Convenience Store as Metaphor for a University :: Expository Essays

Convenience Store as Metaphor for a University The university is a convenience store located along the highway of life. It's not a place the customer-student necessarily wants to stop at, but looking at the gas gauge of opportunity, the customer has decided to stop and fill up on knowledge in order to continue on the journey. Everything the university offers can be compared with an item offered at the convenience store. The knowledge a student is buying can be compared to the different grades of gasoline available to the customer of a convenience store. What kind of performance the gasoline-knowledge gives to the customer-student depends on the commitment the customer-student has. The customers who want to get the most of their gasoline will go for the expensive, high grade gasoline, and the customers who don't care what kind of performance the gasoline gives, will opt for the cheapest gasoline. Likewise, the students who want to get the most out of their education pay the higher price in school by spending more time with their studies and taking more challenging courses, and the students that don't care what kind of education they get choose to minimize the amount of work necessary by taking less challenging courses. The customers' goal is to save money by purchasing cheaper gasoline, and the students' goal is to maximize the amount of free time they have to pursue personal interests. Generally, ma ny students follow the example of the customer who buys the mid-grade gasoline, and they choose to give up a little more free time in order to gain a little more knowledge. Like the many items in a convenience store competing for the customer's money, organizations, activities, and personal interests compete for a student's time. The many clubs and organizations a university offers are much like the different types of junk food lining the shelves in a convenience store. They are available for students to take part in, and there is a great variety to appeal to the many different tastes of students, but it is a matter of individual opinion whether one activity is more fulfilling than another. In many ways these activities can be good for students and allow them to have lives beyond their studies, much like eating breaks up the monotony of a long drive. Sometimes though, students may put priority on the wrong interest, jeopardizing their grades by doing something like spending all day watching television, much like the customers that buy a carton of cigarettes every day are jeopardizing their health.

The Last of the Mohicans

Is racism a choice or not?   The novel `The Last of the Mohicans,` by James Fenimore Cooper, did provide evidences of racism as practice not only by Americans but also by other cultures which suggests a strong indication on the possible roots of racism. This paper therefore attempts to dramatize this new found reality that may not be known or accepted by many.   The three part thesis of the paper is stated in the following propositions: (1) the racism has its roots in nature and it must be having been part of human nature. (2) That racism has been practiced due to natives wanting to preserve their cultures, and (3) that racism is strongly felt in gender mix. Since the Native Americans are forced to live with their colonizers, refusal to intermarry with the European colonizers must have been a natural thing to do. Hence what is ever is happening as racism in the United States must be traced back to this great of American history. To dwell therefore on the belief that discrimination is a well-planned reaction to other cultures may seem to find litter support as it not natural to hate or discriminate other people. There must be a prior experience in the past that has entered the subconscious level.   Not surprisingly therefore one could read in the American literature stories and novels that my have the colors or some racial problem. But the racial reactions was not chosen voluntarily as intended reaction but a subconscious reaction become something hurtful that has happened in the past. The issue of apparently prohibited a sexual racial mixture between cultures is depicted in the novel The Last of the Mohicans by Fenimore Cooper's. The word ‘miscegenation', which the shortened word for the sexual racial mixture has taken its meaning from two parts ‘miscere' and ‘genus'   is apparently used in the at the end of the nineteenth century, and the word was actually   found mainly in the analysis of previous literary works. In appreciating therefore the reality to a profound and realistic portrayal of gender and racial relations between Native Americans and white people in the period of Indian and French Wars in his novel, author Cooper made an introduction of his own vision of early native Americans taking the position that miscegenation should be prohibited. It may be argued that the existing political and social issues are indeed influenced by the attitude of white people towards Native Americans in the past.  Ã‚   To be specific about it one may check that the at the end of the seventeenth century there were indeed some American states to have passed specific laws that were aimed at prohibiting sexual racial mixture and this may inferred to have deprived people of different races, with the exception of the white population but not without the undeniable repercussion as far as the American political rights particularly violation to the principles of equality. On taking the contrary view miscegenation may lessen the differences between two races but people then or may even this could aggravate these distinctions because people would be detached and removed from their customary background and by forbidding them from integration into the new environment. This could observed by the fact America's vision as seen by some is large measure of what the country’s have projected as a model   about a future-realizable condition, instead of using the past to look the situation using reason.   With this seeming mismatch, America may have been involved in complex racial tensions and conflicts which appeared to be directed Native Americans. This same reason was also evident in Cooper’s rejection of sexual mixture in the book. In his portrayal of gender relations and miscegenation in the novels, Cooper may be opening the minds of those who know the real background or origin of racism as a social phenomenon.  Ã‚   Not many people will disagree that the US the country that brought a into living together as community of people   from different races   if one will observe that such may have even started from the   period of colonization. Since colonization may only be a desire to influence other cultures. But as soon as the process of interaction was started it, history has recorded about colonizers making constant attempts to destroy beliefs of Native Americans both from the cultural and religious aspects. The most immediate reaction however was for the indigenous population with America to want preservation of their cultural identity which normally is conflicting to the principles of white people. It is proper at this point to produce evidence from the text why Cooper has shown rejection of sexual mixture between races.   In his narration, Fenimore Cooper has described the people or character in the novel with mixed and unmixed blood. One of the characters in the novel is Hawkeye, who despite the fact of being culturally connected with both white people and Indians, he is portrayed by author as a person â€Å"without a cross†[1] The author may have the same treatment of Alice Munro who is described as â€Å"surprisingly fair†[2]. For another character by the name of Chingachgook, the author has presented as an unmixed Mohican. Cooper has created characters belonging to the other race like Cora, the elder sister of Alice, who may be described to of mixed race, who played the role of protecting even at the cost of her own life.   Cora was indeed presented as coming from â€Å"that unfortunate class who are so basely enslaved to administer to the wants of a luxurious people†[3] from the race of West Indians, who cannot marry a person from the South. It may be concluded then that Cooper did portrayed a story of racism in the US dating back to period of colonization as the book revealed women characters being prohibited to many from other race and therefore an indication of lack of freedom and equality when it comes to issues of choosing their marital partners. Cooper portrayed a judgment for women who ignored racial prejudices and assigned their societal-dictated roles, by either being rejected by society or having to die as they are opposing to sexual mixture. In the novel, one could conclude in their minds how the author Cooper has chosen to exterminate ignorer of racial prejudices such Cora and Magua if only to prevent an incompatible marriage. Work Cited: Cooper, J `The Last of the Mohicans, ` St. Martin's Press, New York, 1984 [1] Cooper, 1984 p.4. [2] Cooper, 1984 p.378 [3] Cooper, 1984 p.310

