Power of One :: essays research papers

â€Å"Inclusion, not exclusion, is the key to survival.† What does this mean? To say the least, the definition is clearly stated in The Power of One. Initially, Peekay in The Power of One was isolated by members of his family, and as a result of that he was excluded by society because of his background. Ultimately, he was excluded within his own race because of his actions throughout this story. â€Å"One thing got to all of them more than everything else. They couldn’t make me cry.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Peekay was isolated by his family and suffered through deaths and losses. Peekay’s father died early in his life and from there on out he had to learn to live with the idea of death. The next deaths came from Granpa Chook, his mother, and Nanny. Losses continued when Doc went back to Germany, and a camp guard killed Piet. Even when he picked up all his strength as a young man, his losses continued when Maria, his love, was also killed. It just kept on adding up, and Peekay kept taking blow by blow. â€Å"Don’t cry, Peekay. Sister’ll know I told you if you cry.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Next, Peekay suffered exclusion, and for him it wasn’t much different. He was English, and the Afrikaners in his society hated him. The English took over and governed their territory. â€Å"I was a rooinek and a pisskop. I spoke the wrong language. And now I was obviously made differently.† Therefore, Peekay was discriminated against because of his background. For example Peekay was even whipped while hanging upside down. It’s amazing that something such as that occurred. Lastly, Peekay went through exclusion because of the way he acted. Peekay was a friend to the blacks, which was very uncommon. He even started a Saturday school in which to teach blacks to read throughout their tribes.

