Idealism: Education and Character Development Essay

Educational Aims In an idealistic education system emphasis should be placed on developing the mind, personal discipline, and character development. A person should be literate and of good moral character. Educational Methods Idealist education involves depth of learning, a holistic approach that involves teaching the whole rather than its parts. The best method of learning for Plato was the dialectic, a process where ideas are put into battle against each other, with the most significant idea winning the battle. Knowledge was not important just for the material needs that it met. Idealists would feel that much of the great literature of the past would be useful in the solving many of today’s problems. The idealist is not concerned with turning out students with technical skills so much as having students with a broad view and understanding of the world in which they live. Idealism emphasizes the role of the teacher, a skillful questioner, who should be a model for the person we want children to become. While the lecture method is still important in an idealist’s education system, it is considered more of a way to convey information and to help students comprehend ideas. Self realization and self education are very important in idealism. While teachers cannot always be present when learning occurs, they must attempt to stimulate students so that learning occurs even when they are not present. Project based learning is on example of a self directed learning activity where learning can occur without a teacher’s presence. Curriculum The important factor in education at any level for idealists is teaching children to think. Teachers should help students to explore texts for ideas about the purposes of life, family the nature of peer pressures, and the problems of growing up. Idealists believe that ideas can change lives and that classical literature can be used and explored to help solve problems in today’s world. Creativity will be encouraged when students immerse themselves in the creative thinking of others and when they are encouraged to reflect. Role of the Teacher Since idealists believe in character development, they also believe that the teacher should be a role model for students to emulate. Teaching is considered a moral calling. The teacher’s role is to be a skillful questioner who encourages students to think and ask more questions in an environment that is suitable for learning. Critiques of Idealism Idealism has been influential in education for a considerable amount of time. It is considered a conservative philosophy because of its emphasis in preserving cultural traditions. The strengths of idealism include encouraging thinking and cognition, promoting cultural learning, and providing for character development of students. Teachers are considered valuable parts of the educational process who should strive to provide a comprehensive, systematic, and holistic approach to learning that stresses self realization. Science today has challenged idealism and brought about challenges to idealistic principles. Science is based on hypothesis and tentativeness, but idealism promotes a finished and absolute universe waiting to be discovered. Idealism has often been linked with traditional religion. The weakening of religion has led to the weakening of idealism as a philosophy. Through Plato’s ruler kings, and Augustine’s emphasis on the monastic life, it has been said that idealism leads to intellectual elitism. In the past, education was considered important for the upper classes of society, marking education as a luxury. Vocational and technical studies were considered good enough for the general public. Idealistic education was considered bookish and lacking relevance. It is argued that the character development aspect of the philosophy involved conformity and subservience on the part of the learner. This type of character development was considered to stifle creativity and self direction, making students gullible and ready to accept ideas without serious examination. Personal Observations The emphasis on the importance of knowledge and ideas in the idealist philosophy originally led me to believe that much of my philosophy of education included idealistic tendencies. James Madison’s quote that knowledge is power, which sits front and center on my class webpage, seems to agree with this premise. Because I believe strongly in project based education as a way to have students discover and learn new information, I also began to view the idealism in my thinking. However, as much as I value these things and continue to believe in the importance of continually gaining knowledge, the fact that I view science and technology as a valued part of all education, sets me apart from the philosophy. While the idealist considered science and technical studies good enough for the general public, I consider them an integral part of any education. However I do believe in the importance of teaching children to think, for not doing so results in children with book learning and no common sense. Should teachers be role models? Yes, I think they should. If I were an adult with no children, I might think differently. However as a parent, I have always been greatly concerned with the people who were my children’s teachers. Teachers have the power to influence the thinking and ideas of children and society in general. Even given regimented curricula to teach, teachers ultimately make decisions everyday about what information to emphasize or deemphasize. I think society also believes that teachers should be role models. Consider the uproar over teachers who have inappropriate relations with the students they teach.

The Tempest as a Power Struggle Between the New and the Old World

To what extent do you agree that The Tempest is a power struggle between the old and the new world? Shakespeare’s Plays II Assignment 1 Rocio Corral Garcia 119042576 It is generally accepted that Shakespeare’s Play The Tempest is complex in many senses, but it cannot be denied that it is especially rich in terms of interpretation. A huge variety of critical analyses have been written about Shakespeare’s last play suggesting different possible approaches to it, such as human salvation, magic, colonisation and power.This essay will focus on the struggle between the old and the new world, which is one of the major themes in this play and that can be easily applied to politics and conspiracy in their more broad sense. Prospero is a European who dominates the island on his own and he is able to do so because he has magic powers. In this way he controls the island and its inhabitants by combining threats of force, promises of freedom and all kind of techniques characte ristic of a proper dictator. He takes charge of the island which does not belong to him and exerts his power over the inhabitants, forcing them to serve him as slaves.It is almost impossible to draw a parallelism between this situation and the European colonial power in North America during the XVII century. Thus, it may be assumed that the old world stands for Europe and all its common practices and customs while the new world is represented by the uncivilised island. Throughout the whole play the reader is able to find several occasions in which the struggle between the new and the old world is very noticeable. In the first scene of the play, for example, we find the exchange between Prospero and Miranda talking about what has been left in the old world: dukedom and serving women.For them, living in the island means abandoning all these things and implementing facets of the new world. Miranda has been educated by her father following the old world rules but at the same time she ha s learned the secrets of the island by Caliban. Caliban is a native of the island who rails against language and is forced to submit. He reveals against all those things related to the old world, since he belongs to the new one. This fighting is constant along the play. Then, on the second act Shakespeare presents the difference between the new and the old world in terms of appearance.That is to say, the green and the light of the new world contrast with the European world. The new world is wild and uncivilised. Gonzalo has his own dream which is labelled as a utopian view of the island. He portrays it without order and hierarchy. In his new world there would not be chaos because everyone will be happy: I' the commonwealth I would by contraries Execute all things; for no kind of traffic Would I admit; no name of magistrate; Letters should not be known; riches, poverty, And use of service, none; contract, succession, Bourn, bound of land, tilth, vineyard, none; No use of metal, corn, or wine, or oil;No occupation; all men idle, all; And women too, but innocent and pure; No sovereignty; The reader may acknowledge this as the internal fight men had in this era. Following this scene we find the metaphor of the drunken servant men that come to the island and they imagine that they are able to rule it, thinking that they will secure the loyalty of a native through gifts and the promise of benevolent ruling. This metaphor is made on the basis of a strong parallelism with the real accounts of the colonisation. So, there cannot be any reading of The Tempest without considering it as a study of colonialism.During the colonisation the struggle between the colonizers and the colonized world was a constant feature, so this view support the idea that The Tempest is a clear example of the struggle between the old and the new world. The English colonial project is on Shakespeare’s mind throughout the play, as almost every character, from Gonzalo to Stephano, imagines h ow he would rule the island if he were its king. Shakespeare seems as well to be influenced by Montagne’s essay â€Å"Of the Cannibals† since the name of Prospero’s servant is Caliban could be an anagram of â€Å"cannibal†.Prospero stands for the dominant part in his relationship with Caliban and his allusions to him are most the time is contemptuous. Prospero describes Caliban as: â€Å"Devil, a born devil on whose nature, Nurture can never stick† This description of Caliban is quite similar to those descriptions of the â€Å"savages† by Captain John Smith who set the first English settlement in Jamestown, or to those descriptions given by Mary Rowlandson later in the XVII century.These descriptions fit perfectly with Prospero’s concept of Caliban, so maybe Shakespeare’s intention here is to make a direct link between the current accounts of the colonisation process and the situation of the play. Again, this makes a clear inst ance that the play wants to portray the confrontation between the old and the new world. This clear struggle in the play between the new and the old world may be emphasized by political themes associated with Caliban’s conspiracy and Prospero’s colonialist control of the island. This essay will focus now on the political issue of the play.On the one hand, it may be clear that usurpation is the main political theme pervading the play. The possibility of usurpation is precisely what allows Prospero to legitimise and sustain his totalitarism on the island. Paradoxically, he was first usurped from his throne and it is him who repeats that behaviour in the island. Prospero’s power is proved by Caliban’s resistance. Caliban stands for the main dissident voice in the play. His threatening integration of Prospero’s rhetoric makes him a dangerous insider to the established system: â€Å"You taught me language, and my profit on ’tIs I know how to cur se. The red plague rid you For learning me your language! † Caliban’s use of language illustrates perfectly the potential to resistance contained within power. , and Prospero’s response to Caliban consists in violent outbursts of rage: â€Å"Hag-seed, hence! Fetch us in fuel. And be quick, thou ‘rt best, To answer other business. Shrug’st thou, malice? If thou neglect’st or dost unwillingly What I command, I’ll rack thee with old cramps, Fill all thy bones with aches, make thee roar That beasts shall tremble at thy din. Prospero’s violence hardly hides his terror at Caliban’s appropriation of his language. On the other hand, the play deals perfectly with the topic of conspiracy, being Caliban its maximum exponent. Caliban resists to Prospero’s authority, but this authority may be called into question, since Prospero gets it by means of usurpation. Anyway, Caliban’s role is essential in terms of resistance; h owever, by depriving Prospero by his unique discourse, he represents the existence of alternative voices in the island.He exposes three different versions of the past in the island: Caliban’s, Ariel’s and Prospero’s, although it is the latest the one who succeed. Prospero appropriates the past of the island, and he rewrites history according to his own standards, in order to construct a credible narrative. Caliban shows his resistance: â€Å"This island’s mine, by Sycorax my mother, Which thou takest from me† Prospero manages to make his version the one to be trusted. He describes Sycorax as the malevolent witch, a chaos and evil, which contrasts with him, the balance.This is another actual clue that asserts the play as the struggle between the new and the old world. Prospero assures that it was Sycorax who imprisoned Ariel and it was him who released Ariel. It seems that Sycorax is dead, since she does not appear on stage, but her presence lurks o minously in the background. Despite her physical absence from the play Sycorax has great importance. In the politics of the play she serves an ideological function as she is constructed as the evil witch, the ‘other', through which Prospero's ownership of the island is legitimised.She is constructed as being the antithesis to Prospero – female, non-European and evil – and Prospero uses her to justify his acts of dispossession. Prospero shapes the past on his own way. However, the presence of other rivals frightens Prospero, and his anxiety increases as it is shown with his irrational outburst of anger at Caliban’s command of language. Besides, in the island there are different ideological ways of thinking, such as Gonzalo’s political manifesto mentioned above â€Å"No sovereignty† (2. 1, 156). Indeed, Gonzalo’s utopia is likely to the real hierarchy in the island, ince there is a king but without sovereignty. Another aspect of the play that may be related to politics is the marriage between Miranda and Ferinand, since it serves as an agreement between the old world, here represented by Ferinand, and the new world, embodied by Miranda. In this way the marriage stands as a peace treaty between both worlds. It might represent a political marriage, which were very common during the Elizabethan period. The reader may find another political marriage in the play, since in Act II Alonso’s daughter marries the king of Tunis against her wishes.But this is not the case of Miranda, since she falls in love to Ferinand at the first glance. However, this marriage is a sort of business because Miranda is a political tool in Prospero’s plan. Besides, it is very interesting that Miranda is the only female character on an island full of men. She makes possible the reconciliation and redemption of both, Prospero and Alonso. The most important value of Miranda is her chastity which enables the marriage. Virginity is a m atter of politics in the play, since with Miranda being not pure the marriage would not be possible.But Prospero makes sure that her daughter is virgin and emphasizes Miranda’s purity linking her to her mother: Thy mother was a piece of virtue, and She said thou wast my daughter; and thy father Was Duke of Milan, and his only heir And princess no worse issued. Finally, it may be concluded that The Tempest presents different instances of the struggle between the old and the new world, and that Shakespeare draws a strong parallelism with the issue of colonisation and the plot of the play. It might be also acknowledged that there is a final reconciliation between both worlds which is sealed by Miranda and Ferinand’s marriage.Although this play was composed in the XVII century, there are several timeless topics that Shakespeare portrays like political usurpation, conspiracy and struggle for power, that occupy a first place in present day life. Bibliography Primary texts: S hakespeare, William. The Riverside Shakespeare, ed. G. Blakemore Evans. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1974 Secondary texts: Free Tempest Essays: â€Å"Relevance of The Tempest Today† Retrieved February 26, 2012 from: http://www. 123HelpMe. com/view. asp? id=7486 Gibson, Rex. The Tempest. Cambridge Student Guides. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,2006.Hamilton, Donna B. Virgil and The Tempest: The Politics of Imitation . Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1990. Montaigne, Michael de, The Complete Essays. London: Penguin,2003. ——————————————– [ 1 ]. Gonzalo’s speech. (2. 1,123-32) [ 2 ]. Montagne, Michael de. The Complete Essays. Trans. M. A. Screech. London: Penguin, 2003 [ 3 ]. Prospero’s description of Caliban (4. 1,188-9) [ 4 ]. Caliban’s speech (1. 2,369-70) [ 5 ]. Prospero’s speech (1. 2,371-76) [ 6 ]. Caliban’s words (1. 2,334. 5) [ 7 ]. Prospero’s speech (1. 2,56-59)

