The Crucible by Nicholas Hytner :: Movie Review, Film

This captivating screen version of The Crucible is based on Arthur Miller’s play in 1953. Nicholas Hytner did an excellent job at directing this movie. There are a few faults in the film, but overall it was a wonderful movie. The first fault in the movie was the beginning scene. The scene was supposed to be a night scene. But it looks as if it was early morning. I think Hytner shot the scene during the day and tried to use the night vision but it did not work so well. Another bad scene was when the girls are supposed to faint in the courtroom. The scene was poorly directed and acted. Bob Crowley did a great job with the designing of the costumes. They completely fit with the scenery and the setting. The music was also a plus with this film. It always fit in every scene. The base drumbeats were timed just right in the scene when Elizabeth is questioned about John being an adulterer. Right when she gave her answer the drum went, â€Å"BOOOM!† The camera always seemed to be in just the right place at all times. The cameraman shot every angle perfectly. He caught every person’s reaction, such as in the scene when John admits to lechery with Abigail. First he catches Abigail’s reaction to John’s admittance of this, and then he also catches Reverend Parris’s reaction when the Judge is talking about the girls dancing in the woods. The lighting worked very well in Elizabeth’s scene with the judge. Right before she states her answer, Hytner makes the rain go away and the sun come out and across the back wall of the courtroom. It makes the audience think that something good is about to happen, as if she was going to tell the truth and all the trials were going to stop. One character that stuck out to me is Winona Ryder as Abigail. She has a look of lust. Her eyes show deep sexual passion every time she looks at John Proctor. Ryder’s looks are very intimidating. In the scene when she threatens the girls, not only does her threat, â€Å"†¦let anyone breathe a word or the edge of a word about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring with me a pointy reckoning that will shudder you.

Article Review on John Fitzgerald Kennedy, a Warrior for Peace :: President JFK

J.F.K The Making of America: A Warrior for Peace By David Talbot TIME Magazine, July 2, 2007 This article concerns one of the most famous presidents of the twentieth century, John Fitzgerald Kennedy. It is a thoroughly written piece on Kennedy’s devotion to peace throughout his administration. The author, David Talbot, focuses on the major points of Kennedy’s administration, starting with his aggressive campaign against Richard Nixon, touching on the Bay of Pigs invasion, and finally addressing the infamous Cuban Missile Crisis. Throughout the article, Talbot sprinkles in Kennedy’s commentary on the issues at the time of their occurrence, and Kennedy’s colleagues’ commentary on the issues long after they have passed. Talbot is careful to stay true to what Kennedy was like as a person. He titled the article A Warrior for Peace for a specific reason: Kennedy truly was a man that tried to keep the peace. This is evident with all of the issues that Talbot addressed. In the beginning of the article, Talbot includes an excerpt from a letter Kennedy wrote to his family saying â€Å"All war is stupid.† This is the tone that is effectively set for the article, that Kennedy did everything possible to avoid war. In the Bay of Pigs episode, Kennedy firmly stood his ground and did not send military enforcements (Marines and Air Force) to back up CIA officials Dulles and Bissell. Talbot remarks that that decision was the turning point of the Kennedy presidency, from then on it became a government at war with itself. Talbot harks upon the fact that Kennedy often did what he wanted instead of what he was advised. He was a man on a mission who consistently did what he, not others, thought was best and right and prosperous for his country. However, he was deft in his methods, that is, he very cleverly deflected his espionage chiefs’ military council. Talbot firmly suggests that the sort of ‘theme’ of Kennedy’s presidency was the following: â€Å"J.F.K.’s strenuous efforts to keep the country at peace in the face of equally ardent pressures from Washington to go to war.† The war that he is most likely referring to is war with Cuba. It is a constant recurrence that during the Kennedy administration, the CIA and Air Force chief General Curtis LeMay wanted Kennedy to attack and declare war on Russia/Cuba. Kennedy, warrior for pace that he was, did not. Looking back, a few members of his administration were surprised to find that though Kennedy’s Joint Chiefs assured him that there were no nuclear warheads in Cuba, there actually were.