The No child Left Behind Statute

The â€Å"No child Left Behind† statute introduced by President Bush and passed by the congress has created a number of problems for the educational programs intended for adolescents in elementary and secondary schools. The financial situation of the elementary and secondary schools is extremely poor because the states governments have been eliminating vital elementary educational programs. The school administrations have been reluctant to provide extended courses to the students. Furthermore, the textbooks are not being printed consistently, making not only the students but also the teachers extremely vulnerable and helpless. The funding disparity has also created huge gaps between the education being provided to the children belonging to the rich families and those belonging to the poor ones. The shortcomings and the rhetoric behind â€Å"No child left behind† act needs to be exposed so that effective measures can be taken to curtail the damage (Susan, 2003). The consistent lack of attention being given to elementary and secondary education, particularly to adolescent literacy is posing a grave threat to the future of the American education system. The purpose of this thesis is to reveal the shortcomings of â€Å"No child left behind† law by first understanding the basic details of the act related to adolescent literacy programs and then persuasively assessing the loopholes in it. Lastly, the thesis gives carefully crafted recommendations aimed at not only the federal and state governments but also the school districts, parents and the educators. The aim is to create an understanding of the present and future needs for those educational programs that are aimed at adolescents and identifying the present gaps in the federal educational law. The American value of education emphasizes that all children, regardless of their gender, religion ethnicity should be able to acquire the basic skills of education and then carry those basic skills through to the elementary, secondary and high level education. Unfortunately, research has shown that the reality of the present education system is on the contrary. In a recent study, conducted by â€Å"National Assessment of Educational Progress† (NAEP, 2002), it has been noted that as much as 26% of the students are unable to read their textbooks fluently and almost half cannot comprehend the meaning of the text (Michael F. Hock and Donald D. Deshler, 2003). It is worth noting that the legislators and government officials realize the gravity of the situation but have been unable to cope with it. If nearly half of the students in the elementary schools are unable to effectively read their course books, then, these students will find higher education very difficult. The â€Å"No Child Left Behind† act has made things even more difficult because the focus has been on a long-term solution, whereas, it is imperative that the needs of the present generations are addressed immediately. This is because millions of students will be unable to cope with the demands of the future workplace needs if their basic educative skills are not enhanced at the right time (Michael F. Hock and Donald D. Deshler, 2003). The challenge for the present legislators, teachers, parents and school administrations is to counter the threat of adolescent illiteracy by introducing effective programs, backed by appropriate amount of government funds. The difficultly lies in the ineffectiveness of the present educational law to cater the needs of adolescents as the most problematical educational dilemma to deal with has been the deficiency in the reading, writing and speaking skills of adolescents. The present educational and political leadership need to create and implement productive adolescent educational programs, which are feasible in the present schooling environment (Michael F. Hock and Donald D. Deshler, 2003). Dough Mesecar, who is currently a senior policy adviser to the secretary of Education, while giving his comments on the present status of the NCLB act asserts in an interview, â€Å"The achievement scores are up, and we're very pleased to see both the achievement gap starting to close, kids are learning more, a very positive report in the sense that the Center for Education Policy report is a self-survey, so these are states and districts reporting on their own to the center that their scores are up, achievement gaps are closing. So we feel very positive that this is yet another report showing the trends are definitely heading in a positive direction. † Contrary to the above statement, many experts believe that the â€Å"No Child Left Behind† act presents a grave threat to the American values. But, before revealing the shortcomings of the â€Å"No Child Left Behind† law, it is imperative that the basic features of the law that are related to elementary education are clearly understood. It is important to note that at least four areas of the act have been considered to have severe repercussions on the adolescent literacy. These four features are as follows: The â€Å"No child left behind† (NCLB) act encourages superior standards. The law makes it imperative that those schools, which are being supported by the government through funds, align their endeavors with the standards set by the local state. Furthermore, the law makes it imperative for these schools to employ only skilled and qualified workforce and only work on evidence-founded programs that are time-oriented and result-oriented. It is believed that these measures will enhance the level of education because it will not only minimize the inadequacy of unqualified teachers but also enhance learning as only scientifically verified teaching initiatives will be offered to the adolescents (Jim Donlevy, 2002). The law asserts that the annual progress of all the schools will be noted in relation to the competence achieved by the students in subjects such as mathematics and science, and in skills such as reading, writing and speaking. Standardized procedures and methods will be drafted to evaluate the progress of each district, school, as well as every group within each school. It is important to note that these â€Å"assessments† have put a great deal of added stress on all elementary schools because they have to align their educational endeavors within the parameters of elementary education set by the state (Jim Donlevy, 2002). The NCLB act has set very high standards for elementary schools all over America. If a particular school fails to meet the standards of the state for 2 successive years then that particular school will have to craft counteractive programs. Should the school fail to meet the State†s requirements for the 3RD consecutive year, tougher measures will be introduced, which may include replacements in the school workforce, complete modification of the school syllabus and maybe even state takeover (Jim Donlevy, 2002). The law allows parents to send their children to a school located in another district should their present school fail to meet the standards set by the State. The cost for this transfer of school along with the daily cost of transportation will be met by the local government. Furthermore, if the students attending these low-performing schools need home-tutoring or any other measure to augment their children†s achievements, then the local government will provide funds for those measures as well. The primary objective of the NCLB law is to enhance the possibility of success in elementary education for all Americans. This is being done by placing specific standards and then taking effective measures to make sure that these requirements are being met (Jim Donlevy, 2002). The most severe negative outcome for the elementary schools will be that they will loose their freedom to experiment with the instructional methods. While scientifically proven methods offer a great deal of benefits to the students, the creativity and progress in discovering newer and more effective instructional methods will be lost. Furthermore, while numerous research studies about effective reading methods have been conducted, very little research exists on other educative areas, such as speaking, writing and learning. Therefore, elementary teachers and schools will be finding it very difficult to meet the standards of the State (Jim Donlevy, 2002). Another major loophole in the NCLB act is that the â€Å"counteractive measures† for schools will be extremely costly. It is important to note that the measures set forth for under-performing schools are unfeasible to implement. If the number of schools that fail to comply with the standards set by the State for 2 successive years increases substantially, then the funds required to bring the necessary changes in the workforce, syllabus and structures of the schools or a complete State takeover will be extremely difficult to manage as the funds for education are being slashed every year by the Bush Administration (Jim Donlevy, 2002). The condition laid out by the NCLP to only employ specialized, qualified and licensed teachers is posing severe problems for struggling schools. It is vital to note that those schools that have either failed to or are struggling to comply with the standards set by the local government consistently employ replacement-teachers from far-off areas and are bound to face shortages of licensed teachers. Furthermore, many experts believe that this tendency will increase in the coming years and the struggling schools will face tougher challenges to meet this condition, while those schools that have been meeting the State†s standards of initiatives have been consistently employing certified teachers. Therefore, the persistence of the NCLB act to employ only licensed and specialized teachers has made it unrealistic for low-performing schools to meet this condition (Jim Donlevy, 2002). Additional troubling features of the NCLB Act The funds allocated for the successful implementation of NCLB are not only limited but also very poorly directed. While the NCLP act lays clear emphasis and provides adequate funds for crafting accountability structures and carrying out transformations for schools that fail to comply with the Standards of the State, it fails to provide adequate funds for conducting research on equally important academic areas for adolescents† literacy, namely, educator training and constant learning, the needs and interests of adolescents and framework for educating and learning in subject areas. This misdirection of funds will further hamper the progress of low-performing schools (Mark W. Conley and Kathleen A. Hinchman, 2004). Furthermore, NCLB gives very little consideration to the framework of literacy strategies. The three areas cited in the NCLB act are alphabetic acquaintance, fluency, and comprehension strategies. While the adolescents have been able to develop the first two categories (alphabetic knowledge and fluency), they have found the last category (comprehension strategies) to be extremely difficult. This is mainly due to the fact that new frameworks for subject-contents are being developed, which create the need for the development of newer comprehension strategies. Nevertheless, several studies have asserted that NCLB mirrors very limited research on this issue and sets a very restricted standard on strategies related to the development of newer comprehension strategies (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2000; Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998; Alexander & Jetton, 2000). It is important to note that adolescents do not come prepared for the challenges they will face in their elementary and secondary education. One cannot wait for newer laws to be enacted or school reforms to be initiated. Immediate strategies have to be developed so that the present threats emerging from the NCLB act can be turned into an opportunity for all schools. The federal and local State governments should reflect on the following strategies for immediate and quick-fix actions: Firstly, recognizing those strategies that have been successfully implemented by high-performing schools and then enforcing the low-performing schools to adopt those strategies (Michael F. Hock and Donald D. Deshler, 2003). In order to present those successful strategies to low-performing schools and ensuring that they have comprehensively understood all the aspects of the strategies, the government ought to set up presentation-places to illustrate those plans and achievements (Michael F. Hock and Donald D. Deshler, 2003). Encourage programs that educate teachers on scientifically verified instructional methods. Despite the fact that confusion about the proper definition of adolescent literacy still prevails, modern research has been able to give some direction to the dilemma. These directions should be used as a framework to allocate funds for teacher training programs that have been clinically verified to be productive (Michael F. Hock and Donald D. Deshler, 2003). Increased consideration should be given to literacy instruction because no current teacher training programs inform the teachers about the difficulties they will face while dealing with the literacy instructions in their teaching careers (Michael F. Hock and Donald D. Deshler, 2003). These recommendations should be implemented with immediate affect because we are all aware that schools are very multifaceted and therefore manifold characteristics and strategies have got to be adopted (Darling-Hammond, 1997; Marzano, 2003). It is important for the government officials to note that neither the adolescents nor the teachers can be ignored because they both are the pillars for growth and development of any society (e. g. , Pressley, 2001; Strickland & Morrow, 2000; Stronge, 2002) (Margaret Taylor, 2004) The â€Å"No Child Left Behind† act can be considered to be more idealistic than realistic because while the aims are very noble, the funds required to achieve these noble aims are very limited and a number of vital issues have been ignored. The State governments have been busy in establishing high standards of achievements for all schools without making efforts to really understand the complexities of the present system and the repercussions of their policies on the schools, parents, teachers and the students. Therefore, a proper reaction to the present threats being posed by the NCLB act should be thorough, carefully directed, and all-inclusive if across-the-board transformations are desired. Lastly, endeavors to bridge the differences amid the objectives and the present capabilities have got to be the most important concern if the aim is for adolescents to productively challenge the needs of the business and the society.

