George Washington Essays (1130 words) - George Washington

George Washington George Washington is unanimously referred to as the "father of America". The first president of the United States of America, Washington set the manner for what was to become the most powerful seat of government in the country. The purpose of this paper is to provide biographical information on Washington and to explain why he is known as the "father of America". Born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, on February 22, 1732, George Washington was the eldest son of Augustine Washington and his second wife, Mary Ball Washington. His five younger brothers and sisters were Elizabeth, Samuel, John, Augustine, Charles, and Mildred (who died in infancy). Washington's two half brothers, Lawrence and Augustine, were fourteen and twelve years older than he, but the three boys liked and respected one another.1 When Washington was three the family moved to a larger plantation further up the Potomac River. It was called Epsewasson, or Little Hunting Creek, from the name of the stream it faced. Young Washington grew to love the estate with a passion that lasted all his life. Some years later Augustine bought a farm on the Rappahannock, opposite Fredericksburg, and moved the family there. The plantation, Ferry Farm, was the place where Washington chopped the cherry tree down.2 When Washington was eleven, his father died. The plantation at Epsewasson was granted to Lawrence. Lawrence added to the estate and renamed it Mount Vernon, in honor of Admiral Vernon, under whom he had served in the West Indies. George went to live with Augustine at Wakefield because Henry William's school, one of the best in the colony, was located nearby.3 Little is know of George Washington's schooling. He was probably tutored at home for a while, and may have attended school in Fredericksburg before going to Henry William's school. At fifteen he was ready to do practical surveying. He was good in mathematics; he was a neat penman and an accurate mapmaker. In 1748, Washington went to live with his half brother, Lawrence, at Mount Vernon. Lawrence, who became something of a substitute father for Washington, had married into the Fairfax family, prominent and powerful Virginians who helped launch Washington's career. An early ambition to become a naval officer had been discouraged by Washington's mother; instead he turned to surveying.4 Lord Fairfax, a cousin of Lawrence's wife and master of more than five million Virginia acres, was fond of Washington and hired him to help survey his holdings beyond the Blue Ridge Mountains. The work was difficult, but Washington did well. In about a year, the surveying was completed, and, partly through Fairfax's influence, Washington was appointed surveyor of Culpeper County, his first public office. He took the oath of office on July 20, 1749.5 By 1753, the growing rivalry between the British and the French over the control of the Ohio Valley, soon to erupt into the French and Indian War, created new opportunities for Washington. He was a grown man at twenty, who already owned his first plot of Virginia land, bought with money borrowed from Lawrence. In 1753, Governor Dinwiddie made him a major of militia and sent him, with a message, to the French commander of Fort Le Boeuf. The note protested the building of a chain of French forts between Lake Ontario and the Ohio River. Near Great Meadows, Washington surrounded and attacked a party of thirty-three Frenchmen. Ten Frenchmen were killed, and twenty-two were captured. This action has been credited with starting the Seven Year's War. The French sent out nine hundred men to retaliate this slaughter. Washington, upon hearing of the arriving French threat, built a crude fort, aptly named Fort Necessity. The French badly beat Washington and he signed a document that he thought stated he attacked the party at Great Meadows. However, the document was written in French, which Washington could neither read nor speak, and the document that Washington signed stated he assassinated the party. The confession of the attack set off the world war.6 In 1755, Washington volunteered to join General Braddock and a large army to attack Fort Duquesne. Despite Washington's warnings, Braddock's troops marched in typical European fashion-long rows of men, drums beating and banners flying. For the French and Indians hiding in the woods and behind rocks, it was little more than target practice. Out of 1,400 officers and men, three fourths were killed or wounded; even Braddock himself was killed.7 That same year, Governor Dinwiddie made Washington colonel and commander of all Virginia militia forces. This was a high and well-deserved honor for the 23-year-old officer. The