Euthanasia Essay

Thesis: Euthanasia, and a common form of euthanasia, assisted suicide, should be legal processes through which aterminally ill individual may voluntarily end his or her own life. Summary: As of 2009, assisted suicide was legal in only three states: Oregon, Washington, and Montana. Since itsinception in those states, assisted suicide has proven to be an effective, but rarely employed means of allowing a terminallyill person to end his or her life in a dignified manner. Though the United States federal government has opposed measures toenact federal legislation that would legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide, the time has come for the federal governmentand the remainder of the states to recognize that, inherent in the right to live freely is the right to decide when to humanelyend one’s life. Introduction To understand the debate surrounding euthanasia, one must first understand euthanasia and its related variations. Theterm euthanasia, taken from the Greek word for â€Å"easy death,† refers to the process by which a physician prescribes andadministers a fatal dose of drugs to a terminally ill individual in a controlled medical environment, thus causing their death ina quick and painless manner. Euthanasia is commonly referred to as physician-assisted suicide. Assisted suicide, a relatedform of euthanasia, describes the process by which a physician or pharmacist only prescribes the fatal drugs, leaving theterminally ill individual to ingest the drugs on their own, at a time of their choosing. As of 2009, physician-assisted suicidewas not legal in any state in America, while assisted suicide was legal in three states. The Federal Government & the Courts A quartet of United States Supreme Court cases (Washington v. Glucksberg, Vacco v. Quill, Gonzales v. Oregon, and Cruzanv. Director, Missouri Department of Health) have helped to shape the legal landscape in the debate over euthanasia and anindividual’s right to refuse medical treatment. In Glucksberg and Vacco, companion cases decided in 1997, the SupremeCourt ruled that states have the authority to prohibit assisted suicide and against the notion that the right to die isguaranteed in the Constitution. More recently, in the 2006 Gonzales case, the Court held in a 6-3 opinion that the UnitedStates attorney general could not enforce a drug law, the Controlled Substances Act, against physicians   and pharmacists as ameans of punishing them for prescribing fatal doses of drugs to terminally ill patients. Finally, in the Cruzan case, theSupreme Court upheld the right of competent persons to refuse medical treatment, but ruled that clear and convincingevidence must exist of that person’s desire to limit the life-saving measures to be performed on them. The practical impact of these rulings is that, because the federal government cannot prosecute physicians and pharmacistswho prescribe drugs to terminally ill patients, the debate over euthanasia and assisted suicide in the US has primarily takenplace on the state level. Furthermore, while individuals have the constitutional right to prevent physicians from taking life-saving measures in the event of their incapacitation, they must make clear their desire, usually through a living will or a donot resuscitate order. Success at the State Level In 1994, Oregon became the first state to pass an assisted suicide law. The Oregon Death with Dignity Act has served as amodel statute in other states’ attempts to pass assisted suicide legislation. The act has several important provisions that, readtogether, provide safeguards for the terminally ill, the physicians that diagnose their terminal illnesses, and the pharmaciststhat prescribe lethal drugs. The act requires first, that a patient be diagnosed by a physician as having a terminal illness thatwill end the patient’s life within six months. Then, upon the patient’s request, a physician or pharmacist that has no moral orprofessional objection to assisted suicide will prescribe a lethal dose of drugs that the patient can ingest at a time of theirchoosing. Notably, the act has several safeguards, among them a requirement that the patient’s initial request for aprescription be witnessed by two people; that a second physician concur in the initial diagnos is of a terminal illness givingthe patient no more than six months to live; a conclusion that the patient is of sound mind; and a waiting period underwhich the patient must wait fifteen days before making a second, and final, oral request for the lethal prescription. These rules and safeguards ensure that only those who are both terminally ill and of a sound mind are able to obtain a lethaldose of drugs after having made a voluntary and informed decision. Additionally, and importantly, the act does not requirethose physicians or pharmacists opposed to assisted suicide to participate in, sanction, or play any role in bringing about thedeath of a term  inally ill person. The Washington Initiative 1000, passed by voters in 2008, was based on the Oregon act and, consequently, wassubstantially similar in its provisions and safeguards. Most recently, in December, 2008, a Montana trial court judge ruled thatcompetent, terminally ill patients have the right to self-administer lethal doses of drugs prescribed by a physician, thoughthat decision has been appealed to the Montana Supreme Court. Because assisted suicide in Washington and Montana is relatively new, Oregon is the only state in which data concerning theuse of lethal drugs by the terminally ill has been compiled. In the eight-year period from 1998 to 2006, 455 lethalprescriptions were written for terminally ill individuals, and 292 of those individuals used that prescription to commit suicide. Analysis of this data indicates that only around thirty-five terminally ill individuals die each year in Oregon as a result of theassisted suicide law. This data further suggests that physicians are carefully screening applicants, issuing on average onlyfifty-seven prescriptions per year. Finally, it is also clear that applicants carefully weigh the decision to use the prescription,judging by the fact that 35 percent of prescriptions issued to terminally ill patients—who have satisfied the numerousrequirements under Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act—went unused. International Law Oregon, Washington, and Montana are not the only jurisdictions in the world in which forms of euthanasia are legal.Notably, assisted suicide, in some form, is legal in both Belgium and the Netherlands, the latter of which has also legalizedphysician assisted suicide. Additionally, Germany has no law legalizing assisted suicide, but has not traditionally penalizedthose who have helped to end the life of a terminally ill person. As researchers have noted, however, death and suicide havedifferent stigmas attached to them depending on, among other factors, where one lives