Sorporate unethical behaviour Essay

You have been exposed to several cases of corporate unethical behaviour. Ethical misconduct of senior executives appear to be at the centre of these scandals. In Australia, the James Hardie Industries ‘asbestos’ case has been featured in the media for some time. The company has been accused of causing over half of the number of documented cases of mesothemilia, a lung cancer caused by asbestos. In your in-class essay writing, you are required to do the following. 1. Using utilitarianism, discuss two reasons each in favour of, and against, James Hardie executives’ conduct. 2. As summarised in your week 2 tutorial exercise, reflect in your essay, how your views concerning ‘responsible business’ have been influenced by †¢your research for this assessment task, and †¢by your engagement with the subject matter of COMM101. 3. Referencing and citations: The two references provided below should be used in your essay but are only starting points for your research. On their own, they are not sufficient. A requirement of this assessment task is that you should submit to your tutor, as an attachment to your essay, a list of references consulted whilst preparing for this essay. This list should be cited in your essay and prepared using a word processor and produced via a printer. Ensure you follow the referencing guidelines set out in your subject outline. As a guide, we expect that you should have consulted at least six references (including the two mentioned below) in preparing for this assessment task. 1. Read One Philosopher’s Approach to Business Ethics in your textbook, Shaw et al (2013), pp.105-112. Use the content to develop your essay. 2. Read and use the content from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s Decision in James Hardie Penalty Proceedings (Tuesday 13 November 2012), available at http://www.asic.gov.au/asic/asic.nsf/byheadline/12-275MR+Decision+in+James+Hardie+penalty+proceedings?openDocument

