Online classes vs Traditional classes Essay

Online classes and traditional classes are both great ways to receive an education. They both strive for the same purpose, which is to help students reach their goals during college. Although both online and traditional classes are great, they do differ in some ways. The four major differences between these classes are, interaction between students and professors, convenience, the learning process, and the cost. The student/teacher interaction plays an important role between these two class settings. Students in a traditional class setting have the abilit7y to listen to the instructor, talk about lessons, ask any questions that they may have, as well as take part and watch any demonstrations. In a traditional class, students are able to communicate with peers and professors before and after class, regarding any assignments, concerns, or grades. Online students typically communicate with instructors through emails or phone. Teachers may also be able to explain things better face to face, rather than through emails or over the phone. So students may not get the complete explanation this way. Also, in the case of any questions, the professor and peers won’t be readily available to provide feedback on the spot, though effective professors will make themselves available through a variety of methods, which includes online office hours. Taking classes online typically allow students to work asynchronously, which means they can choose where and when they complete their coursework. This is often ideal for students who work or single parents who needs a flexible schedule. Online classes can also be a great approach to a college degree, for as long as a computer and internet access is available, course work can be accessed from anywhere (Sorensen,2007). Though, students who struggle to be self-motivated may find that they can quickly fall behind. Traditional class settings are quite different. They require physical presence, where you physically go to school a few times a week. Many make attendance mandatory and grades can suffer if class is missed. Students in a traditional class room receive regular communication about class assignments, as well as direct instructions from the professors. The learning process online is more self driven than face to face. Online students need a higher degree of personal responsibility and discipline. If students can keep effective schedules, meet deadlines consistently, and know the basics of using a computer, than they may have success online. Those who need a more personal contact with professors and a more structured environment, may consider a traditional class room setting. Getting the most value for a dollar is important, so shopping around for a program that fits the budget is essential. Online programs, aside from the flexibility they offer, generally speaking, are more affordable than traditional classes (Sorensen,2007). Many even offer convenient payment plans in order to help make online classes more affordable. Even at a lower cost, it can still be difficult for some students to pay for college; looking into various forms of financial aid can help alleviate some of that burden. Check in with different schools to see if they offer grants, loans, work study programs, scholarships, or any other forms of aid. Simply fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, (FAFSA). In the world today, nothing is more confusing than choosing a education. Considering there are different ways to access a higher education, it is clear to see and understand options of traditional and online programs. Knowing this information can certainly help students decide which method best meets the needs and individual situation. Looking at the benefits that each option has to offer can help guide you into making the right decision. Even though obtaining a traditional education can be beneficial, the flexibility, environment, and length of the class can make online a better decision.

My Trip to Pakistan Essay

It was a miserable rainy day in the middle of the summer and I was excited. I was going to Pakistan with my family. Everyone was getting ready to go to the airport. Clothes flying out of suitcases. Everyone kept on bumping into each other again, again and again. The cab was taking ages to come and I thought we will never arrive there on time but eventually it came. We put everything in the cab and I checked one last time to see if I have everything. We arrived at the airport with not a minute to spare. We ran to the counter and checked in. As we were boarding the plane we got the flight information. On the plane it seemed like months and months but it only took us 8 hours to arrive there. All my family and cousins were waiting there patiently for us to come out. After coming of the plain all are luggage got missed placed so we had to look for it but finally the luggage was found and returned to us. It starting as a good day but gradually it was getting worse and worse. As we good out the airport in Pakistan it was a hot sizzling day. I was so excited to see my cousins. I haven’t seen them in 2-3 years. They were all taller than me so I felt really short like an ant. Finally we got home I was too tired to talk so I fell asleep. The next morning I woke up and we went to the theme park and then we went to the mosque. We went to the mountains were my dad grew up. After staying there for 4 weeks I was sad and didn’t feel like coming to back to London. As we got to the airport I forgot to bring my passport so we had to go back and get it. I only had half an hour to get it. The good thing was I only lived 10 minutes away but if there was traffic I wouldn’t make it so me and my cousin ran to the car and went luckily there was no traffic so we made it on time and I was so relieved that I made it. We got back to London all miserable and sad. After a couple of days I started to get over the fact we are not in Pakistan and next day I had to go back to school which cheered me up because I haven’t seen my friends for ages.

FAT file systems Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

FAT file systems - Essay Example File Allocation Tables (FAT) is of huge significance to the users of Compact Flash (CF) because the requirement of FAT type is different for the devices that are optimized with over 2.14 gigabytes (GB) of storage capacity unlike those that require only 2.13 GB. This topic has gained huge importance specifically after the hard disk’s application into the personal computers. This paper tends to create awareness among the camera users regarding the FAT through a comprehensive discussion of its history. Introduction: The subject of this white paper is the illustration of FAT File Systems. This white paper is directed at creating an understating among the users of camera regarding the File Allocation Tables, which are generally referred to as FAT. Because of the disparity between the need of FAT type among different devices, Compact Flash (CF) users need to be given a thorough understanding of the FAT so that they may be able to make the right choice as per their device. The scope of this white paper is limited to the discussion of history of FAT File Systems along with a brief review of the relation of FAT with the Compact Flash (CF) devices which generate files with sizes up to 5+ mega pixels. This white paper first gives a comprehensive account of the historical background of FAT. This is followed by a review of the use of FAT File Systems in CF. Finally, the findings are concluded in the last section. History of FAT File System: Development of FAT File System: In February, 1976, during his stay at the Albuquerque’s Hilton Hotel spanning five days, a child known as Bill Gates who has gained immense fame for his contributions in the world of computer developed and coded FAT (Gilbert). â€Å"FAT was designed for small disks and simple folder structures† (Microsoft). Replacement of floppy disks with double-sided diskettes: The original Personal Computers made use of floppy disks for carrying the data whose capacity usually used to be 180 kilobyt es. After the floppy disks, use of double-sided diskettes increased. The double-sided diskettes used to be double the capacity of the floppy disks and were up to 5 ? inches in size. The initial DOS developers indicated the relation of sectors to individual files as well as identified the vacant tables by creating tables with a view to organizing the data. As a result of this, the Operating System (DOS) was able to use the limited space on the double-sided diskettes to the maximum limit. There was no more the need of availability of a continuous series of sectors for saving the files. It was possible to break up the data for the files and distribute that everywhere in the double-sided diskette in an increasingly organized and sequenced fashion; a process that is frequently referred to as fragmentation. Nevertheless, it was fortunate in those times to be able to keep the data in one diskette because one would not need to switch the diskettes in and out alternately time and again while the program’s operation would continue. Selection of table length: There are 768 sectors upon a diskette with a capacity of 360 KB. This required the table to be large enough in order to determine every single sector of the total of 768. There was also the requirement of some room for expansion because the developers were aware of the on-going creation of larger diskettes. Number of possible values permitted by the use of one byte per table did not exceed 512, so that would not practically serve the purpose. On the other hand, two bytes would waste the disk space by permitting 16384 entries. Thus, decision had to be made somewhere in between one and two bytes. So finally, table with the length of 12 bits that were equal to 1.5 bytes were chosen so that the usage of sectors on the first double-sided diskettes could be traced. As a result of this, 4096 possible values were permitted. Such a FAT table was able to deal with storage devices with the capacity as large as 2 GB prov ided that each entry

The effects of smoking on an individual Research Paper

The effects of smoking on an individual - Research Paper Example r, the bottom line is, any form smoking is a danger to the human health and so this paper will discuss how smoking causes many dangerous diseases, also how it maximally affects women who smoke, including pregnancy complications, and finally how second hand smoke is also a dangerous aspect. A recent increase in smoking habits among young adults in United States is a major public health concern. It is estimated that more than 11 million young adults are currently smoking. Studies show that smoking initiations are highly at the ages of 18 and 19 years respectively with full addiction by the age of 20 to 22 years. (Wendt, 2008). Studies have shown that for those who are smokers, 72% in adulthood started when they were young adults and continued the habit to adulthood while only 7% of current adult smokers started later in their lives. Young adulthood is pivotal in establishment of smoking because dramatic changes in their lives, work settings, networks of social circles and living arrangements or school or college increases the risk of smoking. Then, while transitioning to professional career, marriage, parenthood or other occupational roles, this smoking habit will continue, even accentuating. Cigarette smoking is a one the major preventable causes for many diseases in the United States and throughout the world. Cigarette smoking causes more than 400,000 deaths annually through one disease or another. (Wendt, 2008). That is, although smoking does not directly kill, using various toxic substances like tobacco, marijuana, opium, etc, etc it will lead to various medical complications and disease, which will cut short lives. Smoking cigarettes using these substances generates smoke containing high doses of nicotine and other dangerous elements, and this smoke will enter the human body affecting the various organs leading to various diseases. (Wendt, 2008). The smoke and thereby dangerous chemicals will first enter the lungs and that where it will have a major impact.

Chidren with disabilty Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Chidren with disabilty - Essay Example There are no racial differences in dyslexia. It occurs in all languages, races and religions. Dyslexia is associated with a high level of social and psychological morbidity for the individual and their family. In approximately 40-50% of cases, the disability is persistent into adulthood (Schulte et al, 2007). Reading is a process that synthesizes data from the highly developed visual perception system and transfers it to the highly developed language system via brains network of nerve cells that connect centers of vision, language and memory. This transformation of data involves certain skills like recognizing specific visual symbols as letters, focusing and scanning across the page, recognizing sounds associated with letters and making that connection, understanding words and grammar, building ideas and images, comparing new ideas to what one already knows and storing ideas in memory (Earl, 2006). Dyslexia is a disorder related to the language system and involves deficient processing of individual linguistic units, called phonemes, which comprise all spoken and written words (Tynan, 2006). A child with dyslexia typically has problems with segmentation, the process of recognizing different phonemes that constitute words or with blending these sounds to make words (Tynan, 2006). The disab ility in dyslexia can involve any task in reading. While a significant number of children with dyslexia share an inability to distinguish or separate the sounds in spoken words, others may have trouble with rhyming games, such as rhyming cat with bat or cannot recall seeing a specific word previously and have poor "word confrontation" memory recognition (Earl, 2006). There is a broad spectrum of dyslexia related phenotypes like phonological decoding, phoneme awareness, orthographic processing, short-term memory, rapid naming and basic mathematical