and the culture in which one wasraised. Consequently, it is not surprising that assisted suicide has been legalized in certain parts of the world, while it remainsa crime elsewhere. In the United States, however, where an individual has always in been control of their mind, body, souland destiny, death and suicide do not have as negative a cultural connotation as they may have in other parts of the world. The Social, Et hical, Medical & Economic Reasons Assisted suicide places the individual in control of his or her future, allowing the individual to decide how, when, and wherethey die. While an issue of self-determination, there are practical concerns that face the dying. Often, a terminally ill personwatches their savings account plummet while his or her medical costs and insurance premiums—assuming they are fortunateenough to have medical insurance—skyrocket. If they do not have insurance, it is unlikely they are able to afford even the most basic medications to controltheir pain or reduce their symptoms. Though their disease is incurable, in the later stages of their illness, they often take up a hospital bed and medicalresources, as well as the time of doctors, nurses and other hospital staff—time and health care dollars that could be expended on a person who can successfullybe treated and released. Friends and relatives watch their loved one suffer without remedy, knowing that the illness is fatal, but unable to do anything besideswait. Assisted suicide provides a quick and painless death, in contrast to the expected months of suffering a terminally ill patient must endure under normalcircumstances. The decision to end life on their own terms saves precious medical resources, ensures that the patient’s family will not financially sufferunnecessarily as a result of the illness, and allows the patient, and their family and friends, to say goodbye on their own terms in a quick and painless way.Notably, these arguments apply with equal force to physician-assisted suicide, wherein a physician not only monitors the patient to be sure they remaincompetent, but also administers the drugs at a time of the patient’s choosing, thus helping to ensure that the patient’s death is quick and painless. Opposition to Euthanasia Opposition to euthanasia comes in part from religious and social organizations that generally oppose measures that result in the death of an individual. Suchfeelings are indeed understandable, and it is difficult to change a person’s moral convictions. These organizations are free to petition their elected officials andto champion their causes—that right is fundamental to a democratic system. They also must, however, recognize the decisions made through a democraticprocess, as those initiatives in Oregon and Washington, where the majority of voters approved assisted suicide. (It is worth noting that some of these sameorganizations support the imposition of the death penalty for certain crimes,  citing the biblical passage â€Å"an eye for an eye.† In other words, some of thesegroups support the death of an individual when society has deemed it acceptable, but not when the individual himself seeks to end his life.) Other opponents include some doctors and physic ians, who have, as a condition of their license to practice medicine or dispense prescription medication, takena Hippocratic Oath requiring that they do no harm to patients. Importantly, however, the assisted suicide laws that have passed in Washington and Oregon donot by any means require the participation of physicians or pharmacists. Consequently, those physicians or pharmacists with a moral, professional, or religiousopposition to assisted suicide need not participate in any way in the assisted suicide of a patient. The same holds true for physician-assisted suicide which, inthe countries where it is legal, is practiced voluntarily. Finally, some in the medical field express concern over whether the terminally ill are of sound mind whenconsenting to suicide. While this is a valid and serious concern, the laws passed in Oregon and Washington, requiring multiple examinations, medicallyconsistent diagnoses, a waiting period, and a conclusion that the patient is of sound mind, serve to dramatically lessen any possibility that an incompetentpatient could be prescribed a fatal dose of drugs. Choosing for Others, but not for Oneself The death penalty is an authorized form of punishment in the federal criminal justice system, and also exists in well over half of the states. Through participationin the jury system and by electing officials into office who are charged with enforcing the death penalty, citizens have a role in determining which individualsare eligible for the death penalty and, more fundamentally, whether the death penalty as a form of punishment should persist, or should be repealed. Similarly,the United States Supreme Court has ruled that pregnant women have the right to choose—in many circumstances—whether to terminate their pregnancy. These examples demonstrate the contradiction that exists in forty-seven of the United States, under which average citizens are capable of playing a vital role indeciding whether other individuals live or die. These same citizens, though, are not entrusted with the same authority to make that decision when it comes totheir own lives in the extreme case of an incurable, terminal illness. Such a contradiction cannot stand. To preserve the dignity of human life, it is imperativethat the remaining states and the federal government legalize   euthanasia, whether in the form of physician-assisted suicide or assisted suicide, to provide asafe and dignified way for terminally individuals to end their suffering. With the advent of drugs that can both prolong and terminate life, as well as medical technology that can keep patients technically alive even in comatose or vegetative states, many questions have been raised about the quality of life each person deserves and identifying the fine line that demarcates the end of life. In addition, in the United States—a country marked from its inception by the hallmarks of individuality and personal responsibility—citizens and lawmakers alike are wrestling with issues regarding the degree to which an individual or family member should be empowered to make personal, private decisions about whether to continue medical care or choose the time, place and manner of death. Activists on both sides of the euthanasia debate have lobbied lawmakers to enact legislation in support of their views. The right to die movement is gaining support as a humane alternative to a poor quality of life maintained solely through continuous medical intervention. U nderstanding the Discussion Euthanasia: The practice of ending a person’s life either through an intentional act or by withholding medical care. The action is performed without malice, but with the intention of alleviating suffering or ending the