Compulsory School Age Essay

â€Å"Any young person without a high school diploma is at a severe disadvantage in our high-tech labor market, with its accompanying demands for advanced education. We can’t prepare students for the 21st century who aren’t in school. Increasing graduation rates requires a continuum of strategies that engage students, including ensuring their presence in the classroom.† The above-mentioned quote by National Education Association (NEA) President Dennis Van Roekel sizes up the situation crisply. Although critics contend that students inclined to dropping out of school will quit school anyway and education is a responsibility of local and state governments and raising the compulsory school age will have little effect, research indicates there are benefits in raising the national compulsory school attendance age to 18. Current Problem Compulsory school attendance refers to the minimum and maximum age required by each state for students to be enrolled in and attending public schools or some comparable education program as defined by law. The good news is student in the United States are graduating from high school at a rate better than any time since 1976; the bad news is about 20 percent still drop out, most of whom are minorities. The figures are from the National Center for Education Statistics’ report, â€Å"Public School Graduates and Dropouts from the Common Core of Data: School Year 2009-2010.† Dropouts face extremely bleak economic and social prospects. Compared to high school graduates, they are less likely find a job and earn a living wage, and more likely to be poor and to suffer from a variety of adverse health outcomes. The statistics are sobering. Both in the short-term, when dropouts first leave school, and in the long-term, over their entire working lives, dropouts are severely disadvantaged relative to students who complete high (Rumberger, p. 88, 2011). Dropouts are almost twice as likely to be poor—in 2009, 25 percent of high school dropouts had incomes below the poverty level compared to 14 percent for high school graduates with no college (Rumberger, p. 92, 2011). The economic disadvantages of not completing high school have grown more sizeable over time as the availability of low-skilled jobs has  declined. The median annual earnings of full-time, full-year dropouts were 15 percent less than high school completers in 1980, but increased to 21 percent by 2008 (Rumberger, p. 93, 2011). In recent years, the drop-out rate in US schools, currently estimated at over 20% overall and overrepresented among low income, Black, and Latino and other minority students, has gained a great deal of attention, because of its im pact on the students and on the communities in which they live. There are some dynamics that fuel these inordinate rates for minorities. By raising the compulsory school attendance age and providing supports for struggling students, 25 percent of likely dropouts remained in school because of compulsory schooling laws (â€Å"Raising the Compulsory School Attendance Age,† National Association of Secondary School Principals. May 2010.) To remain in school, students must devote their time and attention to their schoolwork and their school activities. They must also get along with their teachers and fellow students. But some students engage in a number of behaviors in and out of school that increase their risk of dropping out. These behaviors include misbehaving in school, delinquent behavior outside of school, drug and alcohol use, and sexual activity and teen childbearing. The research literature finds that engaging in any of these behaviors increases the risk of dropping out of school ( Sanchez p. 172). Potential dropouts will not get the specialized help if they dropout because they were not required to stay in school until the age of 18. Dropouts are generally unprepared to contribute to society and are a burden on the nation’s economy. Lower local, state, and national tax revenues are the most obvious consequence of higher dropout rates; even when dropouts are employed, they earn significantly lower wages than do graduates. State and local economies suffer further when they have less-educated populaces, as they find it more difficult to attract new business investment. Simultaneously, these entities must spend more on social programs when their populations have lower educational levels. The nation’s economy and competitive standing also suffer when there are high dropout rates. Among developed countries, the United States ranks twenty-first in high school graduation rates and fifteenth in college attainment rates among twenty-five- to thirty-four-year-olds. Dropouts represent a tremendous loss of human potential and productivity, and they significantly reduce the nation’s ability to compete in an increasingly global economy. Furthermore, recent estimates project that the future domestic workforce demands will require higher levels of education among U.S. workers. However, without significant improvements in the high school and postsecondary completion rates, the nation is on track to fall short by up to 3 million postsecondary degrees by 2018 (Junn, p. 7). Critics Those contending that raising the compulsory school attendance age would be useless are mistaken. Research indicates that approximately 25% of potential dropouts remain in school because of compulsory school laws. Compulsory school attendance laws provide for the direct enforcement and policing of school attendance. In addition, overall enrollment rates among 16 year olds are lower in states that allow them to drop out when they turn 16. Philip Oreopoulos, in two separate studies using information gathered by various surveys analyzed the issue of implementing compulsory attendance laws (Oreopoulos-2005, p. 12). Using additional information from countries like England and Ireland, he concluded that students who are compelled to complete at least one more year of school will earn 12 percent more than those who choose to drop out earlier (Oreopoulos-2005, p. 13). In the second study specifically concerning that increasing the drop out age (above 16) increases an individual’s scho oling by .12 to .16 years, thus better preparing them for the labor force. In his study he also observed a decrease of 1.2 and 2.1 percentage points in the overall dropout rate. As with some of the other studies, he concluded that the policy does not affect the rates; other factors such as funding and alternative measures must be put into place (Oreopoulos-December 2005, p. 17). Critics also argue that education is primarily a State and local responsibility. While this is established by the 10th Amendment to the US Constitution, the United States has a fundamental responsibility to promote policies nationally that effect all of its citizens. The dropout rate is alarming and could pose national security issues. An independent task force launched by the Council on Foreign Relations (2013) is warning the U.S. education system is barreling toward â€Å"a national security crisis.† The report highlights a Defense Department statistic that 75% of American youth don’t qualify for the armed forces because of a lack of a high school diploma, obesity or a criminal record. The disproportionate number of minority groups with high dropout  rates could be further investigated by the office of Civil Rights (OCR). Why are so many minorities leaving school? We live in a highly mobile society with people constantly moving from state to state. This mobility will result in different compulsory school attendance ages in different states. In 1980, Congress established the Department of Education (DOE), as a Cabinet level agency. Today, the DOE operates programs that touch on every area and level of education. The official mission of the Doe is to â€Å"†¦.promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access.† Raising the national compulsory school age to 18 would carry out this mission perfectly. It is difficult to determine how many students would choose to pursue a higher education or technical training, once they graduate, it is extra difficult to reasonably argue tha t they should be allowed to give up on school. Faced with the reality of trying to get a job and raise a family, most students who dropped out wished they had remained in school. The facts are well documented—the economic consequences of dropping out are dramatic (John M. Bridgeland, John J. DiIulio, Jr.and Ryan Streeter argue: Their concerns are merited – the economic consequences of dropping out are dramatic. In the United States, high school graduates earn 43 percent more than individuals without a high school diploma, and college graduates earn more than 150 percent – one and a half times – more. Median earnings for people who have not graduated from high school are currently a mere $415 per week. Research has shown a 10 percent rise in earnings for people who simply stay in school one year longer. Over their lifetimes, female high school dropouts earn between $120,000 and $244,000 less than female graduates, and males $117,000 to $322,000 less than male graduates. College graduates earn between $800,000 and $1,387,000 more over their lifetimes than high school dropouts. Not only are earnings prospects bleak for dropouts who have jobs, but the prospect of having a job at all is not guaranteed: dropouts are much more likely to be unemployed. The unemployment rate among individuals who have not graduated from high school is 65 percent higher than it is for graduates and three times higher than it is for college graduates. Clearly, dropping out of high school is often equivalent to choosing a life of financial hardship. It also places a burden upon society as a whole. Annual public health costs for dropouts have been estimated at $58 billion, and  approximately $10 billion could be saved each year in public assistance if all our students graduated from high school. (p. 10) In their overview and survey of research on the importance of compulsory school ages (Hoor & Reynolds p 3-4) find that raising the age is an important component of confronting the dropout problem. In their study, â€Å"Understanding and Addressing the Issue of the High School Dropout Age,† the authors find evidence that raising the compulsory school age is gaining support across the United States in part because doing so helps reduce dropout numbers. The paper also provides a sampling of evidence-based interventions that help reduce the dropout rate. Solutions There is no simple way to nationally raise the compulsory school attendance age to 18 years. Just raising the age to 18 is not enough. It will take cooperation from many sectors to realize this needed policy change. Evaluating past reform efforts and the existing more recent research literature on implementation will provide information needed for developing more successful programs in the future. Though all states will benefit from raising the age to 18, states have varied factors they must consider and must do what fits for that state. Making schools and schools districts accountable for implementing and maintaining the national compulsory school attendance age of 18 is a great start. Thankfully, No Child Left Behind is is being left behind. However, a fair, consistent and reliable means of effectively addressing dropouts must be developed. The school environment itself determines whether at-risk students succeed. Students who are supported, motivated, and encouraged by their teach ers, who regard their teachers as caring, and who receive guidance from their teachers usually like school. In contrast, dropouts often report leaving school because they did not get along with their teachers or classmates. Smaller class sizes or counseling and guidance programs for struggling students are ways to improve how students perceive their teacher support networks. (Oreopoulos, Philip 2006 p. 31). Making funding available to hire and train teachers and providing smaller classes will help ease these issues. Providing other school-appropriate proven resources will also help. Currently, many school districts expel or suspend students for long periods of time, but are still  able to receive FTE (Full-time equivalent workload of a student) funding for much of the time period the student is not in school. They are not providing services, but they get the money whether the student is in school or not. This must stop. Otherwise, schools have no monetary incentive to keep students in school. School-based approaches as standalone programs are unlikely to solve the dropout crisis without providing adequate support to families and communities. In particular, even widespread school reform that raised the persistently lowest-achieving schools to even average achievement levels will unlikely raise the graduation rate sufficiently and at best eliminate about one-third of the achievement gap differences between racial and socioeconomic groups. Therefore, to improve graduation rates and to close gaps in graduation will require interventions in two other arenas: families and communities (Rumberger p. 274). Making families and communities more responsible by empowering them will go a long way. Family involvement is one of the most important contributors to school completion and success. The most accurate predictor of a student’s school achievement is the extent to which his/her family encourages learning. Success is more likely if the family communicates high, yet reasonable, expectations for the student’s education and future career and becomes involved in his/her education (Schargel & Smink, p. 99, 177). Although t he research explicitly confirms the positive and long-lasting effects of parent, family, and community involvement on student learning, this data is often overlooked in local, state, and national discussions about raising student achievement and closing achievement gaps (Berliner, p. 975). As much as the nation should be alarmed by the scope and gravity of America’s dropout problem, we should also be encouraged by the leadership that states across the country are demonstrating to address it. The District of Columbia and 17 other states already require students to be in school until they are 18. The pessimists will exclaim that changing the compulsory graduation age to 18 will not stop those determined to quit school from quitting and the responsibility of school laws should be left to states, however, there is a compelling body of research that indicates benefits to raising the compulsory age of school attendance to 18 nationally. Works Cited Allan, Kenneth. A Primer in Social and Sociological Theory: Toward a Sociology of Citizenship. Los Angeles: SAGE/Pine Forge, 2011. Print. David, Berliner C. â€Å"Our Impoverished View of Educational Reform.† Teacher’s College Record 108.6 (2006): 949-975. Print. â€Å"Despite Interventions, No-Show Students Drop Out : NPR.† NPR.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Oct. 2013. Junn, Jane. â€Å"The Political Costs of Unequal Education.† Department of Political Science & Eagleton Institute of Politics Rutgers University (2005): 14. Web. 24 Oct. 2005. Nakamura, David, and Scott Wilson. â€Å"Middle Class is Under Threat.† Washington Post [Washington] 12 Jan. 2012: 1. Print. Roderick, Melissa R. The Path to Dropping Out: Evidence for Intervention. Westport, Conn: Auburn House, 1993. Print. Rumberger, Russell W. Dropping Out: Why Students Drop Out of High School and What Can Be Done About It. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2011. Print. Rushton, Rosie, and Kathryn Lamb. Staying Cool, Surviving School: Secondary School Strategies. Puffin, 1995. Print. Sidlow, Edward, and Beth Henschen. Govt: Student Edition. Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2013. Print. Smink, Jay, and Franklin P. Schargel. Helping Students Graduate: A Strategic Approach to Dropout Prevention. Larchmont, N.Y: Eye On Education, 2004. Print.