Lowering the minimum legal drinking age to 18

There has been a lot of discussion about whether or not that lowering the minimum legal drinking age to 18 would help reduce the amount of binge drinking among people under age 21. The evidence from recent history and research do not support this change. Some have argued that lowering the drinking age will reduce the allure of alcohol as a â€Å"forbidden fruit† for minors. In fact, research suggests that lowering the drinking age will make alcohol more available to an even younger population, replacing â€Å"forbidden fruit† with â€Å"low-hanging fruit. The practices and behaviors of 18 year-olds are particularly influential on 15 to 17 year-olds (Bonnie, p. 38-58, 1980). If 18 year-olds get the OK to drink, they will be modeling drinking for younger teens. Legal access to alcohol for 18 year-olds will provide more opportunities for younger teens to obtain it illegally from older peers, making enforcement that much more difficult among high school students. For this reason, parents and schools strongly supported the age-21 MLDA (Bonnie, p. 38-58, 1980). Finally, the following is a response from U. S. Surgeon General RADM Steven K. Galson, about lowering the drinking age. â€Å"We all should be very concerned about the extent and consequences of underage drinking. The fact is when youth drink, they tend to drink heavily. Today, we know more about the effects of underage alcohol use on health than ever before. For example, the science tells us that underage drinking can have serious health and safety consequences, such as motor vehicle crashes and sexual assaults. New research is also emerging on the potential harm alcohol may have on the developing brain which continues to mature well into the 20s. So based on the most recent research and the information contained in the Surgeon General's Call to Action to prevent and Reduce Underage Drinking, I believe that drinking under the age of 21 is not worth the risk. †(Bonnie, p. 38-58, 1980) The next topic that I am going to explain is that why do violent video games lead to an increase in crime. This article presents a brief overview of existing research on the effects of exposure to violent video games. An updated meta-analysis reveals that exposure to violent video games is significantly linked to increases in aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition, aggressive affect, and cardiovascular arousal, and to decreases in helping behavior. Experimental studies reveal this linkage to be causal. Correlational studies reveal a linkage to serious, real-world types of aggression. Methodologically weaker studies yielded smaller effect sizes than methodologically stronger studies, suggesting that previous meta-analytic studies of video games underestimate the true magnitude of observed deleterious effects on behavior, cognition, and affect (Anderson, 2004). Of course, anecdotal accounts of such incidents do not provide a solid scientific basis for public policy decisions or for the testing and development of relevant scientific theories of aggression. But there is considerable theory and research on both the immediate impact of a single brief exposure to media violence and the long term impact of repeated exposure to such violence (e. g. Donnerstein, Slaby, ; Eron, 1994; Huesmann ; Miller, 1994; Anderson ; Bushman, 2001; Bushman ; Huesmann, 2001; Anderson ; Bushman, 2002a; Anderson et al. , in press; Anderson ; Huesmann, 2003). Three findings are particularly important. First, as more studies of violent video games have been conducted, the significance of violent video game effects on key aggression and helping related variables has become clearer. Second, the claim (or worry) that a poor methodological characteristic of some studies has led to a false, inflated conclusion about violent video game effects is simply wrong. Third, video game studies with better methods typically yield bigger effects, suggesting that heightened concern about deleterious effects of exposure to violent video games is warranted. Three major types of studies have clearly and consistently linked media violence to aggressive and violent behavior: experimental, cross-sectional (correlational); and longitudinal. Social-cognitive models of human aggression clearly link exposure to media violence to subsequent aggressive and violent behavior at both the theoretical and empirical levels (e. g. Huesmann, 1988; Anderson ; Bushman, 2002a; Anderson ; Huesmann, in press). Lastly, I am going to discuss why that Social networking is a healthy activity and is largely harmless. Everyday a teenager gets on the computer to log on to Facebook, to check emails, to see what everyone else is doing, and sometimes they are getting bullied on the computer. Social networking can have its pros and cons when dealing with everyday life. Social networking can be very dangerous to our youth and here is a couple of inserts that prove my analysis. You have pedophiles stalking young children because they have an illness. You also have males pretending to be females, because they are hiding their infatuations about the other person behind the computer. In the case involving the 15-year-old girl, police said the man met the girl online in November, when he contacted her through her profile at MySpace, and they later exchanged cell phone numbers. Police said they met face to face for the first time at a military installation and from there began to have a consensual sexual relationship. The suspect did not have a home of his own and arranged meetings with the victim at his friend's home or in his friend's vehicle unbeknownst to the girl's parents, police said. Police learned of the case in January when the girl was identified as an unescorted minor by security at the front gate of the military installation. She told military investigators that she was having a sexual relationship with the man, who worked until then as a civilian employee for the Department of Defense. As a result of the investigation, the man was barred from the base, and he has since been terminated from his job (Rod Antone, 2006). Fifteen percent of all of the youth reported an unwanted sexual solicitation online in the last year; 4% reported an incident on a social networking site specifically. Thirty-three percent reported an online harassment in the last year; 9% reported an incident on a social networking site specifically. Among targeted youth, solicitations were more commonly reported via instant messaging (43%) and in chat rooms (32%), and harassment was more commonly reported in instant messaging (55%) than through social networking sites (27% and 28%, respectively)( Ybarra, M. L. , & Mitchell, K. J. , 2008). This is only a couple scenarios that I have listed to prove that social networking can harm our youth so let’s protect our youth and monitor what they do on the computer. References Anderson, Craig A. (2004). â€Å"An update on the effects of playing violent video games,†Journal of Adolescence 27, 113–122. Bonnie, RJ, â€Å"Discouraging Unhealthy Personal Choices through Government Regulation: Some Thoughts about the Minimum Drinking Age,† In Minimum-Drinking-Age Laws, Wechsler, H (Ed.), Lexington, MA: DC Heath Co., p39-58, 1980.) Donnerstein, E., Slaby, R. G., & Eron, L. D. (1994). The mass media and youth aggression. In L. D. Eron,J.H. Gentry, & P.Schlegel (Eds.), Reason to hope: A psychosocial perspective on violence and youth (pp.219–250).Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Rod Antone, 2006. â€Å"Another isle man allegedly baits teen victim on MySpace,† Honolulu Star Bulletin (9 March), at http://starbulletin.com/2006/03/09/news/story05.html, accessed 21 March 2006. Ybarra, M. L., & Mitchell, K. J. (2008). How risky are social networking sites? A comparison of places online where youth sexual solicitation a nd harassment occurs. Pediatrics, 121(2), e350-e357.

