A Child Called It Encourage Speech Essay

Hello guys I’m Grace and I am a volunteer of this youth center, below I just to ask do you have these feelings before? Desperate, depressed, desolated. I believe these emotions will bump out in every one of your mind when you think you are in a disadvantaged situation, and sometimes you think the whole world owes you, aren’t you? But indeed, are you really that pathetic? For me, people used to say I’m a pessimism. Yet, after reading a book based on a true story of a boy, it blows my mind. And it changes my mind in way in seeing the world with cherishing and forgiveness, and now I want to share this with all of you and I hope it will change yours too. The boy who gives me such an impact is called Dave Pelzer and he is the author of the book called ‘A child called IT’. He was being abused by his mom since he was a child, starving, pain, hopeless are what he gone through, but in the end, he was being rescued. The state of California said that it may have been the worse case of child abuse in the history of state. I guess you could imagine how tough the life was for Dave. However, despite of all these memories, he still managed to survive and become a bright person. So first of all, the precious of survival is the first thing Dave had taught me. In our daily lives, our often take everything for granted, just take a simple example. When we are eating our cereal breakfast, we would complain from our mom and say ‘ How come it’s the same taste again! I have ate this cereal for whole week! I’m bored of it! while you are complaining with things you are not satisfied, Dave was managing not to starve to die. From the book, his mother rarely treated Dave as a son nor a human being, he is just an ‘it’, a non-existence. Eating is not a normal right for Dave, he had to finished all his chores in order to have a mouth of food, finding food from the trash and stealing food from a grocery store and classmates was the way to keep him alive. Just think about it? We are really l ucky aren’t we? As all us sitting in here and no need to worry about tomorrow’s live and will we survive or not. And it’s time to back to basics, don’t focus on things we don’t have but the things we have! We have friends, families and everyone sitting next to you in this youth center, what we got is far more than survive, and we should better treasure it, and not focus on the dark side. As I about the dark side, you might think Dave’s heart was full of hatred to his mum because her mum treated him so badly. But in contrast, Dave teach me forgiveness—the art of letting go. No matter what lies in their past, they can overcome the dark side and press on to a brighter world and turn tragedy into triumph’ Dave said in the book. How come a person can let go of his anger and bring love to her mum and his loving child, that’s Dave. Look at what happened to us, sometimes people or ourselves makes mistakes and the hatred will last in our heart, but actu ally what’s the point in remembering all those tragedy? Why don’t we move on? Just forgive ourselves and forgive others, your friends, your family. Then, you will find you heart is brighter and clearer than ever, just like Dave. In conclusion, I think this book is remarkable and incredible as Dave’s experience do change my way in looking in the world in more perspective such as survive, forgiveness, love, courage and faith, but the time is limited so I have to stop here. Lastly, I just want to say we could always let go of the bad things happened to us and treasure everything we got, be positive! Everyone in the youth center would support you. Even the darkest will end and sun will rise. Thank you.

Douglas Spalding Essay

Douglas Spalding was the architect of ethology, the scientific study of animal behavior. He started his research in the mid 1800s. His studies discounted British empiricist claims that animal skill regarding depth, distance; perception and sound localization were learned by the animals while they were young. Spalding study of ethology involved the determiner of behavior such as instinct is behavior that is predisposed or shaped by natural selection or innate pre-programmed behavior. To address the British empiricist claim that perceptual abilities did not require experience, he conducted an study dealing with instinct. He open a portion of an egg where chicks, baby chickens, not girls, where about to hatch and just before their eyes opened, he opened a piece of the egg, and covered the chicks head with a hood. After removing the hood; the chick showed no effects of not being able to see and was able to locate insects to eat, thus showing innate behavior is extremely valuable in animal behavior and not experience. Critical period research is learning that occurs at a specific age or life stage. Critical period is behavior that’s developed within a specific time frame. Spalding withheld chicks from the mother for 10 days. The chicks didn’t hear or see their mother for ten days. Spalding introduced the chicks to the calls of the mother; however, the chicks did not recognize their mother. Spalding observation showed at particular stages in life innate behavior is developed with a specific time. Spalding experiments and observations supported the claim that animals innate behaviors not experiences is a determiner of behavior.

Case study dealing with depression

Case study dealing with depression Depression is one of the most common and widespread psychiatric disorders in the UK. Of over 5000 British residents, approximately 5.9% of males and 4.2% of females suffer from depressive illnesses (Based on DSM-IV criteria) (Ohayon, 1999). Consequently there has been much emphasis on implementing techniques and psychotherapy to solve these issues and find effective treatments for depression. This essay will explore, psychodynamic and CBT therapy, in treating depression. There are clear disparities between these two forms of therapy in regards to their theoretical underpinnings as well as the arguments both for and against their effectiveness in treating depression. Throughout this review particular attention will be paid to the similar features which run through both approaches in order to gather a much more conclusive view regarding psychotherapy in the treatment of depression. The essay will begin by briefly outlining depression and discussing the development of psychotherapy in treating it. After this, psychodynamic therapy which is one of the most traditional psychotherapeutic methods of dealing with depression will be explored, in order to gather an understanding of its views on solving the problem of depression. Before moving on to compare this too, the much more modern and focused intervention CBT, developed by Beck (1979). After each approach has been outlined the essay will go on to critically evaluate each approach, firstly in terms of its empirical grounding in research before moving on to gather an understanding of the arguments regarding their theoretical grounding. Before finally going on to conclude as to what is the best option for dealing with such a common and problematic condition. Depression is a condition which is characterized by negative moods and unpleasant states of mind which can undermine our ability to function normally (Gilbert, 2007). In some cases people are born with a predisposition to depression through neurological disorders . However, for many others, depression is likely to occur as a consequence of changing life circumstances. (Hollon, Thase, & Markowitz, 2002) For many years clients were effectively treated with medicines such as anti-depressants. However, the stigma and the side effects that are associated with this medication, mean that many patients diagnosed with depression are reluctant to use them. A survey carried out by Priest, Vize, Roberts, Roberts and Tylee (1996) used questionnaires and interviews to discover the lay person’s beliefs and attitudes to pharmaceuticals as treatment of depression. The study found that 78% of the 2003 participants from across the UK, regarded antidepressants as negative and addictive. This demonstrates that the general public are still very sceptical about using medication as a quick fix to their depression. (Priest et al, 1996) Psychotherapists believe it is addressing the central psychological underpinnings of depression which is essential to long te rm recovery. (Gilbert, 2007) One of the first alternative forms of treatment was psychodynamic therapy. Psychodynamic therapy is based on the belief that that the majority of mental functioning occurs in our unconscious. Jacobs (2004) explains that, according to Freud the structure of the psyche is constructed from birth, and therefore the child’s relationship with significant others in the early years of their life, notably their mother and father, are vital to the individual’s future developments.

Mental health problems across the life span Essay

Mental health problems across the life span - Essay Example Auditory hallucinations had been another symptom. The voices of her classmates and acquaintances at school kept repeatedly coming back to her. She remembered the incident where she indulged in a ‘buying spree’ for clothes which did not suit her, after thumbing through fashion catalogues. The clothes had been a size larger. That incident could have been due to the feeling of inflated self esteem which characterizes the depression in bipolar disorder. Developing therapeutic skills through the tools of psychiatric nursing, which are ‘listening, watching and being present is the essence of nursing care in psychiatry. (Frisch, 2002). Pamela was observed well. She behaved differently each day. Sometimes she would be looking with-drawn and would appear as if looking through me. My morning greetings would not elicit any response. She needed some coaxing to begin her morning ablutions beginning from brushing her teeth. Fatigue and drowsiness appeared to stop her from even getting up from bed on some days. There was a difficulty to get her to consume her medications too (Mitchell, 2006, p. 567). The reluctance to take them on certain days would be changed to an attitude of compliance depending on whether the care-giver on that day was empathetic or not. She was gloomy at times and completely preoccupied. It was difficult to understand that a gay and energetic young girl had become a miserable withdrawn personality in the words of her mother. Her friends were calling frequently to find out about her. They would have liked to visit but they may not have seen a friend they knew. The mother thereby discouraged the friends. Rehabilitation therapy had been instituted in the center for all inpatients. Pamela had not consented to the psychotherapy treatment in the institution. Problems still existed for her. She was extremely distressed the other day when she was asked to have her lunch. Her reason was that her classmates were speaking to her and they had not

English medium education for people whose first language is not Essay

English medium education for people whose first language is not English - Essay Example The introduction of colonists’ language faced resistance from many parents in Malaysian society as they took it as the return of the colonist and feared the loss of their own language - their national identity. It is note-worthy that the business class parents or those involved in media or politics knew the value of learning the English Language so favoured it. Another issue was the insufficient availability of skilled teachers, especially within rural areas. This led the government to introduce both mediums of education while emphasizing on mastering English as a foreign language, parents were left to choose which way they wanted their children to learn, which in return brought discrimination in society. Mr. Mahathir, the Prime Minister, who introduced this policy showed his sadness over the decision of moving back to Malaya to educate children as it would bring difficulties for the students to cope with scientific developments in the future (Gooch, 2009). In the video clip w e are given a clear idea that the Malaysian government was familiar with the significance of English language regarding the success of the country, but resistance from certain people towards learning English came because of the colonial history and after independence there was a political desire to promote Malaya. Later, when the need to learn English was accepted by Malaysians, there aroused a

BHS 328 - Team Building (Mod 3 CBA) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

BHS 328 - Team Building (Mod 3 CBA) - Essay Example nt helps to nurture a culture where every individual is given an equal opportunity regardless of his/her designation, age, gender and race to participate in an organization’s decision making process. In recent years, there has been a growing number of organizations that focus on delegating power to employees to make decisions since it warrants an environment where everyone can give their opinion and this not only enhances the creativity of an individual, it also increases the sense of ownership. In Books4Us, there is a concept of authoritative management which requires that every employee needs to ask his/her manager for making decisions which hampers him/her from taking any risk and thinking out-of-the box. Due to stiff competition, the organization needs innovation ideas to capture the market share but due to low level of empowerment, employees rely on their managers to give them instructions for each task regardless of its complexity and novelty. An Open Book Management culture will encourage employees to study the external environment and leverage the strengths of the organization to avail the opportunities at hand. Moreover, delegating authority to employees helps in building trust between the employee and his superior since the employee senses that he is trusted with the job therefore he strives to his best capability and this results in a higher-level of motivation. Lack of empowerment has resulted in lack of shared vision, mission and goals due to which every employee is pursuing personal goals and focusing on individual achievement rather than the success of Books4us. Increase in the level of authority held by each employee will result in the organization working as a team seeking identical objectives rather than acting as discrete groups. â€Å"What better way to tap into workers brains as well as their brawn than to encourage them to think on the job, to bring to it a greater sense of professionalism and self-motivation and to feel committed to the