Suffragette in the 1910's Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Suffragette in the 1910's - Research Paper Example New leaders of the movement such as Lucy Stone, Lucretia Mott, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton came from antislavery movement. Relations between the two movements were cordial at different political, personal and ideological levels but a turn came when Wendell Phillips set aside the issue of women suffrage to work for enfranchisement for newly independent blacks: â€Å"I hope in time to be as bold as Stuart Mill and add to that last clause ‘sex’!! But this hour belongs to the Negro.† From there on the movement split into two camps: the â€Å"moderates,† headed by Lucy Stone followed the Republican strategy while the radicals were led by Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, focusing the movement nearer to the New York Journal, The Revolution. Christine Stansell, â€Å"Feminism and Suffrage: The Emergence of an Independent Women's Movement in America by Ellen Carol DuBois,† Feminist Studies, 1980, 70-71. Introduction The history of women suffrage movement in the U nited States begins from 1848 when a call for the right to vote was made at the Seneca Falls Woman’s Right Convention. Initially, the movement vouched for equal rights in all areas of public interest such as civil, political, economic, and personal related to property, guardianship of their own children, equal salaries and reach to top-tier professional jobs besides freedom to right over family planning. The demand for the right to vote was not on the top of their agenda and there was no unanimity over demanding suffrage among the leading women functionaries of the movement. The new line of suffragists gaining national stature were the â€Å"New Women,† like Carrie Chapman Catt, Nettie Rogers Shuler, Harriet Taylor Upton, Anna Howard Shaw who saw no logic in running two parallel bodies and assimilated the associations into The National American Women Suffrage Association (NAWSA). This was a lackluster phase of the movement, as it was passing through â€Å"the doldrums ,† period from 1896 to 1910. Presidency of Anna Howard Shah in 1904 could not revive the movement. After she stepped down, Carrie Chapman Catt was appointed the president of NAWSA. Her â€Å"winning plan,† made it sure that in stead of running state-level campaigns attention should be given on federal amendments to effectively get the right to vote for the American women. 2 ________________________________ 2. Elna C. Green, â€Å"Southern Strategies: Southern Women and the Woman Suffrage Question,† (The University of North Carolina Press), p. 2-4. There was no doubt over Catt’s capability of organization; she could handle NAWSA resources and staff in two states effectively. Finally, the nineteenth amendment was made on June 1919 by the Congress and was sent to the states for ratification. From 1910s onwards, the second wave on suffragette started on a forceful note bringing the movement out of â€Å"the doldrums,† recruiting women in large numbers w ith every southern state having a permanent suffrage organization by 1913. 3 Fanny Wright led the movement by supporting the cause of abolition of slavery, free secular education, birth control, and softer conditions on getting a divorce by women through her books such as Course of Popular Lectures (1829) and writing in the Free Enquirer. In 1840, the suffrage movement got another push when Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott were not granted permission to speak in the World Anti-Slavery Convention, as Stanton remarked on it: "We resolved to hold a convention as soon as we returned home, and form a society to advocate the rights of women." The American Equal Rights Association came into existence in 1866 but no decision could be made in Kansas on Negro suffrage and women suffrage. Later, in 1869 the National Women Suffrage

Physiology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Physiology - Essay Example This pathway consists of A & A fibers characterised with high velocity (30 to 110 m/sec) of impulse conduction. The dorsal column-lemniscal pathway has also high degree of spatial orientation of the nerve fibres; particularly the medial fibers convey the information from the lower parts of the body while the lateral fibers related to higher segments. The spasticity in the muscles is related to the pyramidal insufficiency. This condition can occur if pyramidal pathways controlling voluntary movements are damaged by the mechanic or other agents. Intoxications, chronic neurodegenerative diseases, traumas, and metabolic disorders can play role in the origin of muscular spasticity. The attenuation reflex is important protective mechanism providing the best sound perception. The contraction of the stapes muscle protects the inner ear from damaging. The role of outer ear structures is important also - they can reduce resonance in the middle ear. Summation is a process of gradual release of the transmitter and the transmission of the impulse from several presynaptic neurones to one postsynaptic neurone (spatial summation) or from only one presynaptic and one postsynaptic neurone (temporal summation). The summation leads to the release of sufficient the impulse is transmitted across the synaptic cleft. The pain control system of CNS is represented by three major components: the periaqueductal grey and the nucleus raphe magnus (in the brain) and the pain inhibitory neurons of the dorsal horns in medulla spinalis. The opioid receptors of these structures are activated by endorphins or exogenous opiates and block the spreading of pain impulses. 3.3 Why is it difficult to localize slow, chronic pain (2) Chronic pain usually irradiate to other areas thus its localisation could be difficult. Furthermore, the efferent pain stimuli are conducted to CNS

Is Wind Going Green Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Is Wind Going Green - Essay Example This means that wind is going green. This article will discuss how wind energy is said to be going green. Wind energy can be defined as the conversion of kinetic energy to a useful form of power. This is achieved through the use of wind turbines, windmills, and wind pumps. Compared to other energy sources, wind power has several advantages hence; it is a better alternative. Wind energy is plentiful, renewable, produces no emissions, and it is widely distributed (Walker & Jenkins, 1997). Therefore, wind power has no effects on the environment, compared to other sources of energy. By 2010, wind energy production was over 2.5% world wide. This is a growth of more than 24% per annum. Wind power generation has become a popular energy generation. However, the construction of wind farms is not universally welcomed. Of late, most of the cities in the world have started taking the initiative to go green. Nowadays, it is clearly evident that most commercial buildings have small wind turbines which are used for power generation. These buildings only use renewable sources of power that are naturally found; therefore, they are referred to as green buildings. The phrase ‘going green’ is now globally recognized as efforts aimed at protecting the depletion of the ozone layer (Rhodes, 2011). Research asserts that state investment tax credits have significantly reduced the burden of individuals who invest in wind power. This credit provided allows the wind investors to reduce their tax obligation by some part of the invested amount in a wind project. A good example of an incentive program is the Orcas Power and Light Cooperative (OPALCO) program (Walker & Jenkins, 1997). This program offers upfront payments for installation of small wind turbines. Moreover, this program has received an unusually high client participation rate. In the recent past, many states have drawn concerns about utilizing renewable energy. Small

Securitization and Swaps Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Securitization and Swaps - Essay Example Hence the firms in the financial services industry attach more importance to the risk management in their organizations. Risk management in the financial services organizations is necessitated due to various reasons. The most important reason is the potential economic losses to which the firms will be exposed in case they had to meet with some unforeseen risk and it may erode the entire capital of the firm. There are other reasons for undertaking risk management in these firms like the tax implications of the transactions, movement in the capital and stock markets and the persistent fear of the people managing the financial services businesses that their decisions may be proved wrong by the course of business events. In any risk being faced by the financial service firm there is the potential danger of the firm losing profits which in turn would result in the decline of the firm value for some of the stakeholders. Similarly all or any of these reasons for managing the risk may force the management of the firm to make an assessment of the risks involved and take necessary corrective or preventive action to protect the firm against the risks identified. In this article the different kinds of risks to which the financial institutions are exposed and the ways in which the firms can protect them against these risks are discussed. The financial Methods to Protect against Risks The financial institutions adopt several ways of protecting them against the risks associated with their businesses. In general the organizations can find out the best business practices in the industry with respect to risk management and adopt them in their own organizations. Alternatively the organizations can find convenient ways of transferring the risks to other players in the market or the organizations can employ specialized risk management programs at their organizational level to protect them against any financial loss resulting from the risks. The best practices in the industry is the normally adopted risk management procedure by most of the organizations in which the organizations take actions like underwriting and reinsurance of risk so that the risks will be spread among the operators which have the effect of reducing the risks of apparent risks associated with the business. In addition the financial institutions may undertake hedging of their balance sheet items to protect any possible financial risks due to change in interest rates or exchange rates if the assets and liabilities are held in foreign companies. The basic objective behind these measures can be seen from the fact that the organizations do not want to carry the risks which are part of the businesses undertaken by them and also to maintain the level of total risks under controllable levels. There are systemic risks that can be eliminated by a proper assessment of the risks and taking risk protection programs to safeguard the financial interests of the organizations. Similarly in the case of risks that the organizations may face due to the frauds committed by the staff and employees, losses arising out of oversights and mistakes of the employees due to limited control by senior level management - known as operational risks - the organizations can find suitable ways to minimize these risks. In any case it must be noted that the organizations would suffer from possible erosion of profits due to

Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 397

Assignment Example the grounds that she lacked interpersonal skills, or it was just an excuse for sexual discrimination violating Title VII of Civil Rights Act. Rule of Law: Title VII of Civil Rights Act provides that people should not be discriminated against in the workplace based on sex stereotypes. The courts do not require direct evidence to prove discrimination under Title VII. Analysis: The Supreme Court established that Price Waterhouse had unlawfully discriminated against Ann. The Court reasoned that Waterhouse had to provide evidence by a predominance of the proof that their decision to reject Hopkins a promotion was not based on her lack of femininity and sex. Therefore, Title VII provides that it is prudent for the organization to establish that their acts were in no way discriminatory. Conclusion: Discrimination based on sex stereotyping was actionable offence in the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. The ruling in the case determined that a mixed-motive outline as a way of providing proof for discriminating allegations using disparate treatment theory still where the employers acts exist for other legitimate

