Distributive Justice Inequality in Virtue Ethics and...

Inequality in Virtue Ethics and Ethical Egoism Distributive justice attempts to limit economic inequalities that may arise in a society and is often associated with a minimum standard of living. While political equality concerns a citizens political power, economic equality is commonly equated to equal opportunity, though the two are not mutually exclusive (Justice and Equality). In this paper I will explore the virtues of charity, tolerance, and empathy, considering their potential contribution to the reduction of inequality. I will begin by showing how reducing inequality is beneficial to both individuals and society and is in the individuals true self-interest. In the first section, I will examine how the thinkers Aristotle,†¦show more content†¦Aristotle acknowledged that luck plays a role in an individuals well-being. In Politics he states, â€Å"It is evident that everyone aims at living well and at happiness. But while some can achieve these ends, others, whether bec ause of luck or because of something in their nature, cannot† (Steinberger). Inequalities may arise by chance, out of the individuals control, and through no fault of their own or defect of character. The effects of luck on the individual may be exacerbated or tempered depending on their available resources. â€Å"The happy person,† Aristotle says, â€Å" is the one whose actives accord with complete virtue, with an adequate supply of external goods, not for just any time but for a complete life† (Irwin). Individuals lacking resources are unable to achieve the virtuous or happy life and may be at greatest risk of suffering misfortune, adding to inequality. The community of the Greek polis likely influenced Aristotles perspective on inequality, lending itself to a more compassionate view than other thinkers. Private property and appropriation based on individual investment of labor also leads to potential inequality. In Second Treatise of Government, Locke posits that â€Å"the labor of his body [†¦] are properly his† (Steinberger). An individual creates private property through their labor and the products of their labor are therefor their private property. Locke argues that initially there was a surplus of common goods which an individual would notShow MoreRelatedSears Auto Center Scandal1475 Words   |  6 PagesLGST001 Ââ€" Ethics and Social Responsibility Sears Auto Center Scandal Managing Business Ethics Text (pp.207 - 210) Ethical Decision-making Issue: Should Sears remove its commission-based compensation scheme? Group Stand: The majority of the group believes that Ellen should be removed from the team. Support for Motion: Rawls theory/Egalitarianism The underlying inequality is that car owners are paying for repair services they do not require while Sears benefits by earning higherRead MoreWage Variance Acceptable And Ethical Inequality2370 Words   |  10 Pagesworker s income in the United States. In comparison, the pay ratios in Japan and Germany were 17 and 23 times greater, respectively. The large difference in these numbers make many wonder whether this observed wage variance acceptable and ethical. Inequality can negatively influence economy and social stability. It leads to the public resentment and the feeling of inequity because only a few are rewarded. It destroys a sense of shared values, initiates misbalance and nurtures US versus THEM mentalityRead MoreThe Philosophy of Happiness11705 Words   |  47 Pagestreatises. But in all of them, we are offered a definition of happiness as activity in accordance with virtue, that is to say, doing well what is worth doing and what we are good at. Aristotle’s definiti on derives from a consideration of the function or characteristic activity (ergon) of human beings. Man must have a function, the 16 Life, Liberty, the Pursuit of Utility Nicomachean Ethics argues, because particular types of men (e.g. sculptors) have a function, and parts and organs of human

HR Planning Free Essays

HR Planning: * The process for ensuring that the HR requirements of an organization are identified and plans are made for satisfying those requirements. * Planning for the personnel needs of an organization based on internal activities and external environment * How many people? What sort of people? Definitions: * HRP determines the human resources required by the organization to achieve its goals. It is â€Å"the process of ensuring that the human resource requirements of an organization are identified and plans are made for satisfying those requirements† – Bulla Scott. We will write a custom essay sample on HR Planning or any similar topic only for you Order Now It is the process, â€Å"including forecasting, developing and controlling, by which a firm ensures that it has the right number of people and the right kind of people at the right places at the right time doing the work for which they are economically most useful† – E. B. Geisler. * It is a strategy for the acquisition, utilization, improvement and preservation of the human resources of an enterprise. It is the activity of the management to coordinate the requirements for and the availability of different types of employees. This involves ensuring that the firm has enough of the right kind of people at the right time and also adjusting the requirements to the available supply. Objectives of HR Planning: * To ensure quality and quantity of HR at the right time and the right place * To ensure optimum utilization of human resources * To avoid understaffing and overstaffing Importance: * Reservoir of Talent * Expansion/ Contraction * Cutting costs * Succession Planning MANPOWER PLANNING MAKES FOR DIFFERENT PURPOSES AT DIFFERENT LEVELS: MACRO-LEVEL NATIONAL SECTOR – WISE INDUSTRY – WISE MICRO- LEVEL ORGANISATION LEVEL Organizational Objectives Policies: * Downsizing / Expansion * Acquisition / Merger / Sell-out * Technology up gradation / Automation * New Markets New Products * External Vs Internal hiring * Training Re-training * Union Constraints HRP includes four factors: * Quantity- How many people do we need? * Quality- Which skills, knowledge and abilities do we need? * Space-Where do we need the employees? * Time-When do we need the employees and for how long do we need them? Steps in HRP: * Forecasting future people needs * Forecasting the future availability of people * Drawing up plans to match supply with demand HR Demand Forecast: Process of estimating future quantity and quality of manpower required for an organization. * External factors – competition, laws regulation, economic climate, changes in technology and social factors. * Internal factors – budget constraints, production levels, new products services, organizational structure workforce factors. Forecasting Techniques: * Expert forecasts * Trend Analysis * Workforce Analysis * Workload Analysis * Job Analysis Supply Forecasting: * Internal Supply ( Skill Inventory) * Age, gender, education, experience, training, job assignments, past performance, future potential. External Supply Important barometers of Labor Supply: * Net migration into and out of the area * Education Levels of the workforce * Demographic Changes in the population * Technological developments and shifts * National and regional employment rates * Actions of competing employers * Govt. policies, regulations and measures * Economic forecasts for the next few years * Attractiveness of the area/ industry THE PROCESS OF HUMAN RESOUCE PLANNIG GENERAL OVERVIEW: BUSINESS STRATEGIC PLANS RESOURCING STRATEGY PLANNING DEMAND / SUPPLY FORECASTING MANPOWER TURNOVER ANALYSIS WORK ENVIRONMENT ANALYSIS HUMAN RESOURCE PLANS OPERATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS ANALYSIS RESOURCING RETENTION FLEXIBILITY PRODUCTIVITY WORK ENVIRONMENT THE MANPOWER PLANNING PROCESS–FROM THE ORGANISATIONAL VIEW POINT: COMPANY OBJECTIVES AND STRATEGIC PLANS MARKET FORECASTS PRODUCTION OBJECTIVES / CAPITAL PROCESS FINANCE PLAN MANPOWER ANALYSIS INVENTORY EMPLOYMENT PRODUCTIVITY ORGANISATION MANPOWER FORECASTS (FUTURE SITUATION) OVERALL UNIT BUDGET MANAGEMENT MANPOWER MANPOWER APPROVAL MANPOWER FORECAST FORECAST ESTIMATES TOP MANAGEMENT APPROVAL MANPOWER OBJECTIVES AND POLICIES MANPOWER PLANS AND PROGRAMMES RECRUITMENT SELECTION, CARER PLANNING, PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT, TRAINING, RETIREMENT ANALYSIS, REDUNDANCIES etc. Formulating HR Plans: * Recruitment Plans * Redeployment Plans * Redundancy Plans * Training Plan * Productivity Plan * Retention Plan Example of the Basic Human Resources Planning Model: Organizational Objectives Human Resource Requirements Human Resource Programs Feasibility Analysis 1 2 3 4 5 Example of the Basic Human Resource Planning Model: Open new product line Open new factory and distribution system Develop staffing for new installation Production workers Supervisors Technical staff Other managers Recruiting and training programs feasible Transfers infeasible because of lack of managers with right skills Recruit skilled workers Develop technical training programs Transfer managers from other facilities Develop new objectives and plans Recruit managers from outside Too costly to hire from outside 1 2 3 4 3 5 Forecasting as a Part of Human Resource Planning: DEMAND FORECASTING SUPPLY FORECASTING Determine organizational objectives Demand forecast for each objective Aggregate demand forecast Does aggregate supply meet aggregate demand? Go to feasibility analysis steps Choose human resource programs External programs Recruiting External selection Executive exchange Internal programs Promotion Transfer Career planning Training Turnover control Internal supply forecast External supply forecast Aggregate supply forecast No Yes Manpower flow in an organization: Inflow Outflow Job Transfers Job recruits Job Relocations Job Hopping Transfers(out) Retirement VRS Scheme Discharge/ Dismissal Termination of service Resignations HR Pool in the Organization Internal Labor Supply: * Analysis of Manning/ Staffing Tables. Replacement Charts- Present incumbents, potential replacements. * Skills Inventory-education, interests, experience, skills, etc. * Succession Planning. * Turnover Analysis. * Wastage Analysis- Retirements, resignation, deaths, dismissals- Labor turnover Index, Stability Index, etc. Trend Analysis: * Projections-Basing it on Organizational Sales * Workforce Analysis- l ast 5 years * Workload Analysis * Job Analysis Job Analysis: * A systematic process by which information is collected and analyzed with respect to tasks, duties and responsibilities of the jobs within the organization * Job Analysis: What is to be done? How is it to be done? * Under what conditions is the job to be done? * What skills, knowledge and competencies are required to perform the job? * Job Content: Duties, responsibilities, job demands, machines, tools, equipment, performance standard * Job Context: Physical, organizational ad social context, working conditions, work schedule * Human Requirement: Job related knowledge, skills, education, experience, personal attributes Components of Job Analysis: Job Description: written summary of the content and context of the job * Job Specification: Written statement of the knowledge, skills and abilities and other human requirements Questions in Job Analysis Interviews: * What is your job? * What are the major duties of your job? * W hat are the responsibilities of your job? * What physical locations do you work in? * Under what environmental conditions do you perform your job? * What are the skills, knowledge and experience requirements of your job? * What are the physical and emotional demands that the job makes on you? * What is the performance standards expected on your job? 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Ufos (1530 words) Essay Example For Students