Being a Teenager

Being a teenager The teenage years are the years were you try to find out who you are. It’s the best period in life. But it’s also one of the hardest. By Frederik Handberg Hello I’m Frederik. I want to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of being a teenager. My opinion is that it’s hard to be a â€Å"normal† teenager in 2011. It can get confusing whit all the different situations you have to deal with. But there are also many great things when it comes to being a teenager.And I think that that is very important to remember when you’re young and sometimes can feel a bit down over things in life. I think that teenager’s opinions are being heard in the public space. But they are sometimes being neglected. Because people just think we are a bunch of confused minors. Many teenagers have an opinion to how the world and life should be. But we don’t get influence on the decisions which is taken. People still treat us like a child. And that can sometimes get quite annoying when we try to grow up.Many teenagers see the school as a place where they are forced to be during the day. But that isn’t my opinion. Of course it can be irritating sometimes to get up a rainy day and go to school. But I mostly see the school as a place where you meet your friends. And meet new people. Another thing that approximately all teenagers have wondered about, I think. Is their popularity among their friends in the class. Sometimes you can feel like a complete idiot. And other times feel like you can take on the whole world.When you grow up you will also see that you get more responsibility and control over your own life. Although you can feel that your parents are being more irritating and over protective. And you don’t always see your parent’s decisions as a good thing. I guess that is a part of being a teenager and grow up. Sometimes you believe that your parents only are there to make life miserable for you . And set limits for your growing expression. You sometimes feel that your parents must have forgotten how it was to be a teenager.But in the end I think that you will see that you’re parents only tried to take care of you. And do the best thing possible for you. I think our parents would show us even more confidence, if we managed to have a good relationship to them. It is also in the teenage years that you try to define who you are as a person. In other words, what your identity is. That’s why many teenagers try many different things in these years. That not always is thought through. But if we don’t try we won’t move us and develop us in life. Frederik Handberg, 488 words.

Answer those question about dance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Answer those question about dance - Essay Example Creative movements would work for children under twelve years of age who are learning and discovering their strengths while improvision can be used in teens and adults who are aware of their interests. The specialist should expect the dancers to be more fit, better concentration and sensory awareness. Question 2: The dancer, choreographer and the audience member are all equal parties in the event since they all complement each other. This is because the choreographer demonstrates certain traits that the dancer learns through continuous training, in order to improve his performance. In a live performance, the dancer performs to the audience, which will interpret, understand the dancer’s message and comment on the performance through acclamation. Therefore, they are all important to each other. Question 3: Court ballet originated form the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century. Romantic ballet was a ballet dance that featured female dancers that sensually moved their bodies. Classical ballet was the traditional form of ballet that featured Enrico Cocchetti as a great dancer. Neo-classical ballet was a modernised form of classical ballet in which George Balanchine thrived. He was the initiator of contemporary ballet that permitted a greater range of movements than the neo-classical ballet. Question 4: Modern dance started in the early 1900s in response to ballet, which was majorly used in concerts. It involved a wide range of styles as compared to ballet. There were many styles such as those initiated by Graham and Horton. The mid-century was characterised by combining modern dance and ballet elements. There was a lot of improvisation and performance art incorporation. It is different today form the jazz, ballet and tap dance in that it allows a lot of individualistic ideas and incorporated style and fashion. Question 5: The social dances in the 1980s featured dances

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Journal - Assignment Example She was sometimes exposed to sex, and sometimes to sex abstinence, write Tasca et al. (110-119). It was in the second millennium BC that this condition started being studied as a disease in medicine with little scientific innovation. Theories proposed by Galen were the only scientific therapies that contributed to the study of this disease (Tasca et al. 110). In the 20th century, several studies were conducted to determine the risk factors for this disease so that actual solution could be reached. Hence, our views of female gender made the origin of this disease a wrong one, since we associated it with female weakness brought about by supernatural or demonological factors. This pseudo-scientific prejudice and our biased views regarding female gender misinterpreted and misunderstood this mental disorder, which is now considered as a proper mental illness that can be improved and corrected by proper therapies and