Human behavior in Late adulthood stage Essay

The paper will be focusing on the stages of psychosocial development specifically that of the Later Adulthood Stage. Though this stage of adulthood does not share the same significance to the other developmental stages in adulthood, especially to the earlier stages, at least in terms of how the individual sees his or her world in the context of one’s closing days of life and vice versa. Nevertheless, the Late Adulthood Stage remains of utmost significance for the reason that it holds one crucial aspect in the final development stage of an adult: the integrity of the ego. It must be noted at this point that the ego in the Late Adulthood Stage has already absorbed within the span of the individual’s life processes and life in general a considerable degree of experience. What remains in this stage are the radiations of past experiences that have not withered away with the forgetfulness of human memory, as well as the individual’s reformed perceptions of his or her world that have adapted to the series of changes in one’s environment and that have also shaped the very structure of the environment where one dwells in. A look into some of the significant details of this stage reveals the weight of this particular phase in contrast to the other stages in adulthood whereby the unique strands of psychosocial precepts that properly belong to this stage identifies it as more than just a culminating phase. Theoretical backgrounds In Erikson’s Eight Stages of Psychosocial Development, the Late Adult Stage summarizes its major tasks in the development of the adult in terms of introspection. This is primarily because this phase is essentially the stage wherein the individual is only able to perform fewer activities in contrast to the early years of one’s life where the person is actively participating, to a certain extent, in either leisure or work. Whereas younger people constantly interact with their surroundings and with other individuals, older people who belong to the last stage of human development are, in many cases, physically unable to meet the necessities required by leisure and work. For the most part, although the aged people can barely enjoin themselves in these physically challenging activities, the Later Adulthood stage in Erikson’s theory tells us that these individuals spend most of their time instead on recollecting in their memory the experiences they had in the early chapters of their lives. Thus, as one can observe among the elderly, their acts of relating stories of previous meddling with past events and persons reveal one aspect of human introspection. It manifests their attempt, at the very least, to cope with their physical inability or lacking in terms of mobility by contemplating on whatever is remaining in their memory. More importantly, the Later Adulthood stage highlights the inevitable fact in human life: death. As with the aged people, the wisdom they have acquired in their many endeavors during their younger days all point them to the inescapable fact of death thereby insinuating a sense of fear in their minds. As this fact is instilled in their thoughts, the elderly are eventually placed in a rather uncomfortable situation as their days are drawn closer to its closing chapters. This is the point wherein their views on both life and death are further defined by themselves, testing their maturity and emotional capability to accept such fact and to acquire the sufficient integrity and belief in their selves so as not to succumb to the fear of dying. Robert Havighurst, in his perception on the developmental tasks in the life of the individual, points our attention to his interpretation on the later maturity stage of the individual. He asserts that after the time of retirement from one’s occupation, the individual eventually undergoes several adjustments in the sense that the person begins to adapt a new lifestyle that fits the conditions that beset the individual. These conditions, especially after finally closing the window for a previous occupation, are reflected in many ways. A few of these conditions include relocating to a smaller house or the reduction in one’s income among many others. These circumstances ultimately brings changes, either drastic or gradual, to the living conditions in the life of the person that one is in turn prompted to realign one’s manner of living with new measures. In essence, Havighurst suggests that the elderly are more after the attempt at â€Å"holding on† to life rather than the actual seizing of the things that life has to offer. That is, the state of life of the elderly can be seen as one that is inclined to â€Å"maintain† life or the things that one already has in life rather than the expansion of it. To be taught of news ways of living entails not only the adoption of new approaches in dealing with the necessities brought about by age and one’s physical deterioration. It also entails the idea that these elderly people are bound to attempt at putting more effort in â€Å"holding on† to life, quite apart from the idea that they ought to broaden their perception of the world and their perception of both life and death. In the context of the theories that revolve around the analysis on the stages of human development in terms of the psychosocial perspective as well as the patterns of behavior exhibited by the elderly, we can fairly extract the idea as hypothesis that these patterns of behavior are the results of the developed perceptions of the elderly with the further realization of death or, at the very least, the deterioration of one’s health and living conditions. Methodology The participants in the interview are composed of 20 non-working elderly from the male and female genders with age 60 and above randomly chosen. All of the participants can understand and speak the English language, their primary language, and are residents of the United States of America. The religious orientation of the participants is Roman Catholicism as well as they are financially dependent on the insurance money they receive every month, apart from the medical assistance they are able to acquire from it. Moreover, the participants are now living on their own, with their families living in their respective homes separate from their elderly.