Summary Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 201

Summary - Essay Example The Bedouin people are described as nomadic and the government effort to offer them alternative settlement has led to resistance and subsequent failure. This is because their ways of life are not similar as that adopted by the nation states. Following the advice of Dawn Chatty an anthropologist, the society is slowly embracing change. The society has begun to change in some aspects such as adoption of trucks instead of a camel. The author begins with a description of how potatoes are grown in the Andean highlands of South America. Potatoes are mostly grown in the highlands and not on lower lands in the region. The assumption is that because corns are grown in the lower lands, there is less space available to grow potatoes. Therefore, potatoes are likely to be grown in highlands where conditions are poor for corns. In addition, anthropologists are hired to advice on how potatoes production can be increased in a sustainable manner in Peru. The anthropologists conducted an investigation in different parts of the world. The results were worrying as they showed that the growth of potatoes in highlands had severe consequences. This is because it damaged the environment as most of the land was left free for erosion to take place at high rainfall. Hence, the advice of anthropologists showed that the production of potatoes in highland is not

GDP Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

GDP - Essay Example According to the US Bureau of Economic Analysis that is tasked with the duty of breaking down the worth earned by the goods and services, the rise in real GDP can partly be attributed to the fact that Federal Government spending reduced. The decline in the residential fixed investment together with reduction in spending in both the state and the local governments is another reason the positive trend in real GDP was registered. According to input from the US Bureau of Economic Analysis, the third quarter experienced the most significant growth, translating to a whopping 4.1%. On the other hand, the fourth quarter seemed to have experienced the least form of growth, which translated to 2.4% (Mataloni). With my prediction for real GDP this year being 3.1%, I presume true the idea that the future is uncertain for US economy at large. I say so because this year is likely to witness increased output, which translates to rise in both imports and exports. When the output is increased, business shall no doubt spur, and this shall prompt most of the employers to bring on board additional employees. The hiring of more employees will mean that the rate of unemployment shall decline. In like manner, the participation of labor too is likely to increase following increased output. Another reason real GDP is likely to increase this year is the fact that the personal consumption expenditure is also likely to increase precisely by two cents, and this shall translate to reduced inflation. The unexpected move by the Federal Reserve Bank to keep the short-term interests is also likely to prove beneficial in the end as it will contribute to positive trends in real GDP. In the course of this year, I also expect the Federal Government to cut costs thereby lowering its spending further (Avakov 43). Just as they did last year, the state and local governments alike are also expected to cut their costs hence lowering their budgets further. Just

A critical evaluation of one aspect of contemporary hospitality Essay

A critical evaluation of one aspect of contemporary hospitality management - Essay Example These trends have eventually emerged over the period of six decades where the hospitality industry not only expanded but has also seen immense diversification where it is now a booming economic sector (Jones & Pizam 1993 p. 34). Also, with time, the international hospitality industry is shifting away from the traditional vacationing space and vacuum, towards a more integrated approach to encompass various aspects of hospitality management. Also, with globalization and media exposure, people are more interested in exploring Asian cultural and values predicated by developing states which has further paved way for progress in the hospitality management techniques globally. In addition, where other sectors have also been impacted by global depression and economic shocks, global hospitality industry has only reflected growth pattern where around 25 million people showed interest in travelling in the 1950`s while recent trends show that around 1,035 million people undertook foreign trips i n the year 2012 alone. This explains how the trends have been changed drastically in favor of hospitality industry and thus, investors should definitely make a mark on this shift and funnel resources toward this trend (Bremmer 2013 p. 3). Furthermore, an estimate indicated that out of the foreign travelers, around half of the percentage comprised of those who were travelling for holidays, some kind of leisure activities or recreational activities. Also, around 14% of these tourists reported to have travelled for business transaction purposes, while around 27% of these tourists reportedly travelled for VFR purposes (for visiting their friends or relatives) (Tata 2009, p. 1437-1440). Therefore, the industry shifts should also tilt accordingly, where investors should focus on developing spots aimed at enhancing vacationing experiences of these

Online vs. traditional classes Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Online vs. traditional classes - Essay Example According to Parker, around 77% of the universities they surveyed were offering at least some form of online courses (Parker 1). Online classes have several benefits to offer as compared to traditional classes. These benefits include: increased accessibility, decrease in educational gap and ease of gaining education. Online education has increased the accessibility of education. When only traditional classroom style education was available a lot of individuals used to fail to get themselves enrolled in universities that they always wanted to. This was because these educational institutes had limited amount of seats available and because several individuals did not have the funding required to attend classes in these educational institutes. Online education does not require seats and does not require an individual to be physically available in a setting to gain education. Due to this people have started gaining online education in universities of their choice at a lower cost. Online education has even helped in decreasing the educational gap. The problem with traditional classroom education was that it was only accessible for those who belonged to families who can afford to get their children enrolled in the best universities by paying for their travelling costs and tuition fee. Due to this people living in developing nations and poorer regions of the world used to fail to gain education in the best universities around the world. This led to an increase in the gap between quality and quantity of education being obtained by rich and the poor. Online education is quite inexpensive and does not need huge amount of funds for travelling from one region to another and this enables the poor to attain education thus leading to a decrease in the gap of quality and quantity of education being obtained by rich and poor. Online education provides students with the ease of gaining education. Adults who work used to fail to gain education in physical classroom because

In Shakespeares Macbeth various devices are used to present the weird sisters as integral to the plot Essay Example for Free

In Shakespeares Macbeth various devices are used to present the weird sisters as integral to the plot Essay In Shakespeares Macbeth various devices are used to present the weird sisters as integral to the plot. In a modern context, are they still plausible figures? So witherd and so wild in their attire, that look not like thinhabitants othearth, and yet are ont? This description of the three weird sisters given by Banquo on first setting eyes on them creates an illusion of hell like hags; decayed and disfigured creatures. They are unnatural: they seem to be women but are not. It is Banquo who thinks they are evil: What! Can the devil speak true? Macbeth does not. Macbeth is intrigued by the sisters and later tells Lady Macbeth that he burned in desire to question them further. Macbeth asks the witches to stay showing he is interested in their predictions; Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more. The sisters speak dangerous thoughts, the same perhaps already plaguing his mind. If their predictions were already thoughts in the back of Macbeths mind, then the sisters lack power over him at this point. By examining the first conversation he has with Lady Macbeth on first returning home from battle, And when goes hence, tomorrow as he purposes this could be seen as evidence of couple having discussed the downfall of Duncan on an earlier date. If this is true then the sisters could be seen as mere triggers; they release the fiery evil within Macbeth. The fact that the sisters are in the first scene of the play confirms that they are important characters and from what they say, When the hurlyburlys done, when the battles lost and won gives the impression they know what is going to pass in the rest of the play. They meet in foul weather and talk of thunder, lightening and the fog and filthy air, giving the audience a first impression that Macbeth is a dark, dangerous play in which the theme of evil is central. They embody a malign and demonic intelligence. Their information does tempt Macbeth-but it is crucial to remember: they do not invite him to murder Duncan or even suggest a thing. Information is morally neutral until human beings begin to interpret it. The three hags prophecy that Macbeth will be king, they make no inclination whatsoever how he will come about this regal title. A lingering question still remains; had Macbeth given thought to killing Duncan before, and if the sisters had not made their prophecy, would Macbeth have murdered Duncan that night at the castle? In fact this is an unanswerable question but at the same time also very crucial. For if the answer is yes, the sisters would no longer be integral to the plot but be there just for the means of a supernatural subplot. On the other hand taking it as is given in the play, the implications of this are that Macbeth relies wholly on the sisters to spur him on. Macbeth is not a fool he realises that the prophecies cannot be ill, cannot be good and the forecasts of the future must come at a cost. Later on though, Macbeth no doubt driven by the success of his murdering of Duncan, seems to forget the sisters haunt that none of woman born shall harm Macbeth and the movement of Birnam Wood. Banquos warning to Macbeth concerning the instruments of darkness might also be seen as prophetical; Macbeth is betrayed as a result of believing these truths, and he comes to realise this in his final confrontation with Macduff. As the play goes on Macbeth is mixing his conscious life with his subconscious and the weird sisters become like a drug for him; the more you get, the better you feel, the more you want. The weird sisters prophecies draw out the evil within Macbeth; everyone has the basis to be truly wicked but not all of us have the trigger to pull it off, most of us are too full of the milk of human kindness. Regarding Macbeth, the weird sisters were his trigger. The evil does not come from anywhere else other than human nature. The sisters have not completely managed to corrupt Macbeth though. Both before and after Duncans murder Macbeth shows signs that his own natural feelings are still present in his character and that the witches do not have total power over him. He is foul for the things that he has done but is somewhat fair as he still has a natural human conscience. Before the murder Macbeth thinks that it would be cruel to kill innocent Duncan: Besides, this Duncan hath borne his faculties so meek, Had I but died an hour before this chance I had lived a blessed time. His feelings about Duncans murder are very similar to those about Banquos murder although he only acted out the first himself. He is sick with worry and guilt about Banquos murder, so much so he is turned to near madness by the bloody ghost of Banquo haunting him. On stage, Shakespeare sought to make the Witches actable and recognisable to his audience.In Britain we either rationalise Witchcraft or mock it and we have the added problem of an audience having seen Macbeth a countless number of times, often in very unconvincing renditions of Double, double toil and trouble it has even become some what of a comic joke book. With hooked nosed women dressed in black with pointed hats chanting round a cauldron; not quite a depiction of three terrifying, blood curdling, residents of hell. Shakespeare himself had to make adjustments to keep up with stage fashion. Originally he had three devils in place of the weird sisters, but the theatrical currency of devils was already starting to devalue through overuse, and they were more likely to induce laughter than fear. James I who was on the throne when Macbeth was written, famously believed in witches, he even wrote the novel, Daemonologie on the subject. Yet, during the lifetime of the king, attitudes to stage witches shifted and they started down the same comic route as the devils before them. This might be why no one in the text of Macbeth uses the word witch. When Shakespeare wrote Macbeth, weird characters were deemed capable of prophecy. Macbeth makes the association when he asks why the sisters stop our way, with such prophetic greeting. The modern mind, though, hear the modern denotation of weird, which incidentally, is used to describe those bearded ladies who vanish into the air. Formerly, weird ladies; those who endowed prophetic powers, were presumed to have magical powers as well. Now, ladies who think they have magical powers are presumed to be weird or peculiar Therefore it is becoming increasingly more difficult to make a contemporary western materialistic audience believe in them. Directors struggle to think of new interpretations of how to represent them. Are they young or old, male or female, disfigured or beautiful? Or even to represent them with the appearance of normal human beings, for that in itself is probably the most frightening understanding. Robert Cohen, in his 1982 Colorado Shakespeare Festival production, cast three beautiful women as the witches. Dressed in topless gowns they seduced Macbeth into a life of crime and corruption; here the weird sisters were depicted as real women more psychic than supernatural. Perhaps they too like Macbeth had morality, but had all the goodness sucked away and the evil human nature was dragged out of them and they were left even more corrupt than Macbeth is, at least he has the next life; hell we assume, they have to spend eternity festering in this world. This of course would be going against Shakespeares description of them but in my opinion in order to create three plausible figures in a modern context it is essential to create three characters; if they do even have any character that will make todays critical and realistic mind really believe that they are looking upon true forces of evil, rather than three women in black cloaks chanting round a cauldron. Personally it would not be plausible in my mind that they would be able to take the evil out of a man, who could do such terrible deeds. Perhaps a modern interpretation might be that it is genetics which control the way people make decisions; for if a director were to stage a futuristic Macbeth with the weird sisters as genetic engineers controlling the future, this would gain the desired effect on the audience; pure fear. Also, at the same time keeping up with stage fashions, test tube babies; the idea of creating humans unnaturally. For all our scientific rationality, modern society still acknowledges that there are forces we cannot explain. Some people believe in supernatural phenomenon; ghosts witches, evil forces; others would explain everything as from within the human mind; for example Lady Macbeth who generates the evil is already within Macbeth, therefore are just plot devices, there to release it from him. Even though they cause no first hand evil themselves, they evil that they thus create by delivering their riddle like prophecies is integral to the tragedy of Macbeth and without them fair would not be foul and foul would not be fair.