Take home exam Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Take home exam - Essay Example The rules of the present international economic order have been primarily designed and enforced by the developed nations to serve their own selfish interest for this reason undermining the ability of these concepts of business to in spur development, as they so desire. In as long as the developed nations interfere and manipulate the international trade rules to safeguard their wealth, resources as well as other self-interests and gains, the other countries of the world will remain to languish in abject poverty regardless of the economic globalization. This in turn has led to the increased incidence of inequality among and within states involved. According to Stiglitz, developed countries continue to manipulate the international trade rules with the knowledge of the third-world countries that remain to be the greatest causalities of these amendments (63-64). The countries aim at protecting their factories and farmers from the more proficient producers in the developing countries. The international financial system that is led by the I.M.F has been known to reward the extravagant leaders and penalize the wretched debtors. Such moves are aimed to cover up for the many malicious practices on the international platform that leaves the rich states richer while the poor states more impoverished. As globalization continues to take center stage and implementation of free trade unions, the disparities and economic inequality continues to proceed further unchecked evoking the concept of negative externalities as construed by market analysts and researchers. Interest groups among the developed nations benefit from favorable treatment by their government but these favors do not apply for people from developing countries as they are victimized for becoming a ‘threat’. The same applies on the aspect of free trade that over time undermine

Hart-Fuller Debate Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Hart-Fuller Debate - Essay Example Introduction to Hart’s Concept of Law: Hart in his book addresses three critical issues. The questions which arise from these legal issues are (1) how does law differ from and how is it related to orders backed by threats? (2) How does legal obligation differ from, and how is it related to, moral obligation? (3) What are rules and to what extent is law an affair of rules?1 Laws, Commands and Orders: Hart argues in the first chapter of his book that laws are varieties of imperatives which differ in nature according to the tone of the individual. The acts of human beings to ask someone for help, to request someone for an act, or to order someone to do or to abstain from doing something, which might be backed by threat, or in other case where a man might be coerced to do something are all an indigenous part of the social nomenclature in which the society thrives and survives. Hart argues that law is a social construction backed by history. Law is an institution which always did n ot exist. It emerged for special reasons, and because of those reasons it has taken the form it takes. Law as the Union or Primary and Secondary Rules: Fundamental lawmaking power rests of the customary social rule, and it is through this rule that the sovereign authorises itself to make laws. Hart argued that law is nothing but a social construction of primary and secondary rules. In order to understand the effect of such rules, it is crucial to realise that Hart identified Rules of behaviour and rules of recognition as minimum standards for the existence of a legal system. We shall analyse the understanding of these rules later in the paper, but for now, it is important to draw a distinction to draw a parallel between these two rules and associate them with the primary and secondary rules. Primary rules may be defined as such ruled which guide behaviour of an individual by imposing duties on people, secondary rules provide for identification, change and enforcement of primary rule s. Both these rules are attached to the law of recognition and behaviour and the law works within this social pattern living in the society. Rules are present when there is a certain kind of social practice, regular behaviour together with the set of attitudes known as acceptance.2 Sovereign and Subject: Hart conceptualises that wherever there is a law, there is a sovereign, characterised negatively and positively by reference to the habit of obedience; a person or body of persons whose orders the great majority of the society habitually obey. This is the fundamental relationship between the subject and the sovereign.3 The most basic characteristic of democracy is the uninterrupted continuity of law making power by rules which bridge the transition from one lawgiver to another: these regulate the succession.4 Hart argues that in a sovereign State the laws are made through the acceptance of obedience of the majority of the people. The Constitution is the document which authorises the legislature to make laws for the people, but the legislature is not beyond the law since the power vested in him was granted by the Constitution itself. Therefore, it can be argued that the Constitution is the supreme law of the land and the law making bodies come under the purview of the Constitution. However, the lawmaker is not limited by the Constitution in order to enact laws, and he has the will to be obeyed by the

Analysis of Men Of Horror Movie Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Analysis of Men Of Horror Movie - Essay Example Although Carl Brashear attains a chance at the navy school, in his New York Times article, Scot proves how education in a racism world does not favor him. His instructor, Billy Sunday, fails him and he ultimately opts to help his parents on the farm. He never despairs in his dream but hopes of success I future. He remains focus in attains his dream position as a master diver. Even when he hurts his leg during his training, he does not use this as an excuse but takes hurt in his mission. The article Jet, present how an aspiring doctor, who later becomes Carl Brashear’s wife, offers to sponsor his education and he uses this opportunity to prove his talent to the nation. However, his efforts do not get approval since another person rejoices his success. This depicts ignorance of the nation and lack of humanity. Despite all destitutions that come in his way, he perseveres and triumphs them all. His instructor ends up having a U-turn in his life. He faces demotion in work due to the success he offers Carl Brashear and ultimately ends up drinking and living a reckless life. In conclusion, although life is full of vicissitudes, an individual has to persist and have hope for the future. Persistence and determination in life are what gives a person the heart and strength to move forward in life. In order to succeed in life, an individual should set a goal and focus on achieving it no matter the consequences or hardships to face. Racial discrimination as a factor that deprives an individual the opportunity of achieving the desired goal should be banned in society.     

Reading response Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 4

Reading response - Essay Example Disney movies have influenced children and adults equally well to absorb gender images which are prominent in our society. The American society in a subtle manner has recognized the gender role presented by this movie â€Å"Beauty and the Beast†. The beauty is an innocent girl who is naà ¯ve and pure. This is what our society thinks about the gender roles of male and female. Disney has tried to present the cultural beliefs and values which has nurtured the natural consciousness of Americans. â€Å" AN because Disney was so deeply embedded in the American psyche and scene, understanding him also may also enable one to understand the power of popular culture in shaping the national consciousness†. (Gabler,20) Disney has show cased what the people want to see as he knows what people believe would only be accepted by them when shown in movies. Even though there is a female lead in the story, the masculine power always stood out. The thinker Gabler states that Walt Disney’s influence on people cannot be measured by numbers but by the way it shaped the culture of Americans. It is an illusion or imagination of society where a prince or man is the superior authority in romances. It is not different from real world as man is consistently seen as the leading power in life and in all relationships. In â€Å"Beauty and the Beast† the female character is sensuous, pretty, delicate and subordinate to the male power. Kilbourne says that in media culture the importance is for power rather than passion. According to ( Kilbourne 394) â€Å"Men conquer and women ensnare, always with the essential aid of a product. The woman is rewarded for her sexuality by the man’s wealth†. Even though her male part is played by a beast, the dominating power of the character can be seen all over the movie. Disney has produced many animated movies and every movie has male characters that represent courage, power and strength. Women in this movie only have the role of

Pitching for Business Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Pitching for Business - Coursework Example The different methods that are applied to the research are applied such that the appropriate data can be collected. Pre-testing is the research market that results to the determination of the effectiveness of the product based on the responses of the consumers. Campaign pre-testing is done with the media such that the budgeting and planning is done to meet the consumer’s needs. Post-testing is done in market research to monitor the performance of the brand that the research is about (McNeill, 1990). The preference, the attitudes of the consumer towards the brand and the approach that can be used to reach the brand to the consumers (Cronin, 2004). The process to improve the product and brands of an advertising industry comes about with the quality of the research and the methods that are used in the research (Carroll, 1993). Market research methods improves the efficiency to the company that uses the method. The company are able to improve the efficiency of their market to the consumers since the research back up the strategy that the company uses to market the brand (Graham, 1978). Improving the efficiency of the brand marketing makes a company distinguishes between the success and failure of the company. The qualitative research also helps the company benefit from any coin that they spend (Cronin, 2004). Encouraging innovation is also a reason that makes companies to conduct qualitative research methods. Brand reputation is a major contribution in the development of a company’s brand. This makes a company to establish a brand that becomes the leader of the others in a market (McNeill, 1990). Reputation of a brand is mainly contributed to through authority and innovation in a company. The conducting of the research also enables the company to fulfill the vital needs that the consumers may need in the marker (Fisher 1958). This bring about the innovative appearance of the company the tools