GLOBAL WARMING Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

GLOBAL WARMING - Assignment Example But as long as they are unable to bring out the clear guidelines for identifying the offenders of the past , it would create a huge void in their initiatives to mobilize public support. Again the lack of confidence that they show for a open forum discussion exemplifies the political diplomacy rather than political commitment. And, being a commercial organization, the stand taken by Exxon cannot be refuted. Unless a clear evidence and scientific reasoning of the global warming is not related to the specific industrial emissions , it would be impossible for a commercial operator to limit their operations when their role as environmental culprit is still unproven. Hence, from the business perspective the action of Exxon cannot considered as unethical but could be branded as environmentally indifferent organization due to the dubious role for mobilizing other industrial owners for their own specific

Conflict Between Research and Ethics Paper Essay

Conflict Between Research and Ethics Paper - Essay Example Thirty years have passed since the completion of Tuskegee Syphilis Study, however, the society is still horrified with the unethical treatment of minorities group under this study. Recently, President Bush has addressed the public with the speech in which he has apologized for the actions of medical professionals for shifting the health dangers to specific minority groups. The Tuskegee Syphilis Study was conducted for forty years (1932-1972) with 400 poor and illiterate African Americans became part of it. This study has arisen many debates in society with the majority labeling it as unethical. First, the study was conducted without the proper care to its subjects and has resulted in the changes in how the patients are protected if they participated in medical researches. Second, not a single person has given an informed consent and was not informed about the diagnosis. These people who have agreed to participate were told that they have bad blood and are able to receive the free treatment (Gray, 1998). It is hardly possible for the similar situation to occur today because the research participants are not only protected by ethics, but by the law as well. Not a single study will start if the participants have not given the informed consent and are aware about all possible outcomes and side effects of acquired disease and treatment procedure. Of course, it is not always possible to predict all possible effects of the tested treatments and their impact on the human body (the medical research is conducted in the struggle to find out the more effective treatment), however, it is possible to predict some of the effects and the participants should be informed about them. The Tuskegee Syphilis Study was the continuation of the Oslo Study (1928) with the only difference that Oslo study was retrospective - the health professionals have studied the patients who have already contracted syphilis and remained untreated for some time, while under Tuskegee study was prospective - the health professionals could observe and study the patients (nothing could be done therapeutically). Eventually the study has become the longest experiment on human beings in the medical history in the result of which 74 individuals have remained alive, 28 males have died directly because of syphilis, 100 died because of complications, 40 wives have been infected and 19 children were born with syphilis (Jones, 1993). It is obvious that the initial goal to benefit the society was not accomplished and the primary objective of all health professionals - do not harm - has been rudely violated. Dozens of healthy people have been infected intentionally and the harm made to their health and future lives cannot be underestimated. In the further investigation of the conducted research, many interesting details have become known to public. For example, in order to ensure that the patients will show up for the expected diagnosis, all of them have received the misleading letter promising the special free treatment. In addition, all of the participants had to undergo autopsy after death even though nothing was said about this requirement in the beginning. As the result, many of the patients did not receive the treatment they needed - health professionals just observed the fatal progression of the diseases - in other words, doctors observed whether their patients

Shock Advertising and High Fashion Brands Essay

Shock Advertising and High Fashion Brands - Essay Example The paper "Shock Advertising and High Fashion Brands" talks about High Fashion Brands and Shock Advertising. Shock advertising, sex and high fashion brands make an irresistible mix. Over half a century of research has proven to be in favor of sex in advertising as Wikipedia (2005) suggested: â€Å"Further evidence comes from Gallup & Robinson, an advertising and marketing research firm which reports that in more than 50 years of testing advertising effectiveness, it has found the use of the erotic to be a significantly above-average technique in communicating with the marketplace, "although one of the more dangerous for the advertiser. Weighted down with taboos and volatile attitudes, sex is a Code Red advertising technique . . . handle with care . . . seller beware; all of which makes it even more intriguing."† Lately the trend has continued with a lot of strength: â€Å"In recent years ads for jeans, perfumes, and many other products have featured provocative images that we re designed to elicit sexual responses from as large a cross section of the population as possible, to shock by their ambivalence, and often to appeal to repressed sexual desires, which are thought to carry a stronger emotional load†. So shock advertising with a sexual appeal in high fashion brands, mostly in magazines in the United Kingdom, is a hot topic that has been around since the development of Marketing. As Advertising is the communication medium of Marketing, it is not strange that this communicative tool. has been widely used to convey messages of a shocking sexual nature in the high fashion branding efforts of many marketers along the years. This field of study offers multiple, complex and controversial dimensions to be researched. 2.- Research Problem To what extent shock advertising has been applied to high fashion brands. 3.- Research Aim The value of shock advertising to high fashion brands and consumers. 4.- Research Objectives 1.- To study the impact of shock advertising in magazines with a sexual appeal in high fashion brands in the United Kingdom. 2.- To study the relevance of value marketing through the use of shock advertising to enhance the branding image. 5.- Research Area Marketing area: - Advertising - Marketing Research - Product and Brand Management - Consumer and Buyer Behavior 6.- Rationale of the research This study enables the audience to understand the role of shock advertising in the high fashion industry. Also, it allows the viewers to have a comprehensive knowledge with regard to the public attitude towards this advertising strategy. Moreover, this research project helps to find out how shock advertising could be adopted appropriately. (Separate out the usefulness to myself personally and practically, and also to the world in general) 7.- Usefulness of the research By getting into the secrets of value marketing via shock advertising using sexual appeal we can improve our brands in the marketing arena as knowledgeable marketers. It is not easy to decide when to choose shock advertising and to what extent. We have to take into account the context and the medium, among many factors. By studying this topic we can learn a lot about human nature and the consumer's tastes and preferences when it comes to high fashion products. This kind of research is

Why did Menocchio die (in The Cheese and the Worms) Essay

Why did Menocchio die (in The Cheese and the Worms) - Essay Example He also regarded himself as holding occupations as a â€Å"carpenter, sawyer, mason and other things.†1 What made this miller extraordinary were his unique ideas which a typical man, uneducated and of lowly status as he was, does not usually possess. He claimed that he has an â€Å"artful mind† that wanted to seek out higher things that he did not know.2 His extraordinary ideas were the fusion of the ideology derived from his great passion for reading books, especially those that were highly prohibited during his time. The wide circulation of different types of publications and the Roman Catholic Reformation had become catalysts in the formulation of Mennocchio’s belief. The invention of the printing press, which was a significant historical event in Mennocchio’s time had facilitated the publishing of new books and their distribution to the society. This in turn, led to the influx of books and other publications, which reached even the common man like Menocchio.3 The easy access to these sources of new information made knowledge readily available to the people in almost all social classes. Menocchio shared and loaned books with his friends in the village and gained a vast array of new knowledge, as he was always absorbed in reading.4 This new knowledge became a threat to Mennocchio’s life as his new ideology went beyond what the society could and was willing to accept, especially the religious authorities. His voracity for reading had established extremely radical religious philosophies, which were lifted from the books that were prohibited by the priests to be ingested by common individuals. He communicated his opposition to the village, which caused a stir and confusion among them. He was branded as a heretic and was brought to court for inquisition. The court found him guilty of heresy and was punished by lifetime imprisonment. However, he did not stay long in the prison. Three years after, he had convinced the authorities that he had changed. He was

Reflective log on communication Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 6000 words

Reflective log on communication - Essay Example In his writing The Reflective Practitioner, How Professionals Think In Action, Basic Books, Schon highlight the significance of building a reflective dialog in all the environments. As cited by a number of authors, reflective practices are very important tool in today’s world especially in communication and interaction. Managers, leaders and team members encounter a number of challenges while dealing with their customers, clients, staff, and competitors. Besides, the environments of operation usually pose another great threat to the success of managers. For instance managers in the insurance industry embattles with reflective challenges in handling the claims of their clients. Internal staff control is another big shoe for managers as they try to bring together unity and profitability within the working environment. For a corporation to remain profitable and competitive, sales volume is a critical tool. However, achieving the company’s sales target entails conducting an d evaluating the potential customer base, satisfaction and customizing individual needs of the potential clients. Reflective practice is therefore an essential tool in achieving the above mentioned goals. Reflective log practice helps in analyzing clients’ needs and demands. ... A number of models have been proposed to explain the concepts of reflective practices. Schon (1974, p.56) Double Loop Learning) identified single loop and double loop as the most common forms of reflective learning. The theory was founded on amendments and recognition of perceived errors or faults. In the single loop reflective learning, in a more error prone period, companies only embarks on depends on their current strategies to tackle the company crisis and challenges. Double loop learning covers for personalized objectives, goals and strategies which are very comprehensive. It entails problem solving techniques, outsourcing the cause of the problem, advancing prevention mechanism, and making recommendations on possible future strategies for the company prospect. Adaptation of the single and double loop learning model by Argyris and Schon Schon introduced the concept of Reflection-in-action and Reflection-on-action in later time. Reflection-in-action can be explain as the ability of a practitioner to ‘think on their feet’, when there are the problem, thinking ahead, making analyzing, base on my experiencing to getting the point of view in it, after all process to making critically responding. Reflection-on-action on the other hand is the idea that after the experience a practitioner analyses their reaction to the situation and explores the reasons around, and the consequences of, their actions. This is usually conducted though a documented reflection of the situation. Adaptation of the reflective model by Schon Learning log table: (Case Study) Communication Breakdown in an Organization Title Sep 2012 conflict with claims department Meeting with my subordinate -The client apply a medical claims when who is out of