Philosophy of Education Essay Example for Free

Philosophy of Education Essay The word education is used sometimes to signify the activity, process, or enterprise of educating or being educated and sometimes to signify the discipline or field of study taught in schools of education that concerns itself with this activity, process, or enterprise. As an activity or process, education may be formal or informal, private or public, individual or social, but it always consists in cultivating dispositions (abilities, skills, knowledges, beliefs, attitudes, values, and character traits) by certain methods. As a discipline, education studies or reflects on the activity or enterprise by asking questions about its aims, methods, effects, forms, history, costs, value, and relations to society. Definition The philosophy of education may be either the philosophy of the process of education or the philosophy of the discipline of education. That is, it may be part of the discipline in the sense of being concerned with the aims, forms, methods, or results of the process of educating or being educated; or it may be metadisciplinary in the sense of being concerned with the concepts, aims, and methods of the discipline. However, even in the latter case it may be thought of as part of the discipline, just as metaphilosophy is thought of as a part of philosophy, although the philosophy of science is not regarded as a part of science. Historically, philosophies of education have usually taken the first form, but under the influence of analytical philosophy, they have sometimes taken the second. In the first form, philosophy of education was traditionally developed by philosophers–for example, Aristotle, Augustine, and John Locke–as part of their philosophical systems, in the context of their ethical theories. However, in the twentieth century philosophy of education tended to be developed in schools of education in the context of what is called foundations of education, thus linking it with other parts of the discipline of education–educational history, psychology, and sociology–rather than with other parts of philosophy. It was also developed by writers such as Paul Goodman and Robert M. Hutchins who were neither professional philosophers nor members of schools of education. Types As there are many kinds of philosophy, many philosophies, and many ways of philosophizing, so there are many kinds of educational philosophy and ways of doing it. In a sense there is no such thing as the philosophy of education; there are only philosophies of education that can be classified in many different ways. Philosophy of education as such does not describe, compare, or explain any enterprises to systems of education, past or present; except insofar as it is concerned with the tracing of its own history, it leaves such inquiries to the history and sociology of education. Analytical philosophy of education is meta to the discipline of education–to all the inquiries and thinking about education–in the sense that it does not seek to propound substantive propositions, either factual or normative, about education. It conceives of its task as that of analysis: the definition or elucidation of educational concepts like teaching, indoctrination, ability, and trait, including the concept of education itself; the clarification and criticism of educational slogans like Teach children, not subjects; The exploration of models used in thinking about education (e.g. , growth); and the analysis and evaluation of arguments and methods used in reaching conclusions about education, whether by teachers, administrators, philosophers, scientists, or laymen. To accomplish this task, analytical philosophy uses the tools of logic and linguistics as well as techniques of analysis that vary from philosopher to philosopher. Its results may be valued for their own sake, but they may also be helpful to those who seek more substantive empirical of normative conclusions about education and who try to be careful about how they reach them. This entry is itself an exercise in analytical philosophy of education. Normative philosophies or theories of education may make use of the results of such analytical work and of factual inquiries about human beings and the psychology of learning, but in any case they propound views about what education should be, what dispositions it should cultivate, why it ought to cultivate them, how and in whom it should do so, and what forms it should take. Some such normative theory of education is implied in every instance of educational endeavor, for whatever education is purposely engaged in, it explicitly or implicitly assumed that certain dispositions are desirable and that certain methods are to be used in acquiring or fostering them, and any view on such matters is a normative theory of philosophy of education. But not all such theories may be regarded as properly philosophical. They may, in fact, be of several sorts. Some simply seek to foster the dispositions regarded as desirable by a society using methods laid down by its culture. Here both the ends and the means of education are defined by the cultural tradition. Others also look to the prevailing culture for the dispositions to be fostered but appeal as well to experience, possibly even to science, for the methods to be used. In a more pluralistic society, an educational theory of a sort may arise as a compromise between conflicting views about the aids, if not the methods, of education, especially in the case of public schools. Then, individuals or groups within the society may have conflicting full-fledged philosophies of education, but the public philosophy of education is a working accommodation between them. More comprehensive theories of education rest their views about the aims and methods of education neither on the prevailing culture nor on compromise but on basic factual premises about humans and their world and on basic normative premises about what is good or right for individuals to seek or do. Proponents of such theories may reach their premises either by reason (including science) and philosophy or by faith and divine authority. Both types of theories are called philosophies of education, but only those based on reason and philosophy are properly philosophical in character; the others might better be called theologies of education. Even those that are purely philosophical may vary in complexity and sophistication. In such a full-fledged philosophical normative theory of education, besides analysis of the sorts described, there will normally be propositions of the following kinds: 1.Basic normative premises about what is good or right; 2. Basic factual premises about humanity and the world; 3. Conclusions, based on these two kinds of premises, about the dispositions education should foster; 4. Further factual premises about such things as the psychology of learning and methods of teaching; and 5. Further conclusions about such things as the methods that education should use. For example, Aristotle argued that the Good equals happiness equals excellent activity; that for a individual there are two kinds of excellent activity, one intellectual (e.g. , doing geometry) and one moral (e. g. , doing just actions); that therefore everyone who is capable of these types of excellent activity should acquire a knowledge of geometry and a disposition to be just; that a knowledge of geometry can be acquired by instruction and a disposition to be just by practice, by doing just actions; and that the young should be given instruction in geometry and practice in doing just actions. In general, the more properly philosophical part of such a full normative theory of education will be the proposition it asserts in (1),(2), and (3); for the propositions in (4) and hence (5) it will, given those in (3), most appropriately appeal to experience and science. Different philosophers will hold different views about the propositions they use in (1) and (2) and the ways in which these propositions may be established. Although some normative premises are required in (1) as a basis for any line of reasoning leading to conclusions in (3) or (5) about what education should foster or how it should do this, the premises appearing in (2) may be of various sorts–empirical, scientific, historical, metaphysical, theological, or epistemological. No one kind of premise is always necessary in (2) in every educational context. Different philosophers of education will, in any case, have different views about what sorts of premises it is permissible to appeal to in (2). All must agree, however, that normative premises of the kind indicated in (1) must be appealed to. Thus, what is central and crucial in any normative philosophy of education is not epistemology, metaphysics, or theology, as is sometimes thought, but ethics, value theory, and social philosophy. Role Let us assume, as we have been doing, that philosophy may be analytical, speculative, or narrative and remember that it is normally going on in a society in which there already is an educational system. Then, in the first place, philosophy may turn its attention to education, thus generating philosophy of education proper and becoming part of the discipline of education. Second, general philosophy may be one of the subjects in the curriculum of higher education and philosophy of education may be, and presumably should be, part of the curriculum of teacher education, if teachers are to think clearly and carefully about what they are doing. Third, in a society in which there is a single system of education governed by a single prevailing theory of education, a philosopher may do any of four things with respect to education: he may analyze the concepts and reasoning used in connection with education in order to make peoples thinking about it as clear, explicit, and logical as possible; he may seek to support the prevailing system by providing more philosophical arguments for the dispositions aimed at and the methods used; he may criticize the system and seek to reform it in the light of some more philosophical theory of education he has arrived at; or he may simply teach logic and philosophy to future educators and parents in the hope that they will apply them to educational matters. Fourth, in a pluralistic society like the United States, in which the existing educational enterprise or a large segment of it is based on a working compromise between conflicting views, a philosopher may again do several sorts of things. He may do any of the things just mentioned. In the United States in the first half of the twentieth century professional philosophers tended to do only the last, but at the end of the twentieth century they began to try to do more. Indeed, there will be more occasions for all of these activities in a pluralistic society, for debate about education will always be going on or threatening to be resumed. A philosopher may even take the lead in formulating and improving a compromise theory of education. He might then be a mere eclectic, but he need not be, since he might defend his compromise plan on the basis of a whole social philosophy. In particular, he might propound a whole public philosophy for public school education, making clear which dispositions it can and should seek to promote, how it should promote them, and which ones should be left for the home, the church, and other private means of education to cultivate. In any case, he might advocate appealing to scientific inquiry and experiment whenever possible. A philosopher may also work out a fully developed educational philosophy of his own and start an experimental school in which to put it into practice, as John Dewey did; like Dewey, too, he may even try to persuade his entire society to adopt it.Then he would argue for the desirability of fostering certain dispositions by certain methods, partly on the basis of experience and science and partly on the basis of premises taken from other parts of his philosophy–from his ethics and value theory, from his political and social philosophy, or from his epistemology, metaphysics, or philosophy of mind. It seems plausible to maintain that in a pluralistic society philosophers should do all of these things, some one and some another. In such a society a philosopher may at least seek to help educators concerned about moral, scientific, historical, aesthetic, or religious education by presenting them, respectively, with a philosophy of morality, science, history, art, or religion from which they may draw conclusions about their aims and methods. He may also philosophize about the discipline of education, asking whether it is a discipline, what its subject matter is, and what its methods, including the methods of the philosophy of education, should be. Insofar as the discipline of education is a science (and one question here would be whether it is a science) this would be a job for the philosopher of science in addition to one just mentioned. Logicians, linguistic philosophers, and philosophers of science may also be able to contribute to the technology of education, as it has come to be called, for example, to the theory of testing or of language instruction. Finally, in a society that has been broken down by some kind of revolution or has newly emerged from colonialism, a philosopher may even supply a new full-fledged normative philosophy for its educational system, as Karl Marx did for Russia and China. In fact, as in the case of Marx, he may provide the ideology that guided the revolution in the first place. Plato tried to do this for Syracuse, and the philosophes did it for France in the eighteenth century. Something like this may be done wherever the schools dare to build a new society, as many ask schools to do. Dewey once said that since education is the process of forming fundamental dispositions toward nature and our fellow human beings, philosophy may even be defined as the most general theory of education. Here Dewey was thinking that philosophy is the most general normative theory of education, and what he said is true if it means that philosophy, understood in its widest sense as including theology and poetry as well as philosophy proper, is what tells us what to believe and how to feel about humanity and the universe. It is, however, not necessarily true if it refers to philosophy in the narrower sense or means that all philosophy is philosophy of education in the sense of having the guidance of education as its end. This is not the whole end of classical philosophy or even of philosophy as reconstructed by Dewey; the former aimed at the truth rather than at the guidance of practice, and the latter has other practical ends besides that of guiding the educational enterprise. Certainly, analytical philosophy has other ends. However, although Dewey did not have analytical philosophy in mind, there is nevertheless a sense in which analytical philosophy can also be said to be the most general theory of education. Although it does not seek to tell us what dispositions we should form, it does analyze and criticize the concepts, arguments, and methods employed in any study of or reflection upon education. Again it does not follow that this is all analytical philosophy is concerned with doing. Even if the other things it does–for example, the philosophy of mind or of science–are useful to educators and normative theorists of education, as, it is hoped, is the case, they are not all developed with this use in mind. See also: ARISTOTLE; AUGUSTINE, ST. ; BAGLEY, WILLIAM C. ; BODE, BOYD H. ; BRAMELD, THEODORE; CHILDS, JOHN L. ; COMENIUS, JOHANN; COUNTS, GEORGE S. ; DEWEY, JOHN; FREIRE, PAULO; HERBERT, JOHANN; JAMES, WILLIAM; KILPATRICK, WILLIAM H. ; MONTESSORI, MARIA; NEILL, A. S. ; PESTALOZZI, JOHANN; PLATO; ROUSSEAU, JEAN-JACQUES; WHITEHEAD, ALFRED NORTH. BIBLIOGRAPHY ANDERSON, R. N. , et al. 1968. Foundation Disciplines and the Study of Education. Toronto: Macmillan. ARCHAMBAULT, REGINALD D. , ed. 1965. Philosophical Analysis and Education. New York: Humanities Press. FRANKENA, WILLIAM K. , ed. 1965. Philosophy of Education. New York: Macmillan. JARRET, JAMES L. , ed. 1969. Philosophy for the Study of Education. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. LUCAS, CHRISTOPHER J. 1969. What Is Philosophy of Education? New York: Macmillan. MORRIS, VAN CLEVE. 