Effects of Job Rotation Essay Example for Free

Effects of Job Rotation Essay Discuss the various issues of managerial behaviour and related matters raised by this case study Laurie J. Mullins argues that A fist step in the effective management of other people is confidence in your own ability, and awareness of your own strengths and weaknesses. Why is it then that managers find it difficult to admit their mistakes, to say sorry or to laugh at themselves? 1 In the building society case study, there are examples of bad managerial behaviour on the part of both Mary Rodgers, the branch manager and Jane Taylor, the senior branch assistant. Jane Taylor was clearly good at her job if, after four years, she was promoted to this new role, yet within a short period of time, she was having trouble with Tony Jackson. Looking back at what Mullins said, Miss Taylor doesnt appear to have confidence in her own ability or indeed awareness in her own strengths and weaknesses. According to Thompson ;amp; McHugh control is not an end in itself, but a means to transform the capacity to work established by the wage relation into profitable production, and Jane is unable to control her sub-ordinate what are the reasons for this? Part of the problem stems from the beginning of the case study and the relationship between Jane and her manager. Mary Rogers does not instil any confidence in Jane when she effectively dumps this new role. Up until now, Jane has been performing specific task functions and has no real knowledge of how to manage people as she has previously been performing the duties of a cashier and looking after mortgage advice accounts more task orientated skills rather than managerial ones. The refresher course she attends includes nothing on this either and Jane immediately falls into what McGregor calls the Theory X assumption of human nature. The central principle of Theory X is direction and control through a centralised system of organisation and exercise of authority2 and Jane automatically tries to coerce and direct Tony Jackson. The inability of Mary Rodgers to provide effective support and development for Jane shows a clear ineptitude on her part. She admits herself that the reason for Janes promotion is that I [Mary] need someone to take some of the weight off my shoulders and she seems to be reluctant to help intervene and solve

Blueprint For Action

Blueprint For Action Critical Book Analysis of Blueprint for Action: A Future Worth Creating Barnett, Thomas P.M. Blueprint for Action: A Future Worth Creating. New York, NY: G.P. Putnams Sons, 2005. Thomas P.M. Barnett Weblog. â€Å"Biography.† http://www.thomaspmbarnett.com/biography.htm. Since the end of the Cold War, the United States (US) has struggled to define its role as the remaining superpower. Overnight containment and deterrence, the defining strategy of the second half of the 20th century, became questionable and a new grand strategy never emerged to take its place. Without a clear vision, US security policy since the collapse of the Soviet Union has generally relied on maintaining a balance of power in the international system. Then on 11 September 2001 (9/11), the US was attacked by terrorists and suffered its first domestic strategic military shock since the Japanese assault on Pearl Harbor in 1941. In reaction, the US has undergone a historic reorganization of government and is waging an unprecedented global war on terrorism. Yet despite the thousands who have died and trillions of dollars spent since 9/11, the US has not established a coherent, sustainable, and realistic grand strategy that accounts for current circumstances and the future world contex t. In an attempt to fill this grand strategy vacuum and contextualize the current world environment Thomas Barnett has written a series of books that provide a new paradigm for understanding our current and future world circumstance. In the first book, The Pentagons New Map: War and Peace in the Twenty-First Century, Barnett frames the global dynamics in terms of rule sets that govern globalization and provides a vision for achieving global security. In the second book, Blueprint for Action: A Future Worth Creating, Barnett delivers the specifics of actualizing this vision and is the subject of this essay. Specifically, this paper critically analyzes Blueprint for Action because it is inspirational in scope, relevant to the future of US national security strategy, and has implications that warrant serious military consideration. Thomas Barnett is a strategic planner who has worked in national security affairs since the end of the Cold War. Earning a PhD in Political Science at Harvard, Barnett served as professor at the Naval War College, senior advisor in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and has been involved with several strategic related Department of Defense activities. Over the last decade, Barnett has authored two books, written several articles, and has been widely read by civilian and military audiences. Building off the vision articulated in Pentagons New Map, the thesis of Blueprint for Action is that in order to close the gap between the Core states (healthy and functioning) and the Gap states (unhealthy and disfunctioning) the US must lead a Core state effort to establish the rule sets and institutions that will connect Gap states with the benefits of globalization. This in turn will reduce threats to Core states, promote universal inclusiveness, and foster global peace. Barnett passionately argues, â€Å"we need to make sure our security rule sets match our growing network connectivity, and that our political rule sets keep pace with our economic transactions.† To accomplish this, the book postulates two fundamental actions to make this a reality. First, a System Administrator Force (SysAdmin) comprised of Core state capability must be created to ensure that combat intervention into Gap states have the required follow on forces to win the hearts and minds by rebuilding infrastructure, enabling government, etc. Barnett points out that the US militarys warfighting capacity (Leviathan) and the supporting US economy is not optimized for securing the security environment lying between war and peace. Weapons procurement and service centric force generation designed to support the Cold War high-end strategies of a bipolar world no longer apply to the multipolar globalized environment where low-end fourth generation warfare (4GW) requirements prevail. Given this, the US must â€Å"transform† its military to address existing and forecast security needs and enlist other Core state participation. To this end Barnett posits that dividing the military into a Leviathan force that prosecutes high-end war characterized primarily by US airpower (Air Force and Navy) and a SysAdmin force (Army and Marines) characterized by low-end 4GW proficient capability is required to address the war-peace gap. Moreover, the multinational SysAdmin force would be comprised primarily of other Core states and the significant US contribution would be its global logistics capability and 20% of the overall force structure. This approach would then leverage existing Core state military competencies and create a counterbalance to a US dominated Leviathan force. Even if the White House and all four services bought into this argument, the problem with this construct is that it makes the assumption that Core states will entrust the US with the preponderance of a Leviathan force. Essentially this proposal suggests that non-US Core states command the majority of the soft power and the US command the hard power. Given this, it is doubtful that rising powers such as China will find this arrangement appealing. Similarly, Russia with their resurgence of nationalism along with most European nations that comprise the majority of the Core states will also be suspicious of what would appear to be the US trying to corner the market on high-end warfare. Additionally, Core nations in general will be reluctant to support US combat dominance given its preemptive track record over the last five years. Barnetts blueprint suggests that the employment of force would not happen without the concurrence of â€Å"fellow great powers† because America would be deterred by the realization without the [multinational] SysAdmin little would change in a targeted Gap state. Unfortunately, this logic does not deter the US from pursuing its own vital interests in spite of other Core state objections. What this construct proposes is that the US will monopolize what matters most hard power and global reach. Therefore, the strategy is idealistic in that it does not provide a compelling case for US or its allies. Knowing that a constrained fiscal environment will challenge the preeminence of US power over the next 50 years, rising powers like China will be just as inclined to wait out an eventual decline of American strength. What Barnett fails to provide is a more convincing rationale to support his idea. To do this he needs to address how the US will give up its unilateral preemption policy and assuage Core state fears of US monopolizing hard power. For example, high-end weapon system development could be intentionally spread over multiple Core st ates. By making the US dependent on various foreign sources for arms manufacturing it would leverage the benefits of globalization, increase the interconnectivity of the Core, and create distributed weapon system dependency to keep the US in check militarily. Clearly, many in the US (i.e. military and defense contractors) would object to this, but for a global grand strategy of this nature to succeed checks and balances will need to be structurally imbedded into the institutional framework to foster trust and discourage unilateral tendencies. From a theater strategic joint warfighting perspective, Barnett is proposing a major transformation of US military force structure and strategy that is dependent on other Core state participants as much as they would be dependent on the US. To actualize this blueprint the Army would be optimized for 4GW and the Marine Corps should remain a mini-Leviathan within the SysAdmin force. Additionally, Civil Affairs units embedded in the Special Operations Command (SOCOM) would be integrated into the Army. The idea is to reconfigure US military forces into distinct Leviathan and SysAdmin force structures. This transformation also implies developing the ability to synchronize with the SysAdmin forces of other Core states and provide the logistical framework for rapid global deployment and sustainment. Given the existing issues involved with US force development the scale and scope of developing synchronized Core wide resourcing, doctrine, training, and equipping is questionable. The second postulate that Barnett advances is the requirement to establish global rule sets to guide Core state actions for dealing with politically bankrupt states inside the Gap and individual terrorists. The goal of these rule sets is to create transparency, reduce uncertainty, generate non-zero-sum outcomes, and foster a sense that everyone needs to play by the Cores emerging rules. The problem with the Gap rule set is that initiation of Core action is dependent on the United Nations (UN) Security Council to achieve consensus. Additionally, the rule set does not address how to reconstitute targeted Gap states politically in their transition to peace. Culture, religion, and other factors will clearly make any national rehabilitation unique, and Barnett fails to specify a fundamental political organizing philosophy. Clear political organizing principles need to be articulated to ensure the transparency. Finally, because the blueprint suggests that SysAdmin military force is structu rally divided among Core states the rule set would need to address how Core states will collectively react to an attack. Without a doubt, Blueprint for Action is a â€Å"must read† because it offers a plausible context for understanding the global security environment and a framework for addressing the threats we face today. More importantly, Barnetts paradigm forces readers to leap beyond national constraints and allows for the conceptualization of optimizing civil and military joint capability mulitnationally. Finally, Barnett offers an optimistic â€Å"future worth creating† and plants the seed for an international discussion on proactively securing the future for our planet.