Destructive Leadership in HRM

Destructive Leadership in HRM Critical Learning Points The article by Birgit Schyns and Jan Schilling (2012) offers an analysis of the phenomenon of destructive leadership along with its possible consequences. The following points from the article appear to be important to me.Advertising We will write a custom critical writing sample on Destructive Leadership in HRM specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Destructive leadership is described as a process in which over a longer period of time the activities, experiences and/or relationships of an individual or the members of a group are repeatedly influenced by their supervisor in a way that is perceived as hostile and/or obstructive (Schyns Schilling, 2013, p. 4). The consequences may include resistance and deviant work behavior, decrease in job satisfaction and commitment, job tension, and reduced employee wellbeing (stress, emotional exhaustion). The authors also included some suggestion regarding the reasons for destr uctive leadership. They reflected that it may be a result of ineffective leadership that has led the followers to question the leaders position. The authors admit that the actions believed to be destructive can help to regain the leadership position in the short run; however, the damage to the leaders image and followers trust is bound to render this strategy ineffective sooner or later. While the negative impact of destructive relationships appears to be apparent, it is important to receive scientific data supporting this point. Apart from that, in my opinion other issues need to be discussed in this respect.  The idea of destructive leadership being an oxymoron caught my eye. The authors explain why the influence that a leader has on followers can be called leadership regardless of its effects, and I agree that this power can be used for negative purposes. However, it appears as important that the destructive leadership does not have to be intentional. In this respect, the issue of perception seems to be important. It appears to be necessary to take into account and assess the way followers perceive a leaders actions. Elsewise, the leader is in danger of using destructive leadership without fully realizing it. Apart from that, I do not believe that the consequences and the actual impact of any kind of negative behavior are necessary for defining destructive leadership. In case the actions of a leader have the potential of becoming destructive, they need to be rectified.Advertising Looking for critical writing on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Applying the Insights to the Future Career Taking into account all the possible adverse outcomes of destructive leadership, I would intend to avoid abusing my power over the employees. Apart from that, I attempt to take into account the fact that it is not strictly the behavior of the leader, but its perception in the eyes of the followers that has practical influence. I know that I need to be sensitive to my followers perception of my actions, which can be achieved through developing my social and emotional skills. Apart from that, I believe that a trust- and respect-based relationship with employees can facilitate the process of opinion exchange among us. In this case, the problem of the difference in perception can be solved. Thought-Provoking Questions The problem of perception differences appears to be very significant to me. I have expressed my suggestions regarding it; I wonder if my peers could brainstorm this issue with me to arrive at a more consistent conclusion. The authors point out that the destructive leadership can be found on individual and group levels (Schyns Schilling, 2012, p. 4). However, would not an individual-level destructive leadership be destructive on a group level? I would suggest regarding the issues of the leader being a model of negative behavior in this case. Reference Sc hyns, B., Schilling, J. (2012). How Bad Are the Effects of Bad Leaders? A Meta-Analysis of Destructive Leadership and Its Outcomes. The Leadership Quarterly, 24(1), 138-158. doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2012.09.001

Introduction To HRM Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Introduction To HRM - Coursework Example 9 2 What Information Could They Find Out? 9 Activity 1.3 13 1 Identify The Historical Influences On The Approach To HRM Adopted At Utility X? Give Reasons for Your Answer. 13 2 Why Do You Think Mike Finds His Working Environment Stressful? 14 3 Why Do You Think There Is A High Turnover Rate Among Staff In The Call Centre At Utility X? 14 4 If You Were In Mike’s Position What Would You Do? 15 Activity 1.3 Windows 16 1 Identify the Historical Influences Operating In Windows 16 2 Why Do You Think Jane Now Enjoys Working For Windows? 16 3 Which Organisation Would Your Prefer To Work For? Explain Why. 17 Activity 1.4 18 1 Using The Storey’s (1992), Table, Cited In Bloisi (2007) Page 15, Identify The Factors That Indicate That College Z May Be Taking A Personnel Or HRM Approach To Managing People In The Following Table: 18 2 Given The Factors Listed Above, Is College Z Taking A Personnel Approach Or HRM Approach? Explain Your Decision 19 3 Using The Storey’s (1992), Ta ble, Cited In Bloisi (2007) Page 15, Identify The Factors That Indicate That The Windows Case Study In Activity 1.3 May Be Taking A Personnel Or HRM Approach To Managing People In The Following Table: 20 4 Given The Factors Listed Above, Are Windows Taking A Personnel Approach Or HRM Approach? Explain Your Decision. ... What HR Models Do You Think Have Been Used? Give Reasons for Your Answer. 23 Using the Utility X Case Study from 1.3, Answer the Following Questions: 24 1 What Type of Approach to HRM Do You Think Has Been Adopted At Utility X? Give Reasons for Your Answer. 24 2 Explain What The Michigan Model Of HRM Is Based Upon And Describe How It Applies To Utility X. 24 Activity 1.6 25 1 Why In The Authors Views Is The ‘Employee Champion’ Role So Important? 25 2 Do You Agree or Disagree With the Authors’ Views in This Article? Give Examples Of Areas Of Agreement Or Disagreement And Explain Your Reasons. 25 3 Who Should Carry Out the ‘Employee Champion’ Role in Organisations? 25 4 Read The Last Paragraph Carefully. Do You Agree With The Authors’ Views? Explain Why This Is The Case. 26 5 How Can Line Managers And HR Managers Be Encouraged To Work Together For The Mutual Benefit Of The Organisation? 26 Activity 1.7 27 1 What Changes Have Been Made In Relation To HR Work Within The Hotel? 27 2 What Are The Benefits Of Making These Changes For The Organisation And Line Managers? 27 3 What Problems Can Occur When HR Work Is Devolved To Line Managers? 28 4 Why Do You Think The Line Managers Find HR Work Problematical? 29 5 Explain How HR And Line Managers Can Work Together More Effectively? 29 Bibliography 30 Activity 1.1 1 Identify The Different Activities That Susan Has To Carry Out In Relation To People Management As Part Of Her Role As Supervisor. Susan had the responsibility of arranging staff cover when the existing staffs were on leave. The pizza franchise was also planning on recruiting new staff. The advertisement for the purpose of recruitment would be drafted by Susan. An employee had mistakenly provided a free meal to a customer without

