justification for higher education Essay -- essays research papers

Justification For Higher Education After analyzing William A. Henry III s In Defense of Elitism and Caroline Bird s College is a Waste of Time and Money , it is clear that Henry s argument concerning the purpose of an education is more rational than Bird s due to the fact that Henry supports his claims with credible statistics, logical insight, and uses current real world scenarios. Bird, on the contrary, bases her argument solely on manipulated statistics, overly dramatic claims, and ridiculously out-of-this-world scenarios. While there are various viewpoints and perspectives on the subject of higher education, Henry for one, has landed the conclusion that in America higher education for the masses has not only been extremely costly economically, but it has also greatly lowered the educational standards and therefore defeated the purpose of higher education itself. Henry s primary grievance against higher education for the masses is that the influx of mediocrities relentlessly lowers the general standards at colleges to levels the weak ones can meet (335). Quite simply, higher education is by no means any higher if the standards keep lowering just so some students can barely meet the minimum standards. For example, although I am a full supporter of the bell curve in college, it is certain that this recent innovation has had its share in lowering the university s educational standards. This practice of calculating the students average score on an exam and then re-scaling grades to help those who didn t fare as well is a clear example of bringing the standard of college down to everyone s level (336). I can certainly attest to this claim because I was recently directly affected by the bell curve. In the first quarter of my freshman year, I received a score of 44 out of a possible 100 points on my Physics 7A final exam. According to the general 10% increment grading scale, this would mean that I earned an F on the exam. However, thanks to the mediocrities earning even lower scores than myself and the establishment of the bell curve, I fared quite nicely and escaped with a B- grade. Although this is definitely good news for me, Henry s claim that the mediocrities tend to lower the educational standard seems to prevail. The influx of mediocrities flooding college campuses has also lowered the credibility and status of a college degree.... ...re no guarantees in these professions either (329). After dissecting her claims and supporting statements, it is clear that Bird is trying to undermine the value of a college degree. Tying this into her previous claims, we must ask since when is anything in life guaranteed? If we consider her implication that some students should obtain vocational education, well then it is obvious that there are no guarantees in jobs of that nature either. It is troubling to see that Bird simply dismisses certain jobs just because there is competition for them or because she thinks colleges fail to warn students of the competition. William Henry and Caroline Bird both have sharply different approaches in regards to making there arguments about the purpose of an education. Although they share common ground on various issues, the two become divided due to the types of examples and evidence they use to support their claims. After careful analysis, it is clear that Henry s line of reasoning and concrete evidence tops that of Bird s due to his logical insight. Unfortunately for Bird, she is simply left scrambling in the dark in search of bogus evidence in an attempt to backup her claims.

Gender Mainstreaming in Canada Essays -- Politics, Gender Equality

Canada is a signatory to the United Nations Platform of Action which specifies the mainstreaming of gender into programs, into policy processes, and into decision making in order to achieve gender equality. Since the adoption of the Platform of Action at the 1995 United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, gender mainstreaming has gained wider acceptance among governments and other stakeholders (Woodward, 2008). The aim of gender mainstreaming is to ensure that gender components are considered in all sectors that affect the society (Status of Women Canada, 2007). Purpose It has been argued that gender mainstreaming is a potent approach that can transform how public policies are made by challenging existing policy paradigms and setting new policy priorities (Woodward, 2008). However, there has been a lack of evidence to support that gender mainstreaming exist in Canada. Therefore, whether Canada’s gender equality approach is gender mainstreaming or not is open for discussion. This discussion paper examines this issue by exploring the gender equality approaches adopted by Government of Canada. The challenges of implementing gender mainstreaming are highlighted, and finally recommendations are made. Definitions The United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) defines gender mainstreaming as: â€Å"a strategy for making the concerns and experiences of women as well as of men an integral part of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes in all political economic and societal spheres, so that women and men benefit equally, and inequality is not perpetuated. The ultimate goal of mainstreaming is to achieve gender equality" (ECOSOC, 1997). The Status of Women Canada defines gender ba... ...he Government of Canada’s gender equality approach has been unable to interrogate already accepted analytical starting points (Paterson, 2010). The approach operates in a system of technology of rule, so there is no way the impact of the institutional structures can be separated from the policy outcomes. In this regard, gender equality analysis has become the government’s technology of rule (Prugl 2011). Summary and Recommendations To actualise gender mainstreaming, there is need to reposition the current gender equality approach from being a policy tool to an integrative approach that can change the institutional structures. The current gender equality approaches in Canada lack the potential of changing the current institutional practices. The current equality policy mix is a mainstreaming of gender based analysis and not gender mainstreaming (McNutt, 2010).