Ufos (1530 words) Essay UfosWe once believed that Earth is the only planet in the Universe that supports life. Today there is overwhelming evidence that not only suggests, but supports the very real possibility that we may share the Universe with other intelligent beings. I. Things in the Sky A. The First Documented Sighting B. The Fever Spreads 1. Pilot Encounters 2. The Lights in the Sky II. Dents in the Earth III. Unexplained Phenomenon A. The Writing on the Wall B. Geodes IV. What About Religion? A. The Christian Bible B. The Ancient Greeks C. The American Indian V. Conclusion We are not Alone. On June 24th, 1947 while searching for the remains of a downed Marine C-46 transport, lost somewhere in the Mount Ranier area, a young Idahoan businessman named Kenneth Arnold spotted something that would change his life forever. Just north of his position flying at an altitude of 9,500 feet and an unprecedented airspeed of 1,700 mph he spotted nine circular aircraft flying in formation. According to his estimate the aircraft were approximately the size of a DC-4 airliner ( Jackson 4). This account was the first sighting to ever receive a great deal of media attention. This sighting gave birth to the phrase flying Saucer coined by a reporter named Bill Begrette. Although not the first UFO sighting in history, Kenneth Arnolds account is considered to be the first documented UFO sighting. The following day Mr. Arnold discovered that in addition to his sighting there were several others in the Mount Ranier area that same day (Jackson 6). When most of think of UFO sightings we picture an unemployed, half- crazed, alcoholic hick living in a trailer park in the middle small town USA. Often times this description, although a little exaggerated, seems to fit fairly well. In the past when the average person spotted a UFO they were quickly discounted as a kook or con-artist in search of either attention or monetary reward. It wasnt until more reputable figures in our society began to come forward tha t we that we started looking at this issue a little more seriously. An article written 1957, entitled Strange lights over Grenada written by Aime Michel describes just such an account: At 10:35 p.m. on September the 4th, 1957 Cpt Ferreira ordered his wing to abandon a planned exercise and execute a 50 degree turn to port. Ferreira was attempting to get a closer look at what he described as brilliant, pulsating light hanging low over the horizon. When the turn was completed he noticed that the object had turned too. It was still directly over his left. There was absolutely no doubt that the orange light was shadowing the F-84s. For another 10 minutes, it followed the jets without changing direction or appearance. The pilots watched as four small yellow discs broke away from the large red object and took up a formation on either side of it. All at once the large luminous disc shot vertically upward while the smaller discs shot straight towards the F-84s. In an instant the flat disc sp ed overhead in a hazy blur and vanished. When Cpt Ferriera was questioned by Portuguese Air Force Investigators he was quoted as sayingPlease dont come out with the old explanation that we were being chased by the planet Venus, weather balloons, or freak atmospheric conditions. What we saw up there was real and intelligently controlled. And it scared the hell out of us. (32) This is only one of literally hundreds of pilot accounts that have been documented and cross verified by other sources. To date the Portuguese Government has taken no official position as to what the luminous discs were. The United States has had more than its fair share of unexplained aerial objects. In February of 1960 the N.A.A.D.S. (North American Air Defense System) spotted a satellite of unknown origin orbiting the Earth. They knew that it snt a Soviet satellite because it was orbiting perpendicular to trajectory produced by a Soviet launch. It also had a mass estimated at 15 metric tons, no evidence of bo oster rockets and traveled at speed three times faster than any known satellite. The satellite orbited for two weeks and disappeared without a trace. Before its disappearance, the object which appeared to give off a red glow, was photographed over New York several times (Jackson 19). Lights in the sky arent the only evidence that suggests we may have cosmic company. In the book A History of UFO Crashes, the author Kevin D. Randal gives detailed accounts of numerous UFO crashes in history. Perhaps the most famous of these crashes occurred on July 4th, 1947 in Roswell New Mexico. The crash at Roswell was witnessed from afar by over a hundred people. Until just recently, no one who was involved in the recovery operation was talking, but thanks to continued pressure from UFO enthusiast our government has begun to declassify much of its UFO related material. Perhaps more startling are than the government documents are the accounts given by local police and members of the recovery team. A ccording to one unnamed witness, a member of the Roswell recovery team: The crash site was littered with pieces of aircraft. Something about the size of a fighter plane had crashed, the metal was unlike anything Id ever seen before. I picked up a piece the size of a car fender with one hand, it couldnt have more than a quarter of a pound and no matter how hard I tried I couldnt even get it to bend. (10) In my opinion the most fascinating piece of evidence to come out of the Roswell crash is the alien autopsy film. Apparently there was more than bits and pieces of spaceship recovered at Roswell. There is an Air Force video account of an autopsy being performed on a life form that doesnt share the common characteristics of organ development found in life forms on this planet. The film is silent and labeled Autopsy, Roswell, July 1947 (Randal 17). As difficult as the Roswell evidence is to explain or discount it pales in comparison to the physical evidence left by our ancestors. An Ill ustration taken from a Nuremburg Broadsheet Tells how men and women saw a very frightful spectacle. At sunrise April 14th, 1561 globes, crosses and tubes began to fight one another, the event continued for about an hour. Afterward they fell to ground in flames, minutes later a black, spear like object appeared. In a Basal Broadsheet dated August 7th, 1566 large black and white globes are seen over Dasel, Switzerland. Both events occurred in a time period when there should have nothing more than birds and bees filling our skies. They each considered to be Divine warnings at the time (Gould 95-96). Ancient physical evidence isnt limited to newspaper illustration and sketches on cave wall. Perhaps the most stounding and unexplainable pieces of physical evidence are a pair of geodes. Both are believed to be approximately 1,800 years old and when carefully examined were identified as electrical cells. One of the cells which was discovered in Iraq was tested and produced 2 volts of electr icity. The other, which was discovered by a pair of Arizona rock hounds, was damaged when the sedimentary encrustation was being removed and therefore couldnt be tested Montgomery 221). Since the dawn of time man has told stories of heavenly and demonic beings coming to rule, teach, torment, seduce and provide salvation. Every culture has myths of ancient gods who strode through the heavens. The American Indians had the cachinas who taught them to farm and saved them from numerous cataclysms. Greece had Zeus who threw lightning bolts from his finger tips and Apollo crossed the sky in his golden chariot. The Christians have Ecclesiastes who encountered the ant people and rode through the skies with them from Babylon to Israel. Across the entire globe we find drawings on cave walls that resemble men in space suits and objects that greatly resemble flying saucers. The sacred artwork of the Hopi Indian when is without a doubt a representation of the waves produced by modern day oscillos copes (Montgomery 225-237). The Hopis are also native to the area where one of the electrical cells were found. It could be that these things are no more than mere coincidence, but I doubt it. Man in his arrogance is reluctant to believe that we may share Gods vast, glorious universe with other beings of intelligence. We sometimes fail to realize that if the Earth were a day old, the race of man would only have been here for 13 minutes. If you couple that with the fact that there are Black Holes and White Dwarfs millions of years older than our sun, it increases the improbability that we are the only ones out here. In the preceding text I have produced a limited sampling of the volumes of evidence available. I will close this paper on a quote from Ecclesiastes I:9 there is no new thing under the sun, and that includes intelligent life. 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Melting Pot free essay sample

