Small Business Plan free essay sample

The three quality approaches which are used by businesses to satisfy customer expectations are quality control, quality assurance and also total quality management. Quality Control is the use of inspections at various points in the production process to check for problems and defects. In order to reduce complaints from customers for the goods and services provided Ripe and Ready Fruit Vega shall implement monitoring of goods on display and the performance of employees to ensure quality control. Quality assurance is the use of a system so that a business achieves set standards in production. The system that is to be used by Ripe and Ready Fruit Vega is one which involves selecting only the best produce from goods bought. Total quality management is an ongoing, business-wide commitment to excellence that is applied o every aspect of the businesss operation. The focus of Ripe and Ready Fruit ; Vega is the customers and their satisfaction huge efforts are put in to the acquisition to the resources through to the delivery to the goods to the customers. We will write a custom essay sample on Small Business Plan or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The implementation of total quality management can improve the price competitiveness of the business and the quality of the products provided to attain competitive advantage. 6. Impact on ultimate business success The goods, production processes and quality management involved in the running of Ripe and Ready Fruit ; Vega all have an impact on the ultimate success of the equines as it deals with the quality of the goods and services provided to the customers in order to satisfy their needs and wants. By acquiring the goods from markets it ensures that it is only the freshest of produce giving the business an advantage over potential competitors in the area. As it is a fairly new business and the chances of competitors in the same district very high it is important that total quality management is continuing adapting in order to improve and excel all aspects of the business to maintain a competitive edge over competitors. Part B: Marketing 1 . Target market for products Target market refers to a group of customers with similar characteristics who presently, or who may in the future, purchase the product. There are three main types of approaches towards identifying your target market; the mass marketing approach, market segmentation approach and an extension of the latter is niche marketing. Ripe and Ready Fruit ; Vega uses the market segmentation approach as the products sold are mainly for those which are above 21 and provide for themselves. 21 is the age at which most young people leave their parents home and find a home for themselves and is the age at which they provide for themselves and eve a stable financial state. 2. Details of marketing strategies Product Ripe and Ready Fruit Vega offers a large variety of high quality fruit and vegetables for the use of customers. A group of employees will be assigned the task of the acquisition of the goods which will be from the Sydney Markets ensuring that the produce will be of the freshest and highest of standards for the customers. Price The pricing of products is reasonably fair and are raised and lowered in accordance to the prices of our competitors and the ease in which the products are acquired as some goods can be out of season and will be more expensive than those which are in season. Correct pricing is essential as if the price is set too high it could result in lost sales and if the price is set to low it may give customers the impression that it is a dodgy product and that the business is not to be trusted. Promotion the promotion of a business such as Ripe and Ready Fruit ; Vega will largely involve word of mouth, the use of social media sites such as Faceable, Mainstream and Twitter and adds in the local newspaper close to the big stories in order to ensure a lot people will see the advertisement. Place this involves the way n which the product gets to the customer. The product will be placed in the shop in Main Street, Blacktops. This area has a high level of traffic which will improve the chances of sales and profits for Ripe and Ready Fruit ; Vega. 3. Impact on Ultimate business success The businesss success relies heavily upon the marketing strategies implemented. The use of inappropriate marketing strategies will result in a decline in profits and capital which will lead to the eventual closing of the Ripe and Ready Fruit Vega. The marketing strategies shown will ensure the businesss success in the long term. The marketing strategies that are implemented will ensure customers receive high quality, high standard fruit and vegetables at a reasonable price. The location of the store will ensure good sales as it is located in an area with high consumer traffic. The promotion strategies implemented will be sufficient for the short term, but as it builds its revenue then it will be possible to invest in better and more effective promotion strategies.

The One-Page Resume Dont Model Your Resume After Elon Musks

The One-Page Resume Dont Model Your Resume After Elon Musks Last April, a resume writing company called Novorà ©sumà © created Elon Musk’s one-page resume, claiming that this resume proves no one needs a resume longer than one page. The resume spread virally. But does it prove what it claims to prove? I’m not reproducing the Elon Musk one-page resume here since I dont want to violate copyright, so I invite you to view it as you read the following comments. You can take a look at this much-viewed resume here. My take: This one-pager is nice for Elon Musk, the creator of Tesla and one of the biggest names in entrepreneurial history. I mean, Elon Musk could put his name sloppily on a page and get hired. Who cares what his resume says? But most people need more than one page to display their accomplishments. I assert that while there are some good things about this resume, there are more problems than attributes. And there are a lot of lessons you can take from Elon Musk’s one-page resume on what NOT to do. Here’s my critique: Elon’s Summary only works if you already know who he is. Otherwise you’d think the guy is idealistic at best, crazy at worst. Here’s how it reads: â€Å"Aiming to reduce global warming through sustainable energy production and consumption, and reducing the â€Å"risk of human extinction† by â€Å"making life multi-planetary† and setting up a human colony on Mars. Brilliant? Or delusional? What about stating Elon’s actual accomplishments, like starting up multi-billion-dollar companies, setting the standard in electric cars, and disrupting more technologies than anyone else on the planet? That’s what I want to hear about. The Work Experience descriptions only make an impact if you already know who Elon Musk is and what his companies do. For example, â€Å"Currently oversee the company’s product strategy – including the design, engineering and manufacturing of more and more affordable electric vehicles for mainstream consumers.† That’s fine, but really it’s a job description, not an accomplishment. It doesnt tell us what dollar value he generated for the company in this position. If someone without Elon Musk’s name recognition wanted to get hired, they would need to list a lot more specific accomplishments on their resume. The broad descriptions on Elon Musk’s one-page resume would not cut it. The award listed in Tesla is ancient. There’s an impressive line in the Tesla section about receiving the Global Green 2006 product design award†¦ but that was ten years ago! You’d almost think the guy hasn’t accomplished anything since then. There are â€Å"orphans† in the paragraphs. â€Å"Orphans† are one-word lines on the last line of a paragraph. They make the resume look elementary and sloppy. Lines that should be bullets are not bulleted and are instead stacked on top of each other with no space in between, making them difficult to read. This space-saving tactic is not recommended. Writing actual bullets takes up more space, sure, but it’s worth it for readability. There are no dollar numbers in the resume anywhere. Lines like â€Å"†¦conducted a successful viral marketing campaign, which led to a rapid increase in the number of customers† lack concrete information on what that increase was. The absence of quantifiable achievements might be okay for Elon Musk, but not for you (unless the numbers are confidential). Writing a true list of accomplishments, I can’t state enough times, is a lot more important than keeping your resume to one page. Elon’s Skills Competencies section is not consistent. Items in the list on â€Å"Skills Competencies† include â€Å"Thinking through principles first,† â€Å"Goal oriented,† and â€Å"Time Management.† The first is a participial phrase, the second is an adjective, and the third is a noun. This kind of inconsistency scrambles a reader’s brain. The Skills Competencies section, formatted in graphic style, will not be understood by a computer or ATS (Applicant Tracking Software) system. If you read my article about ATS-Compatible resumes last week, you know that a chart or graph will not cut it if you are applying to jobs on line. If Elon wants to have this information parsed, he needs to write regular sentences or phrases about these skills. Furthermore, if you want your skills to matter, you need to do more than put them in a list of skills. You must put your skills in the Work Experience section, under positions with dates of employment, to have the years of the skills counted toward your qualifications. Integrating your skills into your Experience section might take up more space, and it’s worth it. The whole resume needs to be reformatted for ATS systems. See my article on ATS-Compatible Resumes. Once reformatted, you guessed it: It will be longer. Elon’s alma matter is listed as â€Å"Penn’s College of Arts and Sciences.†Ã‚  How are we to know if this is the University of Pennsylvania or Penn State without looking it up on line? It’s not worth getting sloppy for the sake of saving space. I recommend always writing out the full name of your educational institutions. There are some people who should have a one-page resume. If you’re applying for Board positions, for instance, a document like Elon Musk’s one-page resume can be effective. Boards don’t care as much about your numbers, and prefer to see a bigger picture of your skills and scope of leadership. A one-page resume is also appropriate for many new graduates and people who have just a few years of experience. If you’re applying to Google, the rule of thumb is one page per 10 years of experience. But I’ve seen new graduates get very desirable jobs using a two-page resume if they have the experience to justify a longer document. Overall, it’s more important to state your accomplishments clearly and specifically, format your resume wisely, write out anything you’ve represented in a chart or graph, and include your keywords in your Experience section, than to attempt to cram all your experience onto one page. How long is your resume? What’s your experience with a one-page or two-page resume? And what do you think of Elon Musk’s one-page resume? Please share your comments!