1969. Modern Movements in Educational Philosophy. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. OCONNOR, DANIEL JOHN. 1957. Introduction to the Philosophy of Education. London: Routledge. PARK, JOE. 1968. Selected Readings in the Philosophy of Education, 3rd edition. New York: Macmillan. SCHEFFLER, ISRAEL, ed. 1966. Philosophy and Education, 2nd edition. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. WILLIAM K. FRANKENA Philosophy of education is a field characterized not only by broad theoretical eclecticism but also by a perennial dispute, which started in the mid-twentieth century, over what the scope and purposes of the discipline even ought to be. In the Philosophy of Education article that was included in the previous edition of this encyclopedia, William Frankena wrote, In a sense there is no such thing as the philosophy of education (p. 101). During certain periods of the history of the philosophy of education, there have been dominant perspectives, to be sure: At one time, the field was defined around canonical works on education by great philosophers (Plato of ancient Greece, the eighteenth-century Swiss-born Frenchman Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and others); at other times, the field was dominated, in the United States at least, by the figure of John Dewey (1859–1952) and educational Progressivism; at other times, the field was characterized by an austere analytical approach that explicitly rejected much of what had come before in the field as not even being proper philosophy at all. But even during these periods of dominance there were sharp internal disputes within the field (such as feminist criticisms of the Great Man approach to philosophy of education and vigorous critiques of the analytical method). Such disputes can be read off the history of the professional societies, journals, and graduate programs that institutionalize the field, and they can be documented through a succession of previous encyclopedia articles, which by definition attempt to define and delimit their subject matter. These sorts of struggles over the maintenance of the disciplinary boundary, and the attempt to define and enforce certain methods as paramount, are hardly unique to philosophy of education. But such concerns have so preoccupied its practitioners that at times these very questions seem to become the substance of the discipline, nearly to the exclusion of thinking about actual educational problems. And so it is not very surprising to find, for example, a book such as Philosophers on Education. Consisting of a series of essays written by professional philosophers entirely outside the discipline of philosophy of education, the collection cites almost none of the work published within the discipline; because the philosophers have no doubts about the status of the discipline of philosophy of education, they have few qualms about speaking authoritatively about what philosophy has to say to educators. On the other  hand, a fruitful topic for reflection is whether a more self-critical approach to philosophy of education, even if at times it seems to be pulling up its own roots for examination, might prove more productive for thinking about education, because this very tendency toward self-criticism keeps fundamental questions alive and open to reexamination. Any encyclopedia article must take a stance in relation to such disputes. However much one attempts to be comprehensive and dispassionate in describing the scope and purpose of a field, it is impossible to write anything about it without imagining some argument, somewhere, that would put such claims to challenge. This is especially true of categorical approaches, that is, those built around a list of types of philosophy of education, or of discrete schools of thought, or of specific disciplinary methods. During the period of particular diversity and interdisciplinarity in the field that has continued into the twenty-first century, such characterizations seem especially artificial–but even worse than this, potentially imperial and exclusionary. And so the challenge is to find a way of characterizing the field that is true to its eclecticism but that also looks back reflexively at the effects of such characterizations, including itself, in the dynamics of disciplinary boundary maintenance and methodological rule-setting that are continually under dispute. One way to begin such an examination is by thinking about the impulses that draw one into this activity at all: What is philosophy of education for? Perhaps these impulses can be more easily generalized about the field than any particular set of categories, schools of thought, or disciplinary methods. Moreover, these impulses cut across and interrelate approaches that might otherwise look quite different. And they coexist as impulses within broad philosophical movements, and even within the thought of individual philosophers themselves, sometimes conflicting in a way that might help explain the tendency toward reflexive self-examination and uncertainty that so exercises philosophy of education as a field. The Prescriptive Impulse The first impulse is prescriptive. In many respects this is the oldest and most pervasive inclination: to offer a philosophically defended conception of what the aims and activities of teaching ought to be. In some instances, as in Platos Republic, these prescriptions derive from an overall utopian vision; in other instances, such as seventeenth-century English philosopher John Lockes Some Thoughts Concerning Education or Rousseaus Emile, they derive from a fairly detailed reconception of what the day-to-day activities of teaching should look like; in still other instances, such prescriptions are derived from other social or moral principles, as in various Kantian views of education (even though eighteenth-century German philosopher Immanuel Kant himself had very little to say on the subject). These prescriptive inclinations are in many respects what people expect from philosophy of education: a wiser perspective, a more encompassing social vision, a sense of inspiration and higher purpose. It is what people usually mean when they talk about having a philosophy of education. A broad range of perspectives in the field share this prescriptive impulse: many of these perspectives can be comprised in what was once called the isms approach (perennialism, idealism, realism, Thomism, and so on)–the idea that a set of philosophical premises could generate a comprehensive and consistent educational program. For many years, working out the details of these philosophies of education was considered the main substance of the field, and the debates among the isms were typically at the very basic level debates among fundamentally different philosophical premises. An implication of this approach was that disagreements tended to be broadly paradigmatic in the sense that they were based on all-or-none commitments; one could not, of course, talk about a synthesis of realist and idealist worldviews. One wag has suggested that the isms have more recently been replaced by the ists–less purely philosophical and more social/political theories that now typify many scholars working in philosophy of education (Marxists, feminists, multiculturalists, postmodernists, and so on). These will be characterized as critically oriented philosophies below, but at this stage it is important to see that these perspectives can be equally driven by the prescriptive impulse: many writers (for example, neo-Marxist advocates of Paulo Freires critical pedagogy) offer quite explicit accounts of how education ought to proceed, what it is for, and whose interests it ought to serve. The Analytical Impulse The second impulse that drives much of philosophy of education is analytical. In a broad sense this includes not only philosophical approaches specifically termed analytical philosophy (such as conceptual analysis or ordinary language analysis), but also a broader orientation that approaches the philosophical task as spelling out a set of rational conditions that educational aims and practices ought to satisfy, while leaving it up to other public deliberative processes to work out what they might be in specific. In this enlarged sense, the analytical impulse can be seen not only in analytical philosophy per se but also in studies that focus on the logical and epistemological criteria of critical thinking; in the diagnosis of informal fallacies in reasoning; In certain kinds of liberal theory that spell out broad principles of rights and justice but that remain silent on the specific ends that education ought to serve; and even in some versions of German philosopher Jurgen Habermass theory, which proposes a structure of communicative deliberation in which conversations must satisfy what he calls a set of general validity claims, but which does not specify or constrain in advance what that process of deliberation might yield. The analytical impulse is often seen as expressing a certain philosophical modesty: that philosophers do not prescribe to others what their educational choices ought to be, but simply try to clarify the rational procedures by which those choices should be arrived at. Here metaphors such as referees who try to adjudicate an ongoing activity but remain nonpartisan within it, or groundskeepers who pull up weeds and prepare the soil but do not decide what to plant, tend to predominate in how this version of philosophy of education is presented and justified to others. The idea that philosophy provides a set of tools, and that doing philosophy of education (as opposed to having a philosophy of education) offers a more workmanlike self-conception of the philosopher, stands in sharp contrast with the idea of philosophy as a system-building endeavor. Of course, it must be said that this impulse is not entirely free of the prescriptive inclination, either. For one thing, there is a prescriptiveness about the very tools, criteria, principles, and analytical distinctions that get imported into how problems are framed. These are implicitly (and often explicitly) presented as educational ideals themselves: promoting critical thinking or fostering the conditions for Habermasian communication in the classroom, for example. However rationally defended these might be, they will undoubtedly appear to some as imposed from on high. Moreover, at a deeper level, the analytic/prescriptive distinction is less than clear-cut: a theory of logic, or a theory of communication, however purely procedural it aspires to be, always expresses conceptions of human nature, of society, of knowledge, of language, that contains social and cultural elements that might appear natural or neutral to the advocates of those procedures, but that will be regarded as foreign and particularistic by others (why must I justify my educational choices by your criteria? ). This is not meant as a criticism of the analytical orientation, but it just shows how these impulses can and do coexist, even within accounts that regard themselves as primarily one or the other. The Critical Impulse Similarly, the third impulse, a critical orientation, can coexist with either or both of the others. The critical impulse, like the analytical one, shares the characteristic of trying to clear the ground of misconceptions and ideologies, where these misrepresent the needs and interests of disadvantaged groups; like the prescriptive impulse, the critical impulse is driven by a positive conception of a better, more just and equitable, society. Where the critical impulse differs from the others is in its conception of the contribution philosophy can play in serving these ends. From this orientation, philosophy is not just a set of tools or an abstract, programmatic theory; it is itself a substantive personal and political commitment, and it grows out of deeper inclinations to protect and serve the interests of specific groups. Hence the key philosophical ideas stressed in critically oriented philosophies of education (reflection, counterhegemony, a critique of power, an emphasis upon difference, and so on) derive their force from their capacity to challenge a presumably oppressive dominant society and enable put-upon individuals and groups to recognize and question their circumstances and to be moved to change them. As there are prescriptive and analytical elements in critically oriented philosophies of education, so there can be critical elements in the others. Philosophers of education more driven by a prescriptive or analytical impulse can and do share many of the same social and political commitments as critically oriented philosophers of education; and some of them may see their work as ultimately serving many of the same goals of criticizing hegemonic ideologies and promoting human emancipation. This is why these three impulses or orientations must not be seen as simple categories to which particular philosophies (or philosophers) can be assigned. Stressing their character as impulses highlights the motivational qualities that underlie, and frequently drive, the adoption of particular philosophical views. While philosophers tend to stress the force of argument in driving their adoption of such views, and while they do certainly change their minds because of argument and evidence, at some deeper level they are less prone to changing the very impulses that drive and give vigor to their philosophical investigations. By stressing the ways in which all three impulses can coexist within different philosophical schools of thought, and even within the inclinations of a given philosopher, this account highlights the complex and sometimes even contradictory character of the philosophical spirit. When philosophers of education teach or speak about their views, although they certainly put forth arguments, quotations of and references to literature, and so forth, at a deeper level they are appealing to a shared impulse in their audience, one that is more difficult to argue for directly, and without which the arguments themselves are unlikely to take hold. Implications of the Impulses for Philosophy of Education Given the existence of these three impulses, how can they help in providing an overview of the field of philosophy of education that does not fall into arguments about disciplinary boundary maintenance? First, these very broad orientations are in many respects easier to generalize within the field than would be any specific set of disciplinary criteria; many different kinds of philosophy of education can manifest these sorts of inclinations. Indeed, it makes for strange bedfellows when people consider that despite their vigorous paradigmatic differences they are actually motivated by very similar underlying philosophical commitments. Perhaps this recognition might create a stronger incentive for them to engage one another respectfully across those differences. Second, it is beneficial for philosophers to consider that the validity they attribute to certain kinds of arguments may not be driven simply by the objective force of those arguments, but also by a particular appeal those kinds of arguments have for them. This sort of reflectiveness might be fruitful for various reasons, but a significant benefit could be in raising a persons appreciation for why others may not be moved by the arguments that seem so patently obvious to that person; and why the force of argument alone may not be sufficient to generate philosophical agreement or reconcile disagreement. Given the pervasively eclectic and interdisciplinary nature of the field of philosophy of education, such a spirit of tolerance and inclusiveness, while not needing to be unbounded entirely, would be a valuable corrective to the historical tendency to establish the methodsor the philosophical school that will separate proper philosophy of education from the imposters. Advocates of more prescriptive approaches typically buttress their case for dominance by reference to canonical Great Works (Plato, ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, Locke, Rousseau, Dewey). This sort of system-building across epistemological, ethical, and social/political issues is what the great philosophers do, and it is revealing that for them philosophy of education was rarely seen as a distinct area of inquiry but merely the working out in p