Diplomacy and International Conflicts essays

Diplomacy and International Conflicts essays From ancient times, diplomacy has remained an important means of responding to regional as well as international conflicts. Particularly in the present challenging situation, when economic injustices and military expansion have reached an alarming level, the need to provide timely warning to the countries involved and suggest concrete solutions to mounting problems is one of the fundamental tasks of all international institutions. These issues are usually focused through conferences at both regional and international levels. Hence, the role of conference diplomacy cannot be overlooked. The success or failure of conference diplomacy depends on the circumstances and the sincerity of the concerned parties, and above all, on their political and economic compulsions. During the 1970s, a series of international conferences were held on themes related to global problems. These included deliberations on human environment (Stockholm - 1972), population (Bucharest - 1974), Food (Rome - 1974), industrialization (Lima - 1975), employment (Geneva - 1976), human settlement (Vancouver - 1976), climate (Geneva - 1976), desertification (Nairobi - 1977), primary healthcare (Alma-Ata - 1978), research and technology for development (Vienna - 1979), law of sea (1974), women's rights, disarmament, etc. Likewise, there were several conferences during the 80s and the 90s. But the problem arises when despite realizing the implications of the conflicts, the diplomatic missions fail to bring about fruitful results. Some observers believe that such conferences usually result in prolonging the existing stalemate and contribute little towards peaceful resolution of the crisis. In the history of conference diplomacy, we come across more failures than achievements. But it is true to say that such initiatives are successful in bringing core issues into the limelight. They project the existing political, economic and social structure of a particular region ...

Scaffolding - A Instructional Strategy of Instructional Delivery for Special Education

Scaffolding - A Instructional Strategy of Instructional Delivery for Special Education Definition: Scaffolding is a word, like chunking, that describes how instruction is planned and delivered to students receiving special education services. All instruction is built on prior knowledge and students with disabilities often come without the same skill set or prior knowledge as their typical peers. A teacher is challenged to find the childs strengths and build on them to teach the important skills that will lead them either to academic or functional success. Often students with disabilities will not have the skill set their same aged peers have, and will need to have the components scaffolded to help them move on to an age appropriate set of academic skills.   A child who hasnt learned to write a multiple paragraph report may need to start at sentences, move on to a graphic organizer for a paragraph.   Once they can find the information and words they need, they may be ready to learn how to organizer their own paragraph.   Once one, then multiple paragraphs.   One of my autistic students with little independent language had strong counting skills. We used touch math as a way to teach him addition and subtraction, scaffolding on his strength in letter recognition, counting and memory of rote tasks.   He was able to do multiple addition and then subtraction problems without regrouping once he mastered the algorithms.   Ã‚   Alternate Spellings: Scaffold, Scaffolding, Scaffolded Examples Example 1 - Math: In order for Mrs. Stanley to help Roger learn the plane figures in geometry, she built on his interest in dot to dots. By repeatedly connecting the lettered vertices of the triangle, rectangle, square, rhombus, and other polygons, Roger was able remember both the names and criteria for each of the plane figures. Example 2 - Writing: Clarence is good at spelling and likes to write words he had memorized.    His teacher started to use that interest by creating graphic organizers where he could choose words for his sentences.   Next, his teacher finds out Clarences interests beyond electronic games.   Clarence loves African animals.   The teacher shows Clarence how to search for pictures of favorite animals and download them as jpegs.   Then Clarence learns how to place the pictures in a publishing program and add a caption.Once Clarence has found his favorite animals, the teacher will create a   note book.   Then he will guide Clarence how to do a web search to find facts about the animals on a fact sheet:   What kind of animal? (mammal, fish, bird, reptile, etc.)   What do they eat?   Where are they on the food chain?   A predator or grazer?   After Clarence has collected lots of information on the fact sheets, the teacher will provide a graphic organizer with the topic sentences for each paragraph in a graphic organizer.   Clarence will use the skill he gained f rom the first level of the scaffold (writing a sentence in a template/graphic organizer) to writing about each animal of interest.   Publish. Clarence drops pictures into the text and creates a book.   Spring for color printing, maybe even binding.