Conduct research on ship broking Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Conduct research on ship broking - Essay Example Ship broking happens through the shipbrokers who act as the mediators or the agents of the vessel owners and the clients (Schramm 2012, p.146). A competitive ship broking is an opportunity-based business where the brokers may swift and smart moves to accomplish their deals. The brokers have diverse understanding of latest market progress within their areas of operations and because of these skills they possess, they are highly valued by charters. There are different types of groups in ship broking depending on the kind of cargo involved. The persons who negotiate and organize the charter of a vessel on behalf the charterer and ship owner are the brokers who specialize in dry cargoes brokering, wet cargoes or tanker brokering (Lange 2011, p.41). The fundamental operation of the shipbrokers is to represent the ship-owner and find the jobs for the ships according to the principals of the vessel owner. In case the shipbrokers represent a cargo interest, the brokers’ role is to find suitable ships for the cargo in accordance with the charterer principals. The broker must have a vast knowledge of vessels and cargoes, information about ports, methods of loading and release of various cargoes, weather patterns, demand, and supply of ships. With the advancement in communications technology and sophisticated computing techniques shipbrokers, networks have intensified the brokering business (Talley 2012, p. 305). With the modern digital communication evolution communication with brokers have become accessible from any part of the globe be it on land, sea, or air. The exchange of information has emerged reliable and affordable. The large amount of data traverses across the world very fast including the details of fixtures because of advanced communication technology (Carter 2014, p.188). The concluded information about profits, and the market reports, government policies, economic

Social and Historical Background Essay Example for Free

Social and Historical Background Essay Dickens was born in Portsmouth, and his father was a naval clerk. Dickens had a rough upbringing, which tormented him and gave him bitterness towards life. At the age of 12 his father was arrested for being in debt and sentenced to imprisonment. This influenced him into writing novels, because he didnt want the same life as his father. Dickens learns about the poor side of London, by visiting it and meeting poor children, this inspired him to write articles about the labour laws and conditions of poor children Later on in life, Dickens wrote many novels expressing his feelings, about the publics ignorance about the corruption within society, especially unnecessary suffering and greed. He was extremely successful and wrote many novels. Great expectations was Charles Dickenss self-portrait, it expresses himself and shows how he has been mistreated in his own life. The character Pip reflects in some ways based on Dickens. Dickens has made several endings to his novel. This shows that he is writing his book only to please the audience. The only difference is that Pip at the end of the novel, becomes self fulfilled, realising that there is more to life than being a gentleman, and finally becoming happy and looses his Great Expectations. Background on PIP Pip grew up in two places, the forge and satis house. In the forge Pip is reared by his sister and her gentle husband Joe Gargery, the village blacksmith. His sister beats him daily, trying to teach him morals, but mostly because she despises him. Pips mother and father are dead and so his sister is forced to look after him. Pip is a common poor boy who spends his days helping Joe. One day while visiting the graveyard, where his mother and father are buried, Pip meets an escaped convict who demands food and a file, to break his chains. Fearing for his life, Pip complies. Little does he know that this terrifying act of kindness will affect the entire course of his life. From an early age pip wants to be able to read and write. After this Pip is called upon by Miss Havisham, who has been deserted by her future husband on their wedding day. Miss Havisham feels destroyed by this and is planning to have her revenge on the male sex. She has adopted a daughter, who she is rearing to wreak her revenge, unfortunately Pip is the prime target. After meeting and being demeaned, because of his clothes and wealth, by Miss Havisham and Estella, he begins to envy the rich and longs to become a gentle man. Then Pip falls in love with Estella, but at the same time Miss Havisham is psychologically torturing him. He becomes ashamed of his house and upbringing. Pip expected Satis House to be great and help him on his quest to become a gentleman, but unfortunately this wasnt the case, his poor home upbringing did him more good, which later Pip realises.