Student Monitoring System Development

Student Monitoring System Development Project Definition Document A web-based student monitoring system 1. Introduction Educational software has been evolving in the last couple of years, catching up with the advances of software in the rest of the IT world. Mainly due to the advantages of e-learning more and more institutions are inventing to new technologies to accommodate their learners. This moved educational software from the traditional small client application connecting to central databases, to lighter web applications accessible from multiple clients via the internet. The next step that web based educational applications are taking nowadays is a Service Oriented Approach (SOA). This came after the introduction of the web services technology, AJAX and of course the frameworks that support the Model View Controller approach in developing applications. What is meant from the above, is that web based applications need to be able to collaborate with other systems since not all different components of the IT infrastructure of a university is developed by one company. Also open standards enforce more commercial and open source software developers to use approaches that their applications can be easily integrated and expanded. In our case we need to develop a web based student monitoring system, where personal tutors can monitor the attendance of their first year students. Our system would be developed so it would make it possible to be plugged into the existing systems of the University and if possible use data of them system to add more functionality and ease the administrative tasks staff members have to do. At the beginning of each year, the director of first year students s allocating personal tutors to students and also adds the students to a particular lab group. Then attendance sheets should be produced as outputs of our system to lab assistants and personal tutors. The problem with the existing system is that the interface of adding and modifying information is not very flexible. Our system should overcome this problem and make it easier for staff to keep attendance records of the students. Also in order for our system to be able to fit with the existing solutions, a service oriented approach would be used. Interfaces to import structured external data are one of the main areas that we will concentrate and also adding the flexibility of getting data out of the system. Student Monitoring System Student Information System Existing attendance system VLE Portal/Social Networking site Student Monitoring System Interface In the figure above the highlighted components are the ones we are going to develop as a part of this project. The links of our system to other systems would be implemented using a service oriented approach and web 2.0 techniques. 2. Aims and Objectives Aim Develop an attendance monitoring system to be embedded within the existing systems of the University using a service oriented approach and web 2.0 technologies to display and enter information to the system Objectives and Testing methods: Research and analyse service oriented approach and MVC frameworks in system development. A review of the different approaches will evaluate why we used a specific framework and methodology to develop our solution. Design, implement and test a complete implementation of the student monitoring system. Test all classes using Unit testing and also produce test plans for different functions of the tool as a blackbox / whitebox testing where appropriate. Produce a set of public APIs that can be used from our system to enable integration with existing systems. Testing of this objective would be by extracting data from the university systems and importing in it to our system easily. Also provide a set or web service or RSS feeds to import data to other systems Methodology Literature review on Service oriented approach in software engineering, J2EE MVC frameworks, RSS and web services. This stage will help us meet the first objective Requirements gathering with rapid prototype development. We will use the WebML approach for web application development which is an iterative simplified waterfall model approach. The outcomes of this stage would be a database schema supported by the entity diagram of the application and also any other diagrams required from the WebML approach. Objective 2 will be met at the end of this phase. Test and document all available APIs. At the end of this stage objective 3 would be met Testing and Evaluation: Expert review to test the chosen technical approach service oriented approach and MVC framework Test the code to minimise the risks of potential bugs Test the system for usability and functionality with potential stakeholders and gather their responses Tools: Eclipse IDE Tomcat J2EE server Spring framework Struts framework WebML AXIS, or other web service engine Deliverables: Student monitoring system with APIs so the system is easily integrated with existing systems Unit testing classes and results, test plan and test results Project report including an evaluation of the project with respect to its objectives. Feasibility and Risks: The proposed project will give me the opportunity to work on a real time scenario in the area of software engineering and provide a solution to an existing problem. From my current studies I got the appropriate base to explore more J2EE technology and develop an application by going through the full lifecycle. Related Theory(Some work needed) Areas of theory concerned in the project: Service oriented approach: J2EE frameworks: Tomcat installation and web application packaging Web app security Software development method: rapid prototyping and WebML. Database design Entity relation modelling and normalization J2EE development using UML and frameworks Unit, Black Box and White Box testing. Application Program interface (API) development Work plan (needs to be completed)

Influences on Self-Concepts and the Impact

Influences on Self-Concepts and the Impact I have been asked to reassess a case study on Isaac Barlow and Zac Barlow. In my assessment I shall include aspects that influenced the brothers self concept. Also, I shall include an outline how these factors can influence the growth of their self esteem. Finally, I shall include an explanation on how these factors can influence the development of their self concept. (P3) State factors that influence an individuals self-concept and give a clear and full account of the factors that might have influenced the brothers self-concept. I shall state the factors that influence an individuals self-concept and I will give a clear and full account of the factors that might have influenced the brothers self-concept. Factors that can influence an individuals self-concept are education, media, appearance, culture, abuse, relationships, gender, income and age. Education: Education can influence an individuals self-concept by having supportive teaching staff who continues to encourage a student to keep up the good work. Also, another factor that can influence an individuals self-concept is the lack of employment due to having a poor education. Education can impact on a persons self-esteem if they cannot get into employment and the person will get a negative self-image and low self-esteem. Media: Media can influence an individuals self-concept through provision of educational sources such as, promoting enrolment on academic courses and information on current situation happening in our society. A further reason that can influence an individuals self-concept is displaying of images of models or celebrities being underweight. For example, pictures of Victoria Beckham and Nicole Richie. Appearance: Appearance can affect an individuals self-concept both constructively and harmfully. For example, appearance constructive influence will be pictures displayed by sports encouraging individuals to keep up a healthy lifestyle. Further to point, appearance can have a negative influence on a persons life through advertising photos of underweight models and this can influence young women to try to seem very thin. Culture: Culture is a belief that you have or self values. This can influence our self concept if we do not endorse other individuals culture. Example req. Also, this can be the way you were brought up by your parents or a guardian. Abuse: There are different types of abuse; they are physical, emotional, neglect and sexual. These or any type of abuse can be detrimental to a person, however, abuse can influence a person if they have been neglected and they will develop a low self esteem. In addition, a person has been neglected may feel socially excluded and may suffer from mental health conditions. Relationships: Relationship can influence an individuals self concept if you do not have a supportive family, peers. This will may lead the individual to have a negative self concept with socialisation. Furthermore, having high expectations can also have a negative self concept of an individual, additionally if the person has been compared to other peer groups or siblings can have a negative influence. Gender: Gender is characterised by being a man or woman. This categorisation can influence a persons self-concept of stereotyping job roles for both genders. For example, men should play football and women should stay at home and cook the meals also take care of the children. Finally, I believe that these factors may influence an individuals self-concept everyone should be treated equally regardless of their gender. Income: Income can influence individual self concept if they do not have enough income they may be despair that they cannot afford to live a normal life. For example, with insufficient low income a person cannot maintain their lifestyle factors, such as paying their rent, afford heating facilities within their home plus have a balance diet. Age: It can be said that self-concept can fluctuate throughout different life stages, for example. Also, age can influence a persons self concept during childhood and adolescent development. Through comprehending his ideal self receiving peer pressure. Self concept is the way an individual visualise them self. For example, self concept can be very influential in the way we see our self; by receiving critical comments by peers or family member, which can cause low self esteem. Self concept is made up of factors such as self image, ideal self and self esteem. Haworth et al (2010) suggests that there are numerous factors that can affect your self- concept. They are age, education, media, appearance, culture, abuse, relationships, gender, and income. These factors are also known as socioeconomic factors. (M2) Outline how factors can influence the development of an individuals self-concept, or Outline how the factors that influenced the brothers self-concept. (D1) Describe how the factors influenced the brothers self-concept. Factors that influenced Zac Barlow self-concept Age: During Zacs infancy years he was unable to distinguish what gender he was. During Zacs childhood years he was able to distinguish his family. During he was able to identify that he was a student and what year he was in school and able to identify his likes and dislikes. He was able to tell who is friends were and express his emotions. During adolescent life stage he was able to compare himself with others and express his relationship with peers. Also, he was able to describe his beliefs and acknowledge what is right from what is wrong. During his adulthood life stage he should become more confident within his personal relationship and establish himself within a particular career. Appearance: Zacs appearance seems to have been influence negatively, because he was not interested in sports. This may have impacted on him because within the norms males are expected to do physical activities. Also, this will have an impact on his self esteem, although his self image might be different on what others think about him. He may not feel attracted to form any relationship with the opposite sex at school because of his appearance. Moreover, his self concept may decrease due to how others perceive him. He had a very thin physique which might be an influence from the media. He may be affected by his appearance. His appearance may affect by how he attires or carries himself and called gay; he may feel within his ideal self that he is gay. Also, hearing negative words all the time can make him believe whatever they mimic him and this will lead to negative social interaction with his peers. Media: The media may have an impact on how he feels about himself. Media may impact on his appearance. May has impacted the way he feels about himself or may have an impact on his image which may encourage him to keep his body built. Contribute to self concept development; social, academic, emotional physical may impact on his appearance which is his ideal self. Media can also provide positive educational opportunities which can help to develop a persons academic growth. Culture: He believes he was the norm. In the western culture boys meant to be masculine and girls meant to be feminine. His culture can be influenced by his family also by his peers. He did not have a girlfriend at school plus how he was brought up might impact on his self esteem. Gender: He was male. He meant to have masculine physiques. He faces gender stereotype because he was not taking part in sport activity at school. Because of his gender stereotype it decreases his academic performance at school. At a certain age people can identify or chose which group to follow so he hangs out with older boys. Education: He was influenced by his parents to study because he did not have a choice. He was influenced by teachers, peers and parents to study. May start to compare himself with his peers including siblings. Receiving additional support from the school could help to develop his self concept. Being compared to other pupils or siblings can affect his views on himself. Been teased Zac may feel unwanted and be ashamed of who he is as a person and as a part of that he would have a low self esteem which he may possibly continue through to adulthood. This may also affect his relationships and employment prospects. Constant teasing can affect Zac overall mood and that is why he was unsociable. Because of this he may lose interest in sports activities and was able to build a relationship with older boys. He will also develop mental health issues such as depression and anxiety. He may feel reluctant to try and build relationships with his peers. Being teased can also has a significant consequence on his academic performance, reason being, he has been teased and this will make him divert from paying attention on his studies. This will have a result on his academic study by not making it into six forms or college. Also because he has been teased he did not want to take part in certain lessons. There is no indication of how long the teasing took place but there was speculations of Zac being bullied by his peers. Additionally, if he have been bullied this will show signs that his teasing was going on for a while then potentially lead to bullying. Furthermore, this will allow Zac to be in fear and have a negative self-concept about himself or have a negative self-image, self-esteem, self-value and ideal self. These mental scars can affect Zac in both past and present conduct and decrease his chance of academic and psychological hardship throughout school and into adulthood. Income: He was raised in a middle class family. So his parents had enough money to live an above normal lifestyle. Having brought up in a middle class family, would mean that some of his needs were financially. Also, been used to a lot of money during his development he may be used to materialistic things. He may influence to steal because he cannot afford his lifestyle needs which can have a negative self image. Relationship: There are different types of relationships, which are family, mutual, ect. He did not have a good relationship with his peers because they taunted him. He did not have good relationship with school staff as he always gets into trouble at school He may introvert his social behaviour. He did not have a good relationship with his parents as he has been neglected and he would not speak to them. He did not have good social interaction with any of his peers family and staff at school. He develops relationship with older boys as they share similar value this will strengthen his self concept and extrovert his social conduct. Abuse: He was verbally abused by peers which will have an emotional impact on his self esteem. He was neglected by his parents, for example, his emotional needs were neglected. He may be abuse by the older boys which influenced him to smoke because he was vulnerable. He may be stereotyped because of his role of his gender, for instance, males meant to be muscular and females were meant to be gorgeous.