Relationship between China and the United States Case Study

Relationship between China and the United States - Case Study Example And whatever the answer to these would surely rock the world. The relationship of the People's Republic of China (PRC) - to differentiate it from Imperial China to the China transformed by Mao Tse-Tung in 1949 - and the United States started bitterly, brought about by two diametrically opposed ideologies that each espouses: the United States, being the indefatigable monument of imperialism, and China, being the staunch ally of communist Russia. The world then was equatorially divided between imperialism in the west and communism in the east. And no one ever conceived that this demarcation would ever be radically altered. During this period (1949-1970) both nations regarded each other as intransigent enemies. The United States refused to acknowledge the PRC and denied China of its legitimacy being a nation by totally isolating it from the diplomatic community: it excluded China from the United Nations; it banned any trading with China; it fanned anti-communism and supported separatist movement within China (as what it did with USSR after the cold war) to divide the strong China; and it rallied South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Southeast Asia and South Vietnam into a 'crescent-shaped alignment against communism', immediately communist China (Han-Yin Chang, 2000, p.62); that any ally having any diplomatic relations with China warrants the wrath of the powerful US. The U.S. depicted China to the world as repressive, fascistic, dictatorial, denying individual freedom that any one living in a democratic country, like America, enjoys. China on the other hand, side by side with Russia, was a front liner in the united front against US imperialism, all-out supporting national movements that decry U.S. colonialism. It was instrumental in the liberation of North Korea and North Vietnam. China portrayed the U.S. to the Chinese people and to the U.S. colonies, especially in Southeast Asia, that Uncle Sam - a derogatory depiction of the U.S. mocking it as an arrogant self-declared semi-god out to exploit nation's wealth and resources in the guise of benevolence - is nothing but a despotic aggressor, that would like to impose its hegemony over the peoples of the world. It perceived, and made all in its realm perceive, too, any U.S. action as an act of calculated subjugation and total exploitation. This marked anti-American sentiment lingers on among Chinese people until today. Such was the very hostile relationship of these two powerful nations that no peaceful gesture could lessen the tension, instead, if there was any, could have been interpreted as a mere ploy to thwart the other; that peaceful co-existence was unacceptable, because only one should rule the world. Each one representing the two contrasting ideologies, offered itself as the best social system to rule the world, both promising prosperity and humanization of society. Who could ever think that this would change' No one ever did, not even in any of these

Curriculum proposal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Curriculum proposal - Essay Example Focus would be on providing the students with listening and speaking skills that would make the students confident when engaging in business activities like ordering, telephoning, networking and problem solving. In accordance with the definition of curriculum by Richards (2001), this proposed research will involve analysis of the needs, evaluation of the aims and objectives and provision of resources that would be the basis of learning and teaching. Appreciating that the environment influences the curriculum to be adopted and the mode of teaching to be used as cited by Richards (2001), this course being specific on the environment of execution would require an adoption of specific approach in teaching English as a foreign language, EFL. It would be different as the approach that would have been adopted for an environment of employers, parents or politicians among other learning environments. According to Wang (2011), this context would yield best outcomes with the adoption of case-based teaching. In this approach, students would be given a virtual business situation that incorporates the relevant issues from which the students will analyze, communicate and come up with appropriate solutions. According to the researcher, this approach should be adopted in classroom activity and course design as it has been noted to increase the communication competence of students and avoid errors in language communication. Various theories explain how students learn. In this case, the behavioral learning theory which according to Lavadenz (2011) postulates that learning would be as a result of a response to environmental stimuli approaches teaching through repetition, practice and reward. The Saudi students would be rewarded with better business English communication skills. Learning business English would call for internal motivation to achieve the desired outcome since all languages have same underlying principles, referred