pain of a terminal illness or poor quality of life. Hospice: An alternative program of care for patients in the final stages of life, in which efforts are not designed to treat the patient’s underlying illness but rather to provide pain management, symptom control, and family support. Informed consent: A patient’s expression of knowledge and acceptance of the risks, benefits, and alternative treatment options of a medical procedure and subsequent permission to a physician to perform the procedure. Physician-assisted suicide: A procedure in which a physician deliberately and knowingly provides lethal drugs at the individual’s request for the purpose of self-administration. Right to die: A belief that individuals should have the authority to c hoose the time, place and manner of their death. Terminal illness: A medical condition that is so advanced that treatment options are no longer available. History Although modern medical advancements and increased patient autonomy have renewed public interest in the right to die, the practice of euthanasia has been in existence for centuries. Numerous Greek and Roman writings have revealed a belief that death, even if initiated by self or another person, was preferable to prolonged suffering. However, this belief was not universal. The Hippocratic Oath, which medical practitioners in the United States have traditionally recited or agreed to uphold as a basic tenet of their practice, is believed to have been penned about 400 BCE by the Greek physician Hippocrates, known as the â€Å"Father of Medicine.† The oath includes promises not to provide deadly medicine to any one if asked or even suggest such a course of action, and to never cause any patient harm. In the US, prohibitions against intentionally aiding in the death of another date back to the country’s formation. Early American statutes outlawed both suicide and assisted sui cide. In the early 1900s, a physician’s grim decision brought euthanasia to the forefront of public debate. On November 12, 1915, a badly deformed child was born to Anna Bollinger. Her doctor conferred with the hospital’s chief of staff, Dr. Harry J. Haiselden, who advised against performing surgery to save the child. Five days later, the baby girl died, and the case and Dr. Haiselden’s decision were widely debated. During the 1930s, widespread distress caused by the Great Depression and its accompanying economic turbulence led to a spike in suicide rates and discussions of euthanasia and a right to self-determination over end-of-life matters. Public opinion polls revealed a growing belief that euthanasia was acceptable under certain circumstances. While it seemed that public support for legalizing euthanasia was coalescing, World War II broke out and the world recoiled in horror as news of Nazi death camps and the calculated mass extermination of vulnerable members of society made international headlines. Such atrocities dampened support for any form of legalized assistance in initiating another’s death. For several decades, discussions of euthanasia simmered largely in the background. In 1976, the tragic case of twenty-one year old Karen Ann Quinlan once again moved the euthanasia debate to national headlines. After consuming alcohol and prescription drugs at a party, Quinlan lost consciousness and ceased breathing. Quinlan was rushed to the hospital, where doctors declared that she was in a â€Å"persistent  vegetative state,† with full recovery unlikely. Her adoptive parents fought a year-long legal battle for rights to make the final decision to remove her respirator, thereby likely ensuring the end of her life. Although the New Jersey Supreme Court ultimately ruled in favor of the Quinlan family, Karen continued breathing naturally after her respirator was removed for nearly a decade, until she finally succumbed to complications from pneumonia. In 1980, right to die advocate Derek Humphry formed the Hemlock Society, a grassroots organization that has worked to advance euthanasia legislation. In addition, growing consensus for patients’ rights, including the right to refuse medical care—and even life-sustaining care—refocused attention on the right to die m ovement. Over the next several decades, public support for autonomy in end of life decision making has increased, with several states enacting legislation that recognizes living wills, or a legal document in which a person expresses his or her wishes regarding life prolonging medical treatments, including the withdrawal or refusal of life-sustaining medical treatment. Euthanasia Today The history of euthanasia in the US has been marked by several significant cases. The Quinlan case, although decided by a state supreme court, led to the advent of formal ethics committees in hospitals, nursing homes and hospices that provide support in complying with a patient’s advanced health care directives, or written instructions to family members and health care professionals about end of life care. In 1990, the US Supreme Court first ruled on the right to die movement in Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health. A car accident left Nancy Cruzan permanently unconscious and her parents requested that her feeding tube be withdrawn. After years of continuous care, most of the costs for Cruzan’s hospitalization were being paid by the State of Missouri. Although a Missouri district court granted the Cruzan family’s request to remove the tube, the director of the Missouri Department of Health took the case on appeal to the Missouri Supreme Court, arguin g for clear proof of Nancy Cruzan’s end of life wishes. The case went before the US Supreme Court, which ruled that a competent person has a constitutionally protected right to refuse any medical treatment, although states have a right to insist on clear and convincing evidence as to a patient’s wishes. In this case, there

‘Blackout’ by Roger Mais Essay