Essentials of Evidence-Based Practice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Essentials of Evidence-Based Practice - Essay Example e status of vasectomy via interviews; most of the interviews involved telephoning, administration of questionnaires, the use of the healthcare centres registries, as well as the physical interview by nurses. Among the participants of the research included patients that had experienced the vas deferens’ surgical operation. In order to control the cases study various controls were taken into account; these included individuals that were diagnosed with skin and lung cancer. Other conditions such as digestive disorders and rehabilitation problems, as well as the neighbours of the patients were also treated as the controls of the case study (Bernal, Latour and Gomez, 2012). However, as regards they made decisions regarding the relevance of the primary studies, Bernal, Latour and Gomez (2012) do not point out the modality of selecting the papers for a review. The quality of the methodology was evaluated by taking into consideration a number of threats that are likely to be absent or present with respect to the validity. Among the threats included misclassifying of a disease and inadequacy of selecting the controls. Bernal, Latour and Gomez (2012) carried out an observation on a population of 221,238. Out of this population, 14,334 were categorized under case-control studies, while 206,904 fell under the cohort studies; there were nine case-control studies, and five cohort studies. Following the research, Bernal, Latour and Gomez (2012) claimed that the experimental evidence that was attained regarding the relationship between prostate cancer and vasectomy was characterized by a low level of quality. It was identified that there are several biases with respect to the sources; the sources attempted to overestimate the effect of vasectomy. In this respect, the evidence that was experienced does not advocate for a change in the family planning; this is due to lack of justified evidence. Similarly, the evidence does not indicate whether individuals who have experienced

American History - 12 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

American History - 12 - Essay Example †¢ The Civil Rights Act (1968) banned racial discrimination and desegregation. †¢ The Voting Rights Act (1965) banned discriminatory methods of denying suffrage to African Americans †¢ Medicare was created to offset the costs of health care for the nation's elderly. †¢The Fair Housing Act (1968) provided funds to construct low-income housing †¢ The Elementary and Secondary Education Act provided major funding for American public schools. †¢ The National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities used public money to fund artists and galleries. †¢ Congress tightened environmental controls with stronger Air and Water Quality Acts. †¢ Johnson secured several gains before Conservatives gained control of Congress. 2. _ Roe vs. Wade (1973) ______ †¢ Historic Supreme Court decision on abortion in the USA. †¢ Struck down an 1857 Texas statute that made abortion illegal except where the life of the mother was in danger. †¢ The Court ruled that the right to terminate a pregnancy is part of a woman's constitutional right to privacy under the Fourteenth Amendment. †¢ The State cannot regulate the right to abortion during the first trimester of pregnancy. †¢ All abortions to be performed only by licensed physicians under medically safe conditions. †¢ In the second trimester abortions are subject to State regulations regarding qualifications and licenses of the physicians. †¢ In third trimester, abortions legal only to save the health and life of the mother. †¢ Rejected contention that life is present from conception. †¢ Defined the rights of the fetus as emerging when it can survive independently outside the womb.   †¢ Set the terms of the abortion debate for decades to come. 3. ____Equal Rights Amendment_____ †¢ Holds that â€Å"Equality of rights under the law shall not be abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.† †¢ First proposed in Congress by the National Women's Party in 1923.   †¢ Approved by the House in 1970. †¢ Approved by the Senate in 1972. †¢ Opposed by social conservatives, such as Phyllis Schlafly, envisioning a threat to traditional family structure. †¢ Support spearheaded by the National Organization for Women. †¢ Ratified by thirty-five of the necessary thirty-eight states by 1977. †¢ Granted extension by Congress until June 30, 1982 †¢ Reintroduced in Congress in July 1982. †¢ The ERA is still not a part of the US constitution 4. __The Vietnam War________ †¢ Theater of the Cold War and the longest war in American history. †¢ US supports the anti-communist government of South Vietnam, led by the unpopular Ngo Dinh Diem. †¢ The communist Viet Cong, supported by the North’s Ho Chi Minh, unleashes guerilla war in the South. †¢ Diem is overthrown by a military coup in 1963, and assassinated with tacit US approval. †¢ The Gulf of Tonkin Re solution, passed in 1964, escalates the war and the involvement of US troops. †¢ Despite decades of hostilities, billions of dollars, and nearly 60,000 American casualties, the United States fails to achieve its objectives. †¢ Mounting casualties and media reports turn American public opinion decisively against the war †¢ The Paris Peace Accords of 1972 end the Vietnam War †¢ President Nixon signs a ceasefire in January 1973 that formally ends the hostilities. †¢ In 1975, Ho Chih Minh’s communist forces from the north overrun the south and unify the nation.   5. National Organiza

