africa where it would be traded for slaves to be shipped to the plantations in the Caribbean. During this time, the Americans and British merchants were accumulating wealth from these transactions. Tobacco also contributed to this production of wealth through yet another trading system. By the 18th century, tobacco was being produced on plantations by slave labor in the Americas. The tobacco would flow through Europe and into China where the Spanish had introduced it. The tobacco would be exchanged for tea in China as well as other prized Chinese goods. The tobacco trade routes were another British example of exploiting agriculture and slave labor to stimulate a complex global trade system. In conclusion, the Spanish invasion of Mexico and South America was important for the gold and silver it produced as well as the agricultural products that were to follow. The use of precious metals allowed products

Economics and Health Care Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Economics and Health Care - Research Paper Example Cost-minimization techniques, for example, can be used to select the method that uses the minimum resources to produce a certain health outcome. In addition, cost-utility analysis helps hospital management and doctors to evaluate treatments on the basis of â€Å"utility-based outcome units.† Implications of Poor Health Care System As economics mainly deals with market economy concerns, applying those principles to health care while ignoring the differences between health care and traditional consumer goods can lead to certain economic and social problems. Friedman (2013) has identified some of the weaknesses of the American health care system which can help to illustrate the impact of economics on health care systems as well as the costs of a poorly functioning health care system on society. The Medicaid system is an integral part of the American health care system. Since 1960, it has provided affordable health care to many Americans who could not afford it. Insurance companie s have also contributed much by reducing the costs of health care significantly for consumers. However, Friedman (2013) states that the American health care system is not as efficient as many claim it to be. Some of the so-called reforms to the health care system reflect misunderstanding of economic forces by policymakers. Friedman (2013) argues that current reforms are transferring a greater proportion of the health care costs from the insurance companies to those who need health care, with the effect that the consumer will become increasingly price-sensitive and quality health care will become beyond the reach of many Americans. This move is founded on the misplaced notion that insurance coverage encourages people to consume more health care services than they really... This research paper outlines the particularity of applying basic principles of economic to health care. Economics is a social science that seeks to explain how society allocates its scarce resources to satisfy the demand for goods . Howewer, health care is different from conventional goods and services There are a number of ways in which health care may be regarded as an economic good. There is an absence of a â€Å"market price† that is determined by the interaction of demand and supply forces in health care Economic principles can be used to ensure that equal use of health care services is provided to people with equal health care needs Measures such as cost-minimization analysis, cost effectiveness, cost-utility analysis and cost-benefit analysis can be used to maintain high levels of efficiency in the health care system. Friedman identified some of the weaknesses of the American health care system which can help to illustrate the impact of economics on health care systems as well as the costs of a poorly functioning health care system on society the Obamacare reforms have become controversial mainly because of the increased costs of providing federally subsidized insurance plans to consumers Hospital administrations in collaboration with insurers and other stakeholders have developed a host of statistical tools to monitor and evaluate the efficient of health care processes. There exists a statistical tool that compares whether individual physician treatments are more efficient compared to physician teams administering treatments. This tool is used to determine, for instance, whether solo physician treatment compared to group physician treatment may be more effective at reducing the number of patient visits to the physician

Global Trading Systems of the 18th Century Essay

Global Trading Systems of the 18th Century - Essay Example By the year 1700 potatoes and maize had been exported to China from the Americas and these crops would contribute to the increasing population in China during the 1700s. This increase in population resulted in China's immense increase in a demand for silver and gold fed by the production of the mines that the Spanish had conquered 200 years earlier from the Aztecs and Incas. Some of the metal would be moved into Asia by way of the Philippines where Spain had established a colony in 1571. However, most of these metals would usually not flow directly into China, but rather through a complex global trading system. The silver and gold would be shipped to Spain where Spain would use it to finance their military, exploratory, and war expeditions. Dutch armament and shipbuilders often supplied these endeavors. The precious metals would make their way from the Dutch and into the hands of European bankers that would finance further trade missions into China and