Nursing Theory Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 3

Nursing Theory - Essay Example Tautology looks into the useless repetition of a concept in different parts of the theory that can confuse the explanation of the theory vague and can confuse the reader. While, teleology is examined by considering the extent to which consequences and causes are put different in a theory. Teleology happens when a theorist describes ideas by consequences and then initiates new ideas instead of getting the definitions of the original ideas. As this procedure continues, the theory remains vague for there is no lucid definition of the theory’s ideas (Peterson & Bredow, 2009). Moreover, diagrams are important to see the interrelationship of the ideas practically to each other before conducting research. They are essential in reviewing the strength of statistical associations between the theories ideas (p. 55). In conclusion, theory development and critique are important because they result to theories that are adequate, clear, and address the complexity and consistency of theories. Theories that are produced after the process are precise, definitive parameters and have clear boundaries of the subject matter. Theories provide nurses with the required basis to restructure and enlighten healthcare and improve the quality of care at all professional

President Bill Clinton Essay Example for Free

President Bill Clinton Essay The Map Room Speech delivered by President Bill Clinton by way of apology and explanation regarding his conduct with Monica Lewinsky appeals to the listener as an American and as an individual, that is, makes its appeal to personal and presumably universal feelings and emotions regarding the state and the family. This speech must be reviewed with the idea in mind that this is not the first time that Clinton is speaking on the subject. His initial statement regarding Lewinsky involved the memorable line â€Å"I did not have sexual relations with that woman. † In the early stages of a scandal, it is possible to strategize along the lines of the Chinese saying that â€Å"less talk, less mistake. † That is, by delivering a direct and unequivocal statement, it is possible to brazen everything out and avoid further discussion regarding degrees of involvement or moral culpability. However, in view of later developments, it became necessary to take a different tack. The strategy employed by this speech involves admitting a mistake – admitting a â€Å"wrong† relationship with Ms Lewinsky and deceiving his wife in the process – but it is a mistake that had to be framed as a mistake that any other man would have made. But at the same time that it presents the President as having a lot in common with the man on the street, it also intends to reinforce the image of great-heartedness expected in a gentleman, where he says â€Å"I must take complete responsibility for all my actions, public and private. † Here we are presented with a fusion of Everyman and Hero. The first paragraph of this speech makes the point that he has, in the course of the investigation, answered questions that â€Å"no American citizen would ever want to answer. † The juxtaposition of â€Å"American citizen† with the concept of doing something unwillingly while at the mercy of a probing authorities is meant to create tension between the idea of the American as the â€Å"freest citizen on Earth† and a version of reality where he actually is not quite â€Å"free†. On some level it would evoke the historical â€Å"white man’s burden† that the US was supposed to have taken up when it acquired colonies in Asia – that the American has a great responsibility to truth because to those whom much is given, much is expected. The ordinary man on the street might feel this, that he submits to Big Brother on occasion, because he must keep his country great and intact. In the next paragraphs he owns up to his mistakes while emphasizing the mitigating factors. He has been truthful and never lied, since all his answers were â€Å"legally accurate. † This would dispose of the famous episode where â€Å"oral sex† as â€Å"real sex† was called into question during the investigation. He also stresses that he never asked anyone to practice deception for his sake, which statement seems to be intended to call attention to the fact that he is not a heartless cheating bastard or a predatory boss. He did not ask the women in his life – his wife and his mistress – to cover up for him, or to risk their integrity for him as he could have done so easily, as some unscrupulous men would have done quite easily, were they situated in a position as powerful as his. Clinton then proceeds to attribute his silence to a lapse in judgment. The earlier tactic of brazening out a tricky situation seems to have backfired, and thus must be transformed into, or presented as, keeping quiet out of the desire to protect the innocent – those who cannot protect themselves. Of course, one keeps silent or withholds information from the media, and this portion contrasts the family man’s desire to protect honor or the finer sensibilities of his wife and daughter with that of the media as a relentless institution that will say all, that must have its ratings and viewers, at the expense of reputations or feelings or whatever it is that is insulted in the course of getting the story. He also reminds the public that there was a politically motivated lawsuit – one which was subsequently dismissed – that was ongoing at the time the scandal erupted. Now the image includes political enemies, whose popular image would be, like the media, that of predators: Power-hungry individuals out to destroy a man who is only trying to do his best. In touching on this investigation he says: â€Å"The independent counsel investigation moved on to my staff and friends, then into my private life, and now the investigation itself is under investigation. This has gone on too long, cost too much, and hurt too many innocent people. † Here it is worthwhile to note the emphasis on cost, the toll which the investigation, where he and his wife have been cleared anyway, has taken not just in terms of time or money, but again in terms of the mental or moral anguish that it has caused â€Å"innocent people. † He then brings the situation home; the public issue is also a private one, and indeed, now that the public aspect of it has been disposed of, the process of dealing with it as a personal, a family issue, commences. The unspoken truth here is that this process will be more difficult than the public one. He says that the people he loves most are his wife and daughter. Such statements are rather like a Hallmark greeting card – bland enough to slide off without anyone taking umbrage or questioning the validity of the statement. At the same time, the cliche carries with it great power. While love is a complex thing that is constantly in flux, with family relations being a barometer of the same, the ordinary individual does not question its nature but only sticks to his guns and says â€Å"I love my family. † To say, â€Å"Now this matter is between me, the two people I love most: my wife and our daughter, and our God. I must put it right, and I am prepared to do whatever it takes to do so. Nothing is more important to me personally,† is to say exactly what the ordinary American thinks he would feel in such a situation, and moreover, it uses much the same language that he would. The father of the family also puts his foot down when he says, â€Å"†¦I intend to reclaim my family life for my family. It’s nobody’s business but ours. † Of course, one of the more striking lines in this speech is â€Å"Even Presidents have private lives. † The audience here is asked to have mercy, or perhaps, more accurately, to step up and do their part as members of a community. If America is a great democracy, then the rules that apply to you and your neighbors down the hall or across the street apply to the president too – and not just rules, but privileges. The turn of phrase is made even more pleasing by the suggestion that this time, it is the nation – the man with his beer on the couch, watching tv, the mother preparing dinner, that has the power. Spare the President, because he’s only human. And this way, the passive viewer gets to feel that he or she actually gets to do something that matters. Then Clinton, in the last three paragraphs, draws matters to a close. He says that â€Å"It is time to stop the pursuit of personal destruction and the prying into private lives, and get on with our national life. † This is calculated to appeal to loftier feelings. It says â€Å"You’re better than that. † Or better yet â€Å"We’re better than that. † With these words, he aligns himself with the people. It is at this point that he ceases to be – at least within the framework of this speech – the beleaguered and erring politician, or the earnest, hardworking father and husband who has made the mistake of an office dalliance. At this point, he is gathering up the reins and resuming the role of President, Leader of the Nation. In its sweep, it even disposes of the notion that the presidency he holds is actually at the mercy of the people’s preference. But there is nothing wrong with this, not really. After all, anyone who has been a leader, whether coach of a basketball team, head of a clique or a mother of small children, knows that there is a time when one has to act decisively, to think for the followers and act rather than to pay obsessive attention to their every squeak and whimper. He refers to the country as having been â€Å"distracted for too long. † Indeed, the business of nation-building, or at least the one of getting along from one day to another as a nation, would appear to benefit from being presented once more as something lofty. For once everything is in place – when the people have enough to eat, for instance, and homes and televisions and cable tv – it is easy to become lost in inane distractions like a media circus. Or at least, that it is a media circus and detrimental to the work begun by the Founding Fathers and continued by the Pioneers, is the desired effect. He calls then for people to the â€Å"important work to do real opportunities to seize, real problems to solve, real security matters to face. † This effectively writes off the scandal in which he has been recently embroiled as â€Å"not real. † Security issues are real, the opportunity for economic growth is real, but the doings of a man and his intern are less â€Å"real. † And this makes sense in a practical way – set against the greater scale of things, it seems to say, does it really matter that Bill Clinton had sex with Monica Lewinsky? This speech acknowledges its importance to the nation in a â€Å"if it’s important to you, then it’s important to me† kind of way; â€Å"I care about how you feel,† he says to America. But as it ends, he presents the events of the preceding months as a small matter, after all, set against the backdrop of the greatness that is America in the century that (at that time) was just about to begin. In conclusion, in the alliances and associations created by this speech is a powerful message to the listeners that they mustn’t care too much about one man’s mistake – what they (and that erring man) have at hand is a much greater task: upholding the great American nation.