The Strengths And Limitations Of Personalisation Social Work Essay

The Strengths And Limitations Of Personalisation Social Work Essay With the continuously growing number of older population in the country and the life expectancy that keeps on increasing, the demand for the elderly care is also equally on the increase. Consequently the government are also putting in effort in order to continue improving the service provided for the elderly care such as the introduction of personalisation into the care service in the government policy in December 2007, when the Putting People First concordat was published. This is the reason why this assignment will be looking into this concept of personalisation in further depth along by looking at the strengths and limitations of implementing it into the social care. CONTENT The term personalisation as picked up by the Department of Health and is being used as a term to describe the series of reforms drawn out in the 2007 concordat Putting People First. In its formulations the policies have been set within the following framework of improving access to universal services, the prevention and early intervention, the increase of choice and control by the users and also growing social capital for the care (Department of Health, 2009). In addition to this, personalisation is about giving people more choice and control over their lives in all social care settings. It also means to recognise the user as a person with strengths and preferences and it starts with the user instead of the service (Social Care Institute for Excellence, 2012). The reasons why personalisation is introduced in social care is because the government is against the one size fits all concept in terms of providing care as it has been found to have not met most of the needs of the user especially with the fact that all users are different. The second reason is to finish up the The 1988 Griffiths Report on Community Care in which it advises that social services should become brokers to a range of care and support providers. It also proposed that social workers should take on a care management role.Thirdly is to combat the McDonaldisation in social care. This McDonaldisation thesis consists of five primary components of efficiency (minimising time in delivering care), calculability (trying to get user to believe that they are getting quality care for lesser money spent), predictability (where the care provided are highly routine and predictable), control (standardised and uniform care provider) and also, culture (as part of the standardised control) . Finally, personalisation is implemented due to the convergence of disability movement and also the increasing neo-liberal marketisation. The disability movement as a part of service user movement and the social model of disability have been a really powerful driving forces in lobbying for government reforms. An evidence for this is the Community Care (Direct Payments) Act, 1996 where the direct payments have been made available to the disabled adults of working age in England and have since been extended to other groups (Carr, 2010). The popularity and success has stimulated much of the personalisation around service users and also the development of personal budgets (Glasby and Littlechild, 2009). In November 2010, A vision for adult social care: capable communities and active citizens document was published, with personal budgets and personalisation, put central along with prevention, health and social care integration and the development of a plural and creative social care market to enable choice forming central aspects of the continuing social care reform. In this document too, it was made clear that personal budget alone does not in itself mean that services are automatically personalised. People should get personal choice and control over their services rather than the inflexible block contracts from supported housing to personal care (Department of Health 2010). Glasby (2012) explained that the concept of personal budgets is rather than assessing the users needs and selecting services from fairly limited menu of options, personal budgets start by placing each individual into a cost band and being up front about the resources available. By knowing how much of money is a vailable for them to spend on their needs then allows them and their circle of support to make decisions about how the money could best be spent (by direct services, direct payments, public services, the independent sector, paying family and friend or any of the combination). Some of the strengths of using personalisation concept are the users outcomes can be improved and at the same time, costs can be reduced as people who control their own budgets are able to find smarter solutions for meeting their needs and can reduce their need for paid support. This is possible because the person is empowered to make the better, right kind of decisions, seize new opportunities and respond more quickly to their own problems. In the old welfare system the government pushes resources into those services that it believes people need. Users can only receive little benefit from these resources because it is unlikely that the services are perfectly tailored to meet their needs and there is no opportunity for the user to mobilise those resources to pull in in other resources. However, when someone has a Personal Budget they are able to make quality, efficient use of those resources. Such as rather than paying  £10,000 per year at the day centre and the user will simply ha ve to put up with whatever services offered there that they do not value. Instead, if the user is given a  £10,000 Personal Budget they then can actually spend some of their budget on those particular services they value, e.g. only coming into the centre on the good days. This process explains why people can get better lives with less money as the money that can be controlled works better with the new found freedom than the money that cannot be