Strategies for Learning Mathematics

Strategies for Learning Mathematics Introduction: This essay focusses on assessing and monitoring the progress of learners using different strategies during the period of ten lessons focussing on two units of mathematics. School X has structured assessment for learning, every lesson is designed in a way that every student is assessed in different ways. The research is focussed on year 7 mathematics lesson. This class is set 2 mostly high ability students however few students should be achieving their targets. Gould and Roffey-Barentsen (2014) provide a useful definition of assessment as having a key role in the planning process as well as delivery of teaching. Assessment serves a number of important uses in that it helps consolidate and check learning as well as providing feedback to those who require it. My school expects me to use a vast number of assessments when teaching. We use many forms of assessment such as, initial, diagnostic, formative, and/or summative to be able to deliver inclusive teaching and learning. I have selected two units 1) surface area and volume of prisms and 2) Ratios and proportions. The purpose of unit 1 is to help students extend their knowledge of area, perimeter, and volume to include surface area. The major goals NCTM proposes are for students to understand quantifiable characteristics of objects and the units, systems, and procedures of measurement. The purpose of unit 2 is that the concepts of ratio and proportionate fundamental to mathematics and important in many other fields of knowledge. Many phenomena can be expressed as some proportional relationship between specific variables (Chaim,Keret,llany, 2012). Literature Review: Monitoring is the skill of effectively overviewing and analysing a learning situation (Headington, 2000). In schools context, professional monitoring systems (Tymms 1999) exist in parallel with the monitoring of learning in the classroom. Assessment is the closer examination of pupils learning (Headington, 2000). It is reporting as a central issue in teaching and learning throughout education as it lacks consistency primarily due to each teacher within the school has adapted a different method of assessment and this is what makes one teacher a good and another poor. In England, since 1988 Education reform act national testing has taken central stage in monitoring standards in schools (Capel, 2009). Assessment for learning is Any assessment for which the first priority is to serve the purpose of promoting students learning'(Black et al, 2003) . AFL aims to close the gap between a students present situation and where they want to be in their knowledge and attainment. Accomplished teach ers plan tasks which support learners to do achieve their targets. Since 2002 there has been an obvious inclination in some assessment strategy reports in the UK to study alternatives to using external exams for summative valuation of pupils performance. Several research studies have shown that the use of assessment to develop pupils future learning makes a substantial difference, not just to pupils attainment, but to their attitude to learning, their engagement with school subjects and their motivation to do well in these subjects (Black and Wiliam 1998). Formative Assessment A key literature investigation of over 250 sources on formative assessment (Black and Wiliam 1998) found that effective assessment practices can play a influential role in the learning experience, moving an average student, for instance, to the top third of the class but only if certain settings are satisfied. Student tasks required to be aligned, or on target, with learning goals, and students need to obtain meaningful and appropriate response on their performance, as well as targeted follow-up work. To adjust their learning effectually, students need to understand three things: (a) the measures on which they will be judged, (b) where they stand on these measures, and (c) how they can improve (Black and Wiliam 1998, p. 143). Formative assessment has been thought of as providing teachers with more frequent evidence of students mastery of standards to help teachers make useful instructional decisions. In this way, formative assessment is intended to enhance student learning. Research carried out by Balck and Wiliam, and also by projects such as Suffolk Advisory service (2001) into feedback and marking indicates that improving learning through formative learning depends on the following five key factors. These are: Modelling Quality: According to (Bourdillon and Storey, 2002) pupils are more successful when they know what they are learning. This means communicating clearly what the pupils will be learning and how they can recognise their success. Therefore, learning intentions can be shared with pupils through modelling and how learning objective is achieved. According to Lee (2006), objectives can be broken down into small steps called success criteria, therefore its easier for pupils to know what that need to achieve and they can measure it at the end of the lesson. Questioning and dialogue with pupils: Clarke(2005) gives a wide range of suggestions for varying the format of questions in classrooms as it is the quickest and easiest way to assess pupils. I have also developed skills in asking questions across the full range of Blooms taxonomy, from simple recall and comprehension to complex evaluative questioning. The key to success in developing fruitful channels of dialogue with pupils about their learning lies in creating a relaxed and trusting overall climate in the classroom, so that pupils are not afraid to answer, contribute to discussions and make public their thinking or volunteer their uncertainties to you and rest of the class (Clarke,2005). It is best to plan questioning strategy, for instant questions on prior learning to setup the major themes of the lesson, also to check learning and to reinforce learning that has taken place. It is also important to plan how questions will be asked, whether from the whole class, just one group or an individual. Sometimes teachers give no time to students to think and accepts answers from those who raise their hands, and some teachers use no hand policy and giving pupils thinking time (Brooks, Abbott, Bills, 2007). Mini white boards: Another formative assessment idea that engages the entire class and provides evidence of student learning is the white board. Teachers can quickly grasp student understanding and adjust how they move forward. According to Black and Wiliam (1998) teachers need to build in opportunities for pupils to express their understanding. Pupils benefit from opportunities of formal feedback through mini white boards, as this gives chance to pupils to express their knowledge and understanding and to articulate their thinking, and also misconceptions can be spotted straight away. The figure below shows how students learning can be assessed through mini white boards. Dialogue and effective feedback through marking According to the National Research Council report How People Learn (Bransford et al. 2000), timely feedback and revision, on activities congruent with learning goals, is extremely important for developing adaptive expertise, learning, transfer and development. Constructive feedback is vital in helping pupils to progress. Nevertheless, one review of the literature on feedback found that two out of every five feedback effects were negative (Black and Wiliam, 1998). According to Ofsted (1996) marking often fails to guide on how work can be improved, as the information about pupils performance received by the teacher is insufficiently used to inform subsequent work. Target settings can address these difficulties, by taking a defect and converting into a target, offering guidance on how to improve. It has been found to increase pupils motivation and sense of purpose and accelerates rate of progress (Black and Wiliam, 1998). I will be marking books every two weeks, giving pupils targets and showing them example questions to help throug positive feedback on the things they have done well. Marking is guidance to pupils so that they can react upon provided feedback and the aim is for the student to reà ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡ect upon their mistakes and answer accurately so that adequate notes are made in their exercise books for revision, it must also include dialogue between the teacher and student so that informed feedback is provided which underlines pupils strengths. School x has a strict book checks every three weeks which focuses on timely and constructive dialogue between teachers and pupils. Self-assessment and understanding how to improve Formative assessment achieves its full potential when pupils become engaged with the process through self-assessment. Pupils who become skilled in self-assessment make impressive learning gains. According to one study, pupils were trained to make regular self-assessment over20-week period and that group made double the progress of the group who were not trained for self-assessment. However, Black and wiliam have concluded that self-assessment is too difficult for pupil, unless they are trained in self-assessment and can understand its main purpose and reflect on their learning effectively. Throughout my lessons self-assessment was vital at the end of each lesson, showing what went well and even better if. Summative assessment: Preparing pupils for external exams and assessment has been an increasingly important part of the secondary teachers role. The purpose behind national external assessments has been clearly formulated, to identify individual achievements, strengths and weaknesses in order to help them in next stages, to enable parents to put their childs attainment in context, to make available to public schools attainment and to help school evaluating their own teaching (Bourdillon and Storey, 2002) . Case study and students progress: My case study includes five students selected after observations and from discussions with my mentor, who I will assess. Their names are coded as Student E,F, G, H and I and in the table below I have mentioned why I would like to assess them during this course of study and check if by the end of the research they have achieved their targets. Table 1: Shows the description of students and their current and target grades I have monitored throughout the course of 10 lessons of the above students when the learning outcome does not meet the learning objective for the class or groups or individuals. Such monitoring when analysed, can provide an insight into the teaching and learning which is taking place. The subject monitoring sheet for maths lessons (Figure 2) shows an example of this. The learning of the five targeted students was monitored for a course of two units against learning objectives drawn from national numeracy strategy. The monitoring was coded as follows: Figure 2: Subject monitoring sheet for maths This data shows the results through the formative assessment I have collected. The research proves one of the best ways to check if pupils understanding is to ask questions. During my first few lessons, the typical response was same children continually have their hands up, and usually in order to elicit the right answers , teachers uses the right children, and I did the same in my first 2 lessons. From third lesson I changed my tactics and targeted students who were not participating in the class, or I used to wait for more hands up, and encouraged students to raise hands through E-praise. Student E is very shy, she was reluctant in the beginning to answer, but I encouraged and praised her to answer, since then I can see her raising hands for not all questions but some Students E, F and H has shown significant improvement during target questioning, they were more attentive and responsive. Setting a routine of target questioning resulted in pupils raising their hands up without asking. I cultivated the classroom atmosphere where more and more pupils are prepared to open up and share their thinking about their uncertainties. To accomplish this approach requires full sensitivity, knowledge of your pupils, first-rate interpersonal skills as well as perceptiveness in formulating adroitly posed questions. In my practice, I always start with open end questions to give students a chance to think and then I try to develop a structure in their mind through these questions and then moving on to close end questions to scaffold their understanding. Target questioning helped me to clear misconceptions throughout my lessons. Refereeing to all my lessons, I have used mini white boards instantly in each lesson, introduce a topic, show them at least two questions and then check their understanding on the mini white boards, I get instant feedback from every child. They arent broadcasting that they think they dont understand something, they give me an actual mathematical answer from which I judge the accuracy and target the misconceptions. It is more subtle than directly admitting you cant do something in front of your peers. They allow algebraic answers just as easily as numerical or wordy ones. You know which kids to differentiate for at both ends. For example student E and H along with some other students showed weakness understanding the concept of surface area of prisms, and picked it up their misconceptions through mini white board activity, it was mostly to do with area of a triangle. Therefore, The next lesson I did a revision lesson on same topic so that all misconceptions were cleared, and in lesson 3, both student E and H showed significant strengths. Similarly in lesson 8, student G showed weakness, which I assessed during white board activity and I made sure that student G understands it properly, as I probed targeted questions throughout lesson. This data also helped me to mark students work, so that I can compare the assessment I performed during class through mini white boards and questioning is correct or not. I marked students work and homework. Homework in school x is given twice a week to each year group. According to Ofsted, marking reinforces underachievement and under expectation be being too generous or unfocused. Therefore, I marked with feedback on each mistake as shown in the example below. I modelled the incorrect questions step by step and asked them to do it again. I also made homework spreadsheet, which showed me exactly how many questions students attempted were correct as shown in table below. Table 3: Shows the percentage of correct answers students did in each homework. This table helped me to understand pupils misconceptions and therefore, I gave questions as starter which I saw were most difficult. I also followed students homework by rechecking if they have corrected the mistakes in the following lesson, as the list provided me clear instructions which students book I have to check. By following this routine, Student G made remarkable change in providing her homework with full potential. The class slowly developed the routine of teacher and student dialogue, by making students aware that if I have made any comments, its students responsibility to check it and comment on it, and if the comment is about redoing the questions than it has to be done again. It can be noticed from the table that students homework percentage got better each week. Year 7s were not aware of self-assessment, therefore I briefed them with three key points with: During my first three lessons I used the slide given below, by giving them examples of how they can think and evaluate their learning. Students were questioned to summarize the learning objectives and success criteria before they embark on the task. From lesson four, when people were confident I used the slide below to make them think themselves without giving the example. Students F, H and I books showed clear evidence that they were honest about their reflection and were trying in the next lesson to make their learning better. Figure 6 and 7 shows some examples of pupils reflection Summative assessment was done by unit test after each unit. Before each unit test, a revision lesson was run to clear the misconceptions as the books were marked before the revision to check students understanding, their homeworks and self-assessment. After each unit test, teacher marked the test and made two comments on what students did well at, and two comments what they need to improve on. As shown in the picture 9 below. Students evaluated their performance in the yellow sheets provided by teacher, on their strengths and on action points. A spreadsheet was also created for each question, which helped me to create green pen questions for students and to check which part of unit test students found most difficult, as shown below in table 7. Green pen questions were prepared by teacher, and were allocated to each student according to the action points as illustrated in the figures below of student E and H. These action questions helps them again to reflect on their mistakes and improve their mistakes. The summative assessment results after two unit test I performed with year 7s are shown below which has shown significant improvement in their grades from previous grades, that they have moved a grade higher from their previous targets. Analysis: Analysing the sequence of lessons and assessments methods used during the period of 10 lessons, assessing through questioning and mini white board activity showed very good results as , it showed me clearly students misconceptions and cultivated the culture of engaging and thinking before answering, but when I marked their books, I saw some very obvious mistakes repeated which I pointed during mini white board activity. There is a potential risk of students copy the answers from peers just of the fear of getting pointed for mistakes and they are hesitant to ask questions. Therefore, mini white board activity is a very effective way to assess students understanding and it has shown a tremendous effectivity during all my lessons as it enables to test the depth of students understanding but it is not 100 percent accurate as students sometimes tend to copy from their peers, if they were targeted and the answer was wrong, they potentially can copy answer of next question from their peers to avoid embracement. It is the same case in questioning, mostly gifted students answer questions. Targeted questions help to encourage students to answer questions, as through diagnostic assessments and marking books, teachers knows which student to target. But if the culture of questioning and use of mini white boards remain there, it will help students to try harder and remain attentive throughout lessons. Assessing through marking books gives a very clear idea that how much progress student has made in the class and by doing their homework. Spread sheet of homework helped me and I asked some students to come during break time to clear their misconceptions, I also ran revision lessons where I cleared those concepts and did target questions from less progressing pupils through marking books. During marking books I started a dialogue with students, for example how this question can be made better and by giving them model answers, as soon as pupils got their books back they had to comment on their mistakes, which helped in building an environment of students teachers dialogue. Similarly self-reflection helped students to start thinking about their strengths and weaknesses and it consolidates their learning more. In each lesson they commented about something to improve and what they did well at, it improved the sequence of learning and each lesson showed evident improvement. Since year 7s started to reflect on their learning during my teaching, it is still very confusing for some students what to write but I still encourage them to summarize their learning objective and think before writing. Finally the summative assessment triangulates the research, Students E,F,G,H and I have made tremendous effort through these weeks and shown that through these assessments they have already reached their targets. References Headington, Rita. (2000). Monitoring, assessment, recording, reporting and accountability. London: David Fulton, 8,9 Last name, First initial. (Year published). Title. Edition. (Only include the edition if it is not the first edition) City published: Publisher, Page(s). Gould, Jimm. And Roffey, Jodi. (2014). Achieving your Diploma in Education and Training. Sage publications ltd. Chaim, Keret, IIany, David, Yaffa, Bat-Sheva. (2012).  Ratio and proportion. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers, 1. Cambridge-Community. Getting started with assessment for learning. [online] Available at: URL [http://www.cambridge-community.org.uk/professional-development/gswafl/index.html] Black, P. and Wiliam, D. (1998). Inside the black box: Raising standards through classroom assessment, Phi Delta Kappan 80(2), 139-148. Bransford, J.D., Brown, A.L. and Cocking (2000). The Design of Learning Environments: Assessment-Centered Environments. How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School. Washington, DC, National Academy Press, pp. 131-154. Wilson, M. Scalise, K. 2006, Assessment to Improve Learning in Higher Education: The BEAR Assessment System, Higher Education, vol. 52, no. 4, pp. 635-663. Stiggins, R. 2005, From Formative Assessment to Assessment for Learning: A Path to Success in Standards-Based Schools, The Phi Delta Kappan, vol. 87, no. 4, pp. 324-328