Ezekiel Essay example -- essays research papers

Ezekiel meaning the strength of God, is one of the four greater prophets in the Old Testament. Ezekiel was the son of a priest named Buzi. Not much is known about Ezekiel’s childhood; much more is know after the age of twenty-five. Ezekiel was taken captive in the captivity of Jehoiachin, about eleven years before the destruction of Jerusalem. He was one of the many members of a community of Jewish people who settled on the banks of the Chebar, a river of Babylon. Ezekiel began prophesying in 595 B.C, and finished prophesying in 573 B.C. Ezekiel prophesied for a period that lasted about twenty-two years. Ezekiel was a married man but little else is known about his family life, he also had a house in his place of exile. His wife died a sudden death during the siege of Jerusalem. He lived among the top of his companions in exile, and their elders consulted with him on all matters. Ezekiel lived in a time of international crisis and conflict. Assyria was the world power in the area under the rule of Tiglath-pilesar III. In 724 B.C Israel raged war upon Assyria, and Israel was no match for Assyria. In 627 B.C the last of the able Assyrian ruler, Ashurbanipal died. Right after the death of Ashurbanipal, Babylon under Nabopolassar wanted independence from Assyria. In 612 B.C the Assyrians under Nineveh surrendered to the rising Babylonians. In 605 B.C the Babylonians were at war against the Egyptians. The Babylonians won and they established themselves as the leading power in the area. During all of this Judea allied with the Babylonians and with this Judea kept her independence. During the last century before Judea was destroyed it was ruled by four rulers and of those rulers, all but Josiah were wicked. Josiah was committed to God and led Judea to him. All the others did not heed the warnings of Ezekiel and Jeremiah from God, and the rulers of Judea chose to reb el against God. God punished Judea by sending Nebuchadnezzar’s army to crush the nation of Judea and flatten the city of Jerusalem. God appeared first to Ezekiel in a storm cloud; God was seated on a throne surrounded by cherubim. He commanded Ezekiel to go to an â€Å"impudent children and stiffhearted† and He gave Ezekiel a scroll to eat, showing Ezekiel complete identification with God’s Word. After Ezekiel returned to the people in Tel-Abib, God spoke to Ezekiel again, telling Ezekiel to be a â€Å"watchma... ...all the people Ezekiel was strange but God did not believed, In God’s eyes, Ezekiel was truthful, forgiving, obedient, and had endurance. He was dependable, patience, faithful, and tolerant. Ezekiel was truthful in all that he spoke because all of his words were from God. Ezekiel was forgiving and tolerant of God when God decided to take Ezekiel’s wife away to make a point. Ezekiel was very obedient as he obeyed God’s every single command including not mourning when his wife died. God gave Ezekiel lots of endurance because he prophetized for over twenty-two years. With his endurance, showed he was always dependable and faithful. All God needed to do was tell Ezekiel what to say or do, and Ezekiel would complete the task without complaint. Ezekiel was very patient even though God did not allow him to speak for seven and a half years and he complied with that. Ezekiel’s death is unknown, but an ancient Jewish tradition states that Ezekiel was killed by his own people because of his preaching. Ezekiel’s body is believed to be buried on the banks of the Euphrates, in the modern-day city of Kifl, just south of the ancient city Babylon. The tomb is said to have built by Jehoiachin.

The Tunnel Essay -- Personal Narrative Writing

The Tunnel My unforgettable senior football season was coming to a close. The whole team knew that this was the last game of football we would ever play together. After this game, it would never be the same. I had been waiting my whole life to experience what I was about to face in the next few hours. To me, and to the rest of my hometown, high school football isn’t just a game; it is a lifelong passion. I grew up watching my role models play the same game I was about to play where the football-frenzied town of Mahnomen won four state championships in a row. Since the seventh grade, my team was expected to make it to the state play-offs our senior year, and now we were playing for the state tittle. We didn’t have anybody extremely fast, strong, or even smart on our team. In fact, no senior would go on to participate in college football. We were just a few guys that would never give up no matter what the circumstances. Those guys were my team, like I was the one leading them all into a battle field, even though that was the feeling of half the other guys. My team had been nicknamed â€Å"The Cardiac Kids† because of our ability to pull out a victory by one point, which we had done in six games that season. Critics thought a team that could only squeak out so many victories by one point was bound to lose their composure in the play-offs. Throughout the season we had worked towards becoming the team we now were. We were proud of how far we had gotten. The only thing left to do was to play our hardest and to see how well we matched up against the best team in the state. All of this led up to the moment of the State Championship Game. From the locker room, we walked into the dark tunnel leading to the nervous light of The M... ...at is he didn’t like how he wrote about things he didn’t know about, when he could have been writing about important things that were happening to him because he did know about them. This makes me see the importance of my paper better. I also changed some things around in the paper. As you can imagine, when Dr. Morgan criticized writing about â€Å"The Big Game† I was like, â€Å"Oh Crap, now I have to write it all over again.† As you can see, I decided to stay with my original idea, but just focus on it at a different point. Instead of telling what happened, I focus more on why it affected me. Like when I wrote, †Because of what I learned that moment, I will be able to see when teamwork is needed and how to pursue it. You might not think that this is such an important quality, but this connects with me every day of my life.† I think this helps fit the assignment better.

Essay --

The Life of Mother Teresa India is a country of great poverty. The poor of India wanted help but no one seemed to listen to their cries. About 29.8% of the people of India live below the national poverty line in 2010. One person has changed the way people act today. Even now people still strive to do what she did. Mother Teresa is one of the people who shaped the world. Mother Teresa was brought into the the world on August 26, 1910. Mother Teresa was baptized the day after she was born which is August 27 1910. Her nickname was gonkha which means little bud or flower bud. Agnes Gonxha bojaxhiyIs was Mother Teresa’s real name. Mother Teresa was born in Skopje Macedonia. Skopje is the capital of the republic of Macedonia. Skopje is also the largest city in the republic of Macedonia. Skopje is a humid subtropical climate.In Skopje 10% of the population is Catholic Mother Teresa attended a public school as well as a private school. Later in life she attended a medical mission sisters school. Mother Teresa played mandolin as a young child and she also song with her sister in her church’s choir. Mother Teresa’s biggest hobby was to carry out the will of God. Mother Teresa grew up in a generous family and the family was extremely involved in the church. When mother Teresa was a child she would bring food and medicine to people who needed it. She saw that as a religious duty. When she was eight her father passed away and mother Teresa became close to her mother. When she was on a trip to the chapel of the Madonna of Lentince on a black mountain was when she felt her first calling from God. â€Å"I want Indian Nuns, Missionaries of charity, who would be my fire of love amongst the poor, the sick, the dying, and the little children† sh... ...st mother Teresa. They thought they weren’t sanitary and didn’t have good medical training to care for the poor people. Also people said the only reson people thought she helped people was because she was converting people to christianity. In 1989 she had a herat attack which was followed by surgery and then she was hooked up to a machine to regulate her heartbeat. After a couple years of heart lung and kidney problems she died at age 87 on september 5 1997. Mother teresa is the Saint of Gutters Mother teresa has helped so many poor,unhealthy,homeless,healthy,wealthy, people. She has helped people by curing there sickness, telling us that we can change the world, and that if we just help one person it will make a difference. This paper talked about the life of mother teresa. Mother teresa had a unforgettable life. She had a life that we all would want to have.

What Are Some Issues Managers Face When Leading a Diverse Workforce

What are some issues managers face when leading a diverse workforce? How can he/she overcome these issues? Most people, when they think of diversity they will automatically gravitate to the common four, which are race, creed, color and religion. However diversity takes on many different forms such as married or single, parents or single parent, educated or not, or even veteran or never served. So to go beyond the common four one would have to think we are always encountering diversity when we are out in the public.Everyone has the stereotyped stories about walking into 7-11 and finding the persons from India or some form of Muslim background Believe it or not, we face diversity as soon as we go into the public. We run into people from different countries, religions, beliefs and color. So to put that as a topic of a problem, in my opinion, is way over stated. Only ignorance can cause problems when dealing with diversities.I have to believe that we as a country have swung the pendulum too far in the sensitive direction that we make it almost impossible to function. I have to believe that if everyone treats everyone with respect then it’s really not a problem. On that same note; if someone is offended by someone then it’s absolutely up to that person to say something in private to that person and give them the chance to learn that what they have said or done has offended someone else.So managers need to be aware of diversity and also provide some guidance for the ignorant employees that may simply not know any better. So the bottom line, educating your people to be aware that not everyone grows from the same tree or has the same beliefs and I have to believe that it will work itself out. ? University of California, San Fransisco. Guide to Managing Human Resources; Chapter 12: Managing Diversity in the Workplace. http://ucsfhr. ucsf. edu/index. php/pubs/hrguidearticle/chapter-12-managing-diversity-in-the-workplace/