The Patriot Act and Terrorism Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Patriot Act and Terrorism - Assignment Example According to the Act, Smith & Hung (2010) explains that the government can trace pen and trap order to interrupt information on communication via the internet. This also includes trapping email addresses received or sent to determine what communication exists among the people. This means that the Department of policy on Justice is free to retrieve information on any sites one is visiting using traces, pens and traps. Apart from the patriot Act, there exist anti-terrorist laws, which cut the civil rights of American citizens. Following a terrorist case the Supreme Court of the United States took a freedom shot of speech. However, by a vote of 3vs 6 on law provision it criminated providing knowingly support materials to terrorist, foreign organizations. Another recent terrorist law which, erodes the, Constitutional law that allowed the government to kill and target Americans; who passed on in the process. This was when the Administration of Obama authorized the killing of a cleric Muslim; Awlaki Anwar believed to be an AlQaeda member (Smith & Hung, 2010). Terrorism should remain a separate offense because terrorists are war criminals and not subject to same constitutional rights as normal citizens of America. However, the problem is that the U.S government bypasses many provisions of the constitution, allowing the extraordinary power over both terrorists and citizens. The crimes previously in place do not address the terrorism acts adequately in such a way that the government authorities target the citizens of Americans who are not terrorists, but intentionally and covertly perceived to be them. Bullock and Coppola (2012) claim that a preventive and forward-looking strategy of criminal justice against the terrorists should follow a system that is comprehensive of offences, techniques, and investigative powers. Each person has a right to life and therefore, law protection should

MOTHER TONGUE BY AMY TAN Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

MOTHER TONGUE BY AMY TAN - Essay Example From the essay, we learn about the initial encounters of Amy as a young girl. Her life was widely dependant of her knowledge in different languages that constituted of English. In the first part of the book, there is a clear explanation about her learning and use of the language. We get a clear picture about her school life from the second part along with the liabilities she experienced as a due to her mother’s inability to speak correct English. English as a second lingo and a school subject to her made her life in school a living hell. Nonetheless, through the same problems and technicalities, she managed to grasp the language with immense vigor. In fact, her success in the latter, depicted by her writing capabilities, was a source of surprise both to her family and to friends. Her career in writing was geared by the unknown ability that she came to realize in herself years later. Her struggles in grasping correct English for communication with her peers synchronized with th e mastery of broken English for easier communication with her mother enabled the sharing and practice of many different cultures, which gave an ample source to writing materials. Amy came to discover how rich she was in mastering different languages. She was capable of communicating with very many different people: from the different types of English, to her mother tongue. This phenomenon came to her attention, when she inquired from her friends on their opinion about her mother’s mannerism of speaking English. The responses made her realize that it was not a mere normality, to grasp and use different languages effectively. From this perspective, it became easier for Amy to adapt to any changes; blending into different languages with a passion. She knew it was her secret; one that she achieved through struggling and could now interact normally with everyone years later; regards to her childhood efforts. With reference to the latter, she was always good in all other subjects o ther than English. She recalls how her professor discovered her degree in brightness and emphasized on concentration to the subjects she could deliver best. This was in the context of having a strong base in education with a promising future. Contrary to her instincts, Amy never wanted to foster on what she could do. She had zeal and a strong notion on trying what was considered impossible. She then reduced her concentration on latter subjects and focused on English, regardless of the pieces of advises from different entities. At one time, she almost gave up on the subject and even blamed her failure on the poor English her mother spoke. She never came to consensus with the fact behind, other children coming from strong English speaking families, while she came from a family characterized by pitiable English. As a child, English was an unexplained aspect of unfairness. Despite the fact that communication between her mum and the outside world was next to impossible, Amy never gave up . Instead, she listened and practiced quietly until she was sure of herself. In her mother’s case, she countered any problems by assisting different people in communicating with her. She even recalls the kind of difficulties she underwent in instances where they encountered influential people with a notion of taking advantage of her mother. Amy might have been an Asian American, but this aspect never countered her standing out in class. Through her efforts, she finally achieved her long-term quest, becoming a writer and a savior to her mother in the process. Apparently, the author uses hidden language to point out aspects of cultural racism without signifying anger or clearly mentioning out

Thinking in Education Essay Example for Free

Thinking in Education Essay No one doubts, theoretically, the importance of fostering in school good habits of thinking. But apart from the fact that the acknowledgment is not so great in practice as in theory, there is not adequate theoretical recognition that all which the school can or need do for pupils, so far as their minds are concerned (that is, leaving out certain specialized muscular abilities), is to develop their ability to think. The parceling out of instruction among various ends such as acquisition of skill (in reading, spelling, writing, drawing, reciting); acquiring information (in history and geography), and training of thinking is a measure of the ineffective way in which we accomplish all three. Thinking which is not connected with increase of efficiency in action, and with learning more about ourselves and the world in which we live, has something the matter with it just as thought (See ante, p. 147). And skill obtained apart from thinking is not connected with any sense of the purposes for which it is to be used. It consequently leaves a man at the mercy of his routine habits and of the authoritative control of others, who know what they are about and who are not especially scrupulous as to their means of achievement. And information severed from thoughtful action is dead, a mind-crushing load. Since it simulates knowledge and thereby develops the poison of conceit, it is a most powerful obstacle to further growth in the grace of intelligence. The sole direct path to enduring improvement in the methods of instruction and learning consists in centering upon the conditions which exact, promote, and test thinking. Thinking is the method of intelligent learning, of learning that employs and rewards mind. We speak, legitimately enough, about the method of thinking, but the important thing to bear in mind about method is that thinking is method, the method of intelligent experience in the course which it takes. I. The initial stage of that developing experience which is called thinking is experience. This remark may sound like a silly truism. It ought to be one; but unfortunately it is not. On the contrary, thinking is often regarded both in philosophic theory and in educational practice as something cut off from experience, and capable of being cultivated in isolation. In fact, the inherent limitations of experience are often urged as the sufficient ground for attention to thinking. Experience is then thought to be confined to the senses and appetites; to a mere material world, while thinking proceeds from a higher faculty (of reason), and is occupied with spiritual or at least literary things. So, oftentimes, a sharp distinction is made between pure mathematics as a peculiarly fit subject matter of thought (since it has nothing to do with physical existences) and applied mathematics, which has utilitarian but not mental value. Speaking generally, the fundamental fallacy in methods of instruction lies in supposing that experience on the part of pupils may be assumed. What is here insisted upon is the necessity of an actual empirical situation as the initiating phase of thought. Experience is here taken as previously defined: trying to do something and having the thing perceptibly do something to one in return. The fallacy consists in supposing that we can begin with ready-made subject matter of arithmetic, or geography, or whatever, irrespective of some direct personal experience of a situation. Even the kindergarten and Montessori techniques are so anxious to get at intellectual distinctions, without waste of time, that they tend to ignore or reduce the immediate crude handling of the familiar material of experience, and to introduce pupils at once to material which expresses the intellectual