Conflict Resolution in Groups Essay -- Intergroup Relations Social Psy

Conflict Resolution in Groups Conflict resolution has been researched, analysed and discussed for many years; however, it is only until recently that psychologists have gotten involved on a wider scale. Up until then the study of relations has more or less been the preserve of political scientists, historians and professionals such as lawyers and diplomats. Much of the social science research has therefore been based on the previous; therefore the theories developed give a much deeper insight to the psychological aspects of conflict resolution. In order to discuss conflict resolution, conflict needs to be defined. Chambers (2003) defines conflict is as â€Å" a violent collision: a struggle or contest: a battle: a mental struggle â€Å"(pg. 272) This is a general and very broad definition of the word which has been differently interpreted by psychologists as well as sociologists and economists. Shaw claims that in conflict situations driving forces are involved, combined with restraining forces, own forces and various combinations of induced or impersonal forces. All these contribute to a conflict situation. He goes on to explain that driving forces produce conflicts when the person is located between two positive valences, two negative valences or the person themselves. He uses a diagram to represent this (Appendix 1). In his next diagram he shows an avoidance-avoidance conflict situation is shown. (Appendix 2). Shaw refers to this as a stable conflict situation whereby the conflict usually remains unresolved. The third and last diagram represents two goals which both represent positive and negative valences in the same direction. This he calls the approach-avoidance conflict situation in which conflict is also stable however, people in this situation psychologically think they are in the avoidance-avoidance situation. Conflicts which involve other forces such as driving forces or restraining forces, and these restrictions can’t be passed the person may respond with aggression, hostility, frustration, apathy or other negative feelings. Shaw believes that conflict can be caused by opposition of forces corresponding to the persons needs, or by induced forces. However, this theory makes little sense, as Shaw gives the example of an employer giving orders to an employee, may show signs of some kind of power of P ( a boss would have a certain hold/power over his/... ...oup," in Henri   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Tajfel (ed.) Social Identity and Intergroup Relations. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Univ. Press: 15-40. Tzeng, O., & Jackson, J (1994) "Effects of Contact, Conflict, and Social Identity on   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Interethnic Group Hostilities," International Journal of Intercultural Relations   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  (vol. 18, No.2): 259-276. Van Knippenberg, A. (1989) "Strategies of Identity Management," in J. P. van   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Oudenhoven & Tineke Willemsen (eds.) Ethnic Minorities: Social Psychological   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Perspectives. Amsterdam, NL: Swets & Zeitlinger: 59-76. Vayrynen, R. (1991) New Directions in Conflict Theory: Conflict Resolution and Conflict   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Transformation. London: Sage Publications Volkan, V. & Itzkowitz, N. (1994). Turks and Greeks: Neighbours in Conflict.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Huntingdon, England: Eothen Press. Volkan, V. (1988) The Need to Have Enemies and Allies: From Clinical Practice to   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  International Relationships. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson. Volkan, V. (1992) "Ethnonationalistic Rituals: An Introduction," Mind and Human   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Interaction, Vol. 4: 3-19. Woodhouse, T. & Rambotham, O. (2000) Peacekeeping & Conflict Resolution. Portland:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Frank Cass Publications

Rebecca :: essays research papers

Rebecka 1) Is "Rebecka" a suitable name of the the book? Why?/Why not? Another name? Why is it called Rebecka? Yes, I think it ´s the perfect name of the book since everything, every subject is circulating around her. Her name characterizes the book so well. Rebecka doesn ´t leave too much of a space for other things in the book, even though she ´s dead. 2) What does people think about Rebecka? Does everybody like her? How was she really like? Friends, servants, strangers, they all adored her. She was the beautiful, sweet, tender and loving lady who every woman wanted to be friend with who every man would just like feel the scent of. They all loved loved. Almost. There were some persons who had a more special relationship with and therefore liked her diffrently. To begin with, the housekeeper, Mrs Danvers. She probably loved her most of them all. She devoted all her life to raise and help and make her the woman she knew she would never become herself. She and Rebecka were very close. Rebeckas death was an extremly hard crush to Mrs Danvers. Like a mother who loses her one and only child who was her everything. But she always feels Rebeckas presence and therefore keeps the house as it always was. When the new Mrs de Winter came to take Rebeckas place Mrs Danvers went furious. Not only could she not stand with the thought that someone was going to take Rebeckas precious place and the one to do it was a joke. In her eyes a shy brat that even the servants laughed at. Maxim liked her for a beginning but the fifth day after their marriage he realizes how she ´s really like. She played with him and other men. He couldn ´t divorce her since their marriage seemed perfect on the surface. But she didn ´t really love him. She told him things like what life would be like for him later when they had a child and he wouldn ´t be sure of whose father it was. Not either her cousine Jack Favell. Jack loved Rebecka very much and he met her many times in a cottage near the sea. They had an affair and Jack wanted to get rid of Maxim in some way. 3) Why does not Mrs Danvers like the new Mrs de Winter? Who is she? See above 7) What happened to Rebecka? What was the verdict in the court?

Graduation Speech -- Graduation Speech, Commencement Address

Welcome ... again ... to the graduation of the class of 2012... and a congratulations to you class ... you deserve it. First of all ... thank you class ... I am honored to be chosen to speak tonight and I am truly honored to have been able to spend these last four years ... with all of you. The day has finally arrived. It is June 7th, 2006... 7 p.m. It is so hard to believe that this is the day that we have been counting down to for the last few months. This is supposed to be the end of the beginning, the first day of the rest of our lives ... we all seem so set with our future and we seem so sure of exactly what it will foretell. However, regardless of how mature we may think we are ... we are not. We are still so young and new. We have so much to learn. So much more note-taking to take. So many more halls to walk and so many more people to meet. So very few allowed sick days to take. We have so much more space to make mistakes ... but also ... we have the space to correct them. We may be out of the building, friends, but we will be taught and tested for decades to come ... but this time in life. The memories of tonight and these last four years will soon be added with new memories, new friends, new jobs, new loves and relationships, and most important will be a new you. Maybe in the next few years you will be a mom ... or dad, but just maybe you will never have kids. Maybe you will start a career right out of high school, but maybe you will go to school ... hey maybe you will go to school for the rest of your life. But whatever we may become, we can all remember that these last four years have demanded patience ... and have demanded time. The last four years has offered an education ... the last four years has offere... ... with a small act of kindness. Kindness is just taking time out of your day to help ... and to not expect anything in return ... like Isaiah, Denies, and others with these special purple ribbons. Hey and maybe you are easy going like Blake c ... he thinks that just liking him for who he is and not for what you want him to be is kind. You never truly know what happiness a simple act of kindness will bring about. As said before, we are still so very young and new, and we have so much to learn. "Great opportunities to help others seldom come, but small ones surround us every day ... " The challenge is ours ... not just as graduates ... but us as the future ... let us create a world where human relationships are what we value ... and where kindness is the basis of that. Let us go into a world where small acts of kindness are more important that act of self.

Philosophy of the movie Big Fish Essay

The philosophical twist of mixing fact with fairy tale in story telling put a great spin on the plot. It gave the director the ability to make the impossible seem probable! The movie is about a very interesting father named Ed whom loves to tell facts with a little bit of flavor, as quoted in the movie. However we portray them as tall tales, but since he tells them with such a seriousness and attachment to his own life you want to believe them. However the son, will, does not enjoy these stories. He believes they are all lies which create a detachment between him and his father. But as the movie goes on, the real question for will to discover is, are all these stories really fake. Inspired by the scientific phenomena of a gold fish growing in accordance to the size of its surroundings, Ed applies this theory to his life and embarks on a journey to satisfy his ambition! In this journey we witness Ed convincing a giant to leave town and be partner in discovering life, finding a hidden town that had lush grass for streets, catching a fish with his wedding ring, or viewing his final hours in the eyes of a â€Å"witch†. The stories in this movie are good examples of improbable stories with poetic truths. For example in the story of the fish, we learn that to catch the uncatchable women you have to give her a ring! The movie does a great job of blurring â€Å"fact† with â€Å"fiction†. For instance, if we were to view the stories in this movie as real life, how would we react? In my opinion with my realist mentality, I would look at these stories and believe they are complete nonsense! But, if I took a step back and try to look at the stories with the most objective mind I can, the possibilities of these stories actually happening seem more probable. Use the story of the witch and her futuristic eyeball. There is a spiritual realm that is all around us. Is it crazy to think that some woman could have been in touch with, let’s say evil spirits, which gives her the power to scare people with visions? Or is it really impossible for a man to catch a fish with a shiny object? Or is it really impossible for a town to be self-sufficient, maintain healthy grass, and not build any streets? I would like to think so! So with that being said, the concept of there not being much of a distinction between â€Å"fact† and â€Å"fiction† would be true! As the movie concludes we find out, just like will, that these stories are in fact true. When Will attends his father’s funeral he sees the Giant, the Siamese twins, Winslow the poet, and many more of the story characters! However all of the character appeared different in real life compared to the â€Å"Flavorful Facts†. Nonetheless, this confirmed his father’s stories showing the small distinction between fact and fiction! It is at this time Will’s eyes are opened and it gives him the ability to see poetic truths behind the stories. In the end we hear will’s son telling friends one of Ed’s stories, and Will concludes with this phrase, â€Å"A man tells his stories so many times that he becomes his stories—they live on after him and in that way he becomes immortal. †