The melting pot has been used metaphorically to describe the dynamics of American social life. In addition to its descriptive uses, it has also been used to describe what should or should not take place in American social life. How did the term originate? How was it used originally? How is it used in contemporary society? What are some problems with the idea of the melting pot? How is public education connected to the idea of the melting pot? How does the melting pot function in American cultural and political ideology? These are some of the questions considered in the following discussion. The Statue of Liberty is by now a universally recognized symbol of American political mythology. She stands at the entrance of New York harbor, wearing a spiked crown representing the light of liberty shining on the seven seas and the seven continents. The statue was a gift to the United States from the people of France in 1884. We will write a custom essay sample on Melting Pot or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page It is made of riveted copper sheets, only 3/32 of an inch thick, ingeniously attached to a framework designed by Louis Eiffel. Its construction is such that it will not be stressed by high winds or temperature changes (The world Book Encyclopedia, pp. 874-875). The symbolism of the statue is reinforced by Emma Lazarus’poem â€Å"The New Colossus†, which is inscribed on a plaque at the base of the statue. Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of exiles. From her beacon hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. â€Å"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp! † cries she With silent lips. â€Å"Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the tempest-tost to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door. † (Emma Lazarus, 1883) The Statue of liberty, dedicated in 1886, became a visual symbol of American ideology. Between 1880 and 1930, 27 million people migrated to the United States (www. pbs. org/fmc/timeline/eimmigration. htm). Most of them entered by way of Ellis Island in New York harbor. Most of them would have ended their long six weeks’ journey with by seeing Miss Liberty come into view. These immigrants were about to enter the â€Å"golden door. † What lay behind it? What opportunities were imagined? What kind of life was imagined? How were these turn- of- the- century souls to become part of America? A Brief History of the Common School One powerful social institution that played an important part in the integrative process of immigrants, beginning in about the middle of the 19th century was the common school. Horace Mann, the first state school superintendent in Massachusetts and a strong advocate for a number of social reforms, including a system of public education, articulated the ideology of a common school in his Twelfth Annual Report of the Board of Education in 1849 (Boston: Dutton and Wentworth, 1849). He says: It (a free school system) knows no distinction of rich and poor, of bond and free, or between those, who, in the imperfect light of this world, are seeking, through different avenues, to reach the gate of heaven. Without money and without price, it throws open its doors, and spreads its table of bounty, for all the children of the State. Like the sun, it shines, not only upon the good, but upon the evil, that they may become good; and like the rain, its blessings descend, not only upon the just, but upon the unjust, that their injustice may depart from them and be known no more. This flowery description of the possibilities inherent in a system of free schools was to become part of American political ideology. Public schooling was seen as having the power to recreate and reform European immigrants into respectable, tractable, productive American citizens. Through a system of common schools, a variety of creeds and cultures could be amalgamated for the social stability and economic good of the country. By the late 1800s the public school movement in America was robust in the Northeast but just gaining momentum in the South. Its progress had been halting, proceeding at different rates under the influence of varying geographic, cultural, and economic circumstances. The common school, as it was first called, was to be tax supported. It was to have a common curriculum, regardless of the social station of its clientele, it was to be open to all, and it was to foster a common set of civic virtues. The public school movement in the Northeast began to gain ground in the early years of the 19th century. It was powerfully influenced and directed by the rise of industrialism, by charismatic reformers such as Horace Mann, by new modes of transportation, and by the contributions of American inventors. The historian S. Alexander Rippa says â€Å" In the history of American education, one of the most significant outcomes of the Industrial Revolution was the gradual emergence of a new, public school- minded working class in the northern cities. Indeed, the rapid growth of manufacturing depended on a readily available source of labor for the new factories† (Rippa, 1984. . 100). The labor force in the northern factories and mills was augmented by European immigrants: Between 1815 and 1845 almost 3 million emigrants had left their home shores for America (p. 101). Significant numbers of immigrants in mid-century America profoundly affected the public school movement. They formed a nucleus for organized labor, whose agenda included an interest in education; and their very presence in such large numbers fueled fears for the fragility of a young nation (p. 102). The common school was seen as an avenue for the assimilation of immigrants into American society. Formal schooling was not systematic in America in the mid-1800s, despite the regional efforts of strong advocates for public education. There were wide regional and cultural differences in attitudes toward the idea of tax-supported, systematic formal schooling based upon a common curriculum. Various religious groups had established schools for the perpetuation of their theology and culture, especially in the mid-Atlantic and Northern states. These groups were fearful of relinquishing responsibility to political authority. In the Southern states, slavery and a strong caste system were impediments to the development of public schools (p. 97). The influx of huge numbers of immigrants exacerbated religious and cultural tensions and engendered conflicts with American workers who were fearful for their jobs. This volatile situation created even more support for systematic public education as a socializing agent. Public education became part of a wider humanitarian movement addressing all kinds of social ills created by urbanization, industrialization, and immigration (p. 105). A diverse group of largely middle class reformers called for action to abolish slavery, to improve the conditions of the poor, to increase the legal rights of women, and to improve the educational opportunities for all classes of people. The social changes of the latter half of the 19th century buttressed a general belief in education as a pragmatic social institution. The South presented a special case, however, especially because of the devastating effects of the Civil War and Reconstruction as well as its long history of slavery. In the South, the integration of masses of newly freed slaves was an enormous task, especially in a decimated economy and in a social milieu that was still strongly class conscious. African Americans were largely illiterate because of a history of legal restrictions against educating them. There was also a â€Å"rising tide of illiteracy among the southern white people† (p147). The Peabody Education Fund, a philanthropic endeavor established by the wealthy financier George Peabody for the purpose of improving southern education, found that from 1862 to 1872 the white population had increased by 13%, but the illiteracy rate had increased by 50 % (p. 147). In the twelve years following the Civil War, the period known as Reconstruction, local government in the South was directed by the Federal government. This was a bitter pill for many white Southerners to swallow. Public education was identified in their minds with the agenda of Northern interlopers. It was further stigmatized in their minds by its association with charity schools. Therefore, the ideological potency of public education as a great equalizer was embraced primarily by a core of black leaders, progressive white leaders such as Walter Hines Page (p. 154), and some northern philanthropists. It would be decades before public education was firmly established in the South. â€Å"While a devastated South fought and struggled to survive, the North, ironically, passed through the tragic years of war and reconstruction more prosperous than ever,† says Alexander Rippa (p. 156). In the 1880s another wave of immigration began, settling primarily in northern urban centers; and these â€Å"new† immigrants, mostly from Eastern Europe, brought with them cultural patterns which differed greatly from native-born Americans and the northern and western European immigrants who preceded them. Between 1890 and 1920, 18 million new citizens debarked in America (Booth, Washington Post). Existing social problems became even more pressing. There was a perception among native-born Americans that the social problems of the cities stemmed from the changing character of the new immigrants (p. 71). There was a new urgency to Americanize these latest groups. This urgency played its part in the general willingness in the northern states to establish systematic public education. The Melting Pot What did it mean to â€Å"Americanize† a non native-born population? It meant much more than teaching English to new citizens. It also meant establishing a loyalty to the United States, instilling a devotion to democracy, and breaking up ethnic and cultural loyalties (p. 171). The public school became directly involved in this social task in the late 1800s. In 1908 a play opened in Washington, D.C. entitled â€Å"The Melting Pot† (Booth, Washington Post). The playwright was Israel Zangwill, a Jewish immigrant from England, and the message of the play was that all immigrants could be transformed into a new alloy in the crucible of â€Å"democracy, freedom, and civic responsibility† (ibid. ). Zangwill believed old cultural hatreds had no place in a new country; he claimed that God â€Å"was using America as a ‘crucible’ to melt the ‘fifty’ barbarian tribes of Europe into a metal from which he can cast Americans† (www. pbs. org). This was not a gentle metaphor. The product of the melting pot would be completely transformed; the original metals would have lost their original identities under the influence of the extreme heat. Zangwill’s chief concern was that the old cultural and religious hatreds of the emigres would be perpetuated in America, but he believed that part of the melting pot effect would be that people would marry across ethnic and religious barriers. Other conceptions of the melting pot focused on acculturation and economic assimilation through deliberate means such as public education and projects such as Jane Addams’ Hull House. The metaphor of a melting pot had idealistic overtones as well as fear of social chaos built in. There was also an element of xenophobia and fear that immigrants would maintain their loyalties to foreign powers. But there was also a genuine desire to help people improve their lives and become economically and culturally successful in their new country. Zangwill himself believed that if immigrants would undergo the melting pot, they would be â€Å"just as American as anyone else† (ibid. ). The melting pot was a quite complicated idea, with regional differences as well. A chief goal of American classrooms, especially in northern cities, was to melt down the distinctive cultural metals into the new American alloy. Compulsory attendance assured that all children would be exposed to this process. By the end of World War I, most states, regardless of geographical differences, had enacted compulsory school laws, although the upper age limits differed (Rippa, p. 172). In 1911 in the major urban centers, over half of the public school population consisted of the children of immigrant parents (p. 173). The melting pot was not a universally accepted social vision of the way America ought to be. An early critic of homogeneity