distinctions which adults have made. But the first stage of contact with any new material, at whatever age of maturity, must inevitably be of the trial and error sort. An individual must actually try, in play or work, to do something with material in carrying out his own impulsive activity, and then note the interaction of his energy and that of the material employed. This is what happens when a child at first begins to build with blocks, and it is equally what happens when a scientific man in his laboratory begins to experiment with unfamiliar objects. Hence the first approach to any subject in school, if thought is to be aroused and not words acquired, should be as unscholastic as possible. To realize what an experience, or empirical situation, means, we have to call to mind the sort of situation that presents itself outside of school; the sort of occupations that interest and engage activity in ordinary life. And careful inspection of methods which are permanently successful in formal education, whether in arithmetic or learning to read, or studying geography, or learning physics or a foreign language, will reveal that they depend for their efficiency upon the fact that they go back to the type of the situation which causes reflection out of school in ordinary life. They give the pupils something to do, not something to learn; and the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking, or the intentional noting of connections; learning naturally results. That the situation should be of such a nature as to arouse thinking means of course that it should suggest something to do which is not either routine or capricioussomething, in other words, presenting what is new (and hence uncertain or problematic) and yet sufficiently connected with existing habits to call out an effective response. An effective response means one which accomplishes a perceptible result, in distinction from a purely haphazard activity, where the consequences cannot be mentally connected with what is done. The most significant question which can be asked, accordingly, about any situation or experience proposed to induce learning is what quality of problem it involves. At first thought, it might seem as if usual school methods measured well up to the standard here set. The giving of problems, the putting of questions, the assigning of tasks, the magnifying of difficulties, is a large part of school work. But it is indispensable to discriminate between genuine and simulated or mock problems. The following questions may aid in making such discrimination. (a) Is there anything but a problem? Does the question naturally suggest itself within some situation or personal experience? Or is it an aloof thing, a problem only for the purposes of conveying instruction in some school topic? Is it the sort of trying that would arouse observation and engage experimentation outside of school? (b) Is it the pupils own problem, or is it the teachers or textbooks problem, made a problem for the pupil only because he cannot get the required mark or be promoted or win the teachers approval, unless he deals with it? Obviously, these two questions overlap. They are two ways of getting at the same point: Is the experience a personal thing of such a nature as inherently to stimulate and direct observation of the connections involved, and to lead to inference and its testing? Or is it imposed from without, and is the pupils problem simply to meet the external requirement? Such questions may give us pause in deciding upon the extent to which current practices are adapted to develop reflective habits. The physical equipment and arrangements of the average schoolroom are hostile to the existence of real situations of experience. What is there similar to the conditions of everyday life which will generate difficulties? Almost everything testifies to the great premium put upon listening, reading, and the reproduction of what is told and read. It is hardly possible to overstate the contrast between such conditions and the situations of active contact with things and persons in the home, on the playground, in fulfilling of ordinary responsibilities of life. Much of it is not even comparable with the questions which may arise in the mind of a boy or girl in conversing with others or in reading books outside of the school. No one has ever explained why children are so full of questions outside of the school (so that they pester grown-up persons if they get any encouragement), and the conspicuous absence of display of curiosity about the subject matter of school lessons. Reflection on this striking contrast will throw light upon the question of how far customary school conditions supply a context of experience in which problems naturally suggest themselves. No amount of improvement in the personal technique of the instructor will wholly remedy this state of things. There must be more actual material, more stuff, more appliances, and more opportunities for doing things, before the gap can be overcome. And where children are engaged in doing things and in discussing what arises in the course of their doing, it is found, even with comparatively indifferent modes of instruction, that childrens inquiries are spontaneous and numerous, and the proposals of solution advanced, varied, and ingenious. As a consequence of the absence of the materials and occupations which generate real problems, the pupils problems are not his; or, rather, they are his only as a pupil, not as a human being. Hence the lamentable waste in carrying over such expertness as is achieved in dealing with them to the affairs of life beyond the schoolroom. A pupil has a problem, but it is the problem of meeting the peculiar requirements set by the teacher. His problem becomes that of finding out what the teacher wants, what will satisfy the teacher in recitation and examination and outward deportment. Relationship to subject matter is no longer direct. The occasions and material of thought are not found in the arithmetic or the history or geography itself, but in skillfully adapting that material to the teachers requirements. The pupil studies, but unconsciously to himself the objects of his study are the conventions and standards of the school system and school authority, not the nominal studies. The thinking thus evoked is artificially one-sided at the best. At its worst, the problem of the pupil is not how to meet the requirements of school life, but how to seem to meet them or, how to come near enough to meeting them to slide along without an undue amount of friction. The type of judgment formed by these devices is not a desirable addition to character. If these statements give too highly colored a picture of usual school methods, the exaggeration may at least serve to illustrate the point: the need of active pursuits, involving the use of material to accomplish purposes, if there are to be situations which normally generate problems occasioning thoughtful inquiry. II. There must be data at command to supply the considerations required in dealing with the specific difficulty which has presented itself. Teachers following a developing method sometimes tell children to think things out for themselves as if they could spin them out of their own heads. The material of thinking is not thoughts, but actions, facts, events, and the relations of things. In other words, to think effectively one must have had, or now have, experiences which will furnish him resources for coping with the difficulty at hand. A difficulty is an indispensable stimulus to thinking, but not all difficulties call out thinking. Sometimes they overwhelm and submerge and discourage. The perplexing situation must be sufficiently like situations which have already been dealt with so that pupils will have some control of the meanings of handling it. A large part of the art of instruction lies in making the difficulty of new problems large enough to challenge thought, and small enough so that, in addition to the confusion naturally attending the novel elements, there shall be luminous familiar spots from which helpful suggestions may spring. In one sense, it is a matter of indifference by what psychological means the subject matter for reflection is provided. Memory, observation, reading, communication, are all avenues for supplying data. The relative proportion to be obtained from each is a matter of the specific features of the particular problem in hand. It is foolish to insist upon observation of objects presented to the senses if the student is so familiar with the objects that he could just as well recall the facts independently. It is possible to induce undue and crippling dependence upon sense-presentations. No one can carry around with him a museum of all the things whose properties will assist the conduct of thought. A well-trained mind is one that has a maximum of resources behind it, so to speak, and that is accustomed to go over its past experiences to see what they yield. On the other hand, a quality or relation of even a familiar object may previously have been passed over, and be just the fact that is helpful in dealing with the question. In this case direct observation is called for. The same principle applies to the use to be made of observation on one hand and of reading and telling on the other. Direct observation is naturally more vivid and vital. But it has its limitations; and in any case it is a necessary part of education that one should acquire the ability to supplement the narrowness of his immediately personal experiences by utilizing the experiences of others. Excessive reliance