the Indian Ocean. Here the gold and silver would be traded for the exotic cloth, spices, and gems prized by the Europeans and the colonists in the Americas. The slave trade was also instrumental in the increasing production of other key agricultural products, most notably sugar and tobacco. The initial expansion of the slave trade into the Americas resulted in marginally cheaper sugar and tobacco though it had no great direct economic impact on the British economy at the time. However, with the further increase in the slave trade, and the growing plantation environment for producing agricultural products, tobacco and sugar were able to reach an economy of scale and become profitable on the world market. Once again, there is a complex set of trading partners that promoted the movement of products and wealth around the globe. Agricultural products and raw materials such as foodstuffs and timer were taken to England and distributed throughout Europe and Asia. Finished goods from Europe and Asia were taken to Africa and traded for slaves. These slaves would be transported to the America's to supply the labor for the production of the agricu ltural goods. Sugar had a significant impact on trade in during the 18th century. There was a high demand for sugar in England and Europe, but there was also another trading system that supplied the demand for Rum. Sugar and molasses would be transported from the Caribbean to the American colonies. Here it would be distilled into rum. The rum would be shipped to Africa where it would be traded for slaves to be shipped to the plantations in the Caribbean. During this time, the Americans and British merchants were accumulating wealth from these transactions. Tobacco also contributed to this production of wealth through yet another trading system. By the 18th century, tobacco was being produced on plantations by slave labor in the Americas. The tobacco would flow through Europe and into China where the Spanish had introduced it. The tobacco would be exchanged for tea in China as well as other prized Chinese goods. The tobacco trade routes were another British example of exploiting agriculture and slave labor to stimulate a complex global trade system. In conclusion, the Spanish invasion of Mexico and South America was important for the gold and silver it produced as well as the agricultural products that were to follow. The use of precious metals allowed products

Module 4 - SLP Training and Appraisals Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Module 4 - SLP Training and Appraisals - Essay Example Skills gapping starts right from the recruitment stage in an organization, when the administrators compare the skills of prospective employees with the skills an organization lacks or needs. When the skills a job candidate posseses is of dire need to an organization, the candidate may be considered. Applicants with a higher degree of match between skills desired and skills acquired therefore have an upper hand in being recruited by the training authorities (Jones, 2000). The traning administrators then move further to establish if there exists a deficiency between the skills employees have and what they ought to have. Should they detect insufficiency in the desired skills, the immediate managers of the employees or their training administrators check if there is a set of courses in their training programs that can adress the staff’s challenges. Another thing that they look into is the possible events in that given organization which can offer training to its employees. In the process, organizations iron out their employees’ challenges in a personalised precision training program (Jones, 2000). In today’s business environment, both philanthropic and profit making organizations such as commercial banks are in dire need of employees who are computer literate. For banking institutions having employees deficient of computer skills, skills gapping must be conducted if an organization’s efficiency is to be improved (Jones, 2000). Conventionally, the program starts with examining job candidates for computer skills. What is sought by organizations with regard to computer skills may not be extreme technical skills possesion, but basic knowledge in operating computer applications, especially softwares that most befits the running of that given organization. Standardized tests may be administered on these prospective staffs. Mostly, candidates are often required to practically prove their assertions that

Compare-and-Contrast Research Paper Essay Example for Free

Compare-and-Contrast Research Paper Essay Introduction Present essay seeks to provide the comparative analysis of two artworks – Hoffmann’s Boston Twilight, 1957, belonging to Proto-Abstract Expressionism and Rauschenberg’s Retroactive 1, 1964, which may be attributed to the art movement of Pop-Art. The comparative analysis of these paintings will focus on two crucial aspects – structural and positive. Structural analysis addresses cultural, historical context, which influenced the discussed artworks, political climate, art movements’ stylistic characteristics, which informed individual work of artists, their subjective motives, influences and inclinations. Secondly, positive analysis of the artworks focuses on the themes depicted, colors and techniques used, formal and stylistic elements, the reflection of cultural and historical context in the artworks etc. The thesis, present paper defends, may be formulated as follows: Hoffmann’s and Rauschenberg’s artworks were significantly influenced by historical, cultural, social and artistic context. The artistic response to