‘Blackout’ is a short story by Roger Mais. It is set in Jamaica and is about racism and the contrast of two different races, sexes and cultures! The story starts off explaining the blackout in the city and the general atmosphere of uncomfortable and tense over the city. At this point the story builds an expectation of some sort of conflict. An American women was waiting at a bus stop. Suprisingly she was not bothered by the darkness, and she was not nervous. A black man slowly approaches her and asks for a light for his cigarette. As she does not have matches she offers her cigarette and as he thanks her she flicks the cigarette away. She does that because she is disgusted that a Black man touched her cigarette and therefore she doesn’t want to smoke it anymore. After the flicking, there’s a moment of discomfort and she asks him why he was still there. He replies with an apology as a comment on her action. He stays and keeps talking about her apparent wealt h and as he talks she becomes more uncomfortable. The conversation between the two then focuses on gender and race. At that moment the reader can sense that actually the woman is interested in the current situation and she might actually be looking for an adventure, but he tells her that she is not his type of women which undermines her. During the conversation the reader can also see that the woman has some very racist thoughts. After a while he sees the bus coming and points at it. She gets on the bus and as it starts moving, she urges herself to look back at him and challenge her prejudices, but thinking of the society and worrying about how unacceptable it would seem she can’t succeed and doesn’t look back while the man picks up the cigarette from the gutter. During this short story there is always this feeling of menace and some kind of threat which is created by the blackout and the odd conversation between the two. This feeling is created especially at the beggining, introduction of the story when the blackout and the loneliness were being described by Mais. He used words and phrases such as; wave of panic, bands of hooligans roaming the streets after dark and assaulting unprotected women, slinking black shadow, to reinforce his point. Telephone Conversation ‘Telephone Conversation’ by Wole Soyinka, the poet talks about two people on the phone and the story goes on to narrate how the African man is looking  for a house and the land lady has proposed a considerable price for the same. The poem strikes a positive note as the man gets to know that his privacy won’t be hampered as the landlady doesn’t stay on the premises. The African man is happy to know that and just before he makes up his mind to consider the offer, he drops in to mention that he is black. On the other end of the line, there was nothing but silence which the African man takes it to be an impolite gesture of refusal. However, the silence is soon broken as the landlady starts to speak again asking him to explain exactly how dark he is. First, the man think that he might have misheard the question but when the landlady repeats, he understands that this is something very important for her to know before she allows him to rent her house. This is so mething that came out entirely devastating for the African man and for a moment he felt disgusted with the question and fancies himself to be a machine, like the phone and that he has been reduced to being a button on the phone. He could also smell the foul from her words and he sees â€Å"red’ everywhere all around. The idea of Telephone conversation is to depict how brutal it can be for a man who is subjected to racial discrimination. The Afro-American man is reduced to shame by the sudden silence from the other side and he gets into a state of make belief where he sarcastically thinks that the lady broke her silence and gave him option to choose and define ‘how dark† he is. â€Å"Like chocolate, or dark or light?† Then, he goes on to answer that he is defined as â€Å"West African sepia† in his passport. The lady not knowing how dark it could be didn’t want to embarrass the man further by resorting to silence. So, she asks him to define what he means. The man replies, that it is almost similar to being a brunette but a dark brunette. All this while, the man has been holding on to codes of formality which breaks loose at the landlady’s insensitiveness. The African man now shouts out loud saying that he is black but he is not that black for anyone to be put to shame. He also says that the soles of his feet and the palms of his hand are all white but he is a fool that he sits on his rear which has turned black due to friction. He knows that the landlady will never be convinced with his black complexion and he senses that she might slam down the receiver on him. At such a crucial juncture, he makes a desperate and silly attempt to plead her to come and take a good look at him but couldn’t help the situation from getting worse. Finally, the landlady slams down the  receiver on his face. Harlem ‘Harlem’ by Langston Hughes reflects the post World War II mood of many African Americans. The Great Depression was over, the war was over, but for African Americans the dream, whatever particular form it took, was still being deferred. Whether one’s dream is as mundane as hitting the numbers or as noble as hoping to see one’s children reared properly, Langston Hughes takes them all seriously; he takes the deferral of each dream to heart. Harlem simply asks, and provides a series of disturbing answer to the questions, â€Å"what happens to a dream deferred?† A closer reading reveals the essential disunity of the poem. It is a ground of unresolved conflict. Five of the six answers to the opening questions are interrogative rather than declarative sentences. The ‘dream deferred’ is the long- postponed and frustrated dream of African Americans; a dream of freedom, equality, dignity, opportunity and success. This poem concentrates, on possib le reaction to the deferral of a dream. The whole poem (Harlem) is built in the structure of rhetoric. The speaker of the poem is black poet. Black people were given the dreams of equity and equality. But these dreams never came true. Despite legal, political and social consensus to abolish the apartheid, black people could never experience the indiscriminate society. In other worlds, their dream never came true. Blacks are promised dreams of equality, justice, freedom, indiscrimination, but not fulfilled. They are delayed, deferred and postponed. Only promissory note has been given but has never been brought into reality.The speaker rhetorically suggests that the dreams will explode and destroy all the limitations imposed upon them. After that the society of their dream will be born. When the dream is postponed or deferred or delayed, it brings frustration, it dries up like a raisin in the sun but there is wet inside, likewise it stinks like rotten meat, it becomes fester like a sore and one day it will explode and cause larger social damages. The poem is in the form of a series of questions, a certain inhabitant of Harlem asks. The first image in the poem is â€Å"dream dries up like a raisin†. The simile likens the original dream to a grape, which is sound, juicy, green and fresh since the dream has been neglected for too long, it has probably dried up. The next image in the poem â€Å"fester like† a sore and then run† conveys a sense of infection and pain. Comparing the  dream to a sore of a body, the poet suggests that unfulfilled dreams become part of us, like a longstanding injury that has gathered pus. The word â€Å"fester† connotes something decay and â€Å"run† literally refers to pus. From this viewpoint of the speaker, this denotes to the pain that one has when one’s dreams always defers. A postponed dream is like a painful injury that begins to be infected. The next image â€Å"Does it stink like rotten meat† intensified the sense of disgust.