and uniformity was the essayist Randolph Bourne. He envisioned a pluralistic society in which difference would be valued (Fischer, et. al. , 1997, p. 15). In a 1916 essay, Bourne asks â€Å"whether perhaps the time has not come to assert a higher ideal than the ‘melting pot’. . . . America is a unique sociological fabric, and it bespeaks poverty of imagination not to be thrilled at the incalculable potentialities of so novel a union of men† (ibid. pp. 16, 17). Bourne believed that a cosmopolitan society would be creative and would most accurately embody democratic ideals. Some of the harshest rhetoric in this article, first published in the Atlantic Monthly, is reserved for the role of the public school in perpetuating a shallow popular culture: â€Å"This ( a public school education) does not mean that they (immigrants) have actually been changed into New Englanders or Middle Westerners. It does not mean that they have really been Americanized. It means that, letting slip from them whatever native culture they had, they have substituted for it only the most rudimentary America the American culture of the cheap newspaper, the ‘movies,’ the popular song, the ubiquitous automobile. The unthinking who survey this class call them assimilated, Americanized. The great American public school has done its work† (ibid. , p. 16). Although the term â€Å"melting pot† was, and is, generally associated with assimilating European immigrants, especially eastern Europeans in the early years of the 20th century, the issue of assimilation extended beyond this group. In the South, the problem of assimilation included bringing African Americans and poverty stricken white children into the economic mainstream. The south, as a region, had to redefine itself as part of a nation and not as a separate culture. In the southwestern states, assimilation was focused on Native Americans and Mexicans who lived in the territories ceded to the United States by Mexico in 1848. In the western states and territories, the immigrant population of concern was Chinese. What kind of education was provided for the immigrant population? Jacob Riis was a humanitarian reformer, a journalist and photographer who chronicled the lives of New York’s immigrant poor. A representative description comes from Riis’s The Children of the Poor (Best Sidwell, 1967). . . . and the discovery has been made by their teachers that as the crowds pressed harder their school-rooms have marvelously expanded, until they embrace within their walls an unsuspected multitude, even many a slum tenement itself, cellar, â€Å"stoop,† attic, and all. Every lesson of cleanliness, of order, and of English taught at the school is reflected into some wretched home, and rehearsed there as far as the limited opportunities will allow. No demonstration with soap and water upon a dirty little face but widens the sphere of these chief promoters of education in the slums. . . . Naturally the teaching of these children must begin by going backward. The process may be observed in the industrial schools, of which there are twenty-one scattered through the poor tenement districts, with a total enrolment of something over five thousand pupils. . . .Whatever its stamp of nationality, the curriculum is much the same. The start, as often as is necessary, is made with an object lesson soap and water being the elements and the child the object. The alphabet comes second on the list. Later on follow lessons in sewing, cooking, carpentry for the boys, and like practical â€Å"branches† of which the home affords the child no demonstration. . . . Very lately a unique exercise has been added to the course in the schools, that lays hold of the very marrow of the problem with which they deal. It is called â€Å"saluting the flag,† and originated with Colonel George T. Balch, of the Board of Education, who conceived the idea of instilling patriotism into the little future citizens of the Republic in doses to suit their childish minds. To talk about the Union, of which most of them had but the vaguest notion, or of the duty of the citizen, of which they had no notion at all, was nonsense. In the flag it was all found embodied in a central idea which they could grasp. In the morning the star-spangled banner was brought into the school, and the children were taught to salute it with patriotic words. Then the best scholar of the day before was called out of the ranks, and it was given to him or her to keep for the day. The thing took at once and was a tremendous success. Kindergarten also became a popular mode of education for assimilation as it was thought to instill order in the young child (ibid. ). Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. DuBois Two of the early twentieth century’s most powerful voices in black America disagreed with each other on matters of assimilation. Their argument echoes in contemporary America. Booker T. Washington was born into slavery in Virginia, and was liberated at the age of nine at the end of the Civil War. His rise from humble circumstances into prominence as a nationally recognized educator and spokesperson for African- Americans was chronicled in his autobiography, Up From Slavery (1901). Washington worked in coal mines and salt furnaces before attending Hampton Institute, an industrial school for African-Americans. He later established and administered Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, emulating the model of vocational education he himself received (World Book, vol. 21, pp88-89). Washington stressed vocational education and the social skills that would allow African-Americans to move relatively seamlessly into the economy. It was an incremental approach and â€Å"the schoolhouse† (Best Sidwell, p. 281) was essential, followed by the very best of vocational education. Washington, writing in 1904 in Working With the Hands (Best Sidwell, p. 281) says, â€Å"We must be sure that we shall make our greatest progress by keeping our feet on the earth, and by remembering that an inch of progress is worth a yard of complaint. . . .All the Negro race asks is that the door which rewards industry, thrift, intelligence, and character be left as wide open for him as for the foreigner who constantly comes to our country. More than this, he has no right to request. Less than this, a Republic has no right to vouchsafe† (ibid. , p. 283). Washington’s vision of the assimilation of African-Americans into the mainstream at the turn of the century had much in common with the ideology of the melting pot. At Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, Washington’s system of industrial education was aimed toward creating economically indispensable workers who would have the skills, the work ethic, and the demeanor of the larger society. W. E. B. Du Bois was born in Massachusetts three years after the end of the Civil War. His great grandfather was a white plantation owner in Haiti, and his mother was a free African-American. Du Bois’ childhood and education were much different from Booker T. Washington’s. He attended racially mixed schools, and was encouraged by his high school principal to enroll in the college preparatory curriculum. White benefactors funded his college education at Fisk University. Du Bois eventually earned a Ph. D. rom Harvard University, gaining preeminence as a pioneer in sociological survey methods. He was a political activist, passionately committed to the belief that African-Americans deserved the educational opportunity denied them by a segregated society, including and most especially, the opportunity for university and professional education (Gutek, 1997, pp. 371-392). Education played an enormous role in the personal lives and the visions of both Washington and Du Bois, but t heir educational emphases and methods of assimilation were antagonistic to one another. Du Bois wanted to push the society: Washington believed African-Americans, as a group, had to deal with the harsh realities of a segregated society by first demonstrating that they were indispensable to the economic health of the society. This implied vocational education rather than scholarship and political activism. The interpretation of equal educational opportunity would be re-visited in a serious way in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s. The metaphor of the melting pot seems an ironic one for a population which had been deliberately excluded from mainstream culture for hundreds of years on the basis of a salient difference skin color. Zangwill’s notion of ethnic blending through intermarriage did not sit well with southern white society, and was referred to as miscegenation. And yet, Booker T. Washington’s view of assimilation is congruent with the idea of merging, melting, and blending into the economic whole. The ideas of W. E. B. Du Bois, on the other hand, require another metaphor. Du Bois challenges the structure of the society itself. Beyond the Melting Pot In 1963, two sociologists took an in-depth look at the role of ethnicity in the life of New York City. In the preface to their book Beyond the Melting Pot (1963), Nathan Glazer and Daniel Patrick Moynihan say, â€Å"The notion that the intense and unprecedented mixture of ethnic and religious groups in American life was soon to blend into a homogeneous end product has outlived its usefulness, and also its credibility. . . . The point about the melting pot, as we see later, is that it did not happen. At least not in New York and, mutatis mutandis, in those parts of America which resemble New York† (p. xcvii). Glazer and Moynihan focus on the third and fourth generations of â€Å"newcomers† (ibid. as represented by five identifiable groups in the city of New York: African-Americans, Puerto Ricans, Jews, Italians, and Irish. The title of their book implies both the time and place of their scholarly focus as well as the need for a new metaphor to describe what they see. One of the major conclusions of Beyond the Melting Pot is that â€Å"The ethnic group in America became not a survival from the age of mass immigration but a new social form† (p. 16). Thus, the authors take the melting pot out of the realm of ideology, and see it in its descriptive elements. Essentially the melting pot does not exist except in the imagination, they believe. Glazer and Moynihan are not much interested in the role of education as a social institution. Rather, they are interested in the way social groups form and identify themselves and work toward common interests. They acknowledge that immigrants to America did lose their language and alter their culture, and that several generations ago it did seem reasonable to project that eventually ethnicity would give way to a new national identity. But they note that ethnic groups re-create themselves as something new, which mark them off. And these differences are operative in social policy (ibid. , 12-14). In a sense, ethnicity is as much an interest group as it is a cultural group, so there is a reason to maintain the differences rather than blend them. Getting ahead in the society would depend upon maintaining this interest group and the political power it wields rather than diminishing the difference. In this case, the metaphor of the melting pot would be counter-productive to the actual interests of the â€Å"ethnic† group. In Glazer and Moynihan’s work, we see the immigrant in a new light. The immigrant is not one to whom something must be done or someone who must somehow be brought into the fold or helped in some way. Now the immigrant is spoken of as a political force. Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity The 1960s and 1970s were decades in which the language of assimilation evolved into the language of civil rights and equal opportunity, largely as the result of a group of highly educated African-American legal scholars and charismatic leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. . The melting pot metaphor was left behind, and a language of rights was put in its place. Again, public education became a focus, and for several reasons. The separate but equal system of education in the southern states was a sitting duck for legal challenge. The system was patently unequal, and it took only the doggedness of lawyers such as Charles Hamilton Houston and the legal expertise of the NAACP to mount a challenge to this system. The end result was the Brown vs. The Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas decision, which struck down the separate but equal legal precedent. Public education became the focal point for discourse about how to bring African-Americans into the economic mainstream and how to foster their access to all the opportunities of a democratic society. This was not a melting pot issue because African-Americans themselves were challenging the moral authority of the political system. They were demanding the natural rights that the United States Constitution bestowed on its citizens. They were articulating a theme which had not been fully acknowledged in public discourse about assimilation that certain groups had been deliberately denied the American dream of social mobility and social equality. Public education was seen as an important avenue for social mobility and economic parity. It was, and is, a perceived means to achieve the goals of creating and maintaining a common set of civic virtues and economic and social stability. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 forbids discrimination in any federally funded program, including, of course, public education. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act passed by the United States Congress in the following year made significant Federal dollars available, thereby enticing school systems to conform to the 1954 Brown vs. Board mandate. The courts and the Congress were challenged in their own terms to respond to the demands of a minority interest group to have the promise of America made good. The legal system and the United States legislature were again used as instrument to address the neglect of other interest groups. Schools were to be venues for promoting equality, in response to legislative and legal mandates, but they were not serving as melting pots. In 1974, the United States Supreme Court ruled that school systems denied students their equal opportunity to receive the benefit of a public education if they did not provide language instruction for children whose primary language was other than English (Rippa, p. 408). Public Law 94-142, signed by then President Gerald Ford in 1975, established the right to a free, public, appropriate, least restrictive education for students with physical and intellectual disabilities (pp. 397-398). This original law has undergone a number of amendments that essentially expanded and refined the original law. It is now best known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act – IDEA. In 1972, Title IX of the education amendments of the 1964 Civil Rights Act made it illegal for anyone to be denied on the basis of sex the benefits of any activity or program receiving Federal funds (p. 277). The melting pot idea has been turned on its head through the efforts of special interest groups who have no desire to be thoroughly assimilated into the dominant culture, but who wish to have equal opportunity for economic and political parity in America. Contemporary Melting Pot Issues In the 21st century, the tension between common national values and pluralism, or multiculturalism, is prominent in national discourse. Some have called this the culture wars, but it is more profound than that: it is a philosophical and psychological tension inherent in democracy. The debate shows up in school matters, for example, when curriculum and instructional decisions have to be made about teaching English as a second language. Should non-native speakers have instruction in their own language as well as learning English? Will they be held back if they are placed in classes designed for non-native speakers of English? Should they be taught to be competent in the grammar and syntax of their native languages as well as English? The larger question might be, â€Å"Can one hold dual citizenship, so to speak, in America and in one’s culture of origin†? The notion of cultural literacy, as articulated by E. D. Hirsch (1987), proposes that there is a common core of cultural knowledge which all Americans should possess if they are to be fully educated, capable citizens. Cultural literacy†, of course begs the question â€Å"Whose culture? † An answer satisfactory to all parties in the debate has not been given. What knowledge should be common to all citizens? What should public schools require as cultural literacy? Again, where is the balance to be struck between maintaining cultural identity and national identity that transcends cultural differences? The push for values education as a part of the formal public school curriculum also embodies an argument concerning which values should be taught as well as who has the authority to make such decisions. A more extreme version of this issue centers around whether to allow faith-based groups to have formal connection with public schools to teach religious values. Tracking, special education, magnet schools, single gender education, and giftedness programs all designed to meet special needs and foster economic stability are not uniformly accepted as good. Do they create strong class barriers of a different kind, or do they ameliorate barriers that prevent particular classes of people from reaching their growth potential? Summary Some careful observers of American culture in the 1700s predicted that in a society of pioneers and emigres, traditional ethnic, religious, and cultural differences would be erased as people adapted to a new society, intermarried, and focused their attention on prospering in a new social order. The idea was that assimilation would be a natural, gradual, somewhat orderly process. J. Hector St. John Crevecoeur, a French essayist who eventually settled in New York State, writes in 1782: What, then, is the new American, this new man? He is neither a European, nor the descendant of a European; hence that strange mixture of blood, which you will find in no other country. I could point out to you a family whose grandfather was an Englishman, whose wife was Dutch, whose son married a French woman, and whose present four sons have now four wives of different nations. He is an American, who, leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners, receives new ones from the new modes of life he has embraced, the new government he obeys, and the new rank he holds. He becomes an American by being received in the broad lap of our great Alma Mater. Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men, whose labors and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world (Crevecoeur, pp. 41-45) In the early 1800s, and again in the years surrounding the century’s turn, the notion of natural, gradual assimilation was challenged by the sheer numbers of new immigrants and by the fact that the later waves of immigration consisted of eastern Europeans, who were much different in culture from the already established groups. Egregious urban social problems and escalating tensions between the new immigrants and established groups created a new urgency for the solution of these problems, which were perceived as threatening the social order. Public schooling assumed a prominent role in assimilation in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Its job was to enculturate the masses of new immigrants, to instill in them a sense of loyalty to the United States, and to make them economically viable. The school as a social institution has been mobilized to effect massive social changes since the mid 1800s. Whether these changes have always been successful is arguable. Schools have been enlisted to reinforce the new Republic, improve the moral character of the society, decrease social class differences, assimilate immigrant groups, teach citizenship skills, provide skills for economic success, meet the needs of individuals for personal growth, improve the nation’s competitive advantage in the world market, provide social mobility, model democratic virtues for the young, and reduce racial and ethnic prejudice. American political and cultural ideology has contained a set of tensions from its earliest articulation. E pluribus unum and diversity are twin American values. The melting pot, as a metaphor and an ideal has its critics. Homogeneity of culture and values is in tension with cosmopolitan vitality; pride in being an American contends with the possible loss of one’s particular cultural identity; an emphasis on economic prosperity as a mundane value competes with more abstract values. And the nature of the process of assimilation has a variety of contentious advocates: there are those who recommend a gradual process through economic productivity, and then there are those who demand immediate recognition and acceptance into the mainstream. The interest groups evolve, but the arguments remain the same. In the 1960s and 1970s there was a renewed interest in assimilation that focused less on ethnicity and cultural differences in defining the discourse of assimilation around the language of equal opportunity and civil rights. Women, African-Americans, Native Americans, and Latinos became vocal as interest groups, and their issues were primarily centered on economic advancement and other social opportunities. Politics became at least as important as education as a means to these ends, although education was still seen as a key to the golden door of opportunity. In contemporary America, the discourse of assimilation includes distinctively educational matters. The structure of schooling, assessment of learning, curriculum content and materials, instructional strategies, special needs of students, school fundingall contain the tensions of the melting pot. The discourse around these issues and others seems to have made a metaphorical shift from â€Å"the melting pot† to the militant â€Å"culture wars† or â€Å"class wars† or â€Å"gender wars† The metaphor of war was being proposed as early as the 1930s and 1940s. Louis Adamic, a widely read and respected novelist and journalist, describes â€Å"a psycho- logical Civil War† in his work Two Way Passage (1941, p. 85). His book explores the growing tensions in American society in the pre-World War II years. He says: Economic and industrial problems, labor, education, trends in writing, the theater, architecture, and other arts were attracting a lot of attention (in the 1930s). They interested me too. But little heed was paid in print and on the platform to the United States as a conglomerate of peoples the result of a great migration. Little attention was directed to the intricacies and maladjustments which grew up in its train. There was little realization that in the process cultures were being shattered. This last fact appeared to me most important. The old-stock American cultural patterns of a hundred years ago clashed with the Old World ways ( as revised by the slum and the factory ) of new-immigrant groups and partially destroyed them. It was a negative business. Many values, both old-American and new-immigrant, were not adjusted to the needs of contemporary America. Nor did they fuse or merge. They were simply ground out, pushed aside, scrapped, without giving rise to new values. They either went down through lack of character, through irresponsibility and vulgarity, or they were clung to desperately, in toto and thus perverted and devitalized. . . . Like the peoples of Europe, we in America have not yet completely synchronized the two-way impulse to homogeneity and diversity. We have experienced both but, as our sporadic psychological civil war with its several fronts demonstrates, we have not achieved a steady, continuous balance between them. When we examine our resemblances we find that one of them is our common against-ness; when we look at our differences, most of them charged with potentialities for good, we see that all too often they function defensively against other differences.Where can this take us? (1941, pp. 87-88). This seems an apt question to ask 60 plus years later. Glazer and Moynihan made direct reference to a metaphorical shift in the title of their 1963 work, Beyond the Melting Pot. They also questioned the reality of the melting pot. This seems to be the abiding tension in the idea of the melting pot finding a balance between pluralism and homogeneity in values in multiple public arenas education, politics, popular culture, social policy, and economics. If cultural metaphors belie true modes of thinking, it should be somewhat disturbing to note the metaphorical shift to â€Å"war†. Wars imply victors and the vanquished, a state of affairs America has not seen since 1865.