A Review of Potential Teacher Development Opportunities

TABLE OF CONTENT Topics Page Numbers 1 A Review of Potential Teacher Development Opportunities in Improving Literacy Skills of EAL Pupils Introduction This evaluative essay focuses on reviewing teacher professional development strategies in using assessment for learning (AfL) to improve English as an additional language (EAL) for primary pupils in England.Teaching is a difficult job. Improvement and constant development are therefore necessary to ease the burden of hardworking teachers. As a result, teacher professional development is a mandatory requirement in many jurisdictions (Wiliam, 2011). Shimahara (1998) stated that teacher professional development is a typical concern in industrialized countries because it is the key to improving teaching. However, William (2011) mentioned that teachers feel inundated as they are continuously ‘bombarded’ with innovative strategies to increase their working efficiency.Keeping teacher professional development in mind, the focus he re also relates to the teaching and learning of English as an additional language. Globalisation plays a major role in stressing equal opportunities and social equity for all learners. Due to the long tradition of migration trends across the globe, the international concerns also encompass of contextualise social justice for multi-lingual learners (Cajkler and Hall, 2009). To highlight this matter, a statistic from the Department for Education in 2011 shows an increased in the number of ethnic minority pupils in English state funded primary schools (DfE, 2011).This reflects the circumstance of England primary schools where pupils whose first language is other than English has increased in number. The urgency of this matter is supported by Ofsted (2012) by stating that English has a momentous position in the school curriculum. Thus, teachers’ 2 strategies to tackle this situation become the centre of attention. Where the English language has served as a lingua franca for ethni c minority pupils in England, literacy skills play an important role in their academic and everyday routines as well.By putting forward the two important aspects of this essay; teacher professional development and EAL in primary schools, it is only necessary to mention the relevance of combining both of these aspects in a topic for discussion. With all due respect to other core subjects in the curriculum, the reality of teaching as a difficult job and a statement made by National Association for Language Development in Curriculum (NALDIC, 2009:1) on EAL that it is a ‘very complex phenomenon’, seem to have formidable implications for teacher professional development.Educational reforms such as curriculum reform, does not guarantee necessary changes in classroom practices. It is well known that how a subject is taught wins over what is taught, hence ‘pedagogy trumps curriculum’ (Wiliam, 2011:13). Therefore, when curriculum frameworks only work as far as guidi ng teachers in dealing with EAL, thus assessment for learning (AfL) is then best integrated in pedagogy to further develop the practice of serving teachers and raise pupils’ achievements. 3English as an Additional Language Classrooms in England According to a brief description by NALDIC (2011), there are over a million bilingual pupils participating in teaching and learning contexts in United Kingdom. According to statistics from Department for Education and Skills (DfES, 2006a:8), there has been an increased of ethnic minority pupils in primary schools from 18. 3% in 2004 to 19. 3% in 2005 and then reaching 20. 6% in 2006. Each of these pupils enters school communities with minority language that is not English as their mother tongue language.It is stated by Hughes (2002) that teachers need to consider pupils’ diverse culture to establish learning environments that are meaningful. It is important that teachers attend to their learning needs in order to achieve teachin g goals. The diversity in culture that may cause challenges in pupils’ learning according to Hughes (2002) includes the kind of spoken language use by them outside of school context such as at home. English as an Additional Language (EAL) according to Davison (2007) refers to ethnic minority pupils who are perceived as to needing support with their English development.These pupils possess language other than English (LOTE) as their mother tongue language. The terminology of English as a Second Language (ESL) is also commonly used by many researchers and teachers to identify these LOTE pupils. However, there has been a rise of issues about the usage of ESL as a term in pedagogy hence, the term EAL is said to be a more appropriate term to be used as it suits the context where the English language abilities of bilingual or multi-lingual pupils are multi-leveled (Davison, 2007).These issues revolve around the fact that LOTE pupils should not all be assumed to take English languag e as their second language. These pupils can be 4 fluent in speaking and writing in their mother tongue language but not in English language, or it can be vice versa (NALDIC, 2009). On the other hand, these pupils can be more fluent and able to socialise with their schoolmates in English language informally, but not be able to engage in academic writing and meet the requirement of the national standards.Cummins’ (1979) distinction between Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills (BICS) and Cognitive and Academic Language Proficiency (CALP) as cited in DfES training toolkit programme (DfES, 2006b) shows that communicative or conversational skills (BICS) of pupils usually develop first in verbal exchanges context before they develop their cognitive (thinking and learning skills) and academic languages (CALP). In general, it takes two to three years for upils to be fluent in English as an additional language and an average of five to seven and even ten years for bilingual pupils to be competent in cognitive and academic domains. Essentially, EAL teachers need to know that only by pupils achieving development in both of their cognitive and academic language can they contribute to their academic success (DfES, 2006b). In an actual fact, how successful is the teaching and learning of English language subject in England primary schools?According to inspections done by Ofsted from April 2008 until March 2011 in over 133 primary schools, the report highlights the finding that primary schools have less improvements in English attainments in comparison to secondary schools (Ofsted, 2012). The problems listed are encompassed of having fewer pupils achieving national expectations in reading, and quality in teaching writing is varied such that less efforts were given in spelling and handwriting. Slower improvements in primary schools are then linked to the fact that there is a lack of specialists present in the teaching and learning context.Although, due to 5 inspect ions done by Ofsted consist of individuals, there might be biased element involve in the evaluation. Nonetheless, Therefore, I do believe there should be more researches focusing on the competences of teachers through teacher training programmes and continuing professional development. Relevance of Formative Assessment in EAL â€Å"Sensitive formative assessment of pupils’ classroom performance demands a high level of teacher awareness of pupil needs†¦teachers need to take account†¦the even more complex and less ‘visible’ aspects of language use. (NALDIC, 2003: 1) I can relate to the above quoted statement by NALDIC (2003) where teachers are required to carefully plan formative assessment for pupils’ learning by considering the complexity of language education especially EAL. According to Wiliam (2011), there has been a lack of researches done for teacher professional development. Learning styles, educational neuroscience and content area knowle dge are the common areas included in teacher professional development. Thus, why focus on formative assessment in this context?Getting into the basic details of understanding assessment, Green and Johnson (2010:14) define assessment as more than just tests and quizzes for the purpose of grading. Furthermore, assessment is viewed as a mix of methods to implement before, during and after lessons by taking advantage and making good use of pupils’ former or current knowledge to enhance learning. From the definition itself, they feasibly elaborated three main purposes of assessment 6 based on occurrence of the instructions.Diagnostic assessment happens before teaching, formative assessment (assessment for learning) happen during teaching and summative assessment (assessment of learning) happens after teaching (Green and Johnson, 2010). Thus, the terms diagnostic, formative and summative can be seen as defining the functions or purposes of the wide range of assessments. Black, Harr ison, Lee, Marshall and Wiliam (2003:31) mentioned that there are four ways of assessing pupils; questioning or classroom dialogue, feedback or feed-forward, self and peer-assessment, and formative use of summative tests.The relevance of focusing on formative assessment is due to its compatibility alongside many other aspects that contribute to pupils’ achievements (such as age, abilities and multileveled language). NALDIC (2003) agrees on the insufficiency of only using National Curriculum English and thus resulted in Assessment for learning (AfL) which is synonymous to formative assessment, to be used on a daily instructional basis (NALDIC, 2009). According to Stiggins (2005) as cited in Wiliam (2011), Assessment for learning exists throughout the process of pupils’ learning.AfL provides pupils with information of their learning progress through feedback as evidence and at the same time, assist pupils on how to improve and meet achievement standards. NALDIC Formative descriptors consist of assessment framework to assist teachers on day-to-day methods or provide stages for diagnosing pupils’ progress, and also to help teachers plan and integrate AfL into EAL teaching approaches (NALDIC, 2009). Issues in Assessing English as an Additional Language 7 We have only looked at the complexity of language in terms of its terminology.Davison (2007) mentioned that knowing what to be taught and learnt in classrooms must precede the action of assessing EAL pupils’ development. Other than that, teachers must also take notes on pupils’ knowledge prior to lessons to provide them with better learning opportunities. Shepard (2000) talked about two different problems in relation to teacher practices and pupils’ prior knowledge to learning. She stated that quite a number of teachers only documented results from pre-test and post-test assessment tasks however failed to subsume pupils’ pre-test results for enhancing pupils’ learning.In another case, a sizeable amount of teachers involved in reading and language subject had the tendency of using activities that acknowledge pupils’ background knowledge but failed to comprehensively integrate them with assessment. In practice, EAL pupils would have more predicaments in learning English as their additional language in comparison to native speakers of English pupils learning English. Hence, teachers are required to be more sensitive towards the cultural background and prior knowledge of these EAL pupils to help fulfill their learning needs.Language as a second language contains facets such as grammatical, socio-cultural and strategic abilities taken from models that can be referred for assessing. However, Widdowson (2001) as cited by Davison and Leung (2009) stated that the complexity of language is mainly due to the absence of comprehensive views and researches on the relations of these components, thus resulting in theoretical issues arising such a s on the ‘validity’ and ‘reliability’ on assessing criteria of language.For an example, in assessing writing, there may be a question on the validity of perhaps teachers putting more emphasise on grammar proficiency in comparison to creative writing. 8 Thus, theoretically, with the nature of language being multifaceted and the different abilities of LOTE speaking pupils in mind, one has to wonder how teachers deal with and monitor their development and progress. Of course there are NALDIC Formative descriptors which provide framework and guidance to teachers; however, there is the persistent question of whether or not this is enough.An experiment was done by Davison in 1998 (Davison, 2007) involving ten Hong Kong immigrant students in Australian secondary schools. The result of the research indicates that teachers of these immigrant students had the tendency of creating a ‘community of dialogic exchanges’ (Davison, 2007:542). Referring to forma tive assessment, classroom dialogue is one of the areas used to assess students to enhance learning, nonetheless, it is the way that teachers use this method that really determines the outcomes to be positive or negative for their learning.Here, the teachers seemed to acknowledge the background of the EAL students but omitted their learning needs. The teachers developed negative judgments towards these students such as perceiving them as depending too much on their mother-tongue language and having no motivation to learn and speak in English. Thus, this poor discernment by teachers as assessors should be a major professional concern. Furthermore, in reflection to Davison’s research, I would like to include some issues raised by Cumming (2009) in the Forum section of TESOL Quarterly.Briefly, Cumming put forward problems that relate teachers and assessment. Firstly, the problem is on teachers’ lack of knowledge on assessment, and also questioning their professional abili ties since there are still a lack of studies done to help answer how language teachers build up their competences 9 throughout their career. Secondly, teachers having a hard time in choosing assessment approaches that would work better in helping pupils meet the curriculum standards. Lastly, there are issues involved to how teachers relate assessment with pupils’ development and learning needs.As a result, the judgment skills, knowledge and abilities of teachers as assessors, are some of the many factors that should be considered in improving within teacher professional development. Teacher Professional Development: Novice to Expert? The demands put on teachers’ shoulders can be quite a jargon to others who are not involved directly in the related profession. There is even a saying that I was once told and here it is; the works of a teacher to others as they see it is only a tip of an iceberg.Throughout my teaching experiences, I slowly grasped the meaning of it as the reality of the profession manifested itself through the extra hours of marking, lesson planning and researching. During my earlier periods in the teaching diploma programmes, I believed teachers with years of school experience ought to master the techniques of teaching. It was my assumption that veteran teachers should outperform novice teachers. Nonetheless, with the passing of time, I have learned to believe that experience would only give positive impacts on pupils’ outcomes when the serving teachers bring with them developments in their practices.Of course the time factor contributes to teacher professional development, such as to give ample opportunities to teachers to experience and develop their skills. However, for judging on how good a teacher is, it does not entirely matter on the length of time the teacher has taught, but what the teacher does within this time that is really a concern. 