Creative And Critical Thinking Among Students Education Essay

â€Å" 7,987 directly As in SPM † screamed the headlines of major newspapers when the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia consequences were announced on the 10th of March 2010. The arrested development with academic accomplishments among Malaysians knew no bounds. Every twelvemonth, exhilaration and joy, anxiousness and letdown, pervade among pupils, parents and instructors when the Ministry of Education and Malaysian Examination Board releases the consequences of public scrutinies, be it UPSR, PMR, SPM and STPM. The compulsion with academic accomplishment is dominating all other facets of a holistic instruction system in Malaysia. The Malayan Education Philosophy clearly states that the function of the school course of study is to guarantee the holistic development of the single mentally, physically, spiritually and emotionally by leaving general cognition and accomplishments ; cultivating, transfusing and furthering healthy attitudes and recognized moral values. The course of study aims to convey forth the Malayan citizen who is a balanced and all-around person, trained, adept, and cherishes the national aspiration for integrity. Why all the ballyhoo with pupils ‘ academic accomplishments? Harmonizing to Professor Dr. Ray Wilks, Head of the School of Psychology, International Medical University, there is no grounds to demo a positive correlativity between academic accomplishment in scrutiny and acquisition. Learning should non be about go throughing scrutinies. â€Å" We should alternatively make more wonder in kids ‘s acquisition to foster creativeness and innovativeness, † says Professor Dr. Ray Wilks. Indeed, the instruction systems in Malaysia purposes to model persons to go better Malaysians with the right attitudes, and to fit them with the cognition and accomplishments necessary in the 21st century to do Malaysia a developed state by the twelvemonth 2020. To run into the challenges of the 20 first-century and Vision 2020, learning and learning patterns and school direction are invariably reviewed to develop persons who are technologically literate and can lend to a originative and advanced work force. This transmutation will imply altering the school civilization, from one that is preponderantly memory-based to one that stimulates believing, creativeness, and innovativeness. Yet the importance placed on academic accomplishment has earnestly impacted on the ability and efficiency of the Malayan instruction system in developing holistic persons that are able to manage the challenges of life after formal schooling. In fact many a times, newspapers highlighted employers ailments that school departers and even university ‘s alumnuss have jobs discoursing and pass oning efficaciously, allow entirely to believe critically and creatively. In add-on the deficiency of critical and originative thought abilities among Malaysians school departers and university alumnuss has been pinpointed by the Minister of Human Resource, Datuk Dr. S Subramaniam, as one of the chief jobs lending to their low marketability in the occupation market. The deficiency of believing accomplishments among the present and future work force of the state will halter the state ‘s attempts toward accomplishing a developed state position by 2020. What are critical and originative thought? Critical thought is a type of believing that converges on a individual idea or entity. One must form, analyse or measure information, which might besides be broken into parts and taught explicitly. A cognitive procedure complimentary to, but different than critical thought, is originative thought. This believing diverges from a individual idea or entity. One must bring forth, synthesise, happen options, adapt, replacement, or elaborate. Critical and originative thought are the edifice blocks that will do certain our pupils will hold the required thought accomplishments to win in life and at work and guarantee the attainment of Vision 2020. Detractors of attempts to stress critical and originative thought in the course of study have point to the possibility of poorer academic accomplishments as a effect. However, research has shown that when pupils develop their thought accomplishments by looking beyond the obvious, doing originative connexions, developing schemes, doing determinations, be aftering in front and reflecting, they besides improved their academic public presentation. Therefore, stressing critical and originative thought will augment academic accomplishment. How to promote critical and originative thought? One manner is to cut down the accent on the usage summational appraisals such as UPSR, PMR and SPM. Summational appraisals are used for categorising pupils and emphasize the usage of written scrutinies. The UPSR and PMR summational appraisal have deviated from its original intent of naming larning jobs with the purpose of fixing remedial actions to better pupils larning. They are now used to stream kids into categories. In psychological footings, it is bad to label kids. It is positive support for smart kids, as defined by our appraisal system, but non for the kids who do non make good. The tools used in our public scrutinies are picking up all the rote scholars. Professor Dr Ray Wilks says, â€Å" From a psychological point of position, to label a kid of 12 is a sort of life sentence. † He further provinces that experiments have shown that if we tell instructors that a kid is of certain achievement degree, they will learn to th at point. The instructors will non raise their instruction to the following degree for that kid. Alternatively we should promote more formative appraisal in the acquisition environments. Formative appraisal besides called uninterrupted appraisal is a more dependable manner to look at the acquisition procedure. School-based uninterrupted appraisal looks at broader instruction accomplishments, such as communicating, critical and originative thought, and teamwork, instead than merely textbook accomplishments. These