Dont Judge A Book By Its Cover Essay Example for Free

Dont Judge A Book By Its Cover Essay He may be looking corny by wearing bulky goggles or a lab coat, but Dr.Horrible isn’t what he seems. Dr.Horrible is, for one, determined. He has set a plan on how to get himself into The Evil League of Evil by assembling his Freeze-Ray and defeating his nemesis, Captain Hammer. But before he is able to assemble the Freeze-Ray, he has to steal the final â€Å"ingredient†, the Wonderflonium. Which leads me to Dr.Horrible’s second characteristic, jealous. After bumping into Captain Hammer having to save Penny’s life, both his nemesis and love falls in love, which is the reason why he has the characteristic of being jealous. The end is where Dr.Horrible receives his final characteristic, evil. He not only defeated Captain Hammer, but he has killed Penny. Because of these acts, he is finally accepted in The Evil League of Evil. Dr.Horrible may look corny, but he definitely lives up to his name, horrible.

Theories on Discourse and Changes in Ideology

Theories on Discourse and Changes in Ideology Language, that makes us the Crown of Creatures, empowers us with an expressive medium which we exploit to communicate, understand, interpret, negate, acknowledge, appreciate, influence, persuade, dominate, control, etc. Metaphorically speaking, language helps us to caress and comfort our feelings, excite and thrill our spirit, rattle our nerves, kill our desire, and so on. Language is a variegated phenomenon. It can emotionally move and affect us as powerfully as physical actions. This is the power of language. 1.1 What is Discourse? The term discourse has been derived from French word discours meaning talk. In linguistics, discourse is a sequence of utterances. Grammarians define discourse as large pieces of speech and writing: stretches of language longer than a sentence. Language is used to mean something and to do something, and this meaning and doing is determined by the context of its usage. As discourse is dialogic in nature, the things which make it different from ordinary language use are context, creation, reception and interpretation. It should not be confused with either of the Chomskys or Saussures categories. It is neither performance or parole which is concerned with language in its actual utterances, nor competence or languewhere language is a code system and a system of communicative conventions. Although it contains both the elements, it goes beyond the distinction of performance or parole and competence or langue; it is the study of language use. If language is speech act and social behavior, discourse is a form of social practice. Foucault defines discourse as ways of constituting knowledge, together with the social practices, forms of subjectivity and power relations which inhere in such knowledges and relations between them. Discourses are more than ways of thinking and producing meaning. They constitute the nature of the body, unconscious and conscious mind and emotional life of the subjects they seek to govern. (Weedon, 1987) a form of power that circulates in the social field and can attach to strategies of domination as well as those of resistance. (Diamond Quinby, 1988) In other words, discourse is a string of utterances concerned with the production of meaning. Discourse is a socially organized way of speaking. According to Foucault, discourse constructs the topic. It governs what can and cannot be said about the topic. Apart from governing the topic, it is also used to influence people to change ideas into practice (be it personal or others ideas), and to regulate the conduct of others. As discourse is concerned with the production of meaning, the utterances have a relation to common sense assumptions. Cultural hegemony is maintained through common sense assumptions which become universal ideologies through language or in other words discourse. Language exerts hidden power, like a moon on the tides. (Rita Mae Brown, Starting from Scratch, 1998) 1.2 What is Ideology? Ideologies are those ideas, values, attitudes, and (general or cultural) ways of thinking that shape our belief systems and mind sets about what is /isnt correct, and how it must be. Ideologies, be they religious or political or social, maintain power structures and social hierarchies and remain dominant and prevalent in the society through rhetorical discourse or hidden power in discourse. The main purpose of ideology is not only to change the existing structures, but also to maintain already existing set of ideals. Ideas, beliefs, and attitudes which maintain status quo become dominant or prevalent ideologies of the society. These ideologies are so powerful that they ignore and sideline those ideas which are against its very existence through a normative thought process and politics of the language. Ideologies when become shared experiences start making sense. People start making sense of their lives while observing them. In other words, they are no more false beliefs and ideas, rather a true and lived experience. THEORIES ON DISCOURSE IDEOLOGY The social theory has contributed in many ways to explore the role of language in exercising, maintaining and changing power. Firstly, the work in the theory of ideology talks about ideology as a mechanism of power without using coercive means and language as a locus of ideology which is significant in exercising power. Secondly, Michel Foucaults work ascribes central role to discourse in the development of power structures of forms. Thirdly, Jurgen Habermas theory of communicative action which challenges Marxist focus on economics or alienated labor- is considered as the sole determining factor of oppression. He argues that key to liberation is rather to be found in language and communication between people. 2.1 Marx and Ideology Karl Max, a social thinker of 19th century, talked of ideology in terms of an instrument of social production. He gave economic base and superstructure model of society, where base denotes the relation of production and superstructure denotes the dominant ideology. Base shapes the superstructure of any society, while the superstructure maintains and legitimates the base. According to Marx, bourgeoisie create and reinforce particular ways of thinking, in other words, particular ideology which in turn reinforce the structure of the society, thus maintaining status quo and existing hierarchies of status and power. Fig. 1: Marxs Base Superstructure Model of Society According to Karl Marx, social ideologies not only cause status quo or hegemony in the society, but also a conditioning where false consciousness created by the ruling class is justified. This conditioning makes us think that the way our society operates is for the best, and lower class justifies its own lower position in society. Michel Foucault in The Order of Discourse In The Order of Discourse, Foucault argues that the discourse is controlled by certain functions, actions and rules. In particular, certain topics are prohibited and who speaks is limited. Reason is valued and madness is ignored. It is also controlled by what we choose to comment on and by the will to truth. [T]he highest truth no longer resided in what discourse was or did, but in what is said: a day came when truth was displaced by from the ritualized, efficacious, and just act of enunciation, towards the utterance itself, its meaning, its form, its object, its relation to its reference. (1462) In every society, the production of discourse is at once controlled, selected, organized and redistributed by a certain number of procedures whose role is to ward off its powers and dangers, to gain mastery over its chance events, to evade its ponderous, formidable materiality (p.210). Foucault also talks about procedures of exclusion and procedures of inclusion. He states that prohibition of including or discussing certain topics very soon reveal [discourses] link with desire and with power (p.211). At another place he says that discourse is not simply that which translates struggles or systems of domination, but is the thing for which and by which there is struggle; discourse is the power which is to be seized (p.211). In Weedons (1987) in interpretation of Foucault is: A dynamic of control between discourses and the subjects, constituted by discourses, who are their agents. Power is exercised within discourses in the ways in which they constitute and govern individual subjects. Foucaults focus is upon questions of how some discourses have shaped and created meaning systems that have gained the status and currency of truth, and dominate how we define and organize both ourselves and our social world, whilst other alternative discourses are marginalised and subjugated, yet potentially offer sites where hegemonic practices can be contested, challenged and resisted. Foucault developed the concept of the discursive field as part of his attempt to understand the relationship between language, social institutions, subjectivity and power. Discursive fields, such as the law or the family, contain a number of competing and contradictory discourses with varying degrees of power to give meaning to and organize social institutions and processes. They also offer a range of modes of subjectivity (Weedon, 1987). It follows then that, if relations of power are dispersed and fragmented throughout the social field, so must resistance to power be (Diamond Quinby, 1988). Foucault argues though, in The Order of Discourse, that the will to truth is the major system of exclusion that forges discourse and which tends to exert a sort of pressure and something like a power of constraint on other discourses, and goes on further to ask the question what is at stake in the will to truth, in the will to utter this true discourse, if not desire and power? (1970, cited in Shapiro 1984, p. 113-4). Thus, there are both discourses that constrain the production of knowledge, dissent and difference and some that enable new knowledges and difference(s). The questions that arise within this framework, are to do with how some discourses maintain their authority, how some voices get heard whilst others are silenced, who benefits and how that is, questions addressing issues of power/ empowerment/ disempowerment. 2.3 Louis Althussers view of Ideology Louis Althusser builds on the work of Jacques Lacan to understand the way ideology functions in society. He thus moves away from the earlier Marxist understanding of ideology. In the earlier model, ideology was believed to create what was termed false consciousness, a false understanding of the way the world functioned (for example, the suppression of the fact that the products we purchase on the open market are, in fact, the result of the exploitation of laborers). Althusser revised Marxs view of ideology, which he described as: thought as an imaginary construction whose status is exactly like the theoretical status of the dream among writers before Freud. He saw human individuals being constituted as subjects through ideology. Consciousness and agency are experienced, but are the products of ideology speaking through the subject. Above all, ideology is an imaginary construction that represents the real world. However, it is so real to us that we never question it. Althusser posits a series of hypotheses that he explores to clarify his understanding of ideology: Ideology represents the imaginary relationship of individuals to their real conditions of existence (Lenin 109). The traditional way of thinking of ideology led Marxists to show how ideologies are false by pointing to the real world hidden by ideology (for example, the real economic base for ideology). According to Althusser, by contrast, ideology does not reflect the real world but represents the imaginary relationship of individuals to the real world; the thing ideology (mis)represents is itself already at one remove from the real. In this, Althusser follows the Lacanian understanding of the imaginary order, which is itself at one step removed from the Lacanian Real. In other words, we are always within ideology because of our reliance on language to establish our reality; different ideologies are but different representations of our social and imaginary reality not a representation of the Real itself. Ideology has a material existence (Lenin 112). Althusser contends that ideology has a material existence because an ideology always exists in an apparatus, and its practice, or practices (Lenin 112). Ideology always manifests itself through actions, which are inserted into practices (Lenin 114), for example, rituals, conventional behavior, and so on. It is our performance of our relation to others and to social institutions that continually instantiates us as subjects. Judith Butlers understanding of performativity could be said to be strongly influenced by this way of thinking about ideology. all ideology hails or interpellates concrete individuals as concrete subjects (Lenin 115). According to Althusser, the main purpose of ideology is in constituting concrete individuals as subjects (Lenin 116). So pervasive is ideology in its constitution of subjects that it forms our very reality and thus appears to us as true or obvious. Althusser gives the example of the hello on a street: the rituals of ideological