these contexts was different and reflected through opposite art movements. The discussed images belong to different artistic traditions and, hence have many differences. Similarities, however, may be attributed to the similar artistic influences, and utilization of sometimes similar formal and color techniques of composition. Structural context: art movements, history, politics and subjective perspectives. The general socio-economic and historical context of both artworks (as they were created very close in time – 1957 and 1964) may be characterized by the gradual assault of mass consumption postmodernist society, which influenced the rapid development of popular culture in music, entertainment and cinema. Commoditization has reached almost every sphere of social life and closely approached art through mass media. The increasing role of mass culture was immediately seen in the new sphere of advertisement, which conflated the elements of ‘high and low’ culture, which became central to the new postmodernist cultural logic (Jameson, 59). Political situation in the United States and Europe was characterized by the intensification of resistance and leftist movements, which, however, abandoned communist platform and focused on new postmodernist tactics, such as situationism, counter-culturalism, influenced by new discoveries in psychoanalysis, philosophy etc. Politics also became the element of mass culture, as its reproduction was extended from closed couloirs of high cabinets to ordinary population. The response of art movements to the assault of the postindustrial society was irregular and significantly varied from one art movement to another. The dominance of non-objective abstraction in 1940s and 50s was the response to vulgarization of social life, and the manifest of the absence of valuable objective themes in de-humanized world. Abstractionism, hence was an artistic expression of de-humanization and the search for lost subjectivity (Herskovic, 13-17). However, other extremes also came to existence. That is particularly true of the Pop-Art, which positively responded to the modern developments in economy and culture, synthesizing popular culture in the new form of art. Pop-Art was characterized by ‘externalization’ of art, as the objects of ordinary life and advertisement were widely utilized. The later was particularly evident in the works of Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and James Rosenquist. The similar response to changing conditions in society was made by photorealism, which exemplifies the assault of hyperrealism as the new form of cultural affirmation. Such elements of modern society as standardization, de-subjectivization was immediately seen in Pop-Art , which appeared as the resistance to self-revelation, artistic creativity and originality and focuses on the widely acknowledge cultural codes and images (Harrison 2001) . Robert Rauschenberg’s and Hans Hoffmann’s artistic trajectories were significantly influenced by the discussed developments in politics and ideology. Rauschenberg was, for instance, one of the forerunners of pop-art movement, as he was among the first to use hand-made or found objects in his artworks, combining the elements of high and low culture, using mass-media sources etc (Livingstone, 1990). Such experiments were influenced by Rauschenberg’s strong belief that the genuine artwork should exist between art and life. The technique of ‘combines’ used by Rauschenberg may be described as immediate precursor to postmodernist collage, used in installation art. Rauschenberg’s mindset position deeply opposed Abstract Expressionism’s argument that the self may be expressed through art. Instead, Rauschenberg focused on representation of reality in its absence of structure, sense and single interpretation. Abstract-Expressionism, which was influenced by Hans Hoffman, in contrast focused on gesture paintings and color field painting techniques. Abstract Expressionism should be understood as a historical consequence of the conflation between European and American artists due to World War 2, which forced may French, German and other artists to immigrate in the United States. Hans Hoffmann belongs to this group of artists and his destiny significantly influenced his style and ideological orientations (Herskovic, 2003). Hoffman’s style was influenced by cubist tension between depth and surface, expressionistic flamboyance of color and surrealist technique of automatism, which is based on following subconscious drivers of creativity and libidinal forces. The latter influences were synthesized by Hoffmann in his ‘push-pull’ method, which included the use of expressive colors and paint slashes in the view of creating contradiction between cool and warm colors. Comparative analysis of Hoffmann’s and Rauschenberg’s artworks Both artworks are obviously affected by different artistic movements and styles. Hoffmann’s composition may be posited within abstract expressionism tradition, while Rauschenberg’s painting belongs to Pop-Art movement. On the surface level the similarities between these artistic may be traced in the color usage – in each painting we see the utilization of yellow, green, black, white, red, white and blue colors. Moreover, the presence of grid-like rectangular layout is evident. Apart from this, both paintings are characterized by the sense of distortion. The distortion in Hoffmann’s artwork Boston Twilight is due to the use of abstract expressionist style, which distorts the contours of objective reality, so that we can not find correspondence between the image and reality (Boston Twilight) that