upon others for data (whether got from reading or listening) is to be depreciated. Most objectionable of all is the probability that others, the book or the teacher, will supply solutions ready-made, instead of giving material that the student has to adapt and apply to the question in hand for himself. There is no inconsistency in saying that in schools there is usually both too much and too little information supplied by others. The accumulation and acquisition of information for purposes of reproduction in recitation and examination is made too much of. Knowledge, in the sense of information, means the working capital, the indispensable resources, of further inquiry; of finding out, or learning, more things. Frequently it is treated as an end itself, and then the goal becomes to heap it up and display it when called for. This static, cold-storage ideal of knowledge is inimical to educative development. It not only lets occasions for thinking go unused, but it swamps thinking. No one could construct a house on ground cluttered with miscellaneous junk. Pupils who have stored their minds with all kinds of material which they have never put to intellectual uses are sure to be hampered when they try to think. They have no practice in selecting what is appropriate, and no criterion to go by; everything is on the same dead static level. On the other hand, it is quite open to question whether, if information actually functioned in experience through use in application to the students own purposes, there would not be need of more varied resources in books, pictures, and talks than are usually at command. III. The correlate in thinking of facts, data, knowledge already acquired, is suggestions, inferences, conjectured meanings, suppositions, tentative explanations:ideas, in short. Careful observation and recollection determine what is given, what is already there, and hence assured. They cannot furnish what is lacking. They define, clarify, and locate the question; they cannot supply its answer. Projection, invention, ingenuity, devising come in for that purpose. The data arouse suggestions, and only by reference to the specific data can we pass upon the appropriateness of the suggestions. But the suggestions run beyond what is, as yet, actually given in experience. They forecast possible results, things to do, not facts (things already done). Inference is always an invasion of the unknown, a leap from the known. In this sense, a thought (what a thing suggests but is not as it is presented) is creative, an incursion into the novel. It involves some inventiveness. What is suggested must, indeed, be familiar in some context; the novelty, the inventive devising, clings to the new light in which it is seen, the different use to which it is put. When Newton thought of his theory of gravitation, the creative aspect of his thought was not found in its materials. They were familiar; many of them commonplaces sun, moon, planets, weight, distance, mass, square of numbers. These were not original ideas; they were established facts. His originality lay in the use to which these familiar acquaintances were put by introduction into an unfamiliar context. The same is true of every striking scientific discovery, every great invention, every admirable artistic production. Only silly folk identify creative originality with the extraordinary and fanciful; others recognize that its measure lies in putting everyday things to uses which had not occurred to others. The operation is novel, not the materials out of which it is constructed. The educational conclusion which follows is that all thinking is original in a projection of considerations which have not been previously apprehended. The child of three who discovers what can be done with blocks, or of six who finds out what he can make by putting five cents and five cents together, is really a discoverer, even though everybody else in the world knows it. There is a genuine increment of experience; not another item mechanically added on, but enrichment by a new quality. The charm which the spontaneity of little children has for sympathetic observers is due to perception of this intellectual originality. The joy which children themselves experience is the joy of intellectual constructiveness of creativeness, if the word may be used without misunderstanding. The educational moral I am chiefly concerned to draw is not, however, that teachers would find their own work less of a grind and strain if school conditions favored learning in the sense of discovery and not in that of storing away what others pour into them; nor that it would be possible to give even children and youth the delights of personal intellectual productiveness true and important as are these things. It is that no thought, no idea, can possibly be conveyed as an idea from one person to another. When it is told, it is, to the one to whom it is told, another given fact, not an idea. The communication may stimulate the other person to realize the question for himself and to think out a like idea, or it may smother his intellectual interest and suppress his dawning effort at thought. But what he directly gets cannot be an idea. Only by wrestling with the conditions of the problem at first hand, seeking and finding his own way out, does he think. When the parent or teacher has provided the conditions which stimulate thinking and has taken a sympathetic attitude toward the activities of the learner by entering into a common or conjoint experience, all has been done which a second party can do to instigate learning. The rest lies with the one directly concerned. If he cannot devise his own solution (not of course in isolation, but in correspondence with the teacher and other pupils) and find his own way out he will not learn, not even if he can recite some correct answer with one hundred per cent accuracy. We can and do supply ready-made ideas by the thousand; we do not usually take much pains to see that the one learning engages in significant situations where his own activities generate, support, and clinch ideas that is, perceived meanings or connections. This does not mean that the teacher is to stand off and look on; the alternative to furnishing ready-made subject matter and listening to the accuracy with which it is reproduced is not quiescence, but participation, sharing, in an activity. In such shared activity, the teacher is a learner, and the learner is, without knowing it, a teacher and upon the whole, the less consciousness there is, on either side, of either giving or receiving instruction, the better. IV. Ideas, as we have seen, whether they be humble guesses or dignified theories, are anticipations of possible solutions. They are anticipations of some continuity or connection of an activity and a consequence which has not as yet shown itself. They are therefore tested by the operation of acting upon them. They are to guide and organize further observations, recollections, and experiments. They are intermediate in learning, not final. All educational reformers, as we have had occasion to remark, are given to attacking the passivity of traditional education. They have opposed pouring in from without, and absorbing like a sponge; they have attacked drilling in material as into hard and resisting rock. But it is not easy to secure conditions which will make the getting of an idea identical with having an experience which widens and makes more precise our contact with the environment. Activity, even self-activity, is too easily thought of as something merely mental, cooped up within the head, or finding expression only through the vocal organs. While the need of application of ideas gained in study is acknowledged by all the more successful methods of instruction, the exercises in application are sometimes treated as devices for fixing what has already been learned and for getting greater practical skill in its manipulation. These results are genuine and not to be despised. But practice in applying what has been gained in study ought primarily to have an intellectual quality. As we have already seen, thoughts just as thoughts are incomplete. At best they are tentative; they are suggestions, indications. They are standpoints and methods for dealing with situations of experience. Till they are applied in these situations they lack full point and reality. Only application tests them, and only testing confers full meaning and a sense of their reality. Short of use made of them, they tend to segregate into a peculiar world of their own. It may be seriously questioned whether the philosophies (to which reference has been made in section 2 of chapter X) which isolate mind and set it over against the world did not have their origin in the fact that the reflective or theoretical class of men elaborated a large stock of ideas which social conditions did not allow them to act upon and test. Consequently men were thrown back into their own thoughts as ends in themselves. However this may be, there can be no doubt that a peculiar artificiality attaches to much of what is learned in schools. It can hardly be said that many students consciously think of the subject matter as unreal; but it assuredly does not possess for them the kind of reality which the subject matter of their vital experiences possesses. They learn not to expect that sort of reality of it; they become habituated to treating it as having reality for the purposes of recitations, lessons, and examinations. That it should remain inert for the experiences of daily life is more or less a matter of course. The bad effects are twofold. Ordinary