recognition [] guarantee for us that we are indeed concrete, individual, distinguishable and (naturally) irreplaceable subjects (Lenin 117). Through interpellation, individuals are turned into subjects (which are always ideological). Althussers example is the hail from a police officer: Hey, you there!' (Lenin 118): Assuming that the theoretical scene I have imagined takes place in the street, the hailed individual will turn round. By this mere one-hundred-and-eighty-degree physical conversion, he becomes a subject (Lenin 118). The very fact that we do not recognize this interaction as ideological speaks to the power of ideology: what thus seems to take place outside ideology (to be precise, in the street), in reality takes place in ideology [.] That is why those who are in ideology believe themselves by definition outside ideology: one of the effects of ideology is the practical denegation of the ideological character of ideology by ideology: ideology never says, I am ideological. (Lenin 118) individuals are always-already subjects (Lenin 119). Although he presents his example of interpellation in a temporal form (I am interpellated and thus I become a subject, I enter ideology), Althusser makes it clear that the becoming-subject happens even before we are born. This proposition might seem paradoxical (Lenin 119), Althusser admits; nevertheless, That an individual is always-already a subject, even before he is born, is [] the plain reality, accessible to everyone and not a paradox at all (Lenin 119). Even before the child is born, it is certain in advance that it will bear its Fathers Name, and will therefore have an identity and be irreplaceable. Before its birth, the child is therefore always-already a subject, appointed as a subject in and by the specific familial ideological configuration in which it is expected once it has been conceived (Lenin119). Althusser thus once again invokes Lacans ideas, in this case Lacans understanding of the Name-of-the-Father. Most subjects accept their ideological self-constitution as reality or nature and thus rarely run afoul of the repressive State apparatus, which is designed to punish anyone who rejects the dominant ideology. Hegemony is thus reliant less on such repressive State apparatuses as the police than it is on those Ideological State Apparatuses (ISAs) by which ideology is inculcated in all subjects. (See the next module for an explanation of ISAs.) As Althusser puts it, the individual is interpellated as a (free) subject in order that he shall submit freely to the commandments of the Subject, i.e. in order that he shall (freely) accept his subjection, i.e. in order that he shall make the gestures and actions of his subjection all by himself' (Lenin 123). Louis Althussers ISA Althusser proposed a materialistic conception of ideology, which made use of a special type of discourse: the lacunar discourse. A number of propositions, which are never untrue, suggest a number of other propositions, which are true. In this way, the essence of the lacunar discourse is what is not told (but is suggested). For Althusser, beliefs and ideas are the products of social practices, not the reverse. What is ultimately important for Althusser are not the subjective beliefs held in the minds of human individuals, but rather the material institutions, rituals and discourses that produce these beliefs. Althusser identified the Ideological State Apparatus (ISA) as the method by which organizations propagate ideology primarily. Violence or threat of violence is secondary. ISAs for Althusser were religious, educational, family, cultural institutions. This is in contrast to the Repressive State Apparatus (RSA), by which compliance can be forced and includes the army, police, government, prisons. Force or threat of force is primary, while ideology is secondary. For example, arrest imprisonment, corporal punishment, etc. 2.4 Discourse as Social Practice Social relations of power and domination are sustained through ideology. To Fairclough, ideologies construct realities which give meaning to discursive practices. Through power relations implicit in orders of discourse, discourse becomes invested ideologically. Hence the discursive practices, loaded with ideologies not only produce, but also reproduce or transform social identities, social relations and systems of knowledge and belief. 2.4.1 Fairclough and Ideology: There are two ways of exercising power: through coercion and through consent. According to Fairclough, Ideology is the key mechanism of rule by consent, and discourse is a favored vehicle of ideology. It functions to establish, sustain or change domination or power relations in the society. For Fairclough, ideologies are constructions of reality which are built into various dimensions of the forms and meanings of discursive practices. Through power relations implicit in orders of discourse, discourse becomes invested ideologically. Through being ideologically invested, discourse is a mode of producing, reproducing or transforming social identities, social relations, and systems of knowledge and belief. Fairclough (1992) makes three claims about ideology, based in part on the French Marxist philosopher, Althusser: Ideology has a material basis in the social practices of institutions. As a form of social practice, discourse practices are material forms of ideology. Ideology interpellates subjects. It works by constituting people as subjects within the framework of ideology. Patriarchal ideology interpellates individuals as more powerful men or less powerful women. Racist ideology interpellates groups as ourselves and the Other (see Hall 1997 The Spectacle of the Other). Ideology operates through powerful ideological state apparatuses. Althusser contrasts what he terms the repressive agencies of the police, the military, prisons and the courts, with the ideological state apparatuses of the mass media, education and popular culture. In Faircloughs theory, all of these give rise to institutional and societal orders of discourse (the societal order of discourse is a condensation of the institutional orders of discourse). 2.4.2 Fairclough and Discourse Discourse involves two kinds of social conditions: social conditions of production and social conditions of interpretation. These social conditions are naturalized through the ideological functioning of the practices of dominant class. Fairclough describes underlying conventions of discourse which in fact determines discourse in terms of what Foucault refers to as orders of discourse. To Fairclough, these orders of discourse embody particular ideologies. Fairclough refers to the three dimensions of discourse. They are discursive practice (discourse practice), social practice (socio-cultural practice), and text. Social practice includes discourse which not only reflects reality, but also effect social structures which play active role in social change. Different subject positions determine different discoursal rights and obligations of individuals. Discourse practice refers to the production and reception of messages. Participants indulged in discourse construct their social identities and relations by knowing how to act in certain situations. For this participants draw on what Fairclough refers to as members resources (MR). This include internalized knowledge of social structure and social practices; knowledge about production and interpretation of discourse types; and detailed knowledge of particular linguistics and textual structuring devices. Text is the record of a communicative event. It can be written, spoken or visual. While analyzing text in terms of ideologies embedded in it, two things are very important: firstly, representation of ideological facts and beliefs and construction of participant identities (writer and reader), and secondly, textual function which frames the message. 3.How Ideologies are Embedded in Language Language produces, maintains and changes social relations of power. It also contributes to the domination of some people by others. Power is exercised through language in conversations and other forms of text or talk. When people interact linguistically, the conventional talk embodies common sense assumptions where power structures are treated as legitimized. According to Fairclough, these assumptions are ideologies which are closely linked to power and language. Power relations determine the conventional ideological assumptions, which in turn legitimize existing social relations and unequal power. Language, a social behavior, relies on common sense assumptions. The exercise of power in modern society is increasingly achieved through ideology, and more particularly through the ideological working of the language. (Fairclough, 1989) Further he says, Ideology is the prime means of manufacturing consent. 3.1 Memory Resources Ideological assumptions are mere common sense assumptions, and contribute to sustain existing power relations. To Fairclough, these common sense assumptions are memory resources (MR). when sender encodes a message, the receiver not only decodes it, but also interpret it by comparing and contrasting features of utterances with representations stored in long term memory. Fairclough refers to these prototypes as member resources: grammatical forms, structures, shapes of words, sequence of events, systems of meaning, sounds, etc. Interaction between interpreted utterance and MR results in comprehension. According to Fairclough, understanding how language, power, and ideology are interrelated requires attention to the processes of production and comprehension because MR/ representations/ prototypes are socially determined and ideologically shaped. They are so automatic, natural, legitimate and common sense assumptions that they remain in disguise. The sociologist Harold Garfinkel, describes the familiar common sense world of everyday life as a world which is built entirely upon assumptions and expectations which control both the action of members of society and their interpretation of the action of others. Such assumptions and expectations are implicit, back grounded, taken for granted, not things that people are consciously aware of and rarely explicit. Effectiveness of ideology depends to a considerable degree on it being merged with this common sense background to discourse and other forms of social action. 3.2 Language Ideologies in Text Language ideologies are not just ways of explaining language and language use for economic reasons, but are the language ideas of the dominant groups in society. They may equally be inter-changed with discourses about language. Ideologies are not untrue indeed, like stereotypes, there may be a degree of truth in them. Ideology is to study its effects on discourse forms and meanings and how discursive structures may in turn contribute to the formation and transformation of ideologies. However, ideologies are also at play when language users engage in the ongoing construction of context as subjective, as well as group sensitive, interpretations of social situations. While talking about ideologies embedded in text, we can say that this genre of discourse is a level of language use which is super-ordinate to sentences and texts. Text is not something having a beginning and an end. It involves exchange of meanings. Text are created by speakers and writers who share societys beliefs concerning what is right and what is wrong or about the way things should be for the best in society. When they want to maintain their belief systems or ideologies, they take the help of language. These ideologies remain implicit in the text as they seem natural or common sense. The ideologically loaded language of the text grants it the ideological power. Such langue has judgmental value and meaning as well. Many ideologically loaded words have their judgemental value because their meaning is rational. They exist as binary pairs: master/mistress, housewife/working mother, middle class/working class, freedom fighter/terrorist, hero/coward, etc. Some linguists maintain th at all language all meaning is an ideological construct. Following are few texts which are all related to social problems for one and social beliefs for the other. In other words, they contain social ideologies which are neutralized in the society. CONCLUSION Long-range social changes are driven by changes in ideology. But at a local level, change in actual discourse practices can be cumulative in effect. Both discourse and ideology are based on the relationship between power and knowledge. We tend to think of knowledge as empowering ourselves (Sarup, 1993). Besides this, knowledge is the ability to exercise power over others. So, power is both positive (productive in creating identities), and negative (destroy identities). In productive power, one is not reduced to one dimension as in ideologies and power is not held by one person or group for good. Rather, it exists as a circuit, something which is exercised by everyone in different situations. As where there is power there is always resistance, power can be challenged. We might not say certain things in certain situations, but by breaking the rules, we can re-define the limits of discourse. Hence, redefining the limits of discourse is something productive about power.