controlled (Duffy, 2010). Other than offering better quality choices and empowering the service user, personalisation also is shown to be consistently cost effective of the public finance as found by Glasby and Littlechild (2002) that direct payments support are on average 30-40 per cent cheaper than the equivalent directly provided services. In addition to this, it was discovered that carers feel the relationship between them and the service user has improved due to them or their relatives being able to access the direct payments (Rethink Mental Illness, 2011). Finlayson (2002) also suggested that this positive relationship between the carer and service user is central to carers job motivation and satisfaction as in turn it will increase the quality of care provided. Another advantage of this concept as suggested by Zarb and Nadash (1994) is that the flexibility of the service is enhanced. The service provided is fitted around the users time on top of their different needs rather than fitted around the carer s timetable. Although according to the findings discussed earlier that expressed the positive outcomes of personalisation, there are few limitations associated into practicing it. The first one is that it is inappropriate to some users especially those who are mentally incapable and the elderly. It is found to be a daunting experience as they are suppose to manage their own financial arrangements directly which will also add extra burden and unwanted stress for them. On top of this, most of service users are also anxious by becoming employers and having to deal with responsibility particularly when they are unwell. This is especially with regard to assistance with the direct payments managing of the service user, either by family member, friend or support agency on the users behalf. In addition to this issue, the potential problem that could possibly happen regarding the vulnerable user is being exploited and potential for their money to be fraud (Leece and Bornat, 2006). On the other hand, as su ggested by Glasby and Littlechild (2009) the local authorities have a key role in making their systems as simple as possible and also proportionate to the risk, along with the availability of independent support (such as peer support and support agency) and the advent of self-directed support to reduce potential hassle from this concept should any problem arise. Another limitation of this concept is the community care assessments that are carried out sometimes underestimated the needs of user, especially those with mental illness as their needs are subjective (for instance, not so obvious on a good day) and therefore failed to be met. To make matter worse, these assessments are often not person-centred as it lacks of users involvement in decision making thus, they tend to be passive recipients and disempowered. This highlights the need of a better person-centred assessment by the professionals involved as the central element in the direct payments is good assessment. Hence, a better, different kind of relationship needs to be developed between the professional and the users as well as other approach to allocate the community care resources for this particular service user (Leece and Bornat, 2006). Another problem is direct payments and personal budgets are identified as a threat to the professional expertise of the social workers, as well as the longer hours due to the flexibility needed. It was also suggested that at one critical point, services will not be able to be managed properly as more users are becoming employers thus, changing the balance of the services'(Leece and Bornat, 2006). In contrast, direct payments and personal budgets are able to free social workers up to focus on people who are in greater need of support and thus, reconnect their value base and principles of profession (Glasby and Littlechild, 2009). Furthermore, the monopoly of market with the increasing choice through the direct payments is seen to be a problem. This will someway force the existing providers to make more effort to be more appealing to the service users in order to avoid of going bust. Additionally the real goals of these providers are often doubted as whether they will put quality care over profit-making (Leece and Bornat, 2006). The argument against this is that with the presence of competition, the providers will struggle to increase their quality of care along with a better value in order to keep up with the other providers. The strengths of the concept of personalisation as per discussed have found to be outweighed by the limitations that are associated to it. This is also proved to be the case as nearly all users is found to be satisfied with their experiences of using the direct payment as they found it to be more convenient and secure in the research carried out for the Department for Work and Pensions (2004). Out of the total participants, 75% reported to have found no disadvantages when using the direct payment. CONCLUSION The concept of personalisation has had a long history on why the government want to put it into practice as a way of reforming the social care particularly in the last few years when the direct payments and personal budgets were introduced. This was proved to be a huge success with majority of the users are extremely satisfied with how it has changed their lives in terms of empowering and giving them better quality of choices. Moreover, it was also found to be cost-effective and thus, able to save large amount of the public fund. However, as this concept was also subjected to few arguments against it, such as it not being able to cater certain types of user, there is also backup plan, support and effort made by the local authorities to minimise this. Moreover, the arguments that it threatens the social workers profession and the market balance are found to be ungrounded. Thus, the benefit of implementing personalisation in social care was found to overshadow the limitations as discus sed earlier.