experience does not receive the enrichment which it should; it is not fertilized by school learning. And the attitudes which spring from getting used to and accepting half-understood and ill-digested material weaken vigor and efficiency of thought. If we have dwelt especially on the negative side, it is for the sake of suggesting positive measures adapted to the effectual development of thought. Where schools are equipped with laboratories, shops, and gardens, where dramatizations, plays, and games are freely used, opportunities exist for reproducing situations of life, and for acquiring and applying information and ideas in the carrying forward of progressive experiences. Ideas are not segregated, they do not form an isolated island. They animate and enrich the ordinary course of life. Information is vitalized by its function; by the place it occupies in direction of action. The phrase opportunities exist is used purposely. They may not be taken advantage of; it is possible to employ manual and constructive activities in a physical way, as means of getting just bodily skill; or they may be used almost exclusively for utilitarian, i.e., pecuniary, ends. But the disposition on the part of upholders of cultural education to assume that such activities are merely physical or professional in quality, is itself a product of the philosophies which isolate mind from direction of the course of experience and hence from action upon and with things. When the mental is regarded as a self-contained separate realm, a counterpart fate befalls bodily activity and movements. They are regarded as at the best mere external annexes to mind. They may be necessary for the satisfaction of bodily needs and the attainment of external decency and comfort, but they do not occupy a necessary place in mind nor enact an indispensable role in the completion of thought. Hence they have no place in a liberal educationi.e., one which is concerned with the interests of intelligence. If they come in at all, it is as a concession to the material needs of the masses. That they should be allowed to invade the education of the elite is unspeakable. This conclusion follows irresistibly from the isolated conception of mind, but by the same logic it disappears when we perceive what mind really is namely, the purposive and directive factor in the development of experience. While it is desirable that all educational institutions should be equipped so as to give students an opportunity for acquiring and testing ideas and information in active pursuits typifying important social situations, it will, doubtless, be a long time before all of them are thus furnished. But this state of affairs does not afford instructors an excuse for folding their hands and persisting in methods which segregate school knowledge. Every recitation in every subject gives an opportunity for establishing cross connections between the subject matter of the lesson and the wider and more direct experiences of everyday life. Classroom instruction falls into three kinds. The least desirable treats each lesson as an independent whole. It does not put upon the student the responsibility of finding points of contact between it and other lessons in the same subject, or other subjects of study. Wiser teachers see to it that the student is systematically led to utilize his earlier lessons to help understand the present one, and also to use the present to throw additional light upon what has already been acquired. Results are better, but school subject matter is still isolated. Save by accident, out-of-school experience is left in its crude and comparatively irreflective state. It is not subject to the refining and expanding influences of the more accurate and comprehensive material of direct instruction. The latter is not motivated and impregnated with a sense of reality by being intermingled with the realities of everyday life. The best type of teaching bears in mind the desirability of affecting this interconnection. It puts the student in the habitual attitude of finding points of contact and mutual bearings. Â  Summary Processes of instruction are unified in the degree in which they center in the production of good habits of thinking. While we may speak, without error, of the method of thought, the important thing is that thinking is the method of an educative experience. The essentials of method are therefore identical with the essentials of reflection. They are first that the pupil have a genuine situation of experience that there be a continuous activity in which he is interested for its own sake; secondly, that a genuine problem develop within this situation as a stimulus to thought; third, that he possess the information and make the observations needed to deal with it; fourth, that suggested solutions occur to him which he shall be responsible for developing in an orderly way; fifth, that he have opportunity and occasion to test his ideas by application, to make their meaning clear and to discover for himself their validity.

Slumdog Millionaire A Short Summary Film Studies Essay

Slumdog Millionaire A Short Summary Film Studies Essay The character of an 18 year-old orphan named Jamal Malik from the Mumbais slums, who experienced the miserable days of his life. Whole nation discerning, he is just one question far from winning 20 million rupees on program, Indias Who likes to be a Millionaire? But when the brandish breaks for the night, policemen apprehend him on suspicion of betraying; how could a road child realize so much? Despairing to verify his innocence, Jamal notifies the scenes in the slum of his life where his brother and he grow up, of their excursions simultaneously on the street, of vicious runs into with localized gangs, and of Latika, the young girl he loved her and then he lost her. Each episode of his story reveals the input to the answer game shows questions. Eighteen year vintage Jamal Malik is having an astonishing responding mark on Who likes to be a Millionaire. He is just one right answer away from the large-scale pay. Is Jamal betraying? Is it solely luck that they have inquired him the questions to which he realizes the replies? Considering Jamals life expedition to this issue finally answers these inquiries. His life journey encompasses at an early age he became orphan; living with his brother, Salim, who was his protector, antagonist and guardian; and having an attachment since childhood with another orphaned progeny, a young female. His inspiration for being on the brandish furthermore may provide some answers to his success. Possibly it was all just intended to be. In Mumbai, Jamal Malik is tormented by the cops in consideration of cheating a game brandish. Jamal, who has no discovering and works in a call center assisting tea, is close to winning twenty million rupees in the display who likes to be a Millionaire? The policeman inspector exhibitions the videotape and after each investigation, Jamal notifies components of his childhood with his male sibling Salim, his trample for Latika and their assault to endure on the roads to support each correct answer, guided by his prevalent sense and past know-how, and verify his innocence. Mumbais policeman Sergeant Srinivas and his better interrogate and detain Jamal Malik. They suppose that he was betraying a popular Indian TV game display. They have clues that Jamal has had no prescribed learning and has been a job roinbber as a progeny, and are very resolute to inquiry him utilizing any method to get that how he can be able to enter in this game of money. (Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 2009) Production of film: The genesis of Slumdog Millionaire started at conduit 4 when the Head of movie and Drama, Tessa Ross, got a phone call from Film4s publication scout, Kate Sinclair, who clarified that shed read a verification of an exceptional article. Whereas yet to be released, when Sinclair chucked the article, Ross directly optioned the publication. Ross proposed that, while the publication was difficult to change into a play, she thought Beaufoy had the ability and know-how to do it. He knows how to explain the life of man from birth to his success. It was perhaps incoherent and few tales were nearly discreet little tales that had no quotation to the foremost individual characteristics at all. Its very distinct to starting with ones own concept and evolving it. Simon came up with the new name of Slumdog Millionaire. Its a comedy but its furthermore, at times, a horrifying drama. There are instants of large agony. Its a story and like all the best tales, it has instants of authentic darkness and repugnance. There is a large combine of things that really make you antic and make you bawl and make you gasp. When the script was in good enough form to take it to Danny, the groups number one alternate was Danny Boyle. In the world of video development, where tasks can labor to move ahead, certainly opposite re-writes, new writers, comprehensive comments and delays as other videos move into yield, Slumdog Millionaires development arc was rapid. Mechanically the places and bustle affiliated with every area the yield traveled to intend that Danny and his camera section, including the award winners controller of taking photos Anthony Dod Mantle, had to address some camera alternatives and firing methods. The crew was primarily conceiving to fire certain scenes utilizing highly complicated SI-2K digital cameras, but Boyle was obstinate that he did not yearn to take large and rather cumbersome 35mm cameras into the slums. The lesser, more flexible digital cameras enabled