Social Problem Essay Example

Social Problem Essay Example Social Problem Essay Social Problem Essay Nowadays , social problems are very serious and we should pay more attention to these problems. As a part of the community , we should be concerned about social problems. Every day we read the newspaper and get the news from media, almost every day the newspaper and the media reports are about the social problems. All sorts of social problems will appear in our surrounding , but we cannot turn a blind eye and a deaf ear. We need to find ways to solve these social problems so that the society will not be mess order. Social problems are some condition , set of events or group of persons constitutes a troublesome situation that needs to be changed or improved. Social problems are like time bomb , when it explode, it will be out of control. Social problems let us live in a pressured situation. Today’s society there are too many examples of social problems, I took a few more popular examples to explain in detail. Explain the social problems in the end how it affects the growth of our country and the ways of prevent to reduce the social issue. Now, we take a look at what social problems are the most popular . Firstly ,the most common and the most serious social problems in our life are gangsters. Speaking of gangsters, will make people tremble with fear. Gangsters are not limited to age, previous may be older establishment gangsters, now both primary and secondary schools also have a group of students create a own gangster within the school. They will require students to pay a protection fee , if students do not, they will use means to force students pay protection money . Gangsters may intimidation , harassment and find someone to hit the student until the student willing to pay money. As long as someone offended gangster boss or brother, the man must not be at peace. Gangsters will send someone to give warning and told the man who is the stronger one. Gangsters also smoking , fighting , make trouble and provoke others everywhere. In short , they do any bad thing, also bully the weak . New gangs also never lost on the old gang . Next, the gangs will cause the growth of our country to have a negative impact . These will be brought to the community a lot of unnecessary trouble and fear. So that the country would be in a very unstable state. People in other countries will be disappointedin our country, they are afraid to trade in our country and the economic will downturn . Just so that our country is greatly losses and enough to affect the development of the country . Moreover , there are several ways to prevent the establishment of gangs . The first step is whenever you see someone organization gangs immediately alarm . Second is counselors to counsel these kids . Also let the parents pay more attention to children’s behavior and trends ,and more concern for children . The second problem is traffic jams , in our country always occur the traffic problems especially during the peak time are often traffic jams . I often think that our country really is so many cars ? Our country has many public transport can ride like bus and LRT . In the end is too rich or people do not want to take the public transport with others or they do not want wake up early to catch the bus and LRT . In my observation , most of the vehicles are driving one in the working hours . And a family is more than owning a car . When there is the festival season , have long queues of vehicles on the road . People are required to spend half a day in the car ,its really a headache . Apart from that ,this problem makes our countrys poor reputation when it comes to the transportation. Foreigners evaluation of our traffic is low. Affect the ranking of our country is seriously lagging behind . This is enough to affect our reputation severely damaged . Following that ,have a problem we have to go to solve . The solution of a traffic jam is government can greatly promote the public transport and explain the advantage of using public transport . If just your colleagues or friends to the same place , that simply driving a car is enough or everyone turns driving their own car with a colleague or friend . As long as people are willing to comply , then the problem can be solved . The third problem that I think need to be paid more attention to is illegal immigrant. Illegal immigrants mixed the name suggests is that there is no approved . Illegal immigrants once they are caught will suffer severe punishment or be forced to exit or leave to country they are in. If the illegal immigrants think that the country is not properly managed, these immigration will be able to sneak into our country without any fear of being caught or punished . Our country has a huge and important part of responsibility and also need to ensure that there are no problems in the country due to these immigrants. Illegal immigrants seemingly innocuous, but in fact , it hurt not to be looked down upon small . Their arrival so that people reduce jobs , because their low salaries , better efficiency and the important one, they are hardworking than people in our country . The other is that they cause a lot of distress and they will rob and trouble . Many social chaos is manufactured or are cased mostly by them . We should immediately think of a way to solve this problem so that we are getting the security and tranquility. The checkpoint staff must strictly regulate immigration checkpointsand not to let them muddle through . People are urgerto pay very close attention to suspicious person around and if found, it has to be immediately notifiedto the police . Police and people ‘s cooperation are essential and vital to crack down on illegal immigrants. The fourth social problem is divorce which happens in every place around the world. There will be a divorce as long as there are men , women , and married . I really cannot figure out why people want a divorce and had chosen to marry . Although divorce is very easy , but the marriage is not child’ s play . Since the original thought of marriage , think of the consequences of divorce , do not impulse bad throughout life . The high divorce rate is not a good thing for a country . If the divorce rate is higher , on behalf of the people does not pay attention to the views of marriage . Marriage is a sacred thing , many people have opted for early marriage . For this reason and cause the divorce rate to improve . This country has given the impression that marriage is a failure , this once again undermines the reputation of the country . What method can reduce the divorce rate ? It is up to people to their own ideas . Government should be called on the people to not be too early marriage , early marriage has a lot of potential problems . Now , society difficult and having a family is not an easy task . Marriage gave birth to the child , if divorce the child does not have a perfect family environment to grow and will leave to childhood shadow . Ultimately suffering only child . So , think about it before marriage . The fifth is environmental pollution problems , this is also the community most concern . Environmental pollution refersto human discharged to the environment than its self-purification capacity of substances or energy , so that the quality of the environment to reduce the phenomena of an adverse impact on the survival and development of humanity , ecosystems , and property . The most common are water pollution , air pollution , and noise pollution . Water pollution will harm to human death and directly affect the water quality of the drinking water source then produce many diseases . Furthermore , it will constrain economic development because the industrial use of water as a raw material or washing products and directly participate in the processing of products. Deterioration of the water quality will directly affect the quality of product. Water pollution for human health , agriculture , fisheries and other sideline have largely affected the development of the economy! Air pollution will affect the body health and also the impact of weather and climate . People believe that climate change may cause a variety of air pollutants , carbon dioxide has a significant role in . The content of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere according to the current rate of increase continues , after a number of years will make the north and south ends of the ice melting , leading to global climate anomalies . Noise pollution will damage to the hearing of the human body . The worse case can cause deafness. Noise can induce a variety of diseases . The impact of noise on sleep great , people even in sleep , hearing , have to bear the noise stimulus . It will distract people ’ s attention , leading to unresponsive , fatigue , decreased work efficiency and error rate rise . So, we must not underestimate the importance of these three pollution damaged. It must find a way to prevent . Prevention and treatment methods for all pollution is severely punished or give warning to them . Noise prevention measures is to minimize the sound decibel value or use sound – absorbing , sound insulation , noise barrier isolation and other measures . For air pollution is reducing emissions of pollutants and afforestation . There is also a most important is to start with ourselves . Do not throw waste , the perfect city is everyone ’s responsibility . Lastly , the way of preventing water pollution is before we drink the water , we boiled or filter it . We also can actively promote â€Å"clean production† . Clean production to change the existing unsustainable methodsof raw material and energy consumption , to encourage sustainable production using non- toxic products . Of course , our government should control our environment . Cannot just verbally agreed to without action because protecting the environment is everyone ‘s responsibility . As a conclusion , all these issues makes me feel , is social change or human nature has changed . Only human indifference , will bring up this society today . We can really make it cool treatment? Our society is reduced to a point where it is we want to do ? The first condition is the protection of society the people must lead by example . In fact , as long as everyone concerted effort to make a change, it certainly can . If everyone changed , then the social will peaceful . I sincerely hope we can do this !

Creating Chinese Calligraphy

Creating Chinese Calligraphy Chinese calligraphy is the art of creating aesthetically pleasing writing or tangible representations of the Chinese languages. It can take years to learn the art because students have to master  writing Chinese characters, which is a daunting task in itself, and they have to write them beautifully and with an unforgiving tool: the brush. History The art of calligraphy in China can be traced to ancient Chinese signs and symbols that appeared as early as 6,000 years ago according to Wei Lu and Max Aiken in their essay, Origins and Evolution of Chinese Writing Systems and Preliminary Counting Relationships. However, its modern form didnt emerge until a few thousand years later, between the 14th and 11th centuries B.C. There are seven main categories of traditional Chinese calligraphy- which include Hhsin (pronounced xing), Sao (cao), Zuan (zhuan), Li, and Kai- each with its own slight variations in style and symbolism. As a result, the skill of writing beautiful calligraphy may be difficult for some learners to grasp, but fortunately, there are a variety of online resources for creating and editing Chinese calligraphy.   Although the earliest-known calligraphy-like symbols date to around 4000 B.C., the traditional style of calligraphy thats still practiced today first appeared in Xiaoshuangqiao between 1400 and 1100 B.C. in modern-day Zhengzhou, China. Standardization Around 220 B.C., during the reign of Qin Shi Huang in Imperial China, a standard Chinese calligraphy system was adopted. As the first conqueror of a majority of land in China, Huang created a series of reforms including a character unification that yielded 3,300 standardized characters known as  XiÇŽozhun (zhuan). From that point forward, writing in China went through a series of reforms that yielded a new set of standardized characters and lettering. Over the next two centuries, other styles developed: the  Là ¬shÃ… « (li) style was followed by the KÇŽishÃ… « (kai), which was in turn followed by the Xà ­ngshÃ… « (xing), and CÇŽoshÃ… « (cao) cursive styles. Today, each of these forms is still used in traditional Chinese calligraphy practices, depending on the teacher and his preferences for style and aesthetics. Online Resources If you live in China, its easy to find calligraphers who sell their work or who can create custom calligraphy just for you. There is an easier way, though: tools that convert pasted text into calligraphy using various fonts. Some of the best include: The  Chinese Calligraphy Editor, which allows you to enter or paste your Chinese characters (simplified or traditional) and choose between 19 different styles in four different groups. You can also adjust the size of the generated picture, the orientation (horizontal or vertical), and direction (left to right or right to left). When you click calligraphy, a picture is generated that you can save.The  Chinese Calligraphy,  Model of Chinese Calligraphy, and  Chinese Text to Images Converter, which offer different fonts, though these only accept simplified characters and offer fewer features and customization than the Chinese Calligraphy Editor.The  Free Chinese Calligraphy Fonts, which allows you to download fonts, many of which resemble handwriting, to use on your computer.

U.S Banking Industry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

U.S Banking Industry - Essay Example As the essay declares the U.S banking Industry is faced with some limitations like the 2008 global economic crisis, whose effects are still limiting the industry’s capabilities. Financial crisis as one of the major limitations in the current U.S banking industry can be defined insufficient finances to run ensure banking obligations.   It comes in different types, currency crises, implies insufficient currency in a specific region. The banking industry is obliged f to transact in different or foreign currencies which might turn out to be costly.   Bank crisis is the situation where a certain baking institution has insufficient funds to loan its customers among other banking obligations. The third type of financial crisis is the twin crisis, which is a combination of currency and bank crisis.From this paper it is clear that  the U.S central bank   through some financial agencies resolved in hiking interest rates to increase the baking industry revenue and recover some of the debts caused by the 2007 financial crisis. Several baking studies reveal that the majority of U.S citizens have resolved to alternative baking systems like companies’ cooperatives, insurance companies, asset management agencies as well as macro and micro finance institutions. Multilateral businesses have also resolved in baking in their respective countries whose interests and baking rates are still appealing.  The crisis led to closure of some banking facilities, leaving customers with few options but to crowd the remaining ones. Several regional and multinational businesses stopped or reduced their operations until the hiked banking rates goes down. This greatly compromised the banking revenue due to decrease in loan beneficiaries hence low revenues

Social Control Theory Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Social Control Theory - Essay Example My family was the first group of people that I have met since my birth and they are the people that I have known the longest. At a young age, being conscious of the things around you are one of the things that cannot be instantly achieved as our consciousness as kids are not yet sturdy. It was only around my teens when I have understood the exertion of some social control factors as a child. Only with an earnest amount of consciousness and awareness will someone realize the reason for previous events. At present, my family still holds the most authority of influence in my character and behavior. I am blessed to have a family who had made it an effort to mold me into the person that I am today—hard working, diligent, and resourceful. In order to improve the different factors of social control, one needs to remember that the family as it is the family that is the influential in terms of controlling the social actions of the individual in society due to the influences of the family members in the early developmental stages of the people in society (â€Å"The effects of morals,† 2010). Activities that can build better family ties prove to be one of the best solutions any community can offer to its members. Starting positive influences on the young within families prove to be better for the fact that as we age, logic is gained and the closeness of a mind is more possible as changes in perspective do not happen instantly—especially if it contradicts to what people have learned at a young