New Historic Criticism of Pudd’nhead Wilson

The striking lack of agreement about the merits of Mark Twain’s Pudd’nhead Wilson, is undoubtedly related to the equally striking disagreements over the interpretations and analysis of the novel. In a crucial senses, related to all the thematic analysis presented so far, leave important aspects of the novel unaccounted for. As a result, those who are inclined to praise the novel dismiss certain parts as finally inconsequential evidence of Twain’s predictably careless technique. On the other hand those who have serious reservations about its merits stress its lack of coherence, lack of an action suitable to embody what appear to be the author’s chief concerns.Although the interpretations vary widely, ranging from the view that its theme is the conflict between reality and appearance to the assertion that it has no clear meaning, two interpretative emphases are most common. First, there are critics who stress upon racial themes, especially slavery and misceg enation or marriages between different races. And second those who argue for the centrality of the theme of environmental determinism and see slavery as simply a metaphor for Twain’s more general concern, with the influence of training of the individual. While both these approaches give valuable insight, both are unsatisfactory because they leave too many questions unanswered.It was once considered that the integrity of imagination was violated by interpretation, considerations of race, class and sex have not entered into the most formalist readings.In Pudd’nhead Wilson, Twain presents a critique of slavery and race relations in the American South. He highlights the arbitrariness of racial distinctions and classifications by showing how easily Roxana, a slave is able to switch her own son with the offspring of her master. The young usurper grows among the whites without suspicion, and Twain is able to demonstrate how artificial and constructed racial distinctions actua lly are.Race, Conflict and CultureThe recently increased interest in Mark Twain’s â€Å"Pudd’nhead Wilson† is a text that turns the misapprehension of gender and race in a mid-nineteenth century Southern town into a complicated spoof of the â€Å"fiction of law and customs† in the United States. Pudd’nhead Wilson depicting race and custom identity within legal and scientific discourses lends itself readily to the new kind of historic readings related to â€Å"Race, Conflict and Culture.†A white skinned man, robs and murders and he subsequently discovers, through the science of fingerprinting, that he is actually a descendent of African race and a slave. In his infancy, he was changed with his young master, Valet de Chamber or (Chambers), alias Tom Driscoll, seems almost to be tailor-made for the audience of 1990’s. This book is considered as an intriguing depiction of complexities and constructions of race in the late nineteenth centu ry United States.Recent attention to racial issues, and renewed interest of literary criticism in history, has helped define the precise nature of cultural tragedy which is presented in the novel. The traditional plot of European comedy in which confusion over identity disrupts a hierarchical order that is restored when true identity is revealed, does not seem to work in democratic America, especially not when the confusion involves race. As in Pudd’nhead Wilson, Roxy tries to justify her act of cradle exchange of her son for her master’s and reasons with herself, â€Å"white folks has done it.† But her efforts as a mother to have her son defy the fate allotted a slave in racist America, ends in futility.The new historical criticism of the text certifies the different ways of reading narrative incoherence and different ways in formulating relationship between culture and literature. Some critics argue that Twain was unaware of Pudd’nhead Wilson’s p enetrating indictment of race slavery and that the discontinuities of the text mark a retreat to the illusion when none has occurred. While Myra Jehlen (1990) sees more ambivalence than outright evasion and manifests a familiar dilemma in Twain as a stalemate, between racial criticism and implicit conservatism. David Wilson stands in for the author, who recognizes competing rights that render incompatible social order and social justice.Carolyn Porter (1990) sees similar ambivalence in Roxana’s powerfully subversive, and David Wilson’s repressive plots. She also argues that the novel does not resolve, but only plays out the tension between them. Some read a more deliberate authorial strategy into the text’s disjunctions. Through David Wilson as a businessman, Twain meditates on the speculative postwar economy as an outgrowth rather than rejection of the slave economy. If the new historicism performs a textual reading of culture, they have not ceased to read the literary text as a special entity. When the critics analyze a fictional character or episode, there is no way the analysis can be proven wrong and all take satisfaction in being right. But whether Pudd’nhead Wilson is an extension, a reflection or a critique of cultural dynamics remains a matter of debate.Main Characters in the novelRoxana or Roxy in Pudd’nhead Wilson is cited as an exceptional woman, â€Å"her gestures and movements distinguished by a noble and stately grace,† is the rarest of beings depicted in Twain’s work, though the white women characters in his work tend to be static and stereotypical.   