Influenza in New York :: Journalism Health Medical Spanish Flu Essays

Influenza in New York NEW YORK: October 5.--The influenza virus is a common disease, which has been prevalent in society for many years. This year however we are seeing an influenza epidemic hitting not only the United States but also the entire world. This strain of influenza has been named "Spanish Influenza" and is much more volatile and deadly than the usual strain of influenza. The common influenza strain usually surfaces in the cold months of winter and this strain is no different, however it is unusually deadly. The fatality rate is much higher for people ages 15-45 compared to the common influenza, which is usually fatal for the young and old. This makes this particular strain of influenza much different and therefore is causing an epidemic and a certain state of panic across the globe. Here in New York it seems that the Spanish influenza was brought to the city by merchant mariners who were shipping in from the war front in Europe. It seems that Spanish influenza is spreading so quickly because of the war. With so many soldiers in tight quarters and in the trenches the disease is able to spread much quicker than before. These soldiers are coming home from the war to cities such as ours and unfortunately are bringing the virus with them. This is causing the spread of Spanish influenza not only through the military but also into the civilian population. Due to the rapid spread of the disease, many steps are being taken by the Public Health Department to try to curb the rapid spread into the civilian population. These actions may seem severe but they are necessary in order to make sure New York has as few fatalities from this epidemic as possible. The first step being taken is quarantining those coming in from Europe who are showing symptoms of the virus or have been in close contact with anyone else showing the symptoms. This is to ensure that these people do not ride in public transportation and transfer the virus to unsuspecting civilians. People are also being inspected for the influenza virus at railroad stations across the city. This is to ensure that the infected do not ride the train and pass the virus on to not only the people on board but also to the population of their destination city.

Windows NT Essay -- Computers Technology Operating System

Windows NT The history of Windows NT: The history of Windows NT goes back to the early 80's, when Microsoft was working on the original Windows system to run on top of DOS. They joined forces with IBM in order to create a more powerful DOS replacement that would run on the Intel x86 platform. The resulting operating system was to be known as OS/2. At the same time OS/2 was being developed, Microsoft was busy working on a new OS, more powerful than the Windows system they already had. This "New Technology" operating system would run on different processor platforms. They planned to accomplish this by writing most of the operating system in the C programming language, which is a language that is portable across platforms. In late October of 1988, Microsoft hired a man named David Cutler who was a respected operating systems guru from Digital Equipment Corporation, to help them design their new operating system. The original planned name was OS/2 NT because at the time, Microsoft was helping to develop OS/2 and was integrating parts of it into its new operating system (NT). After almost two years of work, the first bits of OS/2 NT ran on an Intel i860 processor. Around the same time, David Cutler projected to Bill Gates that NT would ship around March 1991, which turned out be more than two years off the mark. In early 1990, as teams dedicated to NT were formed within Microsoft, Bill Gates criticized NT for being "too big, and too slow" during a review. The decision was eventually made in early 1991 to base NT's "personality" on Microsoft's current Windows system, version 3.0, and not OS/2. In o... ... up retrieval. Windows NT utilizes SCSI disk drives to implement RAID. Increased Stability / Robustness over Windows 95/98 More attention was paid to the stability of Windows NT 4.0 when Microsoft was designing and coding it. It was essential that NT be very stable in order to be a viable alternative to UNIX as a desktop and server operating system. Windows 95 and 98 are notoriously unstable and not acceptable for very high performance hardware (multiple processors, Gigs of RAM), and high demand TCP/IP applications, such as that seen in high volume Internet servers. Blue screens of death are also few and far between compared to Windows 9x. So in summary, NT 4.0 is much more stable and reliable than Win9x due to how it was designed and due to its heritage, which is entirely different from Windows 9x.