Fundamental Rights of the Individual Essay Example for Free

Fundamental Rights of the Individual Essay The forefront of American politics was drastically shaken at the turn of the American Revolution as the monarchial order once imposed on the Patriots had finally collapsed. The implementation of the Articles of Confederation into the states bestowed a great sense of independence that had never before been experienced while under British rule. The Articles of Confederation served its purpose by launching a political structure which opposed a monarchial system and defining what that meant to the people. Despite the inherent flaws of the Articles of Confederation, this newly adopted governmental structure established a mission statement of American politics which still exists in our government today: the power of the fundamental rights of the individual. The states had gained true independence under this confguration and this ideal was something that many opponents of the ratification of the Constitution were refusing to sacrifice. Implementing a central government would shift power from the newly sovereignty of that states that had not been easily obtained and this ignited a fear of possible tyranny of the majority if the Constitution was eventually ratified. Submitting to a Constitution meant that they would have to place a sense of trust into a strong central government and this was not something taken lightly. Facing a declining economy amongst other problems brought on by the Articles of Confederation, something had to be done to remedy the unforeseen issues between the states. Both federalists and anti-federalists induced a great debate through the means of numerous publications released to the public prior to the ratification of the Constitution. In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson asserted that: all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their powers from the consent of the goverened (Dolbeare, 59). This pivotal statement became the crux of the ideal that the opponents of the Constitution had feared losing. The opponents to the Constitution would not waive this notion of maintaining the power of the individual to secure rights that they found to be rightfully theirs after the overthrow of the British Crown. Due to the fact that many of the federalists held positions of power, there was a vast amount at stake for the opponents to lose if the Articles of Confederation were to be redefined into a system that may not emphasize states rights. The above passage contains one of Jeffersons most quoted, ambitious statements as its meaning has evolved through time and played a great role in shaping what we now call the American Dream. For instance, today, society has the evolved the meaning that all people of this nation are created equal and not Just the Caucasian, property owning men. In this doctrine, hese rights professed by Thomas Jefferson are not Just subject to certain groups; rather, all people, who may have separate interests, fundamentally have the right to express and lobby for the endorsement of interest. ajority as they lay out and define the checks and balances in within the governmental system that would be in place by the Constitution. For example, the federalists outline that the proposed branches of the government would have power to compel one another. For instance, the Supreme Court holds the power to interpret the constitutionality of a law put into place by the federal government, the president ould have the power veto a proposed bill from the legislature, and the legislature would be able to override the president with a two-third majority in each compartment. Pitting these powers against one another would keep them in check and ensure that the majority would not solely hold the supreme power. In the Federalist No. 39, The Conformity of the Plan to Republican Principles, advocating for the adoption of the Constitution, James Madison references the conditions of the adversaries of the Constitution: They ought, with equal care, to have preserved the federal form, which regards the Union as a confederacy of overeign states; instead of which, they have framed a national government, which regards the Union as a consolidation of the States (Madison). Madison acknowledges that the opponents refuse to let the formulation of a national government to take too much power from the states. The opponents view the Constitution as transforming the federal form of government that the Articles of Confederation had been intended for to national form of government, thus making the citizens of the states subject to that national power rather than only subordinates to their respective state. However, Madison elaborates: That it will be a federal and not a national act, as these terms are understood by the objectors; the act of the people, as forming so many independent States, not as forming one aggregate nation, is obvious from this single consideration, that it is to result neither from the decision of a majority of the people of the Union, nor from that of a majority of the States (Madison). In this passage, Madison argues that the under the Constitution, the central government will contain both elements. For instance, if the states vote to go through with the ratification, this ill be a federal act, not an overarching national act of tyrannical power. At this moment, the states are seen as sovereign bodies, and the ratification would be a result from unanimous assent from the states as well as its own voluntary act (Madison).

bchs football :: essays research papers

In 1957, many important events occured. Possibly the most important was, the launching of Sputnik 1, the first satellite sent into space, on October 4, 1957 by the country of Russia. This event left many American's shocked and surprised, that it was possible to send something into space successfully. Four months after the launch of Sputnik 1, America launches Explorer 1 the first U.S. satellite, this sparked the beginning of the space race. President Dwight D. Eisenhower sends federal troops to Little Rock, Ak, to ensure the integration of Central High School. He also signs the Eisenhower Doctrine, promising that the United States would resist all Communist aggression in the Middle East. This year is also the year the frisbee and the hula hoop are introduced. The Boeing 707 passenger jet makes its innaugural flight this year as well. In Disneyland, the "House of Tomorrow" opened its doors to the public. In the music industry Rock & Roll as well as Doo Wop, made their statements to the world. Elvis became the king of Rock & Roll after releasing two hit singles Jailhouse Rock and All Shook Up. Buddy Holly and the Crickets released their single That'll Be The Day. Other career musicians who made their mark during this year include: Johnny Mathis, Paul Anka, The Everly Brothers, and Sam Cooke. American Bandstand goes coast to coast on August 5, 1957, after being a local Philadelphia show since 1952. In '57 Elvis made another big impression on the country besides with his music, this was the year his first movie opened it was called Love Me Tender. The same year a twenty-two year old unknown Michael Landon has the starring role in the B- movie I Was A Teenage Werewolf. As all this stuff was going on in the world, Coach Don Wilson of Bolivar, Tn was getting ready for a new season of good old highschool

Molecular Weight of a Condesable Vapor

AP Chemistry Period 1 Molecular Weight of a Condensable Vapor Lab Purpose: The purpose and objective of this lab was to find the molecular weight of a condensed vapor. Materials and Equipment: †¢Aluminum foil square (around 6cm on a side) †¢125 mL flask †¢Barometer †¢3 mL of unknown liquid †¢200 mL graduated cylinder †¢600 mL beaker †¢Pin †¢Balance (0. 002g) †¢Bunsen Burner setup †¢Rubber band †¢Thermometer †¢Ceramic center wire gauze Procedure: 1. A 125 mL flask was obtained. The square of aluminum was fashioned over the flask by laying the foil over the mouth and folding the sides down.A pin was then obtained and was used to poke a tiny hole in the center of the aluminum cap. 2. Next, the mass was determined of the clean, dry flask with the cap to 0. 001 g. 3. 3 mL of the unknown liquid was obtained and was poured into the flask. Afterwards the flask cap was replaced securely. 4. Then, a 600 mL beaker was then filled nearl y full of water. The beaker was then heated to a boil over the Bunsen burner setup. 5. Once the water reached a boil, the temperature was then recorded and the barometric pressure.Then the flask was clamped at the very top and was suspended to the beaker. 6. The flask from the beaker was not removed and the flask was examined for excess vapor coming out through the pin hole to see a refraction effect. 7. When all of the liquid evaporated, the flask was removed by holding the clamp and set aside to cool. 8. Next, the flask was wiped down until it was completely dry. 9. Then, the mass of flask, cap, and unknown condensed liquid was found. 10. The flask was filled completely full with water.The flask was then poured into a graduated cylinder and measured the volume. 11. Next, all the materials and chemicals were cleaned up. 12. Once the area was clean, the calculations could be completed. Observations: The flask inside the beaker full of water was being examined. As the water surroundi ng the flask began to boil, droplets started to form on the inside of the flask. After a while, nothing could be seen forming in the flask. When this happened, the droplets evaporated and inside the flask was the condensed vapor. Calculations: 1. Questions: 2.What does the flask contain? a. The flask contains air before adding the volatile liquid. b. The flask contains all vapor at the point when the volatile liquid has completely vaporized. c. The flask contains condensed vapor and air at the end of the experiment and at the final weighing. 3. Why is the temperature of boiling water used for measuring the volume of the vapor instead of the temperature of the liquid after it has cooled to room temperature? Instead of taking the temperature of the gas, the temperature of the boiling water was taken and was transferred. . When vaporized, the volatile liquids used in this experiment do not behave exactly as ideal gases. How would this tend to affect your calculated molecular weight? Th e molecular weight was smaller than expected. This happened because the density was smaller due to the mass being smaller and this meant too much vapor escaped the flask. Conclusion: In this experiment, the molecular weight of a condensed vapor was found through a procedure using an unknown liquid. The flask before adding the unknown liquid in was full of air.After the beaker full of water started to boil the flask was examined until the unknown liquid was completely vaporized. At that exact point the flask contained all vapor. At the final weighing the flask contained condensed vapor and air. There is always a chance for error. Some sources of error could have come with completing this lab over an open water bath and some water vapor may have been in place. Also, too much vapor could have escaped and the experiment might not have been stopped quick enough.

Provinces of the Philippines and Kara David Essay

Ang Huling Prinsesa† (The Last Princess) is a documentary from Kara David shown in I-Witness back in 2004. It is a challenging feat for anyone who wants to see and explore a mysterious tradition preserved for decades among some of the mountains isolated communities. I-Witness travels to the Tapaz Mountain, considered the farthest in Capiz, located in the central Philippines island of Panay. Reporter Kara David reaches the community of Rizal Sur, a village that looks just like any other isolated community, where the people living in traditional huts and survive on whatever nature provides them. In the midst of this community, she meets one of the last remaining binukots, 73-year-old Lola (grandmother). This old woman lives in an old hut, just like everybody else in the community. However, she has stayed inside a room in the house ever since she was five years old, living in isolation as the family chosen binukot. Since being chosen the binukot of her tribe, the old woman has worn a veil so that no one can see her face. She is lifted onto a hammock every day so her feet never touch the ground. She is bathed, combed and served only the best food like an ancient princess. Her work is to learn the traditional dances and memorize the tribe’s hours-long epics. Only the binukots learn the epics, which are taught to them orally. Thus, they are also the only ones who may pass the long stories of their ancestors to the next generation. Personal insight Stories of princess were part of our childhood memories. We dream of becoming one during those times. But in Tumandok tribe in Tapaz, Capiz, Philippines, there were women, who were treated like a princess. They are known to be the binukot.