them to blaze rapidly with much less disturbance to the localized groups. Finding places and being allocated get access to be a logistical challenge for the place support and scouts from the groups Indian additions was vital. A localize d yield business India Take One expressed its knowledge to the yield, endowing the team to very quickly journal out how they would shift quickly from one location to the next. But distance is not habitually the large-scale topic in India. With millions of vehicles, rickshaws and taxis vying for the streets, traffic jams are part of everyday life as intense and dozing. General, in Mumbai, the maintain systems for filming were very much complicated than the yield had initially likely. Though disordered to an amount, Colson issue out that amenities were accessible across all facets of the production procedure. Mumbai is a world center for film making. The amenities are first class. There are truly incredible crews, studio space etc. Box office reception: Fox Searchlight issued 351 publishes of the movie over India for its full issue there on 23 January 2009. At the Indian carton bureau, in its first week, it makes business for about Rs. 23,545,665. Although not as much successful as foremost Bollywood matters in India throughout its first week, this was the biggest weekend whole for any Fox video. In its second week, the films whole increased to Rs. 30,470,752 at the Indian box agency. (Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 2009) Twosomes of analysts have proposed their attitudes about the films presentation at the Indian carton bureau. Komal Nahta, Trade analyst, stated that, There was an adversity with the title. It is not a well known phrase for majority Indians. In supplement, trade analyst Amod Mehr has claimed that with the exclusion of Anil Kapoor, the movie lacks recognizable stars and that the video. is not ideally matched for Indian sentiment. A videos proprietor commented that to find out slum juvenile men talking flawless English dont appear good but when speaks in Hindi language; the movie looks much realistic. The named Hindi type, did better at the box agency, and added exact replicates of that type were issued. Following the films achievement in the 81st Academy Awards, the movie is growing in India bigger by 470%. As of 15 March 2009, grossed of Rs. 158,613,802 of Slumdog Millionaire has at the Indian carton agency. Reviews: According to Times Entertainment One juvenile man, Jamal, has suspiciously or miraculously, extended the two worlds. An office boy, or chai wallah, from a Call center business, he has won a treasure on the Indian type of who likes to Be a Millionaire. The anchor is so skeptical of Jamals proficiency to answer the inquiries that he has try to punish the reality out of the lad. His interpretations, all anxiety to his miserable life as an orphan without home in the enterprise of his male sibling Salim, and not often sufficient, with the winsome, consistently abused Latika. The quest of Jamals finding his love Latika is similar to the idea of Indian movies from Raj-Kapoor movies. Factual to its sources, Slumdog, acclimatized from the innovative QA by Vikas Swarup, finishes with a purely delighted kiss and an all out promenade number, conceived by Bollywood deity A.R. Rahman. Despite of its components of cruelty, this is a floating tune to life, and a film to commemorate. (Singh, 2009) According to New York Times bathing comes regularly to Jamal, who profits from a dwelling as a chai-wallah assisting fragrant tea to call-center employees in Mumbai and who, after a sequence of alternating exhilarating and unnerving excursions, has set down in the moderately hot chair on the TV game brandish Who likes to Be a Millionaire. Yet while the item undoes with Jamal on the verge of catching the large-scale reward, here, narrative doesnt start and end. By all privileges the consistency of Jamals life should have been brutally changed by disaster by the time he makes apprehend for the TV prize. But because Slumdog Millionaire is self deliberately bordered as an up to designated day tales or because Mr. Boyle bends in the main heading of the sanguine, this verifies to be one of the most upbeat tales about living in torment imaginable. Salim, observer the murder of their mother by marauding fanatics equipped with anti-Muslim epithets and associations. In the end, what presents me reluctant hesitate about this bright, cheery, hard-to-resist video is that its enjoyment senses much like a filmmakers assessment than a dependable bawl from the heart about the human essence. (Dargis, 2008) People remarks about film: Every one-by-one has his own admiration and way of conceiving. Some adored it and some have critical comments. Some of them are granted: Without a doubt the best video I have ever glimpsed encompassing a pulsing, assuring soundtrack, appealing cinematography throughout, a captivating movie bragging gritty realism yet awe-inspiring romance. But as for being contradictory in the main heading of India, it teaches as far as the prostitution and the slums etc. is considered, it displays India as a vibrant, colorful, fast-moving, hope-filled location. Absolutely, not feeling good movie. Blaring, energetic, fast-moving and colorful, but how can so much brutality and unhappiness go away any individual feeling good? I regret going to glimpse a video which takes advantage of poor children. This Oscar being triumphant film Slumdog millionaire was very inspirational and uplifting movie with lots of wants in it. Regrettably, its not so looking at the pureness of the Oscar winning children genuine life. These children were the aim of the movie. They were the funnies and large actors with no popularities and with the smallest past know-how of portraying. (Dargis, 2008) (Time Out London, 2009) Impact made by movie: Most of the persons loved this video just because of the work of player and the way he get ease of his sad life but some persons criticize this video. Persons hold praising the films very sensible portrayal of slums life in India. But its not that thing. Slums life is a miserable. It takes self-assurance from you in the shape of the wealthy and the privileged. It robs your dignity, deadens your ambition, bounds your fantasy and psychologically cripples you when you step out-of-doors the solace zone of your own locality. Most people in the slums not ever complete a fairy-tale ending. Reviewer said that Sudips concept is indeed sensible. Although, I would furthermore like to note that not every individual answers the way how individuals should react. Individuals in the slums might be stolen off of self-assurance because they worry that their family constituent be enforced with hazard if they do something foolish. (WebbieStuff, 2009) Message got from movie: Despite of all the hype, Slumdog consigns a patronizing and ultimately sham affirmation on communal fairness. Danny Boyles Slumdog Millionaire, probably one of the most commemorated videos in latest times, notifies the rags-to-rajah article of a love-struck Indian juvenile man, with a small support from fate success over his wretched starting in Mumbai. Slumdog has enraged numerous Indians because it tarnishes their insight of their homeland as an expanding financial authority and a bonfire of democracy. Indias English newspapers, said mostly by its middle classes, have conveyed many bristling reconsiders of the film that articulate an acute sense of wounded nationwide dignity. Though comprehensible, the emotion is not justifiable. So at times pathetically artificial, many of the films heart trembling scenarios are motivated by a miserable, but well-documented truth. Corruption is certainly rampant amidst the policeman, and most will willingly use torment, so none is expected dim sufficient to aim an eloquent, English-talking man which is actually an expanding newspapers incident. Beggar-makers do round-up forsaken juvenile kids and mutilate them in alignment to make them more agreeable, while it is highly unlikely that any such progeny will ever possibility upon a $100 account, much less be adept of recognizing it by feel and scent alone. (Sengupta, 2009)

A Critique Of American Sandwich Essay

The whole article tells a true story that happened when the author was a little kid. The Author moved from Portugal to American along with his parents. With so special family background, the author aspire to American Sandwiches rather than thick sliced ham and vegetables wrapped with large loaf of bread. Actually, it reflects the expectations of author that could be a strong desire to touch American cultures and fit into American social circles. Throughout the articleï ¼Å'Edite Cunha utilize the conversation between his mother and him as well as the mental activities behaved by him to describe his vivid dream of owning the sunbeam bread. The frequent transform of the scenes are better to draw the attention of the readers to focus on the rhythm of the story. I think each person has undergone same experience during his or her early stage of life. Take mine experience as an example, I was born in a remote town of a small city, when I was 10 years old, I moved out of the small town to the central areas of the city. I begun to study with these â€Å"urban kids†Ã¯ ¼Å'it took a quite long period for me to get rid of the loneliness. Because we are wired to feel fear whenever we stepping into an unfamiliar environment, this is why I stick to face the question and become more positive. Currentlyï ¼Å'I am logging for the American lifestyle, observing and mimicking people surround me.