Ivory Artifacts of The Israelietes Essay -- Archeology

Imagine in your minds eye you are back in time during age of Israelites. Now imagine yourself walking the halls of palace. As you walk you see what seems to be a small fortune of art decorating the halls. You eventually stop walk and you find yourself in the throne room and right before you see a chair but, not just not any chair the most elegant chair you have ever see with your own two eyes. This chair glistens with jewels and some sort of white material you are not familiar with. The white material seems almost alien in nature and yet it is beautiful and makes the thrones seem as if from another world. That white on that throne would be ivory. Ivory items are peculiar items when one thinks about them for long enough. One starts to think what are they, where did they come from, how where they made and who made them, what were they were used for, what is their meaning, and what do the motifs on them stand for. To be honest there is no one answer for each of these questions but, ther e are several good theories out there. But I am not going to talk about all ivories that have ever existed I am going talk to you the reader about Israelite Ivories that existed during the late bronze age to the late Iron age. To begin to answer the questions I have purposed and kind of made you think of I will start by answering the most basic of them all. What are Ivory artifacts? Ivory artifacts are any item made of the tusks of elephants, teeth of hippos, or the tusks of walruses. But today I am only discussing the early Israelites and their ivories. Their ivories mostly consisted of elephant tusks. The reason that we can assume that the tusks of elephant were used for art and not the ivory of other spices such as hippos is that it is stated in ... ...e http://users.stlcc.edu/mfuller/hermitageivory.html http://www.jstor.org/action/doBasicSearch?Query=ivory+in+syria&gw=jtx&acc=on&prq=israelite+ivory+controversy&hp=25&wc=on Pritchard, J.B (1962) Ivory. The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible (Vol. 2 pp. 773-775) New York City, New York: Abingo press Ivory. (1946 & 1952). Hastings, James and Rowley H. H. Dictionary of the Bible (pp450), New York City, New York: Charles Scrubner’s Sons. Suter, C. (2005). Crafts and images in contact. Fruibourg : Academic Pess Fribourg. http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/3210398.pdf?acceptTC=true http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/1356803.pdf http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/498997.pdf http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/3210252.pdf?acceptTC=true http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/24/science/24tomb.html http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/4200069.pdf?acceptTC=true

Bread of the World

Our nation’s dedication in eradicating poverty has indeed created a great impact in the country’s image. The humanitarian programs of the government has effectively help millions of families survive the test of poverty. In addition, the foreign assistance has help alleviate the economy of the other countries drowned in poverty. But, at present, poverty is still prevalent in the poor continents like Africa. Inadequacy of food has killed thousands of lives of young Africans. Due to the continuous poverty, the hope for development may never be realized in some poor countries.This also proves that the foreign aid being afforded by the country is not enough. Hence, this letter asks your good office to initiate a change of the country’s foreign aid programs and policies. Time for action should be instigated now. By your help, please coordinate with your fellow solons to include poverty among the priorities of the country. By enhancing our programs in alleviating povert y, millions of lives would be saved and changed. The period for fighting poverty should be now and be continued until a shadow of it will be eradicated.At the same time, the economic status of the country would eventually be build and the confidence of the people in their government would be strengthened. Let the Congress start renewing foreign aid programs and save many children from death caused by hunger. Sincerely, (Your Name) (Address) Reference Bread for the World & Bread for the World Institute. (2008). Bread for the World: Have Faith End Hunger. Retrieved March 20, 2009, from http://www. bread. org/page. jsp? itemID=28131907

Environmental Analysis Essay

IntroductionThis testify allow for discussed iodine of the to the highest degree controversial environmental issue humor adjustment along with some(prenominal) of the facts including how people counterbalance discover that modality lurch does existed as well as legalization in humour de assort orbicularly arena debate and the way in which giving medication retort to this issue. Furthermore this paper result discuss the role of cognizance to make the existence of humor turn.Identification and legitimation of the issueClimate neuter is one of the biggest environmental challenges that the world encounters. It has obvious tint on our planet causing high temperature, shifting oceansons, sea takes rising. These phenomenon are intimately tide up with worlds economic as it affect businesses near the world. The British government report warned if no action is taken to control one C emissions humour mixture would cost 5 to 20 percent of the annual world(a) gro ss domestic product. (Climate limiting impacts, 2011).The joined Nations intergovernmental Panel on Climate interchange make a report in 2007 regarding the discovery of globular Warming since the 20th Century. (IPCC, 2011). The possible rationality for this phenomenon may be caused by clement activity. The appropriate definition is explained by the IPCC, which states that clime change is a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to world activity that alters the composition of the spherical zephyr and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over alike(p) time periods. (IPCC, 2012)Many countries have taken the initiative to legislate appropriate canon regarding climate change. In 2010 a published article noted that Qinghai is one of the source province to establish a law that holds local anaesthetic government and state have enterprises response in coping with climate change (Xinhuanet, 2010). The statistic have shown that Qin ghai s temperature in general has been rising by 0.35 centigrade either ten historic period compare to the worlds average of 0.13 centigrade. (Mu Xuequan, 2010). This regulation impart stress the importance and specified the local governments responsibility on climate change.Public DebateThe bank line around the publication of climate change is one of the most controversial topic because it involved in whether climate change is man made or its only nature forces. Some scientist believes that the temperature of earth is in truth getting colder not warmer out-of-pocket to the cycle of the sun. This is known as the yellow spot cycle, sun gets a lesser bit hotter and colder every 11 years and when it gets colder it causes the temperature of earth to get colder too. Other scientist argued that the change of temperature is so small that it can precisely be detected.Most scientists agree that an make up in the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is the main cause of globa l warming. They argued about the details of the effects of global warming on the earth. However it is for the most part agreed that it will lead to cosmopolitan changes in weather patterns, gradual resolve of the water ice caps and rising sea levels. These changes will impact on your lifestyle, agriculture and the natural selection of another(prenominal) organism. (Haire, M et al, 2000).Energy savings, emissions reductions and irrigate resource conservation and more other works related to climate change need to be consideredGovernment constitution responseRecent years many countries have impose law applicable to combat climate change. Energy savings, emissions reductions and weewee resource conservation and marketing spurt have been the primary goal amongst most organization. Country like Australia is promoting energy competency measures through a wide identify of programs and rebates. The election of Kevin Rudd in 2007 curiously shows a major change of the Australian government policy through Australias ratification of the Kyoto Protocol.In terms of some specific initiatives the Australian government withal continue the measure of mandatory renewable energy target scheme. And since 2010 the Government too established a climate change committee with the main purpose of check up on options for implementing a carbon price and protagonist build consensus on how Australia will harness climate change (Parliament of Australia, 2012)Role of scienceScience has played an important part in proving the existence of climate change by observation and experiment. This graph higher up depicts the global change in sea level since the end of the last ice age. During this 15,000 year period sea level has increased approximately 125 meters. deathBy evaluating the historical development of climate change we can conclude that climate change is the most important and contend environmental issue. Regardless of the disagreements, climate change has been proven e xist by scientific research. It has drawn the public attention and requires planetary cooperation among different governments.ReferenceHaire, M et al (2000). Core Science3. Singapore Kyodo. P110-111.IPCC (2011) Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. online Available at http//www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar4/syr/ar4_syr_cn.pdf Accessed 27 Jul 2012.Parliament of Australia (2012) Australian government response to climate change. online Available at http//www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/Browse_by_Topic/ClimateChange/ constitution/Domestic/national Accessed 27 Jul 2012.Sunspots and climate (2000) Sunspots and climate. online Available at http//www-das.uwyo.edu/geerts/cwx/notes/chap02/sunspots.html Accessed 27 Jul 2012.The nature Conservancy (2012) Climate Change Impacts. online Available at