10 Such as, how teachers develop teaching approaches on bringing in greater lea rning experience for pupils in EAL classrooms or setting.Referring to my old belief, a trite assumption that I’d probably make would be that teachers should just be left in schools for a period of time to eventually learn to teach better. Surprisingly, this assumption is proven to have a little bit of truth. Wiliam (2011) has put forward research done by Leigh (2010) on 90,000 Australian elementary school students. The research shows a small gap of differences on the impacts of students’ progress as a result from the teaching between veteran and novice teachers (see Appendix A).Hence, a couple of years advance by veteran teachers in the career put them at a slightly better teaching result, yet Leigh stated the majority agree that the case is not always the same. The attention of even on the tiniest bit of truth on the assumption that veteran teachers teach better than novices, is better turned to how they teach and develop their practices. That is, by improving their i nner developments; wisdom, knowledge, experience and polishing their critical judgment skills (Dadds, 2001).On the other hand, it is vital to realise that the whole process of developing teacher practices does not evolve entirely on teachers simply catching up with the latest educational trends (Wiliam, 2011). Metaphorically, it is not as easy as reading ingredients off a recipe book and lacking of involvement in the process of cooking itself. Putnam and Borko (1997) as cited in Shepard (2000) agreed that constant experimentation and reflection on pedagogical models in real classrooms context by teachers precede beneficial changes to their teaching practices, beliefs and attitudes. 1 Teacher Professional Development Strategies in EAL Looking from an international view, Shimahara (1998) stated that teacher professional development in every countries differ from one another in terms of its strategies. In Japan, the strategies of professional development encourage peer-development, mea nwhile in America; the strategies are focused on following paradigms for self-development. Higgins and Leat (2001) talked about effective teacher development by linking its models in a mapping diagram (see Appendix B).They attempted on linking models such as those that seek on transitional stages of novice to expert teachers, teachers’ professional reflection, pedagogical knowledge, subject knowledge, socialisation and personal explanatory. This goes back to relate on the previous research on 90,000 elementary students in Australia on the differences of performance between novice and veteran teachers (Wiliam 2011). It would not be enough to prepare individual teachers with only a specific skill in teaching development such as on pedagogical approaches alone.This is because teacher professional development is multi-faceted and the components are interrelated. Although there are imperfections on trying to map out the complex relationships of models within teacher development du e to many different meanings of the concepts in literature, however, they agreed on stressing the importance of teachers in having explicit work purposes (Higgins and Leat, 2001). Due to the major focus on mainstreamed classrooms in English schools, Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) therefore aims in providing all pre-service teachers 12 ith the experiences of EAL integration across all curriculum subjects (Cajkler and Hall, 2009). In my home country, the curriculum has a vast of English Language medium subjects listed for the majority local and non-native English speaking pupils. Thus, in the previous years, preservice and post-service teachers in Brunei had the opportunity to choose upon entering the teaching training programmes such as to specialise in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL).However, it is acknowledged by Cajkler and Hall (2009) that despite the urgency to meet the demand of increasing EAL pupils in England, the inclusion of EAL specialisatio n in pre-service teachers training programmes is out of the question due to the already ‘very crowded programme’ (Cajkler and Hall, 2009:154). In the initial training, the confidence level of newly qualified teachers (NQTs) was low especially in the fields of assessing English and teaching of literacy.The study also noted that the training provided pre-service teachers with less involvement with the national guidelines for assessment of EAL pupils; Language in Common. As a result, 45% from one hundred and fifteen respondents prioritised teaching skills for EAL as the most essential further training category for continuing professional development (Cajkler and Hall, 2009). Thus, assessment and language developments are suggested to be centralised in the teacher training programmes.Therefore, in 2006, the introduction of training toolkit for EAL Excellence and enjoyment: teaching and learning for bilingual pupils in the primary years (DfES, 2006b) to schools aims to raise understanding on EAL pedagogy and provide guidance on teaching approaches for bilingual learners. Then, White et al (2006) in their evaluation of the pilot programme of the DfES toolkit (DfES, 2006b) mentioned that there has been a positive improvement in teachers’ confidence and better comprehensive view of EAL pedagogy by teachers. 3 If I insisted on my previous assumption on letting novice teachers evolve to experts, Higgins and Leat (2001) pointed out that there are again stages involve in the transition to increase expertise. These transitional stages are not shown in the mapping diagram (see Appendix B). Nonetheless, it triggers such questions as to what extend do we measure achievements of teachers to confirm their expertise in teaching, hence, what makes one a teaching expert?Does defining one’s expertise help others to improve, such as through demonstrations of teaching to pre-service and post-service teachers? Changes can only occur and produce results when teachers are willing to first, change from within. Perhaps I can look at it from this point of view where education reformers provide new teaching models to schools, but instead, all these innovative strategies are making teachers feel inundated by them and as a result, changes intended never take place in classrooms (Wiliam, 2011).Let’s also reflect on the situation of the ten Hong Kong students where teachers assess them through classroom dialogue activity but misinterpreted in using that assessment to make judgments that did not contribute in helping them to learn better. As a result, Dadds (2001:51) emphasise teachers to cultivate their inner ‘voice’ and judgment or the ‘expert’ within them before accepting and using instructions from the ‘expert’ outside. Teachers are learners themselves. They need to learn on how to look at their rooted values on the profession first before thinking on improving and catering the learning needs of p upils.Suggestions to Overcome Issues in EAL 14 Other than participating actively in the schools or the nation’s teacher professional development programmes, there are also many other individualistic ways for serving teachers to successfully implement AfL in EAL pedagogical approaches. In the context of teacher professional development, it really depends on teachers to improve their knowledge and professional abilities; to trust their instincts, experience and wisdom in order to help pupils attain better in their learning.Also, it is essential for teachers to be explicit on the learning intentions before assessing pupils for learning. For lesson preparations, teachers in England are opened to a wide range of resources for EAL and assessment tasks such as from EAL publications, DfES toolkit (2006b) and NALDIC official website which provide great research platforms for teachers and tutors. Teachers can use information on pupils’ background and prior knowledge to adapt sui table assessment tasks in classrooms.According to Shepard (2000), teachers may even evaluate their own practices through classroom assessments by becoming liberal and open into discussing matters related to improving instructions with pupils. Another way of helping teachers to develop their assessment practices is by using video or audio recorder while assessing pupils as media to allow teachers to reflect and improve their approaches, as well as, to enable teachers to better understand the learning needs of their pupils.For peer-development, EAL teachers may make informal meetings with their EAL teaching colleagues to discuss and make amendments on certain assessments criteria (Davison, 2007; Davison and Leung, 2009). In addition to the issue of assessment ‘validity and reliability’, the matter can be partially put at ease if the assessing of pupils is done by teachers who know them very well. In addition, 15 teachers should be given great autonomy to plan and help the learning of their own pupils (Davison and Leung, 2009).However, if the case of ‘validity and reliability’ is over-emphasised, therefore, I believe that the status of teachers as assessors may be perceived as weak and the whole focus of AfL would be none other than a replacement of standardised traditional ways of assessing. As cited by Shepard (2000), Assessment Reform Group (1999) which consists of researchers from England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, put forward their discourse to the government policies on three important aspects. Firstly, to amend inspectorate policies to help guarantee teachers as qualified assessors for pupils’ learning.Secondly, increase the funding on professional development opportunities for teachers. Finally, relieve teachers from the apprehensive pressure of standard examinations when planning instructions for pupils’ learning. Conclusion The impetus of this essay derived from the fact whereby is supported by NALDIC (2009) that English as an Additional Language (EAL) development is a rather difficult situation that gives impact to teachers’ professional experience. There has been a great emphasise on EAL in England due to its long tradition of migration and mainstream classrooms in primary schools.In relation to the urgency, teacher professional development in England becomes the foreground in dealing with the increasing number of language other than the English (LOTE) speaking pupils in state funded schools (DfE, 2011). On the other hand, the integration of AfL in the teaching of EAL is seen to be the best way to assist teachers in increasing pupils’ literacy competences. NALDIC Formative descriptors, established in 2009, serve as assessment framework that provides teachers with 16 approaches to diagnose the progress of pupils in EAL and provide them with feedback evidence to improve learning (NALDIC, 2003).Language education is very complex. The nature of language involves stage s of competencies and encompasses of many interrelated components (Davison and Leung, 2009). Thus, trying to figure out the abilities of bilingual or multilingual pupils in English language and which aspect or components of the language to use to judge their competences, is quite the phenomenon. Therefore, there are issues involving teachers’ critical judgments and wisdom whilst assessing EAL pupils that highlights the necessity of teacher professional development.According to Higgings and Leat (2001) by referring to Teacher Training Agency (1997), primary teacher training in United Kingdom provided a course where pre-service teachers are to obtain all the needs of professional learning by attending ample of lectures on subject knowledge, teaching approaches and a number of demonstrations on teaching. However, from a study done by Cajkler and Hall (2009), the result shows that there is inconsistency in the focus of EAL in the teacher training programme provided by TDA in Engl and.Time is an essential element in development but it is also relevant to look at teachers as individuals with different abilities. From my experience, some teachers could be talented and creative than the others, and some teachers could be more motivated. Therefore, arguing on which aspect contributes more in improving teacher practices is impossible due to the fact that it is beyond my capability for discussion and the limitation of this essay. In a nutshell, I agree that that teacher professional development is complex.Education reformers should not merely focus on one area of teaching practices but also to acknowledge other teaching related factors. 17 Nonetheless, Wiliam (2011) paraphrased Doug Lenov (2010) and stated that teachers have no maximum limitation of success and should think that striving for continuous development throughout their career is necessary. After all, teachers are not just essentially required to help develop EAL pupils into becoming capable learners in their classrooms but, they also help them to become capable members of the schools and cultural societies (Davison, 2007).Therefore, teachers’ skeptical attitude towards innovative strategies that would help improve their teaching has to be countered with other strategies that would prepare them with the changes they need from within. Iteratively, professional development for teachers needs to be guided with intentions that are relevant and supportive to their continuous professional development in order to face the continuous challenges of the evolving society nowadays. 18 REFERENCES Black, P. , Harrison, C. , Lee, C. , Marshall, B. and Wiliam, D. 2003) Assessment for Learning: Putting It into Practice. England: Open University Press. Cumming, A. (2009) What Needs to Be Developed to Facilitate Classroom-Based Assessment? In TESOL Quarterly, Vol. 43(3), 515 – 519. Dadds, M. (2001) Continuing Professional Development: Nurturing the Expert Within. In Burgess, H. , Craft, A. and Soler, J. (Eds) Teacher Development: Exploring Our Own Practice, 50 – 56. London: The Open University. Davison, C. (2007) Different Definitions of Language and Language Learning: Implications for Assessment. In Cummin, H. nd Davison C. (Eds) International Handbook of English Language Teaching, Vol. 1, 533 – 548. Norwell, MA: Springer. Davison, C. and Leung, C. (2009) Current Issues in English Language Teacher-Based Assessment. In TESOL Quarterly, Vol. 43(3), 393 – 416. DfE (2011) DfE: Schools, Pupils and Their Characteristics – January 2011. http://www. education. gov. uk/researchandstatistics/datasets/a00196810/schools-pupils-and-theircharacteristics-january-2, accessed November 20, 2012. 19 DfES (2006a) Ethnicity and Education: The Evidence on Minority Ethnic Pupils Aged 5 – 16.London: DfES. DfES (2006b) Excellence and Enjoyment: Learning and Teaching for Bilingual Children in the Primary Years, Unit 1, Planning and Assessment for Languag e and Learning. London: DfES. Green, S. K. and Johnson, R. L. (2010) Assessment is Essential. New York: McGraw-Hill. Higgins, S. and Leat, D. (2001) Horses for Courses or Courses for Horses: What is Effective Teacher Development? In Burgess, H. , Craft, A. and Soler, J. (Eds) Teacher Development: Exploring Our Own Practice, 57 – 58. London: The Open University. Hughes, P. 2002) Principles of Primary Education Study Guide: 2nd Edition. London: David Fulton Publishers Ltd. NALDIC (2003) NALDIC Position Statement on Assessment of English as an Additional Language. http://www. naldic. org. uk/eal-advocacy/naldic-reports-and-responses/naldic-briefingsand-letters, accessed November 21, 2012. NALDIC (2009) EAL Assessment Frameworks, Models and Useful Documents for Classroom Teacher. http://www. naldic. org. uk/eal-teaching-and-learning/eal-resources/eal-assessment, accessed November 21, 2012. NALDIC (2011) Bilingual and Dual Language Resources. ttp://www. naldic. org. uk/ealteaching -and-learning/eal-resources/bilingual, accessed November 20, 2012. 20 Ofsted (2012) Moving English Forward: Action to Raise Standards in English. http://www. ofsted. gov. uk/resources/moving-english-forward, accessed November 27, 2012. Shepard, L. A. (2000) The Role of Assessment in a Learning Culture. In Educational Researcher, Vol. 29(7), 4 – 14. USA: American Educational Research Association. Shimahara, N. K. (1998) The Japanese Model of Professional Development: Teaching as Craft.In Teaching and Teacher Education, Vol. 14(5), 451 – 462. Great Britain: Elsevier Science Ltd. White, K. , Lewis, K. , and Fletcher-Campbell, F. (2006) Raising the Achievement of Bilingual Learners in Primary Schools: Evaluation of the Pilot/Programme, Research Report RR758 (National Foundation for Educational Research). London: DfES. Wiliam, D. (2011) Embedded Formative Assessment. USA: Solution Tree Press. 21 APPENDIX A A graph that shows the rate of teacher productivity in relation to t heir years of working experience (Leigh, 2010) cited in Wiliam (2011:28)