accomplishments are assessed by instructors through activities like arguments, play, analyzing issues and undertaking work. Formative appraisals besides provide diagnostic information to enable instructors to help pupils with larning troubles. Furthermore, when there are less public scrutinies, kids can hold more clip to research other involvements such as music and humanistic disciplines that would assist instil creativeness in them. â€Å" I ‘ve ever wanted my kids to larn to play the piano, but they are ever tired after schools and tuition, † says one parent. With less scrutiny, instructors will besides hold more clip to form field trips and jaunts, which will let pupils to be in contact with nature and detect new larning chances for critical and originative thought that may non be present in the schoolroom. Given appropriate chances, kids can prosecute in sophisticated cognitive procedures. Research suggests that either excessively much or excessively small construction can forestall development of critical and originative thought and in the procedure kids are non equipped with active and strategic attacks to larning undertakings. Therefore, appropriate instructional attacks could consequences in pupils heightening their critical and originative thought accomplishments. Three attacks are normally used in the instruction of believing accomplishments: stand-alone attack, submergence attack and embedded attack. Stand-alone attack consists of learning believing accomplishments separate from capable affair content. In this instance a general set of thought accomplishments are identified and taught as a separate class or capable. Students are taught how to reassign the accomplishments to assorted topics and state of affairss. However, believing accomplishments taught in isolation tend to consequences in pupils holding jobs reassigning believing accomplishments to academic or existent universe jobs. The submergence attack does non affect learning believing accomplishments. Rather it allows good thought to develop of course as a consequence of pupils being to the full engaged or immersed in content-related activities which calls for higher degrees of thought. Students are provided with perennial patterns in complex cognitive activities with the premise that they will finally develop the necessary cognitive accomplishments to successfully prosecute in high-ranking thought. However, research has shown that merely plunging pupils in thought activities is non an effectual instructional attack. The embedded attack involves learning believing accomplishments within a subject-matter context. Thinking accomplishments are taught in scientific discipline, societal surveies, linguistic communication, humanistic disciplines, and some other topics. Students than use these accomplishments straight to the peculiar topic being studied. This allows pupils to utilize the accomplishments in a meaningful context and helps them larn the capable affair more profoundly. An embedded attack is an effectual manner to learn believing accomplishments. Rather than an extra topic, believing accomplishments are used to heighten whatever course of study presently being taught. Training instructors in specific instructional attacks means that schools must put in instructors ‘ professional development. Instructional attacks that help instructors incorporate a â€Å" acquisition to believe † constituent into their course of study empower pupils to take duty for bettering their thought and acquisition. Although cognitive development is merely one portion of a kid ‘s overall development, it is indispensable that instructors respond to the community demand for and the kid ‘s right to cognitive competency. Teacher developing suppliers need to go cognizant of the benefits of certain instructional attacks on pupil public presentation and integrated preparation in such attacks in their classs. Therefore, in decision, Malaysia needs to guarantee that its future coevals does non merely execute good academically but should possess the ability to believe critically and creatively. All Malaysians should back up the integrating of critical and originative thought in its educational course of study. It should non merely simply be stated in printed paperss. Affirmative actions should be put in topographic point to guarantee that the instruction and acquisition of critical and originative thought is actualized in the schoolroom context. Lest, Vision 2020 remains a dream and Malaysia will bumble in its ability to accomplish the New Economic Model towards accomplishing 1Malaysia, â€Å" Peoples First, Performance Now † . ( 1497 words )

William Apess and Frederick Douglass Research Paper

William Apess and Frederick Douglass - Research Paper Example William Apess and Frederick Douglass were both men who accepted and adhered to the Christian faith while championing social causes for their people. William Apess is a Christian minister and missionary who works among his people and fights for their recognition of their status as worthy human beings. Apess’ writings â€Å"illuminates the meaning of the colonial and post-colonial relationship between Native Americans and the white dominant culture as well as an understanding of the violence that permeates that relationship† (Moon 45). Equally, Frederick Douglas is an ex-slave who was educated and sought to sensitize the American public on injustices against slaves and African Americans. Both men persist in laboring as advocates of human rights through their writings. Their writings classified as protest writing â€Å"found enthusiastic supporters among the entire literate black population whose resentment and indignation it voiced†¦the motivating force was that onc e they became aware of the situation, the powerful white minority would do something to improve matters† (Gaylard 20). Composed during the Abolitionist Movement and Reconstruction Era, these literary works stress the superficiality and hypocrisy of the Christian Whites in their support of institutionalized, discriminatory oppression - employing