Jamie Thomas essays

Jamie Thomas essays Jamie Thomas was born in 1974, Dothan, Alabama. Jamie Thomas was the fourth child and a very independent one. He did everything to fit in as a kid. He was the fourth child. Every child in his family was a little rebellious. So when they had him they decided that they have had enough ( Brunett, Pgs 60-61). As a kid Jamie raised himself in a sense. His mom taught him a lot of things but most of the things he had to learn on his own. He Probably had to learn a lot more things on his own than the average child. When Jamie was growing up he was probably the best skater in his town, since there wasnt a lot of skaters in Alabama. Jamie lived in Alabama for a long time. Jamie got a lot of attention as a kid because he was a skateboard kid ( Brunett, Pgs 62-63). When Jamie was young he did all the basics to fit in: the Mohawk, the shaved head, the bleached hair and whatever else was necessary. When Jamie was growing up the kids that were older were always better at skating than him. A lot of the kids over there either quit skating or got hurt. Jamies parents were always there for him. And they were there when he was in trouble to tell him right from wrong. But usually it took him getting in trouble first ( Online 2 ). While Jamie was growing up his mom was always supportive of everything he did. And his dad was just supportive of school. Jamie was always in a little bit of trouble. He wanted to make the most of school so he always had some fun. Since Jamie wasnt eighteen when he quit he couldnt formally quit on his own. So Jamies mom signed him out for him ( Brunett, Pgs 64-65). Jamie got suspended for five or eight days. Jamie turned seventeen two weeks before he quit school. If he didnt quit he would have failed anyway. Before Jamie came to California he had to work double shifts to save for a car. After Jamie dropped out he was looking forward to come to Calif...

BACHMAN Surname Meaning and Family History

BACHMAN Surname Meaning and Family History The Bachman surname has several possible origins. A topographical name for one who dwells by a stream, from the German bach for brook and mann for man.  From the Hebrew  ben chayim, meaning son of life.   Surname Origin:  Hebrew, Dutch, German Alternate Surname Spellings:  BACHMANN, BAUGHMAN, BACKMAN, BOCKMAN, BOCKMANN, BECHMANN, BECHMEN, BECMAN, BAUCHMAN, BOUCHMAN Famous People with the Last Name BACHMAN Michele Bachmann - founder of the U.S. Congressional Tea Party CaucusRandolph Charles Randy Bachman -  Canadian musician; best known as lead guitarist, songwriter and a founding member of The Guess Who  and  Bachman–Turner Overdrive Where is the BACHMAN Surname Most Common? The Bachman surname, according to surname distribution information from  Forebears, is somewhat less common, found most prevalently in the United States. Within the U.S., individuals named Bachman are found in greatest numbers in states with a high number of past German immigrants, including Pennsylvania and Iowa. It is also a lot more common in Poland, than in Germany. The Bachmann spelling is much more common in Switzerland and Germany, where it ranks 26th and 157th, respectively. WorldNames PublicProfiler  data demonstrates the same pattern, with Bachman most prevalent in the U.S. states of South Dakota, Pennsylvania, Nebraska and Iowa, as well as in Saskatchewan, Canada. Genealogy Resources for the Surname BACHMAN Bachman Family Crest - Its Not What You ThinkContrary to what you may hear, there is no such thing as a Bachman family crest or coat of arms for the Bachman surname.  Coats of arms are granted to individuals, not families, and may rightfully be used only by the uninterrupted male line descendants of the person to whom the coat of arms was originally granted. BACHMAN/BACHMANN/BAUGHMAN Y-DNA ProjectThe goal of the Bachman Y-DNA Project is to use DNA combined with traditional genealogy research to determine which of a number of descendants of Swiss and of early American Bachmann immigrants share common ancestors. BACHMAN  Family Genealogy ForumThis free message board is focused on descendants of Bachman ancestors around the world. Search the forum for posts about your Bachman ancestors, or join the forum and post your own queries.   FamilySearch - BACHMAN GenealogyExplore over 360,000  results from digitized  historical records and lineage-linked family trees related to the Bachman surname on this free website hosted by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. GeneaNet - Bachman RecordsGeneaNet includes archival records, family trees, and other resources for individuals with the Bachman surname, with a concentration on records and families from France and other European countries. Ancestry.com: Bachman SurnameExplore over 490,000 digitized records and database entries, including census records, passenger lists, military records, land deeds, probates, wills and other records for the Bachman surname on the subscription-based website, Ancestry.com. - Sources: Surname Meanings Origins Cottle, Basil.  Penguin Dictionary of Surnames. Baltimore, MD: Penguin Books, 1967.Dorward, David.  Scottish Surnames. Collins Celtic (Pocket edition), 1998.Fucilla, Joseph.  Our Italian Surnames. Genealogical Publishing Company, 2003.Hanks, Patrick and Flavia Hodges.  A Dictionary of Surnames. Oxford University Press, 1989.Hanks, Patrick.  Dictionary of American Family Names. Oxford University Press, 2003.Reaney, P.H.  A Dictionary of English Surnames. Oxford University Press, 1997.Smith, Elsdon C.  American Surnames. Genealogical Publishing Company, 1997.