Introduction to Automation

Introduction to Automation Free Online Research Papers Human being is a characteristics species among all living species that distinguish itself from all other living species by its ability to magnify and extend its own capabilities. Earlier, the human being has been described as a tool utilizing other animals for carrying out the work generally ascribed by him for himself. The capabilities of man along with his desire for knowledge and improvement leads to the development of a device called â€Å"A machine†. A machine, as per one of the definitions given in ‘Oxford English Dictionary’ is â€Å"An apparatus for applying mechanical power consisting of a number of interrelated parts, each having a definite function.† The evolution of machine is attributed to the propagating power of machine which is inherited from its ancestor machines. Existing machine tool makes the pathway for the manufacturing of more advanced machine tools which successively serves to accelerate the evolution of new machine tools. The industrial revolution which started in 18th century urges for mechanization by systematically eliminating human labour for the need of better work, consistence performance and higher production. The word mechanization was then replaced by the dynamic word â€Å"Automation†. The automation reinforces the process of technological development. Over a period of time, it has been seen that the machinery becomes more and more automated. This is achieved by eliminating machine-operator intervention in manufacturing processes and process controls. A high accuracy, consistence performance, greater production rate, etc. makes these machines inherently specialized. These specialized machines can process only limited number of components. The need of manually operated machines can been ruled out except for prototype and low volume component production. Modern manufacturing systems and industrial robots are advanced automation systems that utilize computers as an integral part of their control. Computers are now a vital part of automation. They control stand-alone manufacturing systems, such as various machine tools, welders, and laser beam cutters. They run production lines and are beginning to take over control of an engine factory. Even more challenging are new robots performing various operations in industrial plants and participating in the full automation of factories. It is well to keep in mind that the automatically controlled factory is nothing more than the latest development in the industrial revolution that began in Europe two centuries ago and progressed the following stages: 1. Construction of simple production machines and mechanizations started in 1770, at the beginning of the revolution. 2. Fixed automatic mechanism and transfer lines for mass production came along at the turn of this century. The transfer line is an organization of manufacturing facilities for faster output and shorter production time. The cycle of operation is simple and fixed and is designed to produce a certain product. 3. Next came machine tools with simple automatic control, such as plug board controllers to perform a fixed sequence of operations and copying machines in which a stylus moves on a master copy and simultaneously transmits command signals to servo drivers. 4. The introduction of numerical control (NC) in 1952 opened a new era in automation. NC is based on digital computer principles, which was a new technology at that time. 5. The logical extension of NC was computerized numerical control (CNC) for machines tools, in which a minicomputer is included as an integral part of the control cabinet. 7. Industrial robots were developed simultaneously with the CNC systems. The first commercial robot was developed in 1961, but they did not play a major role in the manufacturing until the late 1970s. 8. A fully automatic factory which employs a flexible manufacturing system (FMS) and computer and computer aided design/computer –aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) techniques in the next logical extension. FMS means a facility that includes manufacturing cells, each cell containing a robot serving several CNC machines, and an automatic material- handling systems interfaced with a central computer. Stages of development: (i) First Industrial Revolution, began with the advent of powered machine tools and the creation of factories but continuously moved toward Mechanization rather labour muscle power. (ii) Second Industrial Revolution, began in 1900s with advent of mass production and assembly lines. The large automated Material Mechanisms and transfer lines were developed. This type of automation is, these days, called as fixed automation. Specifically, Automation is a term was coined by D.S. Harder of Ford Motor company in 1947. (iii) Third Industrial Revolution, evolved in recent years is flexible in contrast to second. In this, computers are used to control, processes as well as the information system i.e. both muscle as well as brain work for production. Production is the a transformation process that converts raw material into finished products that have value in market place. The products are made by the combined efforts of man, machine, material and tools. All work requires both energy and information, and these two elements must be provided by some sources, either a human or any substitute. More the human attributes, if performed by a machine, the higher it has â€Å"automaticity†. Automaticy is thus defined as self-acting capability of the device in general terms. Mechanization Mechanization is providing human operators with machinery that assist them with the muscular requirements of work. It can also refer to the use of machines to replace human or animal labor. A step beyond mechanization is automation. Even the use of hand powered tools is an example of mechanization as it reduces the work of either screwing, drilling, inserting nails, punching or even power washing a surface. Mechanical vs human labour When we compare the efficiency of a labourer, we see that he has an efficiency of about 1%-5.5% (depending on whether he uses arms, or a combination of arms and legs). Internal combustion engines have mostly about an efficiency of 20%. This although, some IC engines state efficiencies of

Easy and Fun February Writing Prompts

Easy and Fun February Writing Prompts February can be a tough month for many students with very few if any days off. Many school districts across the nation do not take Presidents Day off. Following is a list of themes and writing prompts for each day of February. These can be used any way you see fit in your class. They are great as warm-ups or journal entries. February Holidays American Heart MonthBlack History MonthChildrens Dental Health MonthInternational Friendship MonthResponsible Pet Owners Month Writing Prompt Ideas for February February 1 - Theme: National Freedom DayOn this day in 1865, Abraham Lincoln signed the Amendment that would outlaw slavery once it was ratified. If slavery was outlawed with the 13th amendment, why were amendments 14 and 15 needed?February 2 - Theme: Groundhog DayAccording to weather data kept since 1887, the groundhog at Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania has only been accurate 39% of the time. Why do Americans still celebrate this day even though its accuracy is so low?February 3 - Theme: Elmos Birthday (Sesame Street Character)What was your favorite television program as a small child? Which characters do you remember most? Why?February 4 - Theme: Rosa Parks BirthdayPretend you were Rosa Parks in 1955. What would you have felt like as you decided not to give up your seat to a white man?February 5 - Theme: National Weatherpersons DayMeteorology is the study of the atmosphere, especially as it relates to the weather. Do you think that being a weatherperson would be a difficult job? Why or why not? February 6 - Theme: Monopoly First SoldWhat is your favorite board game? Explain why you like it.February 7 - Theme: Charles Dickens BirthdayIn the past, individuals who did not have the money to pay their bills were thrown in debtors prison, a theme which is key in many of Charles Dickens novels. Do you think that this is an appropriate punishment for not being able to pay off your bills? Why or why not?February 8 - Theme: Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts (Officially Boy Scout Day)Were or are you a boy or girl scout? If so, what did you think of your experiences as a scout? If not, do you wish that you had participated in the scouts? Why or why not?February 9 - Theme: Chocolate (Founding of Hersheys Chocolate)Describe your favorite candy bar. You can choose to do this as prose or as poetry.February 10 - Theme: Chinese New YearIn the western calendar, a leap day happens every four years. However, in the Chinese calendar, a leap month happens about every three years. Come up with and explai n at least three issues that might arise if the west decided to use this calendar instead of the one that is currently use. February 11 - Theme: National Inventors DayHave you ever come up with an idea for an invention? If so, describe it. If not, what do you think is the best invention of the 20th century.February 12 - Theme: Abraham Lincolns BirthdayAbraham Lincoln said, Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be. What do you think he meant by that quote? Do you think its true?February 13 - Theme: International Friendship MonthDo you have any friends that live in another country? If so, explain how you became friends. If not, if you were to become a penpal with someone from a foreign country, which country would you choose? Why?February 14 - Theme: Valentines DayWho do you care about the most? Why do you care for them so much? Explain.February 15 - Theme: Susan B. Anthonys BirthdayAt the time that womens suffrage passed, there were many women who argued against giving women the right to vote. Why do you think this was?February 16 - Theme: American Heart MonthWhat do you do to lead a healt hy lifestyle? What do you think you could improve on (e.g., eat better, exercise more, etc.)? February 17 - Theme: Random Acts of Kindness DayHave you ever performed a random act of kindness? If so, explain what you did and why. If not, come up with a random act that you can perform later today and explain your plan.February 18 - Theme: Pluto DiscoveredWould you ever consider going on a trip to the moon? Why or why not?February 19 - Theme: Phonograph was PatentedHow do you buy and listen to music today? How does this differ from the way your parents did it? In your opinion, how have these changes affected music and the music industry?February 20 - Theme: Responsible Pet Owners MonthDo you or does your family own a pet? If so what type of pet is it? What are the pros and cons of owning a pet?February 21 - Theme: Washington Monument DedicatedHave you ever been to Washington, D.C.? Why do you think that the nation has created monuments like the Washington Monument or the Jefferson Memorial? Do you think they are important symbols? Why or why not?February 22 - Theme: George Washi ngtons BirthdayThe story that George Washington could not lie when asked if he cut down a cherry tree is not true. It was written after his death. Explain why you think a biography might create a story like this when writing about someone famous who they admire. February 23 - Theme: Iwo Jima DayDo you think that you would like to join the military at some point in the future? Why or why not?February 24 - Theme: Andrew Johnsons ImpeachmentTwo presidents have been impeached: Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton. However, no president has actually been removed from office. It only takes a simple majority of the House of Representatives to be impeached (or basically found guilty of a crime). However, it takes 2/3 of the Senate to remove a president from office. Explain why you think the founding fathers made this so difficult?February 25 - Theme: Paper CurrencyWhat are the pros and cons of having paper currency instead of carrying around coins made of gold, silver, or some other precious metal?February 26 - Theme: Grand Canyon EstablishedWhy is it important for the national government to protect and manage natural treasures such as the Grand Canyon?February 27 - Theme: National Strawberry DayWhat is your favorite fruit? What do you like about it? If you do not like any fruit, explain why not. February 28 - Theme: Republican Party FoundedWhich political party do you think represents your views the most? Why do you think this is so?February 29 - Theme: Leap DayExplain how a person could logically claim that they have only had 8 birthdays when they are actually 32 years old.