Vampire Academy Chapter 17

SEVENTEEN A FEW DAYS LATER, LISSA found me outside the commons and delivered the most astonishing news. â€Å"Uncle Victor's getting Natalie off campus this weekend to go shopping in Missoula. For the dance. They said I could come along.† I didn't say anything. She looked surprised at my silence. â€Å"Isn't that cool?† â€Å"For you, I guess. No malls or dances in my future.† She smiled excitedly. â€Å"He told Natalie she could bring two other people besides me. I convinced her to bring you and Camille.† I threw up my hands. â€Å"Well, thanks, but I'm not even supposed to go to the library after school. No one's going to let me go to Missoula.† â€Å"Uncle Victor thinks he can get Headmistress Kirova to let you go. Dimitri's trying too.† â€Å"Dimitri?† â€Å"Yeah. He has to go with me if I leave campus.† She grinned, taking my interest in Dimitri as interest in the mall. â€Å"They figured out my account finally – I got my allowance back. So we can buy other stuff along with dresses. And you know if they let you go to the mall, they'll have to let you go to the dance.† â€Å"Do we go to dances now?† I said. We never had before. School-sponsored social events? No way. â€Å"Of course not. But you know there'll be all kinds of secret parties. We'll start at the dance and sneak off.† She sighed happily. â€Å"Mia's so jealous she can barely stand it.† She went on about all the stores we'd go to, all the things we'd buy. I admit, I was kind of excited at the thought of getting some new clothes, but I doubted I'd actually get this mythical release. â€Å"Oh hey,† she said excitedly. â€Å"You should see these shoes Camille let me borrow. I never knew we wore the same size. Hang on.† She opened her backpack and began rifling through it. Suddenly, she screamed and threw it down. Books and shoes spilled out. So did a dead dove. It was one of the pale brown mourning doves that sat on wires along the freeway and under trees on campus. It had so much blood on it that I couldn't figure out where the wound was. Who knew something so small even had that much blood? Regardless, the bird was definitely dead. Covering her mouth, Lissa stared wordlessly, eyes wide. â€Å"Son of a bitch,† I swore. Without hesitating, I grabbed a stick and pushed the little feathered body aside. When it was out of the way, I started shoving her stuff back into the backpack, trying not to think about dead-bird germs. â€Å"Why the hell does this keep – Liss!† I leapt over and grabbed her, pulling her away. She had been kneeling on the ground, with her hand outstretched to the dove. I don't think she'd even realized what she was about to do. The instinct in her was so strong, it acted on its own. â€Å"Lissa,† I said, tightening my hand around hers. She was still leaning toward the bird. â€Å"Don't. Don't do it.† â€Å"I can save it.† â€Å"No, you can't. You promised, remember? Some things have to stay dead. Let this one go.† Still feeling her tension, I pleaded. â€Å"Please, Liss. You promised. No more healings. You said you wouldn't. You promised me.† After a few more moments, I felt her hand relax and her body slump against mine. â€Å"I hate this, Rose. I hate all of this.† Natalie walked outside then, oblivious to the gruesome sight awaiting her. â€Å"Hey, do you guys – oh my God!† she squealed, seeing the dove. â€Å"What is that?† I helped Lissa as we rose to our feet. â€Å"Another, um, prank.† â€Å"Is it†¦dead?† She scrunched up her face in disgust. â€Å"Yes,† I said firmly. Natalie, picking up on our tension, looked between the two of us. â€Å"What else is wrong?† â€Å"Nothing.† I handed Lissa her backpack. â€Å"This is just someone's stupid, sick joke, and I'm going to tell Kirova so they can clean this up.† Natalie turned away, looking a little green. â€Å"Why do people keep doing this to you? It's horrible.† Lissa and I exchanged looks. â€Å"I have no idea,† I said. Yet as I walked to Kirova's office, I started to wonder. When we'd found the fox, Lissa had hinted that someone must know about the raven. I hadn't believed that. We'd been alone in the woods that night, and Ms. Karp wouldn't have told anyone. But what if someone actually had seen? What if someone kept doing this not to scare her, but to see if she'd heal again? What had the rabbit note said? I know what you are. I didn't mention any of this to Lissa; I figured there were only so many of my conspiracy theories she could handle. Besides, when I saw her the next day, she'd practically forgotten the dove in light of other news: Kirova had given me permission to go on the trip that weekend. The prospect of shopping can brighten a lot of dark situations – even animal murder – and I put my own worries on hold. Only, when the time came, I discovered my release came with strings attached. â€Å"Headmistress Kirova thinks you've done well since coming back,† Dimitri told me. â€Å"Aside from starting a fight in Mr. Nagy's class?† â€Å"She doesn't blame you for that. Not entirely. I convinced her you needed a break†¦and that you could use this as a training exercise.† â€Å"Training exercise?† He gave me a brief explanation as we walked out to meet the others going with us. Victor Dashkov, as sickly as ever, was there with his guardians, and Natalie practically barreled into him. He smiled and gave her a careful hug, one that ended when a coughing fit took over. Natalie's eyes went wide with concern as she waited for it to pass. He claimed he was fine to accompany us, and while I admired his resolve, I thought he'd be putting himself through a lot just to shop with a bunch of teenage girls. We rode out the two-hour trip to Missoula in a large school van, leaving just after sunrise. Many Moroi lived separately from humans, but many also lived among them, and when shopping at their malls, you had to go during their hours. The back windows of the van had tinted glass to filter the light and keep the worst of it away from the vampires. We had nine people in our group: Lissa, Victor, Natalie, Camille, Dimitri, me, and three other guardians. Two of the guardians, Ben and Spiridon, always traveled with Victor. The third was one of the school's guardians: Stan, the jerk who'd humiliated me on my first day back. â€Å"Camille and Natalie don't have personal guardians yet,† Dimitri explained to me. â€Å"They're both under the protection of their families' guardians. Since they are Academy students leaving campus, a school guardian accompanies them – Stan. I go because I'm Lissa's assigned guardian. Most girls her age wouldn't have a personal guardian yet, but circumstances make her unusual.† I sat in the back of the van with him and Spiridon, so they could dispense guardian wisdom to me as part of the â€Å"training exercise.† Ben and Stan sat up front, while the others sat in the middle. Lissa and Victor talked to each other a lot, catching up on news. Camille, raised to be polite among older royals, smiled and nodded along. Natalie, on the other hand, looked left out and kept trying to shift her father's attention from Lissa. It didn't work. He'd apparently learned to tune out her chatter. I turned back to Dimitri. â€Å"She's supposed to have two guardians. Princes and princesses always do.† Spiridon was Dimitri's age, with spiky blond hair and a more casual attitude. Despite his Greek name, he had a Southern drawl. â€Å"Don't worry, she'll have plenty when the time comes. Dimitri's already one of them. Odds are you'll be one too. And that's why you're here today.† â€Å"The training part,† I guessed. â€Å"Yup. You're going to be Dimitri's partner.