Truth and Knowledge Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Truth and Knowledge - Essay Example The thinking process involves reasoning, analyzing, arguing, testing, and making decisions. (Halpern, 2003, p. 37) Arguments are constructed from known facts or evidence, which are presented as the premises, and conclusions are drawn from the given premises. (Salmon, 2004, p. 45) For example, the statement â€Å"All crows are black† is a statement of fact that becomes a premise. Similarly the statement, â€Å"This bird is a crow† is another fact that becomes the second premise. From these premises, it can be said that â€Å"This bird is black†, which is a conclusion. There are two approaches for drawing conclusions –deductive and inductive. Deductive arguments proceed from the universal to the particular cases. If all the premises are true, the conclusion in a deductive argument has to be true. We can say that the conclusion is already implicitly contained in the premises in the case of a deductive argument. A deductive argument is either valid or not valid; there is no intermediate state. Inductive arguments proceed from particular instances to draw conclusions about the universal truth applicable to all elements of a particular class. Inductive arguments expand what is contained in the premises, and draws conclusions that are probably true but not necessarily always so. Thus there is a degree of validity associated with inductive arguments. (Salmon, 2004, p. 49) Some arguments contain unstated premises. These are facts or assumptions that are necessary for the argument to be valid but are not expressly stated. Premises may be unstated because they are perceived as universally known. For example, a joint library between San Jose University and Silicon Valley may be concluded as demonstrating the university’s commitment to promote innovation. This conclusion might be based on the unstated premise that Silicon Valley is innovative, even though this might not be stated expressly. (McGraw-Hill, 2000) However, it is always better

Communicative Technology - Short Messaging Service (SMS) Essay

Communicative Technology - Short Messaging Service (SMS) - Essay Example The user should have activated the service of sending text messages, this activation involves paying a cost to some mobile network whereas on most mobile phone networks the activation is free. However, each text message costs some amount per text message, though nowadays mobile service networks offer packages that allow you to send a limited number of text messages for a cost in bulk. Lastly, the user who wants to send an SMS should know how to read and type a text message on the mobile phone and the model they have and should have a recipient to whom they want to send their texts to and they are good to go. (Illinois State University 2014). In 1984, a man named ‘Friedhelm Hillebrand’ was experimenting with casual sentences and questions on his typewriter at his house in Germany. Whenever he wrote a question or a sentence he made a count of the alphabets, number and the spaces in between them. This led to an odd discovery, which further on became the idea behind the length of an SMS. He noticed that every time he counted, the total quantity of characters was less than one sixty characters. (Gayomali, C. 2012). It is said that the first ever text message sent in the world was: ‘Merry Christmas’. It was sent by a man named Papworth. He was a computer designer at ‘Sema Group Telecoms’. Since the mobile phones at that time did not have the ability to type as there were no keyboards he used his computer to send the greeting to his buddy ‘Richard Jarvis’ who was employed at ‘Vodafone’. (Erikson, C. 2012). In 1993 ‘Nokia’ became the pioneer to launch the first ever mobile phone set which allowed the users to send text messages. However, there were limitations to the SMS service, firstly, it could only be typed through a numerical keypad by the multi-tap system and most importantly the SMS service was only limited to one network.  Ã‚