General management assignment Essay

INTRODUCTION (kfc ) Micro environment factors which the organisation controls . eg employees product ,price ,place and promotion, it can be considered to be the local environment where business operates and owners are aware of the impacts that they are faced with. Macro environment factors are the ones which the organisation does not control and may affect the business . eg political , economic, social, legal and technological factors. the environment are always changing so the companies must always adapt. Market environtment the act outside marketing management ability to build and maintain a succefull relationship with customers ,the environment always change and both customers and marketers wonder what the future will bring MAIN BODY THE EXTERNAL FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE THE ORGANISATION MICRO ENVIRONMENT EXTERNAL FACTORS CUSTOMERS All businesses need customers ,they should be well balanced around customers .The company`s marketing plan should aim to attract customers through products that meets their needs and wants and good customers service EMPLOYEE Employing staff with good skills and experience is essential. Employees bring an influence on your business via ongoing training and promotion opportunities ,this process begins at recruitment stage .Training and development play a critical role in achieving a competitive edge MEDIA Media can be printed ,televised or inline ,positive media can make the organisation or its product and negative media can break the organisation . an organisation needs to manage the media so that the media can help promote positive things about them and reduce negative event on their reputation. SUPPLIER Supplier provides the business with the goods they need to carry out their business activities. A suppliers behaviour will impact the business it suppliers If a supplier provides poor service this could increase timescales and product quality,and increase in raw material THE FACTORS INFLUENCING THE COMPETITIVE POSITION OF THE ORGANISATION MACRO ENVIRONMENT FACTORS POLITIC This deals with the government policies and procedures which is worked out through legislation and consist of all legal factors such as Governmemt view on culture and religion. Taxation policy on tax rates and incentives. Political factor cans can create advantages and opportunities for organisation. ECONOMIC KFC organisation is affected with national and global economic factors like cost of labour, interest and inflation rates ,economic growth rates business cycle rates and unemployment rates. due to recession the income of the kfc has dropped down and most of the employees were jobless and the rest employees were employees few hours also the company had to cut down their costs SOCIAL It is the cultural and demographic aspects of the external macro environment. the pontential of the employees who come from different back grounds and work together in the kfc , and customer trends and aspects which the kfc has to consider as per their needs and wants of the customer such as changes in lifestyles and change in customers needs and wants. TECHNOLOGY This is driven internationally which reduce s the minimum of production levels and some of the technological factors are recent technological developments. Communication technology has now become the most important aspect in kfc as when the customers are mostly delighted and satisfied with the service including the latest technology that is available in the Kfc.  the latest technological method that are used to serve customers faster are such as digital screens ,wireless head phone for the staff cooking utensils. LEGAL The kfc has to maintain rule and regulations related to the hygiene factors such as employee training regarding the food and safety, personal hygiene ,Clean work environment and proper use of the utensils .this also deals with the legal environment in which the company operates. ASPECTS OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL SCANNING Strength ,Weaknesses. Opportunities and threats .Managers will have to start analyzing the internal environment by looking into ineffciencies inside the organisation and will also look outside to the external environment and things taking place independent of the organisation. environmental scans allow managers to use the knowledge gained during the scanning process to decide what strategic steps the organisation needs to take to create a competitive advantage. CONCLUTION Training and development ,managers help with day to day running of the organisation.the must be responsible in creating an energetic and valuable work environment and customer service .Ensuraing quality products and cleanliness is delivered to all customers at good speed and with a smile . QUESTION 2 2.1 READ THE CASE study one from chapter three of your prescribed textbook 2.1.1 Answer question 1to 3 from the case study 1. Do you think there is a business opportunity for a cigar bar in Mamelodi ? There is no business opportunity in Mamelodi because there are three cigar bars in opened and the target market is so young. 2. Is the window of opportunity still open for cigar bars ? Window of opportunities is not opened ,because already they have three cigar Bars which their their target market is young. 3. How must Sanyana go about exploiting this opportunity to get started ? Sanyana must go to an area that is has no cigar bars and busy market 2.2 You have been appointed as a functional manager .You are in charge of marketing department .You need to revise the current marketing strategy. Answer the following questions in light of your new appointment and job task: How can you apply planning, organising , leading and control to manage this department? Managing a department is skill that requires good planning and development and enables the manager to devise strategies, make decisions and implement action. Planning is the process of determining in advance what cost regardless of whether it is a long term priorities. Selecting, Motivating, training and appraising staff. Establishing Strustures and systems through which activities are arranged. Making decisions embodying decisions in instructions an serving as the leader of the department interrelating the various parts of the work . What skills you need to use and develop in order to manage this department? People skill – people tend to work with those whom they like or find pleasant to be around ,or atleast have good personalities when dealing with clients. . Technological skill – In the world that we are living in marketing professionals must have the technological skills to take advantage of these mediums .Marketing through social networking allows the communication of media campaigns and marketing promotions in realtimeto consumers . Project management skill – Marketing must display the skill set to conduct agile project management where marketing campaigns take advantage of the micro opportunities. . Marketing Research skill – This can help determine how previous products in the market have been presented to consumers and how a new productcan best be attack the market . Is decision making essential for future planning ?explain why Decision need  to made wisely under modifying circumstances with different amount of knowledge about alternatives and consequences.  In extention the decision making is often a group process. Consequently the manager must apply principles of democratic decision making since those involved in the decision making process will feel an interest in the result of the process. You need to evaluate employees in the department. how can â€Å"control† assist you with performance appraisal Employees are going to be appraised on all areas that they are responsible for by means of scoring system on how they are doing with their present duties fair , good or very good .that appraisal can be a great tool to monitor and control performance on their duties.