Cause and Effects of the Rise in Cohabitation

Cause and Effects of the Rise in Cohabitation Recent decades have witnessed a dramatic rise in cohabitation in much of Western Europe including the United Kingdom (Ermisch 2005; Ermisch and Francesconi 2000a; Haskey 2001; Kiernan 2001; Murphy 2000). This rise has taken place against a dramatic decline in marriage rates. A so-called golden age of marriage that prevailed in the United Kingdom from the 1950s up to the 1970s (Festy, 1980), has been eroded. Marriage is no longer the exclusive marker of first union nor the pre-eminent context within which children are born; (Kiernan, 2001). The decline in the popularity of marriage indicates that no longer is marriage seen as the only organizing principle for relationships (Hall, 1993: 8) and therefore legal marriage has given way to a variety of optional non-traditional forms of living together (Boh, 1989: This essay will seek to examine whether the rise in cohabitation will witness a decline in marriage to a point where marriage is a rare phenomenon. This will entail an analysis of statistical evidence on both cohabitation and marriage and the explanations that have been provided. These include notions of selfish individualism (Morgan, 2000), notions of the democratic, consensual and pure relationship (Giddens, 1992; Beck-Gernsheim, 2000), Beckers (1973, 1981) model of marriage, the common-law marriage myth, commitment in cohabiting partnerships, and the use of lived law to create a DIY variety of marriage (Duncan et. al. 2005). The 1960s and the early 1970s was a golden age of marriage in the United Kingdom during which marriage was highly popular among the young ages (Kiernan Eldridge 1987) and a record peak of 480,285 marriages was recorded in 1972 (ONS, 2008). However, since the 1970s there have been considerable changes amounting to a structural shift in individuals demographic behaviour and societal norms (Haskey, 2001) and among these are increases in divorce and in cohabitation, that is, in couples who live together in intimate relationships without being legally married. Similarly, Ferri et al. (2003) have documented several demographic changes which led social commentators to lament the end of marriage. These include significant rises in cohabitation, divorce, lone parent families, single parent households, children born out of marriage and age of marriage.   These changes, it was assumed, led to the disintegration of traditional structures and codes and ultimately to the end of marriage. Statistical evidence indeed shows that there has been a long-term decline in marriage rates and a significant rise in cohabitation. From 1971 to 1995 first marriage rates fell by 90% for teenage women and 80% for women aged 20-24. Median age at first marriage rose from 23.4 to 27.9 yrs for men and 21.4 to 26.0 years for women (Murphy and Wang 1999). The decline in remarriage rates has been even more pronounced. For divorced men, the remarriage rate has fallen by 75% since 1971 (Murphy and Wang 1999). There were 311,000 marriages in the UK in 2004 and this figure fell to 270,000 in 2007. This represents almost half the number of marriages that took place in 1972 when marriage peaked (ONS 2009). On the other hand, cohabiting is the fastest growing family type in the UK (with the proportion of cohabiting couple families increasing from 9% to 14% between 1996 and 2006), (ONS, 2009). Among single women marrying during the latter part of the 1990s, 77% had cohabited with their future husband, compared with 33% of those marrying during the late 1970s, and only 6% of those marrying in the late 1960s (Haskey 2001). During the 1960s, 40% of remarriages were preceded by a period of cohabitation; and this figured had soared to around 85% in 2000. (Murphy 2000). The 2001 Census recorded just over 2 million cohabiting couples in England and Wales (a 67% increase from 1991). When the new form of cohabitation arrived in the 1970s it was mainly a child-free prelude to marriage. Increasingly, children are being born to cohabiting couples. In 2006, 56% of births in England and Wales were outside of marriage compared with 8% in 19z71. (ONS, 2009). Between 1996 and 2006, the number of cohabiti ng couples in the UK increased by over 60%, from 1.4 million to 2.3 million, ONS, 2009). The number of cohabiting couples in England and Wales is projected to almost double to 3.8 million by 2031 (which will be over one in four couples on this projection). (ONS, 2009). Social theorists have conceptualized these trends in terms of individualization theory. The theory which includes notions of the democratic, consensual and pure relationship (Giddens, 1992; Beck-Gernsheim, 2000) and notions of selfish individualism (Morgan, 2000), has emerged as the dominant contested theoretical approach in explaining whether the rise in cohabitation means the end of marriage. According to the former, modern society is viewed as having entered a late modern epoch of de-traditionalisation and individualisation in which traditional rules and institutional frameworks have lost ground, only to be replaced by more modern and rational rules (Beck, 1992 and Giddens, 1992, 1994). Institutional forces such as education, the modern economy and the welfare state have freed individuals from externally imposed constraints, moral codes and traditional customs, a development which Beck (1994) says is a disembedding of individual lives from the structural fabric of social instituti ons and age-specific norms. According to Brannen and Nilsen (2005), social class no longer has the same structuring role that it once had.   Individuals who used to have a standard biography no longer have pre-given life trajectories but are instead compelled to reflexively make their own choices and hence create their own biographies. At the same time, the project of self, with an emphasis on individual self-fulfillment and personal development, comes to replace relational, social aims. This results in families of choice which are diverse, fluid and unresolved, constantly chosen and re-chosen (Weeks 2001) and which Hardill, (2002) refer to as the postmodern household. In families of choice all issues are subject to negotiation and decision making (Beck and Beck- Gernsheim1995, Beck-Gernsheim 2002). Individuals are seen as preferring cohabitation to marriage because they wish to keep their options and their negotiations open ( Wu, 2000). The individualisation theory sees modern relationships as being based on individual fulfillment and consensual love, with sexual and emotional equality, replacing formal unions based on socially prescribed gender roles. Sexuality is largely freed from institutional, normative and patriarchal control as well as from reproduction, producing a plastic sexuality, which serves more as means of self-expression and selfactualisation rather than as a means to reproduction and cementing institutionalized partnership (Giddens, 1992). Giddens argues that that such plastic sexuality as part of the project of self is realized in pure relationships an ideal type that isolates what is most characteristic for intimacy in reflexive modernity, Giddens (1991, 1992).   This is pure because it is entered into for its own sake and for the satisfaction it provides to the individuals involved. The pure relationship must therefore be characterized by openness, involvement, reciprocity and closeness, a nd it presupposes emotional and sexual democracy and equality, Giddens (1991, 1992). According to Cherlin (2004:853), the pure relationship is not tied to an institution such as marriage or the desire to raise children. Rather, it is free-floating, independent of social institutions or economic life. The individualisation theory asserts that these changes in relationships contribute towards the decentring of the married, co-resident, heterosexual couple. It no longer occupies the centre-ground statistically, normatively, or as a way of life (Beck-Gernsheim, 2002; Roseneil and Budgeon, 2004). Instead other forms of living such as cohabitation, living alone, lone parenting, same-sex partnerships, or living apart have become more common and are both experienced and perceived as equally valid. However, most English-speaking commentators (e.g. Morgan, 1995, 2000, 2003; Bellah et al., 1985; Popenoe, 1993; Dnes and Rowthorne, 2002) have developed a pessimistic view of family change. In cohabitation they have seen a moral decline and its harmful effects on society, a loss of family values, individual alienation, social breakdown, rise in crime and other social ills and social, emotional and educational damage to children. For them, the trend in statistics is clear evidence of selfish individualism and have thus advocated for turning the clock back by promoting marriage among other things. Morgan (1995) for instance, argues that without the traditional family to socialize children and in particular to provide role models and discipline for young men, delinquency and crime will escalate and society as a whole will be at risk. To avoid this social policy should seek positively to support marriage and promote traditional gender roles for men and women. According to Morgan (2003), cohabiting relationships are fragile. They are always more likely to break up than marriages entered into at the same time, regardless of age or income. On average, cohabitations last less than two years before breaking up or converting to marriage. Less than four per cent of cohabitations last for ten years or more. She also believes that cohabitation should be seen primarily as a prelude to marriage but increasingly it is part of a pattern which simply reflects an increase in sexual partners and partner change (Morgan, 2003:127). Morgan (1999) also argues that cohabitation is concentrated among the less educated, less skilled and the unemployed. The individualization theory in its various versions, has been seen as having its merit in terms of indicating trends in post-modern societies, but has been criticized for lacking reliable methodologies and for lacking empirical and historical evidence. According to Thernborn (2004), individualisation theory should be seen as a geographically and historically limited exaggeration among the variety and long durà ©es of socio-sexual systems. Individualisation theory is seen as largely resting on the evidence of qualitative work using purposive samples of particular social groups in particular contexts and localities. They do not often use representative samples or total population figures which can accurately portray overall social patterns. According to Sayer (1992) individualization theorists have used intensive research design which are indeed in-depth and able to access social process more directly, and understand its context but points out that such work needs to be complemented by extensive research on patterns and distributions, using representative survey for example. Duncan and Edwards (1999) share the same view that the use of both intensive and extensive research designs will enable generalizations to be made. In addition intensive work will enable better interpretation of the representative patterns revealed by extensive work and to link process to pattern directly rather than depending upon post-hoc deduction, (Duncan and Edwards 1999). Critics of the individualisation theory have argued that the theory underplays the significance of the social and geographical patterning of values and behaviour and neglects the importance of local cultural and social contexts. According to Duncan and Irwin structures of economic necessity, social groups and moral codes have not gone away, although they may have changed. Family forms are still deeply influenced by local structural conditions or contexts and although people might be less constrained by older traditions, this does not necessarily mean individualisation. The traditional structures of class, gender, religion and so on have a continuing importance, (Duncan and Irwin, 2004, 2005). Individualisation theory assumes that individuals can exercise choice and shape their lives. However, the theory has been criticized for taking insufficient account of the context in which individuals make their choices. Critics of individualisation have pointed out, peoples capacity to make choices, for example in respect of separation and divorce, must depend in large measure on their environment, whether for example, on the constraints of poverty, social class and gender, or, more positively, on the safety net provided by the welfare state (Lasch, 1994; Lewis, 2001a). In addition, the context in which people are making their choices is constantly shifting. Thus the meaning of what it is to be married, or to be a parent has changed and continues to change. Actors will in all likelihood be affected by these changes over their own life course and must expect to have to re-visit the decisions they have made, for example in respect of the division of paid and unpaid work, especially at critical points of transition such as parenthood. Charles and Harris (2004) have argued that choices regarding work/life balance are different at different states of the lifecycle. The individualization theory in its various versions, has been seen as having its merit in terms of indicating trends in post-modern societies, but has been criticized for lacking reliable methodologies and for lacking empirical and historical evidence. According to Thernborn (2004), individualisation theory should be seen as a geographically and historically limited exaggeration among the variety and long durà ©es of socio-sexual systems. Individualisation theory is seen as largely resting on the evidence of qualitative work using purposive samples of particular social groups in particular contexts and localities. They do not often use representative samples or total population figures which can accurately portray overall social patterns. According to Sayer (1992) individualization theorists have used intensive research design which are indeed in-depth and able to access social process more directly, and understand its context but points out that such work needs to be complemented by extensive research on patterns and distributions, using representative survey for example. Duncan and Edwards (1999) share the same view that the use of both intensive and extensive research designs will enable generalizations to be made. In addition intensive work will enable better interpretation of the representative patterns revealed by extensive work and to link process to pattern directly rather than depending upon post-hoc deduction, (Duncan and Edwards 1999). Critics of the individualisation theory have argued that the theory underplays the significance of the social and geographical patterning of values and behaviour and neglects the importance of local cultural and social contexts. According to Duncan and Irwin structures of economic necessity, social groups and moral codes have not gone away, although they may have changed. Family forms are still deeply influenced by local structural conditions or contexts and although people might be less constrained by older traditions, this does not necessarily mean individualisation. The traditional structures of class, gender, religion and so on have a continuing importance, (Duncan and Irwin, 2004, 2005). Individualisation theory assumes that individuals can exercise choice and shape their lives. However, the theory has been criticized for taking insufficient account of the context in which individuals make their choices. Critics of individualisation have pointed out, peoples capacity to make choices must depend in large measure on their environment, whether for example, on the constraints of poverty, social class and gender, or, more positively, on the safety net provided by the welfare state (Lasch, 1994; Lewis, 2001a). According to Lupton and Tulloch, (2002), peoples choices may depend in part on the consideration they give to the welfare of others, and on how far others influence the way in which they frame their choices. In addition, the context in which people are making their choices is constantly shifting. Thus the meaning of what it is to be married, or to be a parent has changed and continues to change. Charles and Harris (2004) have argued that choices regarding work/life b alance are different at different states of the lifecycle. Scholars have examined public attitudes towards marriage and cohabitation in order to assess whether the trends in statistics confirm the deinstitutionalisation of marriage (Cherlin, 1994), in which an increase in the acceptability of cohabitation can be interpreted as evidence for weakening of the social norms. Using data from a number of British Social Attitude Surveys, Barlow et. al. found clear evidence of changing public attitudes. More and more people in the United Kingdom were accepting cohabitation both as a partnering and parenting structure, regardless of whether it is undertaken as a prelude or alternative to marriage. In 1994, 70 per cent agreed that People who want children ought to get married, but by 2000 almost half (54 per cent) thought that there was no need to get married in order to have children; cohabitation was good enough. They found increasingly liberal attitudes to pre-marital sex, with the proportion thinking that it was not wrong at all increasing from 42 per cent in 1984 to 62 per cent in 2000. By 2000 more than two-thirds of respondents (67 per cent) agreed it was all right for a couple to live together without intending to get married, and 56 per cent thought it was a good idea for a couple who intend to get married to live together first. Studies by Dyer (1999) and Barlow et al. (2005) found there was a clear difference in attitudes towards cohabitation from young and old generations, indicating a shift in social viewpoint to an acceptance of cohabitation. The younger age groups were more likely to find cohabitation acceptable than older age groups, but all age groups had moved some way towards greater acceptance of pre-marital sex and cohabitation. Barlow et al. argue that over time there is a strong likelihood that society will become more liberal still on these matters, although particular groups, such as the religious, are likely to remain more traditional than the rest. This change in public attitude is echoed by former Home Secretary, Jack Straw who was quoted in the Daily Mail as saying the important thing is the quality of the relationship, not the institution itself (Daily Mail, 16th June, 1999). This acceptance in politics as well as in society is probably one reason why people drift into cohabitation. Barlo w et a!. suggest Britain will probably move towards a Scandinavian pattern, therefore, where long- term cohabitation is widely seen as quite normal, and where marriage is more of a lifestyle choice than an expected part of life. Barlow et al, however, do not interpret the public attitudes to indicate the breakdown or end of marriage as a respected institution. In the 2000 survey, 59 per cent agreed that marriage is still the best kind of relationship. A mere 9 per cent agreed that there is no point getting married it is only a piece of paper, while 73 per cent disagreed. Despite the increasing acceptance of cohabitation, Barlow et al. therefore argue that, overall, marriage is still widely valued as an ideal, but that it is regarded with much more ambivalence when it comes to everyday partnering and   parenting. While only 28 per cent agree that married couples make better parents, just 40 per cent disagree figures virtually unchanged since 2000, (Barlow et al, 2005) According to Barlow et al. (2005), there is a body of   qualitative research that shows that for many cohabitants, living together is seen as a form of marriage rather than an alternative. Moreover, just as the majority think that sex outside marriage is wrong, the same applies to sex outside cohabitation: the large majority of cohabitants, over 80 per cent, think that sex outside a cohabiting relationship is wrong, (Erens et al., 2003). These findings give little support to the notion that many people cohabit outside marriage because cohabitation is more congruent with a project of the self, as individualisation theory would have it (Hall, 1996). Instead research seems to indicate that many traditional norms about relationships still hold true and cohabitation is seen as the equivalent of marriage. According to Barlow et al, (2008), cohabitation is socially accepted as equivalent to marriage and whilst marriage is seen as ideal, social attitudes show great tolerance to differ ent styles of partnering and parenting relationships.