She is a passionate and an attractive woman and according to Fishkin (1995) is cunning, physically possessing, enterprising and genuinely interesting and engaging. She is conceived by Twain as something other than matronly old ladies or prepubescent schoolgirls. Roxy is also more complex of the stereotypes which were most commonly used by white au thors to portray women of her race and status.David Wilson, â€Å"Pudd’nhead Wilson,† is a character that gained its name from the book but many critics have ignore, denied, or belittled his significance to the story. The result is that Wilson role is considered that of a mere lever, or someone who moves the plot along but has no intrinsic importance. Though Wilson is referred to as an ass in the opening chapters, but like a donkey he has a number of admirable attributes. He is intelligent, courteous and diligent and it’s only Roxy who describes his as â€Å"de smartes’ man in dis town.† His hobbies though they seem odd to the average townsperson, demonstrate his sharp and meticulous mind.Thomas a Beckett Driscoll (Tom) is the name given by Percy Driscoll to his child and after Roxy switches the babies, the slave usurper is referred to as â€Å"Tom.† From the beginning, Tom turns out to be a bad boy and his bad behavior continues to grow wit h age and is described by Roxy as â€Å"fractious.† He is cruel towards Chambers and rude towards Roxy’s affection, viewing his mother as â€Å"merely a slave and chattel.† Valet de Chambers, (Roxy’s son) on the other hand is raised as a slave and grows up to be docile and meek but a strong fighter and a good swimmer. Tom not only forces Chambers to be his bodyguard but is also cruel and jealous of the slave’s natural physical abilities. But even upon discovering that he is the real Tom Driscoll and is rich and free, Chambers still   feels uncomfortable in the company of whites because of his slave upbringing.Slavery in the mid-nineteenth centuryAccording to Jehlen (1990), Mark Twain while associating the black race with the female sex, represents racism in the unconventionally loathsome form of slavery. Roxana’s status as a mulatta (feminine) is clearly crucial to Twain’s story. Roxana as a mulatta most certainly exposes the covert tradition of miscegenation, but her serial ordeal as a mulatta mother intent on saving her son exposes much more ( Porter, 1990). The ideologies of race and sex Mark Twain used in the novel Pudd’nhead Wilson were not controllable through literary form, because the writing posed problems that the history of racial and sexual thinking in America, impossible to resolve.Percy Driscoll on having some money stolen threatens to sell the guilty servant â€Å"down the river† which shows that life for the slaves on large cotton plantations was far harsher than for the Missouri slaves. To be sold â€Å"down the river† was equivalent to be condemned to hell, with old slaves being sold away to be replaced by the new slaves. Dawson’s Landing is a highly stratified hierarchical society and at the apex of this social order were the first descendants of Virginia, represented by Judge Driscoll down to the lowest rung of the social ladder-the slaves.And so powerful is this social hierarchy, that those on the bottom were forbidden from eating or sitting with citizens of higher status. This segregation was visible in the layout of the town structure where the snug houses for the white population were situated up front while the portion for the slaves was hidden in the backcountry. Through constructing this social framework, Twain delivers a stinging critique of slavery and in the South of America. Pudd’nhead Wilson is unique to its time in portraying the slave characters as dishonest, lazy and at times dangerous. But in Roxy’s views, slavery is a crime committed by the whites against her race.ConclusionCritics seem intent on challenging the new directions in literary analysis and laying down the terms of debate as to what standard   has the literary works been classified to up to this point and the terms by which we read literature and by analyzing the relationship of literature to the larger question by which we govern our lives. Today the problems of race and sex have become vastly complicated than when a literary work was thought to invent its own sufficient language.The task of the critics then was to show how all parts worked together to reveal coherence. But today, with no available assurance no one can be certain that in a particular work the history is internally coherent or that the issues it treats finally hang together. Though not simple, but the task of literary criticism is to analyze works, not to dismantle them. In the light of these questions, Twain’s Pudd’nhead Wilson contributes not only to Twain’s single work, but also adds to the growing number of works both participating in and questioning new directions in the study of literature.BIBLIOGRAPHYJehlen Myra. Spring, The Ties That Bind: Race and Sex in Pudd’nhead Wilson. American Literary History. Vol. 2, No.1. 1990. pp. 39-55.Fishkin, Shelley Fisher. Mark Twain and Women. The Cambridge Companion to Mark Twain. Cambridg e University Press: New York, NY. 1995.Jehlen, Myra. The Ties that Bind: Race and Sex in Pudd'nhead Wilson. Mark Twain's Pudd'nhead Wilson. Duke University Press: Durham, SC. 1990.Porter, Carolyn. Roxana's Plot. Mark Twain's Pudd'nhead Wilson. Duke University Press: Durham, SC. 1990.Wald, Priscilla. Mark Twain’s Pudd’nhead Wilson: Race, Conflict and Culture. Studies in American Fiction, Journal Article. Vol. 23, 1995.Thomas, Brook. Tragedies of Race, Training, Birth and Communities of Competent Pudd’nheads. American Literary History, Vol. 1, No.4.   Winter, 1989. pp. 754-785.