Journey to Self-Awareness

Tiffany Rayside September 27, 2012 Dr. Lynne DeCicco, Eng. 112 Journey to Self-Awareness The term, â€Å"coming of age† signifies a growth in a person’s identity. It is a confusing phase in which one is on the cusp of adulthood and will experience pivotal moments that will shape character and lead to some sort of self-realization. Such moments may result in a loss of innocence, the destruction of hopes and dreams, the sense of imprisonment, and perhaps lessons learned. Two literary works that illustrate such concepts are Amy Tan’s â€Å"Two Kinds† and James Joyce’s â€Å"Araby. Both pieces are narrated by the main characters, as adults, reflecting upon and portraying a better understanding of their childhood experiences. Although the affairs and outcomes recounted in each differ greatly, â€Å"Two Kinds† and â€Å"Araby† embody the foolishness commonly displayed during adolescence, as well the maturity and insight the characters gain as the stories evolve. In Joyce’s â€Å"Araby,† the un-named main character is a thirteen year old boy living in a depressed society, worn-down and devoured by â€Å"†¦drunken men and bargaining women†¦Ã¢â‚¬ (Joyce 92).The boy brightens his days marveling over his best friend Mangan’s sister. The boy’s obsession becomes eerily clear as his daily ritual is revealed: When she came out on the doorstep my heart leaped. I ran into the hall, seized my books and followed her. I kept her brown figure always in my eye and, when we came near the point in which our ways diverged, I quickened my pace and passed her. This happened morning after morning. I had never spoken to her, except for a few casual words, and yet her name was like a summons to all my foolish blood. Her image accompanied me even in places the most hostile to romance (92). Rayside More often than not, the first step of the coming of age process is the loss of innocence, which is most co mmonly a result of disappointment. As the first true interaction occurs between the boy and Mangan’s sister, the preface for disappointment is shaped. The boy finds himself in the position to impress his fantasy girl when she asks if he will be attending the bazaar at Araby. Upon conveying her longing to attend the splendid event, the young lad seizes the moment and offers to bring her a present from the bazaar, a silent gesture of his love for her.The following days proved tedious as he is consumed with his trip to Araby. Finally, the sacred day arrives and, although he felt he took every precaution to ensure his success, his trip is delayed due to his uncle’s late return home. The narrator realizes that his uncle has forgotten his plans due to intoxication, â€Å"I heard him talking to himself and heard the hallstand rocking when it had received the weight of his overcoat. I could interpret these signs† (Joyce, P93). The reader is immediately presented with th e boy’s awareness of the harsh realities in his world and the discouragement that follows.The boy is of the age where one begins to acknowledge, but not quite understand, adult behavior. Likewise, Amy Tan explores the loss of innocence as an aftermath of childhood disappointment in â€Å"Two Kinds. † Tan portrays herself as a young, first-generation AmericanChinese girl, struggling with the seemingly unrealistic expectations of her mother. Amy, who, in the story is referred to by her Chinese name, Ni-Kan, is on a quest, imposed upon her by her mother, to discover her talent so she may become a child prodigy, comparable to Shirley Temple.After countless ‘talent tests’ given to her by her mother, Ni-Kan begins to accept the notion that she may not have a distinct talent, that she may never be a prodigy: â€Å"But sometimes the prodigy in me became impatient† (Tan 384). With this revelation came a sense of failure and 2 Rayside disappointment in hersel f, in contrast to the narration of â€Å"Araby. † Ni-Kan confesses: â€Å"And after seeing my mother’s disappointed face once again, something inside of me began to die† (Tan 384). This admission results in a change in outlook that marks the beginning of Ni-Kan’s transition into adulthood, a self-realization.Her innocent belief in her mother’s prodigy theories and eagerness to achieve such perfection has come to a halt. In this moment, Ni-Kan decides to be the person she now believes she was meant to be, and not the obedient prodigy her mother and everyone else expected her to be, however it is clear to the reader that she has not yet attained the maturity to make such resolutions. The journey through the character’s development continues as Joyce and Tan introduce the destruction of childhood dreams. As a child, one tends to believe that anything is possible because he or she is blind to possible hindrances.When obstacles present themselves , a person may suffer a disheartening loss of faith or hope, which ultimately chips away at the belief that one’s dreams will come true. Joyce delivered an unspoiled example of this evolution through the narration of â€Å"Araby,† which is consumed with daydreams about â€Å"a romantic quest to purchase the gift for Mangan’s sister† (Fargnoli and Gillespie 2). Disenchantment struck upon the boy’s late arrival to the Bazaar, finding the exhibit nearly empty and the attendants not interested in his patronage.In that instance, the boy appreciates that his romantic fantasy was not worth all of his troubles, which indicates a significant emotional growth of the character. Fargnoli and Gillespie also note: â€Å"†¦and Araby’s tawdry wares unacceptable for the portentous mission that he has undertaken† (2), further conceding to the discontent the boy felt as he identifies the items available for purchase substandard and unsuitable for h is purpose. 3 Rayside Disparate to the boy in â€Å"Araby,† the character in Tan’s â€Å"Two Kinds† served as the catalyst that led to the ruin of her dreams through her resistance to learning how to play the piano.When the time came for her to perform at the recital, she began to believe that she was going to play well, despite her lack of practicing. She childishly imagined the reaction of her family and audience, â€Å"It was as if I knew, without a doubt, that the prodigy side of me really did exist† (Tan 388). Tan went on to describe how she, â€Å"envisioned people jumping to their feet and Ed Sullivan rushing up to introduce me to everyone on TV† (388). Ni-Kan was admittedly surprised when she heard herself playing all of the wrong notes, and shamed of the embarrassment her parents must have felt as she played so poorly.While the boy in â€Å"Araby† was disillusioned by forces beyond his control, Ni-Kan’s experience could have been avoided had she taken her lessons seriously. Also dissimilar to â€Å"Araby,† Tan explores the issues on a deeper level by relating NiKan’s reaction to her recital to that of her mother. Ni-Kan ‘s childhood dream of pleasing her mother by finding her inner prodigy would not come to fruition on that day, but the true destruction was that of her mother’s dream for her daughter to be a success: â€Å"But my mother’s expression was what devastated me: a quiet, blank look that said she had lost everything.I felt the same way, and it seemed as if everybody were now coming up, like gawkers at the scene of an accident, to see what parts were actually missing† (Tan 389). It is clear that Ni-Kan’s mother was terribly embarrassed and frustrated by the ordeal, especially since she boasted about her gifted daughter to the other parents regularly, posing the idea that the mother learned a valuable lesson on that day. 4 Rayside Moreover, a sense of imprisonment, bitterness, and resentment is felt by the characters in â€Å"Araby† and â€Å"Two Kinds. The presence of captivity is tremendous in Joyce’s depiction of the world surrounding the boy as he speaks of the mood in the house and the unpleasantness in the air which, in itself, spawns a feeling of hopelessness. However, these feelings are not internalized until later in the story, when the reader is presented with the groundwork for disaster: â€Å"As he was in the hall I could not go into the front parlour and lie at the window. I left the house in bad humour and walked slowly towards the school.The air was pitilessly raw and already my heart misgave me† (Joyce 93). The boy already senses his upcoming failure, and that sense is only heightened by a feeling of entrapment once he returns home that evening to find his uncle has not yet arrived, â€Å"I sat staring at the clock for some time and, when its ticking began to irritate me, I left the room † (93). The growing torture the boy is experiencing is clearly indicated as he recalls having to endure unbearable gossip which only seems to make the wait even longer, â€Å"I had to endure the gossip at the tea-table.The meal was prolonged beyond an hour and still my uncle did not come† (93). Once the uncle does arrive home, the boy barely greets him and immediately asks for money to go to the Bazaar, refusing to smile when the uncle refers to how late in the evening it was, which points out his antipathy towards the delay in his plans. The boy’s showing of resentment is mild, yet resounding. Alternatively, Ni-Kan’s caging and animosity in â€Å"Two Kinds† are exhibited as bold outcries.While her surroundings appear to have more pleasantries than the boy’s in â€Å"Araby,† Ni-Kan is held captive by the traditions and expectations of her mother and heritage, and her torment is evident throughout: â€Å"I hated the tests, the raised h opes and failed expectations† (Tan 384). It is at this point when Ni-Kan makes the decision to be her own type of prodigy, one that 5 Rayside was â€Å"angry and powerful† (384), with thoughts filled with lots of won’ts. â€Å"I won’t let her change me, I promised myself. I won’t be what I’m not† (384).Clearly, Ni-Kan was going to do everything in her power to end her mother’s quest for perfection, to â€Å"put a stop to her foolish pride† (387), but soon finds that her mother’s determination was stronger than she imagined and her bitterness and resentment turns to pure anger and vengefulness: â€Å"Then I wish I weren’t your daughter. I wish you weren’t my mother! † (389). Ni-Kan, encouraged, by her mother’s growing anger, only becomes more verbal and cruel: â€Å"And that’s when I remembered the babies she had lost in China, the ones we never talked about. Then I wish I’ d never been born! I wish I were dead like them† (390).Ni-Kan’s animosity towards becoming a prodigy blinded her from the reality of the pain she caused her mother: â€Å"It was as if I said the magic words, Alakazam† (390). In Ni-Kan’s child eyes, she won the battle of wills, but has yet to recognize all that was lost due to her harsh testimonials. Undoubtedly, the characters â€Å"Araby† and â€Å"Two Kinds† learned important life lessons, however varied in acceptance. It appears that the boy in â€Å"Araby† learned his lessons immediately after his trials. He quickly understands that he, alone, idealized his world, and reality could be cruel and hard to bear if unprepared.It is palpable that from this day forth, he will see things from a much more pragmatic perspective and will be better prepared to manage the pitfalls. While Joyce implies that the boy instantly surrenders and accepts this lesson as a part of life, Tan’s char acter does not acknowledge her life lessons until much later, as an adult. Ni-Kan continues her stubborn rebellion throughout her adolescent years and it isn’t until the passing of her mother that she finally realizes the underlying truth of her mother’s constant pursuit of 6 Rayside perfection.It took Ni-Kan more than half of her life to concede that her mother truly saw a prodigy, and she alone stood in the way of her own success. In a nutshell, â€Å"Araby† and â€Å"Two Kinds† highlight how important the seemingly insignificant events that occur during adolescence are to the development of oneself. James Joyce and Amy Tan explore the changes in perspective gained as each protagonist matures into a more enlightened adult. Innocence is lost and displeasures of reality become evident early in life. It is the time when one comprehends that he or she faces substantial pain and emptiness in the future.The irony is that the coming of age never ends; people c ontinue to â€Å"grow up† far beyond the stage of adulthood. 7 Rayside Works Cited Joyce, James, â€Å"Araby† (91-95). Abacarian, Richard and Marvin Klotz. Eds. Liturature: The Human Experience. Shorter 9th ed. Boston: Bedford. 2007. Print. Tan, Amy, â€Å"Two Kinds† (383 – 391) Abacarian, Richard and Marvin Klotz. Eds. Liturature: The Human Experience. Shorter 9th ed. Boston: Bedford. 2007. Print. Fargnoli, A. Nicholas and Michael Patrick Gillespie â€Å"Araby. † Critical Companion to James Joyce: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work, Critical Companion. New York: Facts On File, Inc. , 2006. 8