Death Penalty Essay -- essays research papers fc

When New York State’s governor George Pataki took office in 1995, crime dropped in total of 45%, and the murder rate dropped by 1/3. As of September 1st 1995, the death penalty was reinstated in the state of New York, assuring safer communities and fewer victims, and an over all drop in crime rate. People have used a number of arguments to support their views regarding the death penalty. Among the arguments used include deterrence, incapacitation, religious viewpoint, rehabilitation and cost. Yet it is suggested that the true judgement of a persons position on capital punishment is determined by emotional and moral beliefs. The primary questions raised by the death penalty are whether it is an effective deterrent to violent crime, and whether it is more effective than the long-term incapacitation. Defenders of the death penalty believe that by taking an offender’s life is a more severe punishment than any prison term, it must be the better deterrent. â€Å"A life term is commonly a short vacation at State expense with nothing to do but eat the fruit of others industry.† (Opposing, p43.) The term deterrence is used to suggest that with the execution of murderers, there will be a direct decrease in homicide rate, due to the idea that potential murderers will fear for their own lives. Under some states’ death penalty law offenders involving: murder of a police officer; a probation, parole, court, or corrections officer; a judge; or a witness or members of witness’s family. Also thos...

Essay --

The 1980’s The decade of the 1980’s is universally known for its brightly colored leggings, and teased hair. However, most of us tend forget the events that inspired these widely recognized trends. Political power, economic instability, and Sequins, lace, and tutu’s are merely an illusion of what the eighties were truly about. The social and economic events of the 1980’s had a severe impact on the fashion choices of American women during this time. The political events in America throughout the eighties will always be remembered when saying one simple, yet extremely packed name, Ronald Reagan. In 1981 Reagan was elected with one of the countries highest overall acceptance rates. Reagan was a former Hollywood actor his charisma and optimistic style wore off on people and America loved him. "We will always remember. We will always be proud. We will always be prepared, so we may always be free." [at the D-Day Commemoration in Normandy] Reagan had a direct, to the point that republicans loved and democrats respected. With Reagans election came promises of a bright future for the US, like tax cuts and lower spending. "[G]overnment's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it." [Reagan speaking about the White House Conference on Small Business] However after a short time, military spending began to rise, causing cuts from j obs and some tax increases. These and other choices Ronald Reagan made in office became known as â€Å"Reaganomics.† The culture was also changing throughout this time as well, a slang term known as the â€Å"yuppie† was born. This term was commonly used to describe a baby boomer, with a college education, well p... ...ng a statement wherever they went and the designers of today are still trying to accentuate the body and broadcast sexuality. Ad campaign designs were changed extraordinarily during the 1980’s by adopting the idea that pitching a product with a glamorous woman, home, or family would create the need for consumers to buy a good or service solely for the purpose of have having a better lifestyle. This advertising idea traveled through the last few decades and is still present in the American society today. The beliefs of the eighties were invigorating and gave adolescences the choice to be whatever they wanted to be. Whether that was a pop-icon, an inventor, or a politician, the 1980’s was a time of empowerment and optimism. These principals are still taught to young people in our society today preaching the values of self-worth and perseverance to follow their dreams.

Comparison of life with seasons in nature Essay

At do you understand by the Standard Meridian? Answer Standard Meridian is the longitude on the basis of which a country’s standard time is determined. Standard meridians all over the world are generally those longitudes which are exactly divisible by 15 °. The Standard Meridian of India lies at 82 ° 30†² E longitude and it passes through Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh. The Indian Standard Time is five hours and thirty minutes ahead of the Greenwich Mean Time. Q4) Why is Indian Ocean named after India? Answer Indian Ocean is named after India because India has the longest coastline on the ocean. It is surrounded by the ocean from three sides. The Indian Ocean serves as the major channel for India’s trade with other countries through sea route. It is the strategic importance of India on the Indian Ocean that has resulted in naming the ocean after India. Why has 82 ° 30†² E been chosen as the Standard Meridian of India? Answer 82 ° 30†² E has been chosen as the Standard Meridian of India because this longitude passes through the middle of the country. This balances the time gap of two hours between the westernmost and easternmost parts of India. Also, 82 ° 30†² E is exactly divisible by 15 i.e., a difference of 30 minutes. What is the reason for the time difference of two hours between the western most and eastern most parts of India? Answer There is a time lag of two hours between Gujarat in the west and Arunachal Pradesh in the east. This is because of the difference of almost 30 ° in terms of longitudinal coordinates between Gujarat and Arunachal Pradesh, the westernmost and the easternmost parts of the country, respectively. According to the time system, time increases from west to east by one hour with every 15 °. Since Arunachal Pradesh is 30 ° ahead of Gujarat, there is a time gap of two hours between the two. Which Indian states share their boundaries with Pakistan? What is the effect of this? Answer Four Indian states, namely Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat  share their boundaries with Pakistan. Owing to their boundaries with Pakistan, these Indian states are of strategic importance to India. Heavy military forces are always deployed in the border areas of these states. Safety of the people of these states is a paramount concern for the government, as India does not share a friendly relation with Pakistan. 7) What is the significance of the Palk Strait and Gulf of Mannar? Where are they situated? Answer The Gulf of Munnar and the Palk Strait are situated in the Indian Ocean towards south of India. They are significant because they form the main dividing line between India and Sri Lanka. The narrow channel of sea formed by the Gulf of Munnar and the Palk Strait divides the Indian peninsula from the island nation of Sri Lanka. Q9) What were the main reasons that facilitated the growth of trade relations of India with the far-off lands? Answer Since ancient times, India has enjoyed the benefits of a favourable location in its trade relations with other countries. It is centrally located in Asia and has access to both land and sea. Since ancient times, India was well connected with countries of West Asia, Europe and China through land routes. These trade routes facilitated the exchange of goods and people on a large scale. Also, India is surrounded by sea from three sides. This opened-up the vast possibilities of maritime trade for India with south-east Asian and African countries. Owing to these favourable conditions, India was able to amass huge wealth through its foreign trade. Describe India’s location in the world. Answer India is located in the northern hemisphere. It is a southward extension of Asia. India has a total area of 3.28 million square km. It is surrounded by sea from three sides. Towards its south is the Indian Ocean, to the east is the Bay of Bengal and to the west is the Arabian Sea. The geographical coordinates of India are 8 ° 4†² N to 37 ° 6†² N latitudes and 68 °7†² E to 97 ° 25†² E longitudes. Tropic of Cancer (23 ° 30†² N) passes midway through India. India has two groups of islands: the Andaman and Nicobar islands in the Bay of Bengal and the Lakshadweep islands in the Arabian Sea. India’s north is bestowed with the mighty Himalayas. It is a favourably located country in the world.