I Love You – Pushkin

â€Å"I Loved You† – Pushkin One of the most favorite subjects of Pushkin was love. â€Å"Love and friendship are popular subjects of the authors, and the reason that makes him happy and sad. The color of his poems, especially in love poem, is the beauty of humanity†, said Belinxki. One of the most famous poems of Pushkin is I Loved You. When he lived in Petersburg, Pushkin usually met people in love with art in the President of the academy of art’s house, and the most important reason was to meet daughter of the owner named A. A. Olenhia.In 1828, in summer, Pushkin proposed her, but she didn’t accept. In 1829, he composed a poem about this love. The poem can be divided into three sections such as showing his love, confirming his real love, and blessing for the girl that he loved. Love poems of Pushkin were from his real emotions and his own experiences. Therefore, he could show us the real emotions of human souls. â€Å"I Loved You† poem mad e a huge emotion because it showed spiritual values of human: the real love in each simple word. The chorus â€Å"I Loved You† is the main tone of the poem.In the beginning of the poem is the chorus â€Å"I loved you† that showed his real love from his faithful love. â€Å"I loved you† is just simple words, but they have important meaning and secret that he could talk in his poem. In the first four sentences, he confirmed that he was still in love with Olenhia. However, he wanted to step back because he didn’t want to annoy Olenhia. In the last four sentences, he showed the different levels of love, and he confirmed his faithful love for Olenhia: â€Å"I loved you; and perhaps I love you still, The flame, perhaps, is not extinguished; yet†The words slowly, love poems deep, discreet. An assertion together with a little consideration phase, cautious with the words â€Å"perhaps†, â€Å"not extinguished; yet†. Another version came with t he words â€Å"may† and â€Å"fire retain;† Using a negative term nature, â€Å"is not extinguished; yet,† the lyrical character expressed a love, a passion for bringing the look of quiet, persistent, lasting sign of emotion, of a faithful heart, not the spontaneous passion flashed and faded right there. And right after that, poetry sudden switch circuit: â€Å"It burns so quietly within my soul,No longer should you feel distressed by it. † The third sentence shows the calmness of reason, the pent-up emotions. The phrase â€Å"no longer† definitive emphasized: need to put out the fire of love, avoid for the girl to bother. Poetic as a word remind thought, a self-consciousness of his love and inner speech as well as a full tender, respectful with the girl’s soul. But behind the words calmly, properly was how feeling, how the nuances of love: the bitterness of destiny because if love does not bring happiness, joy that is so disturbed, sadness for the one you love, love should end.Love can stop for many reasons, but reason with full of gentle, respectful and noble like that, not all women can have it. If the first four verses, emotions tend to be repressed, was the dominant reason, in two verses later, the outpouring of emotion circuits, does not comply with the dictates of reason, confirmed a strong love not conceal and the chorus â€Å"I loved you† is repeated a second time: â€Å"Silently and hopelessly I loved you, At times too jealous and at times too shy. Breathing faster with the word â€Å"at times† was repeated two times, describes the state change love deeply, overwhelmed. Characters reveal frank lyrical soul: a love â€Å"Silently â€Å", â€Å"hopelessly†, has reaffirmed silent strokes, just strong people do not expect, likely bold new ethos this situation unilaterally. But even so, their love still occurs with all shades of eternity: silent suffering, joy, despair, timidity, jealousy t ormented.Two verses nature confessed to uncover the layers of emotional complexity that is the bottom of the deep human soul, after the crust of words calmly, calmly expressed through a vocative, looks quietly withdrew shy, through the sense of trying to suppress emotional compression, let’s say that your love not back off rather than being intense burning. The last two sentences also answers, flashed light up a humane values , a noble pose for the lovely man: â€Å"God grant you find another who will love youAs tenderly and truthfully as I. † The feeling which is cumulated is released and spurted out. The phrase â€Å"love you† is repeated the third time with an affirmation of the nature of this relationship sincere, fervid. In Russian the verb â€Å" love† always be unfinished tense; that means the flame in the author’s heart will be never off will be never fade. Sincere, fervid never fade was the root of this lofty love. That explains why lyrica l character had gentle manners, delicacy, cherish the one you love. Read also  Summary : Love Is Never SilentAnd in the end of the poem, the lyrical character had a holy blessing, forgiveness. The unrequited love which is always sadness, leads people become selfish, hatred. However, if that love comes from an honest, generous, kindness heart, even though being rejected, people are still able to have a magnanimous behavior. The poem describes a hopeless love, soak a sad tone, but above all is the strong and noble human heart with a love not bear fruit.Poetic language simple, clear, no rhetorical measures beyond language message â€Å"I love you ‘. The poetry of the poem exudes from the sincere emotion, pinned compressed, simple words but full of earnest, delicate but strong, loving noble as Belinxki once said: â€Å"Characteristics of poetry Pushkin is the ability to detect cases of human aesthetic sense and kindness, sense is infinite respect for human dignity as the son of man. †