Life after Guanajuato :: Personal Narrative Essays

Life after Guanajuato    My experience on the service-learning trip to Guanajuato, Mexico was one where I connected information to experience to gain true wisdom and knowledge about the people, culture, and world view of Mexico. When I began the class portion of this experience, I was unsure of how the background information on the history of Mexico we were required to read would influence my service-learning experience in Guanajuato. What I expected of the trip was assisting in and teaching some English to a class of preschoolers-all other experiences would be extraneous and `touristy.' I poured over the readings and classroom information anyway, assuming that even if it would not be useful on this service-learning trip, it was interesting information that I could apply to my Spanish major. I quickly found out once in Guanajuato that the information learned in class would apply in nearly every way to my experience, and the synthesis of it with my experiences would change my opinion of the volunteer work I w as doing, throw off my understanding of myself and my goals, make me reevaluate the motives of my future students and my country, and develop a greater understanding of the Mexican perspective.    I think the point at which everything I learned in the course previous to my time in Guanajuato formed from information into knowledge and paved that road for all the rest of my experiences there was during a meeting with some Mexican University of Guanajuato students. One student, who I later came to know as Adà ¡n, during our conversation asked our group why we study Spanish. After a few of us gave answers listing our hope to forge friendships with Mexican immigrants in the US or to be able travel in Latin and South America, we were blown away by the answer that Adà ¡n believed was the real reason in all of us-to come into their country to dominate and take over. First of all, this blew my mind! I had never thought of that as a motive for learning Spanish, but apparently this Mexican student believed it was Americans' number one reason! After first being appalled at his stereotypes of Americans, I realized that I wanted to uncover the reasons behind this strong and real belief an d to change his mind about all Americans being this way.    A few of the girls in our group and I started a small conversation with Adà ¡n and two of his friends. Life after Guanajuato :: Personal Narrative Essays Life after Guanajuato    My experience on the service-learning trip to Guanajuato, Mexico was one where I connected information to experience to gain true wisdom and knowledge about the people, culture, and world view of Mexico. When I began the class portion of this experience, I was unsure of how the background information on the history of Mexico we were required to read would influence my service-learning experience in Guanajuato. What I expected of the trip was assisting in and teaching some English to a class of preschoolers-all other experiences would be extraneous and `touristy.' I poured over the readings and classroom information anyway, assuming that even if it would not be useful on this service-learning trip, it was interesting information that I could apply to my Spanish major. I quickly found out once in Guanajuato that the information learned in class would apply in nearly every way to my experience, and the synthesis of it with my experiences would change my opinion of the volunteer work I w as doing, throw off my understanding of myself and my goals, make me reevaluate the motives of my future students and my country, and develop a greater understanding of the Mexican perspective.    I think the point at which everything I learned in the course previous to my time in Guanajuato formed from information into knowledge and paved that road for all the rest of my experiences there was during a meeting with some Mexican University of Guanajuato students. One student, who I later came to know as Adà ¡n, during our conversation asked our group why we study Spanish. After a few of us gave answers listing our hope to forge friendships with Mexican immigrants in the US or to be able travel in Latin and South America, we were blown away by the answer that Adà ¡n believed was the real reason in all of us-to come into their country to dominate and take over. First of all, this blew my mind! I had never thought of that as a motive for learning Spanish, but apparently this Mexican student believed it was Americans' number one reason! After first being appalled at his stereotypes of Americans, I realized that I wanted to uncover the reasons behind this strong and real belief an d to change his mind about all Americans being this way.    A few of the girls in our group and I started a small conversation with Adà ¡n and two of his friends.