their own ideologies and religious doctrines to control the masses. The superficiality of the White man's doctrine is a point of argument in Apess' work. Apess observes that one â€Å"may learn how deep (the White man's) principles are...I should say they were skin deep† (Apess). The foundation of the objections to non-Whites’ enjoyment of their human dignity and privileges is based on the skin pigmentation. Skin color has no inherent value in any substantial and profound argument since what lies on the inside forms the core and matters most. Contrary to the racial Whites, Apess’ major concern is â€Å"†¦not talking about the skin, but about principles† (Apess). In his day, Apess would have been familiar with the Great Chain of Being philosophy which privileges the Whites at the head of the human race and relegates the Other to occupy lower tiers (Lovejoy 27). American Whites manipulated this concept to justify their subhuman treatment of other races. Frederick Douglass also perceived the superficiality of racism re alizing that â€Å"there was a skin aristocracy in America; no not exactly the skin, it was the colour of the skin, that was the mark of distinction or the brand of degradation† (Blassingame 50). Greed and prejudice constitute the vices that spurred discrimination. As a consequence, millions have lived broken lives and died deaths worse than an animal’s. The slavery was founded on skin color without regard for other more sterling and lasting qualities such as character. Douglass marvels at the preoccupation with something so trivial, yet which bears so much weight. The usage of skin color as a means to exalt oneself and debase another reveals the superficiality of the premises of racism. In time, the surface of any object is defaced and gradually stripped away. External appearances deceive however, only the content of character is real and enduring. As a Christian minister himself, Apess makes a stirring appeal to the tenets of Christianity, the so-called White man's r eligion. White men would use their religion to validate conquest, segregation, and the institution of slavery, however, Apess wields the Holy Bible, the book which instructs Christians in defense of human rights, equality, justice and brotherhood. Apess cites in his stirring appeal that â€Å"God is no respecter of persons; †¦By this shall all men know that they are my disciples, if ye have love one to

Kerala Sustainable Urban Development Project (KSUDP) Research Paper

Kerala Sustainable Urban Development Project (KSUDP) - Research Paper Example The study indicates a sequence of mechanisms to mend municipal substructure services with the incorporation of underprivileged settlements in the town expansion procedure. Precisely, the Project will deliver simple substructure services to upsurge financial openings and to decrease susceptibility to ecological ruin and civic inadequacy and improve city governance and upsurge volume of the civic corporations to assume town design activities. The Project will as well emphasis on refining the settings of the poor by taking responsibility of municipal substructure progress and poverty mitigation actions at every civic corporation. Introduction After Independence, India pursued a unique combination of ‘mixed economic’ policy. As of the initial 1980s, there was an ongoing policy change in the direction of opening up the economy and marketplace restructuring. As against to the preceding 40 years, strategy as of 1990 is considered through reform of markets, globalization, deregu lation and governing back of the public sector. However, the procedure of transformation is steady and the responsibility of the government remains central in nearly all areas of the economy. Zonal yield and impact to GDP demonstrate an accustomed form of emergent nations. Growth in farming sector is irregular, industrial progress is optimistic but rational and the services sector has delivered the dynamic push behind the fiscal progression attained in the previous decade. The municipal regions are the net providers to GDP. Appraisals of the involvement of municipal regions to GDP are about 50% to 60% (NIUA, 2001), at higher level of suburbanization of 28% of the populace. The assessed per capita efficiency ratio amid the city and countryside populaces in India is 7:2. (Suresh, 1998) Fiscal progresses in India are consequently reliant on the city regions and their capability to draw investment, upsurge production and sustain to deliver the effort for service segment performance. Con secutively, this capability will rest on the capacity of towns to provide substructure services and offer a suitable urban environs and excellence of life. It is likely that production growth in the services segment has been a main underwriting feature, alongside essential vicissitudes in the fiscal system. GDP per capita has improved comparing to the previous years. In 2003 the assessed GDP per capita was only Rs.25, 700, an equivalent of US$560 (ADB, 2004). This study looks in to the infrastructure development of southern state of Kerala’s five major cities, Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Kochi, Trissur, and Kozhikode through the project Kerala sustainable urban development plan (KSUDP, 2005). Kerala Sustainable Urban Development Project -Thiruvananthapuram The mission is to inspire sustainable financial development and poverty elimination in urban Kerala through the setting up of urban substructure services and the elevation of respectable municipal governance to city local o rganizations in Kerala. The study involves a series of mechanisms to expand city wide municipal substructure services with the addition of poor reimbursements inside the whole municipal growth procedure. Explicitly, the Project will deliver rudimentary substructure services to upsurge financial openings and to lessen susceptibility to ecological ruin and urban scarcity, and advance municipal authority and upsurge ability of the municipal organizations to assume municipal scheduling events. The Project will as well emphasis on