A Wide Array of Conflicts in the Film 300 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

A Wide Array of Conflicts in the Film 300 - Essay Example 300 is one of the biggest budget movies in recent memory and yet another comic book movie that uses new technology to make an incredible visual display. 300 is a fundamentally a tragedy, with nearly every major character dying through the course of the movie, and a very serious, dramatic (if overblown) treatment of the topic. The basic plot is that a Persian king, Xerxes I of Persia, who is on the path of world conquest, decides to invade Greece and take over the entire area. Because it is a time of celebration, the King of Sparta must ask sages whether he is allowed to take the army of Sparta, a Greek city-state focused on martial prowess, to go head off Xerxes. The sages, who are under the pay of the Persian Empire, decline his offer, paving the way for invasion by Persia. The King of Sparta decides to side-step this issue, by going for â€Å"a walk† with a â€Å"personal bodyguard† of only three hundred soldiers, to go defend a narrow mountain pass that the Persians must use to enter Greece. They then go on to beat back wave after wave of Persian troops, inflicting huge casualties. Eventually, all three hundred of the Greek soldiers are killed, but the psychological damage they inflicted ended up being decisive, with the Persian army, who had lost so many thousands fighting only three hundred Spartan warriors baulk at facing the full force of Sparta when they invade the city. The style of this is incredibly overblown and artistic. Everything from the gore to the monsters to the regular characters is heavily re-done through computer generated graphics, and the entire style is fantastical, trying to match the comic book style of its predecessor.

Health Resources and Policy Analysis Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Health Resources and Policy Analysis - Case Study Example While assisted living offers the above services, nursing homes offer full-time medical supervision and nursing care for the critical ill or patients with more acute conditions. Some of the residence services may include medical care, occupational, speech, and physical therapy, housekeeping, meals, help with medical care, and social activities (Sultz & Young 3 ). Assisted living is growing at a sharp rate in recent times because of their professional staff, who maintain companionship. While giving their services, one can actually note that the organization does what is assigned to do for the sake of the residents’ well-being and not for profit. According to Sultz & Young (5), there is also excellent patient care, remarkably nutritional meals, and attractive surroundings. Most important, its location is crucial to everything, making it easy and convenient for any person to visit. All these factors make the program the favorite of many, therefore grow rapidly. For a CSU student to prepare himself for a carrier as a CEO or administrator of an assisted living faculty, he should provide official transcripts from a recognized University or College of completion for averagely two years of training, two years of supervisory experience in a credible adult care home, or other residential or health care setting in five years before certification. Currently, there are 339 assisted living opportunities available. Some of the job opportunities include Hospice RN Patient Care Manager, Hospice Registered Nurse, and Licensed Practical

You Decide Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

You Decide - Research Paper Example People in developed world are happy with the advancement in technology while developing countries are struggling to keep up with the advanced technology. In the end, developed countries will have to reach an agreement to reduce their energy use in favor of developing countries due to growth in population in these countries, thus an increased demand on energy use to improve their livelihood. The world will require much energy supply in the coming 21st century. Nuclear energy has the potential to meet this demand. The most dominant sources of energy that have been used in developed and developing nations include fossil fuel, coal, oil, natural gas and in some countries they have used hydroelectric power, nuclear power and biomass. Air pollution in china has been on the increase due to energy use over the past decades, especially in urban areas and rural areas due to coal industries that are located in the countryside. It is stipulated that china has three of the ten most polluted cities which are not in accordance with world health organization air quality guidelines in the world (Abramsky, 2010). For example; Shenyang air pollution that took place 20 years ago due high levels of particulates and sulphur oxide in the atmosphere, which reduced visibility. The government of china has not only an obligation to address the problems of provision of basic services to increased numbers of people, develop economically but also address environmental problems of air pollution caused by rapid economic growth. A group of experts from various field in energy sector met in 2003 to discuss the way forward to reduce air pollution as part of energy policy in china. This led to incorporation of air pollution as an important matter when carrying out national planning. Planners in china have been able to look at the impacts of various choices of