it signifies. However, in Rauschenberg’s composition the distortion is reflected in the plurality of meaning and signification. The interpretation is difficult to realize due to the combination of images inserted in the painting: J. F. Kennedy at the center, pointing with his finger, cosmonaut with parachute, the duplication of Kennedy’s hand in the right corner and evidently abstract images in other parts. There is no denying the importance of the fact, that such a ‘combine’ creates difficulties for interpretation and distorts it. Furthermore, it should be pointed to the fact that both artworks have the elements of abstraction, contrasting color tones and are influenced by Cubism in using facets of the color. Both paintings create the feeling of collage and it was noted that Rauschenberg’s ‘combine’ technique is very close to it. Moreover, creating certain color relationships is in important in both images, however, it serves different functions, depending on style and thematic unity. Differences between images are evident in many respects. First of all, art schools are opposite with pop-art, focusing on unification of art and reality, and abstract expressionism, focusing on expressing contradictory being of individual self. Hoffman’s painting is abstract in essence, while Rauschenberg’s refers to widely known political and social images of American President, cosmonaut, which immediately signify objective reality. The social and political thematic of Rauschenberg’s image immediately points to his belonging to Pop-Art tradition. As far as formal and color structure of the analyzed paintings are concerned blue is dominant in Rauschenberg’s image, while green is dominant in Hoffman’s paintings; the first artist uses vertical stress, while Hoffmann is evidently using horizontal stress. Due to stylistic differences between artworjs, colors mix into one another in Hoffmann’s painting and are separated in Rauschenberg’s one. Rauschenberg utilizes much more contrast, than Hoffmann, however the image of the latter is much more organic in contrast to geometric structure of Rauschenberg’s composition. Conclusion To sum it up, present analysis proved the initial thesis that both artworks were significantly influenced by historical, social and cultural developments in Western societies in the middle of 20-th century. These developments provoked different responses on the part of art movements, resulting in creation of different styles and techniques. The latter are reflected in Hoffmann’s and Rauschenberg’s compositions, which are different in many important stylistic respects, however, have much in common due to the same artistic influences. My interest to the discussed paintings is explained by the fact that they are picturesque representations of Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art. Main features, peculiar to each of these styles, may be found in these paintings both in complex and in separate elements. The techniques used by both artists help us better understand other artworks created in these traditions and inform our own artistic endeavors. Hoffman’s image advantage is in its direct appeal to aesthetic taste and sensibility, while Rauschenberg artwork represents a challenge for viewers in terms of interpreting its political and social content. Works Cited Herskovic, Marika. American Abstract Expressionism of the 1950s An Illustrated Survey, New York School Press, 2003. Harrison, Sylvia. Pop Art and the Origins of Post-Modernism. Cambridge University Press, 2001. Jameson, Fredric. ‘Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism’. New Left Review, 146, (53-92), 1991. Livingstone, M. Pop Art: A Continuing History, New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. , 1990

Vygotskys Zone of Proximal Development

Vygotskys Zone of Proximal Development Lev Vygotsky views collaboration with peers as an effective way of development. He suggests that more cooperative learning activities should be used in the classroom in which less capable students develop with assistance and support from more knowledgeable peers, within their zone of proximal development. In other words, according to Vygotsky, the task becomes â€Å"internalised through actual relations between† the students (Vygotsky, 1978:57) and successfully performed. In one of my English Literature lessons, I taught a group of Y11 second language learners how to answer and analyse a question using PEER (Point – Evidence –Explain – Reflect) technique. The students were revising exam-type questions and had to be ready for analysis. I started with a demonstration activity from the novel I am the King of the Castle. With some leading questions, I started analysing the point, involving the students in finding evidence, linkers, explanation, etc. As soon as the students were assigned with an individual task, the majority of them (7 out of 10) were able to perform with no challenges due to their prior knowledge and vocabulary. On the other hand, the ‘ripe’ students were not able to follow the critical task unaided. Therefore, they were paired with more able students to practise analysis, finding evidence, explaining and evaluating. The less able students were doing it correctly till the point when more criticality needed. With a little aid from a more competent peer, they developed conceptual learning. In future lessons, given a similar task, students will be able to perform with more confidence; and once it is internalised, scaffolding might be removed. I think as a conceptual tool for teachers the ZPD is very helpful in developing a curriculum which will challenge students’ learning and enable them to enquire; it also helps teachers in effective grouping of students where less able students can achieve with some guidance and support from more competent students. Finally, the ZPD might be helpful in assessing students’ abilities in order to decide their year group distribution. ===================================================================================== In this specific lesson, I managed scaffolding the group of Y11 second language students to write effectively. My main objective was how to write interesting, imaginative and thoughtful texts, using appropriate and effective vocabulary. (The lesson objectives were taken from the Writing Assessment Foci (AF1/AF7) of the National Curriculum.) Due to the different ability level of students, I demonstrated all the instructional options summarised by Wood, (1988). In the video clip, David Wood explained evidently the difference between contingent teaching and scaffolding, highlighting that scaffolding is â€Å"a functional analysis of the kinds of activities that a teacher might undertake to simplify the students’ learning; whereas contingency is about interaction, process, it’s how teachers go about of supporting a particular individual when they are setting out to learn.† Therefore, I involved all the five instructional options as aspects of scaffolding. I introduced the lesson objectives and outcomes of writing effectively, and assigned the students to write a one line description of a man who is smiling coldly. My verbal instruction was to look at their partner’s work and compare their responses, ensuring that the sentences matched the assessment foci. The more competent students performed very well because of their pre-existing knowledge of literary devices, sentence structure, effective vocabulary, and the ability to look at the context, whilst the less capable students used very simple and uncomplicated sentences. At this point, I provided some prompt by asking them to write a one line description of a man who is smiling coldly, using the word ARCTIC. This time, the students also worked individually and upon their task completion, I asked them to compare their responses with the model sentence on the board: â€Å"Mr. Fisher had a smile of arctic brightness.† While working as a class and comparing their sentences, t he students then had to consider how the description worked there, what literary devices were used to make the sentence more effective. Obviously, a few of the students with less competence could construct a sentence with the word ‘arctic’ because they did not know what it meant. I then provided a thesaurus support, asking them to first look up the word and then, using some other techniques of personification or imagery and careful sentence structure to construct a sentence, which meets the objectives of the lesson. The students still struggled with the use of a simile, metaphor, etc.; therefore, a group of more knowledgeable students was swapped to provide support to those less competent peers by sharing their examples, reinforcing the use of literary devices, using effective vocabulary and correct structure. With the additional support, the students came up with a variety of sentences. They were also provided with a checklist of expected skills they needed to accomplish the task. This was done as a class work, thoroughly read and explained. In Wood’s terminology, this was a stage where I demonst rated contingent teaching with the features of interactive instruction. I indicated the material and prepared them for the assembly. The rest of the lesson was spent in focus on exploring the necessary skills in writing; and the students were assigned with a final task of writing a character description using one of their carefully crafted sentences as a starting point. To sum up, I should put together Wood’s theory of scaffolding: General Verbal Prompt (GVP) was given throughout the lesson to give instruction and introduce the topic, etc. Special Verbal Instruction (SVI) was given as well when the students had to construct their own sentences and compare them either with their partners or with the model. Even though this work was done individually, the students still could do this unaided, due to their pre-existing knowledge. Indicating Material (IM) was the next step when I suggested the use of a dictionary, constantly reminded the students of the AFs, objectives of the lesson, and provided the assistance of more competent students to help to successfully accomplish the task. To prepare for the assembly of the final writing piece using literary devices, appropriate and effective vocabulary, and an effectively written text, the students were distributed a checklist and framework of expected skills explored during the lesson. A demonstration (DEM) of how to write imaginary and thoughtful sentences using an effective word choice was also used throughout the lesson by sharing model sentences with all the students to facilitate their work and understanding. Throughout the lesson, there was a varied level of teacher interaction supporting the students to ‘internalise’ the knowledge and complete the task successfully, at which point, the teacher should have not intervene. The following lesson aimed at peer marking and spotting mistakes and the discussion of the skills acquired during the previous lesson. ===================================================================================== Child-centred learning has been advocated by several educationalists and psychologists for many years. Its basic emphasis is children’s individual interests and needs in