Issues in Uganda’s human rights Essay

Assignment – Research Paper Research Topic: Issues in Uganda’s human rights As a female-born Canadian, living in one of the better countries of the world, take solace in the fact that as a person, have consciously been able to exercise my â€Å"rights and freedoms† through working, schooling or voting. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (Constitution Act, 1985.) safeguards our basic human rights. As Canadians, we feel protected in this way, exercising our rights without much thought, passing through our day and night without griping fear for our lives, or of the police. Imagine for a moment waking up and the army has moved in, soldiers, police, trucks, tanks control the streets. All â€Å"left-handed† people, regardless of age are being taken away, and secretly relocated for re-education?! As a society or an individual within, we would be helpless and vulnerable, should some form of organized brutality be thrust upon us. The western countries of the world place human rights, in high esteem. In stark contrast, woefully many countries, U ganda in particular, are continually in a desperate struggle for the advancement of human rights. (Ewins, 2011) The country still faces heavy criticism regarding the treatment and growth, or lack thereof in the area of human rights. In particular, the specific malfeasance shown toward women, children, homosexuals, and the disabled. Officially known as the Republic of Uganda, is a sovereign nation located in the continent of Africa, bordered by Kenya, Sudan, the Republic of Congo, Tanzania, and Rwanda. Even though this republic is only forty-six years old, since gaining independence from Great Britain, methods of torture and child labour still exist. Continually, there are seemingly insurmountable struggles (i.e. arrests, enslavement, poor laws, etc) (Middleton & Miller, 2008). Additionally, the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) and the mentally/physically ill in Uganda have virtually no protection at all, and both male and female homosexual activity or interaction is illegal. (Ewins, 2011) The Uganda Human Rights Commission, an agency established in 1995, still continues to struggle trying to put an end to the cruelty concerning the treatment of women, children, homosexuals, and the mentally ill. This same  agency is responsible for crimes against children, which is an underlying problem that only exacerbates the situation for the advancement of human rights in Uganda. The practice of child abuse is considered exploitative, extremely unethical, and inhumane. Commonly, children are laboured for days on end, performing chores for superiors. Ugandan children are trafficked within the country, as well as to other countries as Canada, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia for forced labour and commercial sexual exploitation. (Clark-Kazak, 2010) Karamojong women and children, an ethnic group of herders living mainly in the northeast of Uganda, are sold in cattle markets or by intermediaries and forced into situations of domestic servitude, sexual exploitation, herding, and begging. Many Ugandan security and government agencies, including Uganda’s Rapid Response Unit, the police force, law-enforcement officials and the military, have been accused of torture. (Clark-Kazak, 2010) These agencies persecute opponents of the government, carry out abductions, disappearances, extrajudicial killings and torture and act both independently, as well as interdependently with each other, and in cooperation with the Ugandan Police. Some of these inhumane acts of torture include kicking and beating, which is described as â€Å"kandoya† – a tying of the victim’s hands and feet behind the body and strung from the ceiling, and even electric shock by attaching wires to the male genitalia. Because these agencies operate through the Ugandan Police, not much stance has been taken by the government. (Clark-Kazak, 2010) Over the past twenty years, the rebel group LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army) has abducted more than 30,000 boys and girls as soldiers. Attacks against Uganda’s Acholi people have resulted in severe trauma to civilians from extreme violence and abduction. Girls are often forced to become sex slaves, and the UPDF (Uganda People’s Defence Force) has recruited small numbers of children into its forces, some as young as thirteen. (Mujuzi, 2011) Not only are children being treated as property with no rights protecting them, women also receive similar treatment. For many decades, the Ugandan culture has made it clear that women should treat men as higher class citizens, and respect their commands, as they are higher in value than women. Despite the substantial economic and social responsibilities of women in Uganda’s many traditional societies, women were taught to accede to the wishes of their fathers, brothers, husbands, and sometimes other men as well, and to  demonstrate their subordination to men in most areas of public life. Customary law also prevails in the event of divorce in that child custody is typically awarded to the father. (Mujuzi, 2011) The physical integrity of Ugandan women is poorly protected. Violence against women is widespread: some estimates say that more than half of the women in the country have suffered domestic violence at the hands of their partners. Domestic violence has wide social acceptance, even by women. Rape is very common in Uganda. In nearly half of sexual violence cases, the victim’s husband or partner is the perpetrator reflecting a widely held belief that spousal rape is a husband’s prerogative. (Ehiri, 2009) Many women were raped by rebel soldiers during the conflict in northern Uganda. Women of the Sabiny tribe are subjected to female genital mutilation. There are no laws prohibiting the practice, but the local authorities have issued a decree denouncing the custom. (Kafumbe, 2010) In addition, in 2006, The World Health Organization (WHO) published results of a study on countrywide domestic violence and women’s health in Uganda. In the study, they found that 22% of adult women in the country experienced sexual violence, with 76% of men transmitting the HIV virus with 82% chance of the women becoming pregnant. 70% of women and 60% of men agreed that wife beating was justifiable under certain circ umstances. Ethically speaking, this makes the situation extremely uncomfortable. (Ehiri, 2009) An example one of which can be seen as a step in the right direction is with regards towards marriage and divorce laws in Uganda. The proposed legislation, the Marriage and Divorce Bill, which was passed in March of 2011, recognizes cohabitation in terms of property rights, abolishes forced marriage, prohibits same sex marriage and allows women to divorce their husbands on grounds of cruelty. Ultimately, the Bill still condemns same sex marriage, however, gives women in marriage more freedom. While polygamy has been quite popular in Uganda, it has been decreasing every decade, with only 27% of men having more than one wife, as opposed to 43% of males with more than one wife in 1988. (Kafumbe, 2010) The situation compared to decades ago, where polygamy was on the rise, is much less in existence. Granted, the government still has a vast array of issues to fix. For example, the period following the collapse of Idi Amin’s regime (which lasted from 1979–1986), was characterized by continued turmoil, violations of human rights, including the killing of innocent people, mismanagement of  the economy, a nd guerrilla warfare, which is civilians attacking members of the military. The army, led by General Tito Okello, overthrew President Obote in 1985. This gave the rebels of Yoweri Museveni, a former guerrilla leader, an advantage to take over government from Okello on January 26th, 1986. From 1986, however, with a new government headed by Museveni, Uganda started on the path to reconstruction and rehabilitation with new promise of security, peace, and development. (Middleton & Miller, 2008) One issue that it is not showing any signs of improvement, applies to the gay citizens in Uganda. Homosexuality in all its forms is illegal. This includes sexual acts, and just being gay. The consequence for homosexuality can put a Ugandan in prison for life. Prior to 2000, only male homosexuality was criminalized, then in 2000 under the Penal Code Amendment (Gender References) Act 2000, all references to â€Å"any male† was changed to â€Å"any person† so that lesbianism was criminalized as well. A new bill has been introduced into parliament, providing for harsher penalties for homosexuals, including the death penalty for â€Å"repeat offenders.† Ugandan citizens would be required to report any homosexual activity within twenty-four hours or face a maximum penalty of three years imprisonment, and Uganda would request extradition if Ugandan citizens were having same-sex relationships outside the country. Gays and lesbians face discrimination and harassment at the hands of the media, police, teachers, and other groups. According to Jessica Stern of Human Rights Watch, â€Å"For years, President Yoweri Museveni’s government routinely threatens and vilifies lesbians and gays, and subjects sexual rights activists to harassment.† (Clark-Kazak, 2010) There appear to be two types of harassment of the Ugandan LGBT community: human rights violations against this community, as well as failure to provide governmental and non-governmental services to this community. First, in Uganda, there is a strong cultural abhorrence and complete lack of understanding of LGBT individuals. This is reflected in everyday actions throughout the country, from minor forms of harassment in clubs, restaurants, and on the streets, to more pernicious forms of discrimination in terms of jobs and service distribution. Interviews with members of the LGBT community suggest that an openly gay individual will likely be excommunicated by his or her church, will be neglected by his or her family and community, may be kicked o ut of school, will have difficulty finding and  holding a job, and will be otherwise persecuted in everyday life. Stories of people being maimed or killed because they are thought to be gay are a persistent, minute to minute reminder to the LGBT community to maintain strong secrecy, often forcing people to engage in heterosexual relationships to give the impression of being straight to the outside world. Much of this type of cultural bias and discrimination cannot be attacked using current laws; it can only be attacked through new laws creating positive rights enabling LGBT individuals to be free from this type of harassment and discrimination. (Hollander, 2009-10) Condemned by world leaders, some western governments threatened to withhold financial aid. In the United States, Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon has argued that, should the legislation become law, Uganda would be ineligible for trade benefits under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). The global backlash to this bill has been significant. President Barack Obama recently denounced it as â€Å"odious† and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton communicated her â€Å"strongest concerns† over the proposed legislation directly to Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni. Resolutions have been introduced in the U.S. Congress condemning the proposed bill, calling on the Ugandan Parliament to reject it, and urging all governments to reject and repeal similar laws criminalizing homosexuality. Some countries have gone even further; with Sweden has threatening to cut off all aid to Uganda should the bill become law. (Ewins, 2011) As well, the U.K. partnered up with BBC to film a documentary on Uganda’s treatment of homosexuals. It was filmed in Kampala and its surrounding slums, where they interviewed leaders in the anti-homosexual movement, as well as homosexuals who are out and living in fear. Radio DJ Scott Mills travels to Kampala where the death penalty could soon be introduced for being gay. This was aired in the U.K. on February 2011 before the Bill was killed. Mills, who is openly gay, finds out that the living situation in Kampala and around Uganda is incredibly frightening and horrific. Those who are openly gay are disowned by their family and friends, and are forced to live in slums and outside the city so they can be somewhat protected. An effective way that the Ugandan people â€Å"capture† homosexuals is through their newspapers. The newspaper â€Å"The Rolling Stone† publishes photos of openly gay Ugandans living in and around Kampala, asking citizens to call them or the police if they know where they are located. (Mills, 2011) If a  person gets caught, they are persecuted and thrown in jail for adultery. In the documentary, we meet a lesbian named Stosh. When she was a teenager she was raped by a man to try and â€Å"cure† her of her lesbianism and as a result was infected with HIV. To make matters worse, Pastor Male is part of the self styled National Coalition against Homosexuality and Sexual Abuse in Uganda and claims he was the first person in the country to come out openly against gays. Male believes that no one is born gay and that through counseling they can be cured of this â€Å"affliction†. (Mills, 2011) Exercising tolerance of ignorance can be quite a bitter pill to swallow Although the focus of most research in the media on Uganda has been surrounding women, children, and the LGBT community, often overlooked is the mistreatment of the ill, specifically those with mental disorders. A survey of the existing mental health system in Uganda was conducted using the WHO Assessment Instrument for Mental Health Systems. (Fisher, 2010) In addition, 62 interviews and six focus groups were conducted with a broad range of mental health stakeholders at the national and district levels. Despite possessing a â€Å"draft† on mental health policy that is in line with many international human rights standards, Uganda’s mental health system inadequately promotes and protects, and frequently violates the human rights of people with mental disorders; through physical and emotional abuse. Qualitative interviews with a range of stakeholders revealed that patients had experienced various forms of direct human rights abuses within the mental health facilities and units in the country, particularly in psychiatric units in general hospitals. (Fisher, 2010) In discussions with the mental health service facilities, many stakeholders from different groups spoke about how it is fairly common for mental health professionals to infringe on the rights of patients. Numerous respondents, particularly mental health care service users themselves, spoke about the stigma and verbal abuse patients experience from mental health professionals. As one service user lamented: â€Å"Sorry to comment on psychiatrists, but when you are in hospital, instead of calling you by name, they call you ‘case’, ‘this case here’, ‘this mental case’ That is not a proper way to address people. Why do you call me case? I have a name. I am not a case and I have a right to be called my name. But because they have an attitude of labeling. You are  being turned into an object by them.