Erich Maria Remarque Essay

â€Å"If you tell the truth, you won’t have to remember anything† (Mark Twain). Throughout my life I have come to recognize many truths. Sometimes I would tell the truth and sometimes I would lie, but when I lied I didn’t always get away with it. Although I do lie about some things and get away with it, I still feel bad about doing it. Throughout my life, Algernon and Jack’s false identities, Father Hooper’s sacrifices, Dr. Heidegger’s experiments, Eldorado’s disappointing truth, and Paul’s journey, we are awaken with the truth. The theme of truth has been revolving around all our first quarter readings. In the poem Eldorado by Edgar Allan Poe, a knight is on a journey to find this joyful land, called Eldorado. The knight continues to search for Eldorado, but he knows he has failed. But he keeps searching, and even though, in his mind, he knows that Eldorado is a fictional place, in his heart he still believes it’s real. The knight in Eldorado recognizes a fairly disappointing truth, that Eldorado is a nonexistent place. â€Å"But he grew old-this knight so bold-and o’er his heart a shadow fell as he found no spot of ground that looked like Eldorado† (Poe 305). This quote illustrates how the knight realizes there is no Eldorado. Another example of the recognition of truth is in All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, when Paul Baumer realizes the truth about war, and how it really destroys people, physically and mentally. â€Å"I am young, I am twenty years old; yet I know nothing of life but despair, death, fear, and fatuous superficiality cast over an abyss of sorrow. I see how peoples are set against one another, and in silence, unknowingly, foolishly, obediently, innocently slay one another† (Remarque 263). This quote signifies that Paul is very young and that all he knows is death, fear, and despair, and it is because of the war. The war had destroyed him and made Paul a different person. Throughout my life I have come to recognize many truths, but one major one is that nothing in this world is free, even if it doesn’t cost any money, because it still requires work. Nowadays everyone wants to buy the new technology being created, and it has been like this for many years. They also want to buy the clothing that is popular and very expensive. But, neither of the two are free, and they both cost money and both take time to get. I realized this when I was about 8 years old. I would still ask for a lot of things, even though I knew whatever I was asking cost a lot of money, and it was just because everyone else had it. However, when you grow older, you come to recognize that nothing is free and that you have to work for everything. Another important truth that I have come to recognize is that revenge is insignificant and for the irresponsible. When someone does something to you that is cruel or hurtful, you are going to want to get revenge on them, and that’s just how every human being is. I learned that revenge was unimportant a few years ago. My brother told on me for something I did, and I got in a lot of trouble. I was grounded for one week, and that made me furious. So I decided to get revenge on my brother. In the end, when I tried to get revenge, I ended up in more trouble and was grounded for even longer. This has happened to me many times, and I have come to realize that revenge is insignificant, it just makes everything worse. A third, and final, significant truth that I have come to recognize is that everyone will die someday. No matter how old or how young you are, you won’t be alive forever, which is just how life is. So everyone must live their life to the fullest and go out and do things. Don’t kill time, because killing time is priceless, and will never grow back, so why do it. Many people have lists of what they wish to do throughout their lifetime, which is amazing, because these people to realize the fact that they won’t be here one day. I have recognized this truth and am taking it as an advantage, and so should everyone else. Everything is revolved around the truth, whether it’s in your life or in a book you read. However, not many people recognize these truths in life. Once they do, they will be taught remarkable life lessons that will help them out in life. Throughout our lives, I, as well as the characters in the books we have read, have come to recognize many truths about life, which have helped us come to discover many things. Many people should need to start recognizing the truths in their lives, as I did, and it will benefit them in the long run. Works Cited BrainyQuote. Xplore, n. d. Web. 09 Oct. 2013. Holt Elements of Literature. Fifth Course. Essentials of American Literature. Orlando, FL. : Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 2007. Print. Remarque, Erich Maria, and A. W. Wheen. All Quiet on the Western Front;. Boston: Little, Brown, and, 1929. Print.

Mars Rover Space Mission essays

Mars Rover Space Mission essays Robot Cars on Mars: Instruments and Future Advancements For many years scientists that studied the planet mars have tried to make a remote controlled vehicle that could withstand the arrival, landing, and that could gather useful information that could bring us to understand the ways of Mars. Whatever info that was gathered has come from Arial photos and thermal readings. The world has made numerous prototypes of different kinds of vehicles that could travel to the moon, but none of them has come close to the newly built ROVER. The Rover is equipped with several different reading systems that I will explain about. There has also been a lot of myths about mars, like what the face on its surface means, or if theirs life on Mars, and with this device we might just learn a little more about those topics. The overall competition that the rover faces was APEX which only featured one instrument, but the Rover offers six different tools which dig, tell temperature, and if water was once in a certain spot. The detailed descriptions of the tools are as follows. A pancam is the eyes of the operation. The Rover holds two of these high-resolution, digital cameras on its mast. It has a panoramic 3-D view of mars with unbelievable resolution. It beats the cameras on the pathfinder about 4 times with its resolution. These cameras offer the best look at mars yet. Scientists will see not only where certain Martian surface features around the Lander are located, but also which features warrant further investigation. Pancam imaging can tell the story of Martian rock distribution, dunes, and maybe ancient waterways. Imaging at different wavelengths can even tell about the mineralogical make-up of the Martian surface it pictures. The next instrument is the Mini-Thermal Emission Spectrometer or (Mini-TES). This operation works when the Mini-TES observes the infrared (or thermal) radiation emitted by rocks and soils. Most minerals have their...