India Under Nehru View

India has always been considered as a mysterious world with wide variety of interesting traditional values that was created all along the history line of India, from the big and complex things like philosophy schools of India to the daily’s things like the lamp in Diwali festival. So what has made India the way it is now with the blooming yet mysterious beauty from the richness in its culture? Well, here is a saying from the former Minister of India – Sir JAWAHARLAL NEHRU – to show the idea of Indian personality or India in general: She was like some ancient palimpsest on which layer upon layer of thought and reverie had been inscribed, and yet no succeeding layer had completely hidden or erased what had been written previously. All of these had existed in our conscious or subconscious selves, though we may not have been aware of them. And they have gone to build up the complex mysterious personality of India. † The meaning of this saying is that Nehru want ed to imply the idea of a complex yet so unified India in which everything from culture, living style to artistic structures was created in an unending process of both preservation and evolution at the same time.The way the Indian created their flourished culture has deeply showed the Indian personality who always try to maintain the traditional beauty in the evolution progress. They had built up the whole Indian culture based on the traditional values from thousands years ago without once trying to get rid of the old fundamental values of their grand and grand fathers, yet they known how to achieved the new things and balanced them between the old and the new so that now we can trace back the trail of the thousands years old civilizations through everything in Indian people’s daily life.After thousands years, India culture has now become richer in range wise and structure wise. We can see the richness in cultural values and the Indian has done a good job in advancing the Ind ia culture to be so flourished and full of colors from the very traditional base of their ancestors culture. The most common thing that people tend to think about India personality or India in general is that the life of Indian people is very rich in religious activities and it had played a big role in their life, also in their mind we can clearly see the strong affects of traditional value like Vedas or Upanishad.If we look inside those old literatures closely, we can find innumerable of evidences that can prove the uniquely richness in traditional values and also it can show the two paralleled processes of preserving and advancing, which is the personality of India that Nehru had stated. Here is some piece of my mind about Indian literature along the history to prove the statement of Sir. Jawaharlal Nehru. In every branch or various sections of literature from fiction, drama, biography, poetry, drama, novels, short stories and literary criticism, Indian literature has a tremendous variety to offer.Nearly every major Indian language has a rich tradition of literature. The earliest works of Indian literature were orally transmitted. Sanskrit literature begins with the Vedas collections of sacred hymns dating to the period 1500–1200 BCE. Those earliest works like the Vedas or Upanishads were composed to be sung or recited and were transmitted for many generations before being written down. Since almost all of the earliest works of ancient India literature were all orally transmitted so we can’t find the exactly time of those brilliant works in the timeline of India history.The earliest records of a text may be later by several centuries than the date of its composition. After this time from around 200 BC to around 11 AD, Sanskrit literature went through a secular phase. A major development during the secular period was the introduction of drama, with the early dramas set in historical epic tales. During the first through fifth centuries, South Ind ia's literature was primarily secular and written in Tamil, not Sanskrit, with the main topics being war and love.Following this period was a time of change for southern literature, with the tradition changing to bhakti (devotional) literature that in subsequent centuries eventually spread northward. All in all, the giant India literature was big in size and contents, and the number of literature works of India is like stars in the sky along the timeline of India history. This has shown how big and complex of the Indian literature. There was such a wide variety in types and styles of composing, from poems to verses, oral literature to written works but we can still see the unity in them with the main theme and color being India traditional mind and soul.Since the religious and Vedic culture had such tremendous impact on Indian culture and I must say those traditional elements were deeply engraved in every Indian people’s mind, so it’s no surprising to know that the maj or topic of Indian literature is about religious deities and philosophy. And much more later the ancient period of oral literature, the tradition of picking the idea from stories or myths in Vedas or the great Mahabharata to compose bhakti poems and literatures was very noticeable.This tradition was slowed down since the domination of British in India, which had bring major changes in the styles and topics of literature. It seemed like with the invasion of British culture or the Western in general, India’s literature had faced big challenge to preserve the traditional colors in their works yet somehow the India factor was still strongly presented. So we can conclude that along the timeline of India’s history, never once the traditional culture had failed to exist in every literature work, with time went by India literature was advanced bit by bit, yet it still maintained the main flow of tradition culture.It was indeed diversity in unity. The history of Indian literatu re dated back to 1500AD or more since the existence of the first ever literature work of India, which name was Rig Veda – the first and most important part of the famous Vedas. Rig Veda was composed in Sanskrit, the texts constitute the oldest layer of Sanskrit literature and the oldest scriptures of Hinduism. The Sanskrit word veda â€Å"knowledge, wisdom† is derived from the root vid- â€Å"to know†, that’s why the scholars called the Vedas the sacred books of knowledge.The Vedas can be considered an encyclopedia of ancient India and it gave many tips about how the life of ancient people would be like. With it giant length, it’s such an amazing thing to know that the Vedas were actually orally transmitted through centuries. And along with the Vedas, other ancient literatures were also preserved by oral way. This is why the literary tradition in India is primarily oral literature in vernacular languages. It was in the 6th century that an extensive written literature appeared.Through such a long period of time, the oral literature of ancient India has been successfully passed down to the next generations by using rhythmic recitation and thus the whole giant walls of text that we know nowadays are almost exactly the same to the one from approximately one thousands and five hundreds years before Christ. This has show how strong and effective of the preservation progress of Indian, they didn’t just let all the literatures to be in vain because of having no writing system to store it, ancient Indian had found a way by using oral literature to preserve the world’s longest literature work that is totally unbelievable!The Vedas were the all time topic for other writers to compose their own works that related to it like Puranas and Itihasas which explained myths in the Vedas to the mass Indian. From the original Vedas to the vast number of many branches that were expanded through years to explain or improve all the know ledge of Vedas. We can clearly see the broadening of the Vedas and its branches by many writers. They did not just make a whole new literature works out of nowhere but they based their works on the root of Vedas and its knowledge then added their own creativeness.The main themes of Indian literature were mostly about religious stories or myths with Brahmanism deities (and later Hinduism). Many epics dealt with Vedas stories and they always contained the spirit of Vedas’ principles. Noticeable evidences that we can find in India literature about this characteristic are Mahabharata, Ramayana from the early Sanskrit literatures and many Bhakti poems in the medieval period. Mahabharata and Ramayana are the longest literatures size wise in the world, those epics were the all time favorite of every Indian people.Mahabharata itself was an improved version of the originally 8,800 verses literature named Jaya which was composed by Krsna Dvaipayana Vyasa, later this version was enlarge d to 24,000 verses namely Bharata by Vaisampayana and then it became the giant version Mahabharata version which was written by Ugrasravas with up to 100,000 verses. This enlargement of the Mahabharata epic has shown that Indian literature had undergone many improvements through years and those advances had somehow made Indian literature become rich in content and complex in structure.Not only the expand of old literatures since the Vedic age, the tradition of Bhakti is also very noticeable in term of the common theme about deities. Bhakti (or a personal devotion to a god) usually was composed in poems to show their respectful attitude to a god. Many of the Bhakti poems told stories or just shown Indian’s praising to their gods from Vedas or epics like Mahabharata and Ramayana. That’s why Indian literature was so big in size and varied in style. On another note, we can find many translated versions of the epics or myths in a wide variety of languages all over India.For an example, Jagannath Das wrote an Oriya version of the Bhagavata and Tuncattu Eruttacchan, the so-called father of Malayalam literature, wrote recensions of traditional literature. Much traditional Indian literature is derived in theme and form not only from Sanskrit literature but from the Buddhist and Jain texts written in the Pali language and the other Prakrits (medieval dialects of Sanskrit). This has shown how effective of the persevering process in India since many literature works were not only available in its original language but also in many more languages.This process had somehow helped spread the traditional values to all other areas in India and maybe other places out side of India too. So, all we can conclude here is that in term of preserving and advancing of the traditional values, Indian has maintained their own colorful literature and culture through many obstacles in history. I must say Indian was worth being called the ocean of knowledge and mysterious myths! After being through many centuries of improving and preserving, Indian literature has grown giant with such a wide variety of themes and styles, yet it still possessed the unity in variety.And to top of it all, through analyzing Indian literature to prove my point of view of Sir Nehru’s saying, I’ve realized that India has such a unique charm that no other country can possess, that is the ability of keeping the thousands years old traditional culture’s values and indigenous spirit in every aspect of Indian’s daily life without any cracks even though many new things were accepted in the culture during the history’s timeline. No wonder, Indian literature and Indian culture in general had such an attracting charm to everyone who ever had a chance to know about it.