† (Fisher, 2010) Many respondents also spoke about the ‘poor food supply in the mental health units’, which is ‘never enough for everyone’, and is often ‘old’ or ‘so bad you would not wish it upon anyone’. Poor dietary supplies were seen as impacting especially badly those patients who are also physically ill (i.e. as HIV-positive patients). The patients are continuously secluded, sometimes they are beaten up, or starved as punishment, and sometimes they are left alone for hours with no one attending to them. This study was done in every mental institution in the country except for Butabika, which is known as the best mental establishment and is known for its good conditions. Although that does say there can be good and bad institutions, knowing there is only one with a positive rating in the whole country is beyond troublesome. (Bernstein & Okello, 2007) Briefly, a final problem, which falls under the umbrella of human rights, is that of refugee status. In Uganda, refugee policy and programming is focused almost exclusively on providing protection and assistance to refugees residing in rural settlements. While international law allows refugees the right to freedom of movement and choice of residence, Ugandan legislation restricts refugees’ residency to rural settlements, subjecting those who wish to live outside of settlements and in urban centers to severe restrictions. This study sheds light on the reasons refugees choose to reside in Kampala as opposed to rural settlements and the challenges they endure while attempting to sustain and support themselves. Research findings indicate that at all stages of exile, refugees in Uganda are put under pressure, either implicitly or explicitly, to relocate to settlements. The lack of progressive thinking and hence over-reliance on settlements as the mainstay of refugee protection and assistance has hampered reforms of refugee policy and hindered the broader involvement of municipal authorities in responding to protection and assistance needs of refugees in urban areas. Research findings suggest that many refugees have talents, skills, and abilities, which would enable self-sufficiency in Kampala and other urban areas. However, these capabilities are currently undermined by a refugee regime which only promotes self-reliance in rural settlements. In an effort to enhance refugees’ overall human security and to support their own efforts to become independent and self-reliant, this paper asserts that refugee policy in  Uganda should be reformed to support refugees’ decisions to choose their own places of residence, instead of restricting them to rural settlements. (Bernstein & Okello, 2007) When first beginning my research on Uganda, I wanted to focus specifically on the lack of rights for the LGBT community, yet there is a glaring human rights problem all throughout the country, especially including women, children and those with mental/physical ailments. While researching through my references, it is positive to note that â€Å"human rights† is a hot button topic in Uganda, there is some progress; albeit small. (Ewins, 2011) There is focus on the topic of â€Å"human rights† in Uganda and how it effects women, children, the mentally ill, and homosexuals. As a Canadian, I recognize and exercise my rights because I have all of them as a woman and a Canadian citizen. Often times, people seem to forget how fortunate they are to live in a first world country where they do not have to be afraid everywhere they look because of who they are. Dismally, many Ugandans have to exist that way with no escape in sight., as a significant amount of the population are poor and unable to flee to a safer place. Having always been interested in human rights in all countries and how they differ from Canada’s laws, researching the human conditions in Uganda has been a huge eye opener concerning the depth of despair. Although I am not gay myself, rights for LGBT members is one of things that I am very passionate about changing around the world. My research will show what they have to go through on a daily basis as Ugandans and changes that have been made throughout the decades to improve on these rights, or make them harsher. With my research, I have developed the following research questions: Creating the Anti-Homosexual Bill has received negative attention from countries around the world including the United States and Sweden. How has the Ugandan government dealt with this image the rest of the world has about their country? In Uganda, if someone is homosexual, they will most likely be discriminated against. What acts of discrimination by the rest of the Ugandan population will put homosexuals in danger? Some forms of data that will be presented are primarily from observation and  documentaries. Ideally, it would be more advantageous to travel to Uganda and experience life there first hand, therefore many researchers document their work by recording it, so others can see exactly what they saw. Most of my references are in text form and come from either observation from the writers’ own perspective or research from other writers, which can be also known as unobtrusive research (Trochim, 2006), or more specifically, content analysis. (Chapter 10, textbook) All my research has been through the Concordia Database in the Sociology section. From that database, the oldest document used is from 2006, with an exception to the New Encyclopedia of Africa†. (Middleton & Miller, 2008) which described various significant years in Uganda’s fight for human rights in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Additionally, this specific topic is not one that I can do myself or ask people about whil e I am in Montreal. These observations are helpful for my research, as it is the easiest and most precise type of research. The work will be even more helpful if anyone can see it first hand rather than just reading text. The documentary will show you more of an in-depth, depressing look at the lack of human rights in Uganda. The ethical issues I will be facing are my own, since being aware of these issues, I feel obligated to help in some manner. I do not know anyone from Uganda that faced the brutality or human rights violations themselves, or someone who has studied human rights in Uganda. While not doing interviews myself, several of my references have taken certain documentaries when it comes to citing their research. One in particular, which I happened to find on YouTube, is a documentary done by BBC3 in the U.K titled â€Å"The World’s Worst Place to Be Gay?†. It is hosted by a British radio DJ and openly gay Scott Mills, who traveled to Uganda where the death penalty is the huge is sue for homosexuals. He finds out what it is like to live in a society which persecutes people such as himself, and meets those who are leading the hate campaign. In its favour, is that it is a recent documentary, originally aired in February of 2011 on BBC. I have also located two other documentaries under my own independent online research, one entitled â€Å"A World of Conflict† in which reporter Kevin Sites covers every major war zone in the world in one year, and another called â€Å"Hope for Uganda†, a documentary created by World Vision, a non-governmental organization. While these highlight how poorly a condition Uganda is in, there are definitely  ethical issues that occur during filming. Ethical issues include threats of violence open discrimination and hate. While I seemingly cannot do anything to prevent it, it still remains extremely horrific and unethical. One has to come into contact with this venue of research to appreciate this line of study in a proper context. I have not required any approvals, as all of the research I have is not mine. The documentaries were approved by World Vision and BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation). With regards to the rights of the Ugandans shown in the documentaries, they were given approval to show themselves on camera beforehand. If they were not comfortable being on television, their faces would be blurred out. While filming â€Å"The World’s Worst Place to be Gay?† in Kampala, the city was warned beforehand that there would be camera crews around. Given that all the stories in the documents and in the films are quite painful, the risks were ever present. Some quotes remained anonymous, some were given with names. It took a great deal of courage for Ugandans to come forward with their hardships and their pain, however it sheds light on the primitive condition of human rights in their country. In conclusion, this topic was something I chose to study, due to the fact that this is a subject that greatly interests me, and that one day, might want to help to fight for this cause, or be involved with as a career. While I might not ever travel to Uganda or work in Africa, I can pursue those fights in Canada. It is certainly an area in which I desperately want to see change in the world; equal rights at every level for everyone, regardless of gender or sexual orientation. Despite having some background knowledge on this issue, I have many more things to learn, and that is also again in support of my selection. Something I know a lot about is not as challenging or interesting to research. I somehow feel consciously and morally obliged to learn more about the violated and disenfranchised of this country. Lastly, there will be an examination of the â€Å"human rights† issues in Uganda, focusing on how children, women, and homosexuals are treated. The research covered many kingdoms and cities all over the country. I am hoping that because of this paper, the readers will learn more about the situation in Uganda and are motivated to get involved in a project such as this, and possibly compel them to do something to help. At the beginning of the course, deciding which subject I would focus this research paper on, and focusing it on something I want to see change and would want to make a  difference in that situation. In the future, it is my hope that Uganda’s human rights will be improving in the years and decades to come, with the determination, aid, and influence of other countries, apolitical outside agencies, as well as Ugandans learning to help each other. By doing so, people can make the world a better place, not just for today, but rather for the future, and proactively forever. In my future, there will always be a watchful, hopeful eye on Uganda. References: 1.) Cooper, S., Ssebunnya, J., Kigozi, F., Lund, C., & Flisher, A. (2010). Viewing Uganda’s mental health system through a human rights lens. International Review Of Psychiatry, 22(6), 578-588. 2.) Kafumbe, A. (2010). Women’s Rights to Property in Marriage, Divorce, and Widowhood in Uganda: The Problematic Aspects. Human Rights Review, 11(2), 199-221. 3.) Miller C. J., John, M. Ed. (2008). â€Å"Uganda.† New Encyclopedia of Africa. Detroit: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 119-127. 4.) Bernstein, J., & Okello, M. (2007). To Be or Not To Be: Urban Refugees in Kampala. Refuge, 24(1), 46-56. 5.) Ewins, L. (2011). â€Å"Gross Violation†: Why Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act threatens its trade benefits with the United States. Boston College International & Comparative Law Review, 34(1), 147-171. 6.) Hollander, M. (2009). Gay Rights in Uganda: Seeking to Overturn Uganda’s Anti-Sodomy Laws. Virginia Journal Of International Law, 50(1), 219-266. 7.) M ujuzi, J. (2011). Protecting Children From Those Who Are Supposed To Protect Them! The Uganda Human Rights Commission And Children’s Right To Freedom From Torture. Journal Of Third World Studies, 28(1), 155-168. 8.) Clark-Kazak, C. R. (2010). The politics of protection: aid, human rights discourse, and power relations in Kyaka II settlement, Uganda. Disasters, 34(1), 55-70 9.) Emusu, D., Ivankova, N., Jolly, P., Kirby, R., Foushee, H., Wabwire-Mangen, F., & †¦ Ehiri, J. (2009). Experience of sexual violence among women in HIV discordant unions after voluntary HIV counselling and testing: a qualitative critical incident study in Uganda. AIDS Care, 21(11), 1363-1370 10.) Mills, S. (Producer) (2011). The world’s worst place to be gay? [Web]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=168gaNmaIFo 11.) Allyson, S. (Producer) (2007). Hope for Uganda [Web] Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IGKnQRPF-I 12.) Trochim, William. â€Å"Unobstrusive Measures.† Research Methods: Knowledgable Base. (2006): 1. Web. 4 Apr. 2012. . 13.) Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, section 15. (Constitution Act, April 17th 1985.)