education, which may vary in terms of development rates and the nature of the teacher’s control. The term ‘child-centeredness’ is related to children’s individual needs and decisions about the curriculum and the teacher’s role in the classroom. However, since child development theories vary, child-centred learning also varies in a classroom. Pioneers in child development theory, Jean Piaget and Lev Vygostsky, observe considerable differences between cognitive and social constructivist theories assigned to each individual child and the social context of play in their development. They both support the idea of knowledge construction by individuals. However, Piaget believes that knowledge is a product of the individual and the environment. Vygostky, on the other hand, advocates the idea that knowledge is constructed due to social interaction and then internalised by guidance. Piaget and Vygostky differently promote the relationship between learning and development: Piaget believes that development follows learning, whilst Vygotsky shows that learning leads to development and plays a vital role in it. He states that â€Å"†¦the only ‘good learning’ is that which is in advance of development† (Vygotsky, Mind in Society and the ZPD, 2002:113). Both theorists emphasise, though, that peer interaction and cooperation promote children’s learning. Since Piaget’s and Vygostky’s child-centred approaches vary greatly, their implication in a classroom varies as well. Piaget’s approach relies on the liberty of children and appropriate environment for learning, where children learn by exploring things by themselves. Those with Vygotsky’s approach, provide a balance between teacher-directed and child-initiated classroom, where teachers provide assistance to ensure that the children are able to attain a higher l evel within their ZPD. Other theorists, John Dewey and Maria Montessori, have also played a significant role in child-centred learning theory development. Despite the similarities in their belief that some guidance is important for children to help them develop their intelligence, they both have different perspectives about the role of children’s freedom in education and the teacher’s role in the classroom. Dewey believes that democratic schooling is based on child-centeredness where learning means experiencing. Being a progressivist, he believes in the development of the ability in children to function well in the larger democratic society and attain personal fulfilment. Dewey emphasises that the construction of children’s freedom of intelligence via observation is more important than their freedom of will. Therefore, he summons up the teachers to act as a representative of the children’s interests as a whole. They should create self-control in children, which will assist the t eacher to understand the aim of education. Montessori, by contrast, sees teachers’ authority in the support they give to the children rather than in their â€Å"dignity†. She believes that orderly environment and appropriate materials will promote children’s development. Teachers, therefore, should prepare motives and inspire children to develop without any direct instruction. I think the combination of all four theories is beneficial for my understanding of child-centeredness in education and in conceptualised classroom situations. Piaget’s cognitive constructivist theory helps me understand when children have freedom to explore and construct knowledge, they make choice and experience. Vygotsky’s social constructivist theory can help me understand children’s ability to develop with adult guidance to attain their ZPD. Dewey’s understanding of children’s freedom of intelligence to promote learning will assist me how to nurture this with guidance for each individual’s constant growth. Finally, Montessori’s support of each child’s potential to have inner drive to learn, will help me remove all the obstacles that impede learning. ===================================================================================== Nowadays, Early Years Education (EYE) has a mixture of their foundation in the work of Montessori and her critics W. Kilpatrick and J. Dewey. A confident Early Year practitioner should be aware of the ways how children learn and develop; support them in solving problems and making decisions; and provide them with practice and roles to enhance learning. The Montessori method has been partially embraced by the International Community School in Amman, Jordan, where I am currently working. Some of the pedagogic principles, however, have not been accepted by the school administration due to their understanding of the method as â€Å"purely academic, mechanistic and rigid†. Below, I will demonstrate the aspects which are currently practised in the school, and which I, a Secondary Teacher, have observed as part of my EC in Lower Primary. One aspect of â€Å"good practice† in Foundation Stage of the school is that the teachers utilise activities in â€Å"sensory rich† environment. The students are guided and supported to learn to interact and thus develop independent learning. In this environment, the children choose their activities and learn by doing. Montessori believes that training senses is fundamental and that it will promote the basis for the development of imagination. According to her, intellect should be developed early, through stimulation of senses, as a basis for the development of imagination and social relationships (Montessori, 1964). The FS teachers do apply this aspect of learning because they find it fruitful: students become prepared for KS1 as â€Å"self-directed†, independent