UNIT 7 TASK 1 Essay

UNIT 7 TASK 1 Essay UNIT 7 TASK 1 Essay Sociological Perspectives Functionalism This is the sociological approach that sees the institutions of society as functioning in agreement among each other making a particular and obvious role to the smooth running of society. This perspective can best be understood by likening society to the human body, the same way the human body functions through the efficient interrelationship of major organs like the lungs, heart, kidneys and the liver, it has mechanisms to deal with diseases so that different in society each have particular contributions to make. They work as one by using methods of social control to deal with deviant members or groups so that society functions efficiently. Talcott Parsons played an important role in the development of functionalism as the sociological approach; he imagined society as a system made up of interrelated institutions that contributed to its ease of running and success. He thought the most important role of an institution was to socialise individuals and make sure they understand the fundamental values of their society and behave in suitable ways; this ensured that there was order in society. This perspective can be criticised by claiming that it doesn’t approach areas of conflict that characterise modern societies and in principle could be found in every society, although functionalists emphasise that consensus and agreement are a perfect image of institutions having clear, positive functions and co-operating effectively for the good of everyone. Nonetheless, this does not look like it’s to reflect various peoples experience and understanding of the modern world where there are frequently obvious winners and losers and lots of non-conformists. Functionalism is based on the idea that in all societies members share a number of essential principles and beliefs which value consensus underpins the socialisation process and the working of the main institutions. Marxism Marxism also being a conflict model as well as a structuralist model. This perspective was originally developed by Karl Marx, he thought that individual behaviour was formed by society but believed that the economic system defined society and everyone’s place within it. He held the view that in the industrial society during his time, there were two social classes, one which is the bourgeoisie or the capitalists, the small but powerful group who owned the factories as well as the other places of employment. The proletariat, a much larger, less fortunate â€Å"financially†, poorer group of workers. His idea was that both these social class groups would always be in conflict, land and offices would want high profits whereas the employees will want higher wages which would eventually consume the profits. This is the reason sometimes Marxism is called the conflict model. He thought that this particular conflict would lead to revolution because there was an unbalanced relatio nship between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat and conflict was inherent in the economic system. Marxists claim that the bourgeoisie also had power in other institutions and they nurture the society because they manage the mass media, the legal system and it’s their ideas that control the school curriculum. Through the socialisation process, the values and attitudes of the ruling class are passed on rather than the general value system of the functionalists. This is done effectively that the majority of the proletariat do not understand that they are being exploited and that they are helping the interests of the bourgeoisie rather than their own group, the lack of awareness by the proletariat is called false consciousness, this is the false consciousness of taking on the views and beliefs of the Bourgeoisie by the proletariat. Just the same as functionalists, Marxists also possess a structuralist perspective, they view family as contributing to an established social system and would consider the family as the servant of the capitalist

Market structure Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Market structure - Essay Example These include things like the resources of the ocean (for example, fish) and the environment. Both of these resources can be impacted on by the way in which they are used thereby reducing the number of fishes or the quality of the environment. If a good is excludable but not rival it is a natural monopoly. Public goods like common resources are not excludable. They are available for the use of everyone free of charge. Common goods like private goods are rival goods because one person’s consumption reduces other persons’ consumption. Natural monopolies like private goods are excludable because persons’ can be prevented form consuming the good. According to Pashigian (1997) a natural monopoly exists when a given quantity can be produced by a single firm at the lowest cost. Bank of America is a financial institution offering financial services. Some of its financial services are non-excludable because anyone can access them. However, customers can be prevented from accessing loans if they do not qualify in terms of their ability to pay. The services that the bank provides are also non-rival because one person’s use of the service does not reduce other persons’ use of the service. It therefore means that Bank of America is not a natural monopoly because it is non excludable. Neither does the institution provide a private good because its services are non-rival.

Week3 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Week3 - Essay Example According to research in the textbook, diets that contain saturated fats and trans fats can affect a person’s health negatively since they lead to increase in the level of cholesterol in the blood, which can in turn lead to heart disease and other acute health conditions. Additionally, the textbook indicated that a study was conducted between seven countries in order to understand the link between heart disease and fat diets. The study showed the two populations, which is the Island of Crete and Finland, suffered from heart disease. Indeed, the study found that the food diet in Crete contained less saturated fat as compared to Finland, where death rates linked to heart disease were much higher than Crete. Furthermore, according to Omega article, consuming more fish and food elements that contain omega-3 helps in reducing the risk of getting heart disease. In addition, omega-3 also helps in reducing the effect of some risk factors such as stress that can lead to heart disease and strokes. According to the article â€Å"Omega-3 Fatty Acids and Mood Disorders†, Omega-3 is an important mineral in maintaining ones moods. This is why people with depressive disorders are likely to have mood swings if omega-3 is absent in their diet. Moreover, research shows that the tremendous increase in depression and neurological disorders is being fueled by the increasing consumption of vegetable oils that are rich in the omega-6 fatty acids (Parker et al. 969). However, consumption of foods such as fish, which is rich on omega-3, helps in preventing depression. Dietary changes from traditional foods that include fish eating to western fast food diets have led to increased rates of anxiety, depre ssion, seasonal affective disorder, and suicide (Parker et al. 969-970). Some of the changes that I would like to make when it comes to changing my food diet include consuming more fish and less fast food. Additionally, I will include