students, who are able to perform and master inter-connected and challenging tasks. On the other hand, W. Kilpatrick argues in his book The Montessori Method Examined (1914), that imagination and social relations should be developed before the intellect because the premature development of the intellect can stifle creativity. Kilpatrick believes in the opposite that providing children with â€Å"socially conditioned environment† will create a spontaneous unity of groups to work out their tasks. This suggests that children will develop their imagination and social relationship by â€Å"cooperating† with each other. The FS teachers apply this aspect of learning in their classroom as well, believing that only through their [teachers’] â€Å"consideration† and â€Å"suggestion† (p.20) can the students cooperate socially and learn effectively. Another aspect of â€Å"good practice† utilised by the FS teachers is the child’s liberty. Montessori believes that students’ free choice and freedom on the â€Å"educational playground† can be advantageous and can promote their free self-expression. This is practised in my school with caution, however. The teachers as well as Kilpatrick believe that too much liberty will not lead to â€Å"right conduct† (p.23). He emphasises that â€Å"†¦in the effort to suppress†¦ impulses, a certain amount of positive pain association (â€Å"punishment†) will prove necessary†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (p.24). Thus, having acquired a positive self-expression with the guidance and support of the teacher, the child develops self-discipline and â€Å"proper conduct† (p.24). Finally, one more aspect of â€Å"good practice† applied in FS of my school is that the students exercise â€Å"practical life† in their classroom. Activities like cooking, cleaning, serving, setting tables, washing hands, constructing, etc. become so intrinsically meaningful that the students develop their potential to perform these tasks with interest and concentration. Utilising this approach, teachers create the Montessori model which is â€Å"the school should fit the needs of the students.† This means that the Montessori curriculum is based on the students spending a lot of time taking part in different sessions of uninterrupted activities, which last several hours. These activities contain a variety of independent and group-solving tasks related to different subjects: maths, science, music, geography, etc. Here, Kilpatrick agrees with Montessori that â€Å"schools should function more definitely as a social institution, adapting itself to its own environm ent, utilising more fully actual-life situation† (p.41). In contrast to a Montessori classroom, the FS classrooms are NOT mixed age, but are counterparts. This is why the teachers mix the children according their abilities when less-able students are supported by more capable students. To conclude, our students are a combination of the Montessori Method and a modern democratic school, where the child’s day is a mixture of activities, starting from unstructured approach – where the students play and learn independently and ending with highly structured approach – where the tasks are teacher-directed and there is little play. Other activities are focused learning, when students are guided by the teacher and play and learn via experiential activities; and finally, the activities are child-initiated, when students interact sensibly and sensitively in a supportive and enabling environment. All these approaches are used by Early Year Foundation Stages (EYFS) in international schools in Amman. ===================================================================================== Freire’s views explicitly recognise the relationship between education and knowledge. He emphasises that liberal education would build on the knowledge resources and agency of learners: â€Å"Liberation education consists in acts of cognition, not transferals of information† (Freire, 2002:366). In Jordanian education system, however, â€Å"the raison d’etre of liberation education† lies in its didactic approach of teaching – the ‘banking’ concept of education – where teachers are ‘depositors’ and students are ‘depositories’. The system heavily relies on memorisation techniques, which is done for the academic performance. Students are required to learn from seven to ten subjects within the period of two years. At the end of the two-year, they sit for the end-of-year external examinations. The students’ learning styles involve a lot of writing and memorising; the classes are teacher-centred and in â€Å"transferals of information†; the content is massive and should be covered in a two-year period; and time constraints are obstacles to interactive lessons. Within this short time framework, students and teachers work hard to cover the content of learning, which is overwhelming. They display their â€Å"absolute ignorance† towards the â€Å"oppressed† situation and fail to respond to the â€Å"essence of consciousness†. They also fail to recognise cognition and thus, do not â€Å"establish an authentic form of thought and action.† (p.366) Problem-posing education would liberate Jordanian state school students if they were taught facts of the reasons and means of humans’ existence; if teachers regarded dialogue as a precondition to cognition; if students were taught how to think critically; if they built their understanding on creativity, etc. I believe the Jordanian education system would be one of the best if they accepted individuals as â€Å"historical beings† to clearly acknowledge their present, past and their willingness to †wisely build the future† (p.367).