† A moment of funny silence fell, probably not noticeable to anyone except Dimitri and me. Our eyes met. â€Å"Guarding partner,† Dimitri clarified unnecessarily, like maybe he too had been thinking of other kinds of partners. â€Å"Yup,† agreed Spiridon. Oblivious to the tension around him, he went on to explain how guardian pairs worked. It was standard stuff, straight from my textbooks, but it meant more now that I'd be doing it in the real world. Guardians were assigned to Moroi based on importance. Two was a common grouping, one I'd probably work in a lot with Lissa. One guardian stayed close to the target; the other stood back and kept an eye on the surroundings. Boringly, those holding these positions were called near and far guards. â€Å"You'll probably always be near guard,† Dimitri told me. â€Å"You're female and the same age as the princess. You can stay close to her without attracting any attention.† â€Å"And I can't ever take my eyes off her,† I noted. â€Å"Or you.† Spiridon laughed again and elbowed Dimitri. â€Å"You've got a star student there. Did you give her a stake?† â€Å"No. She's not ready.† â€Å"I would be if someone would show me how to use one,† I argued. I knew every guardian in the van had a stake and a gun concealed on him. â€Å"More to it than just using the stake,† said Dimitri in his old-and-wise way. â€Å"You've still got to subdue them. And you've got to bring yourself to kill them.† â€Å"Why wouldn't I kill them?† â€Å"Most Strigoi used to be Moroi who purposely turned. Sometimes they're Moroi or dhampirs turned by force. It doesn't matter. There's a strong chance you might know one of them. Could you kill someone you used to know?† This trip was getting less fun by the minute. â€Å"I guess so. I'd have to, right? If it's them or Lissa†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"You might still hesitate,† said Dimitri. â€Å"And that hesitation could kill you. And her.† â€Å"Then how do you make sure you don't hesitate?† â€Å"You have to keep telling yourself that they aren't the same people you knew. They've become something dark and twisted. Something unnatural. You have to let go of attachments and do what's right. If they have any grain of their former selves left, they'll probably be grateful.† â€Å"Grateful for me killing them?† â€Å"If someone turned you into a Strigoi, what would you want?† he asked. I didn't know how to answer that, so I said nothing. Never taking his eyes off me, he kept pushing. â€Å"What would you want if you knew you were going to be converted into a Strigoi against your will? If you knew you would lose all sense of your old morals and understanding of what's right and wrong? If you knew you'd live the rest of your life – your immortal life – killing innocent people? What would you want?† The van had grown uncomfortably silent. Staring at Dimitri, burdened by all those questions, I suddenly understood why he and I had this weird attraction, good looks aside. I'd never met anyone else who took being a guardian so seriously, who understand all the life-and-death consequences. Certainly no one my age did yet; Mason hadn't been able to understand why I couldn't relax and drink at the party. Dimitri had said I grasped my duty better than many older guardians, and I didn't get why – especially when they would have seen so much more death and danger. But I knew in that moment that he was right, that I had some weird sense of how life and death and good and evil worked with each other. So did he. We might get lonely sometimes. We might have to put our â€Å"fun† on hold. We might not be able to live the lives we wanted for ourselves. But that was the way it had to be. We understood each other, understood that we had others to protect. Our lives would never be easy. And making decisions like this one was part of that. â€Å"If I became Strigoi†¦I'd want someone to kill me.† â€Å"So would I,† he said quietly. I could tell that he'd had the same flash of realization I'd just had, that same sense of connection between us. â€Å"It reminds me of Mikhail hunting Sonya,† murmured Victor thoughtfully. â€Å"Who are Mikhail and Sonya?† asked Lissa. Victor looked surprised. â€Å"Why, I thought you knew. Sonya Karp.† â€Å"Sonya Kar†¦you mean, Ms. Karp? What about her?† She looked back and forth between me and her uncle. â€Å"She†¦became Strigoi,† I said, not meeting Lissa's eyes. â€Å"By choice.† I'd known Lissa would find out some day. It was the final piece of Ms. Karp's saga, a secret I'd kept to myself. A secret that worried me constantly. Lissa's face and bond registered complete and utter shock, growing in intensity when she realized I'd known and never told. â€Å"But I don't know who Mikhail is,† I added. â€Å"Mikhail Tanner,† said Spiridon. â€Å"Oh. Guardian Tanner. He was here before we left.† I frowned. â€Å"Why is he chasing Ms. Karp?† â€Å"To kill her,† said Dimitri flatly. â€Å"They were lovers.† The entire Strigoi thing shifted into new focus for me. Running into a Strigoi I knew during the heat of battle was one thing. Purposely hunting down someone†¦someone I'd loved. Well, I didn't know if I could do that, even if it was technically the right thing. â€Å"Perhaps it is time to talk about something else,† said Victor gently. â€Å"Today isn't a day to dwell on depressing topics.† I think all of us felt relieved to get to the mall. Shifting into my bodyguard role, I stuck by Lissa's side as we wandered from store to store, looking at all the new styles that were out there. It was nice to be in public again and to do something with her that was just fun and didn't involve any of the dark, twisted politics of the Academy. It was almost like old times. I'd missed just hanging out. I'd missed my best friend. Although it was only just past mid-November, the mall already had glittering holiday decorations up. I decided I had the best job ever. Admittedly, I did feel a little put out when I realized the older guardians got to stay in contact through cool little communication devices. When I protested my lack of one, Dimitri told me I'd learn better without one. If I could handle protecting Lissa the old-fashioned way, I could handle anything. Victor and Spiridon stayed with us while Dimitri and Ben fanned out, somehow managing not to look like creepy stalker guys watching teenage girls. â€Å"This is so you,† said Lissa in Macy's, handing me a low-cut tank top embellished with lace. â€Å"I'll buy it for you.† I regarded it longingly, already picturing myself in it. Then, making my regular eye contact with Dimitri, I shook my head and handed it back. â€Å"Winter's coming. I'd get cold.† â€Å"Never stopped you before.† Shrugging, she hung it back up. She and Camille tried on a nonstop string of clothes, their massive allowances ensuring that price posed no problem. Lissa offered to buy me anything I wanted. We'd been generous with each other our whole lives, and I didn't hesitate to take her up on it. My choices surprised her. â€Å"You've got three thermal shirts and a hoodie,† she informed me, flipping through a stack of BCBG jeans. â€Å"You've gone all boring on me.† â€Å"Hey, I don't see you buying slutty tops.† â€Å"I'm not the one who wears them.† â€Å"Thanks a lot.† â€Å"You know what I mean. You're even wearing your hair up.† It was true. I'd taken Dimitri's advice and wrapped my hair up in a high bun, earning a smile when he'd seen me. If I'd had molnija marks, they would have shown. Glancing around, she made sure none of the others could hear us. The feelings in the bond shifted to something more troubled. â€Å"You knew about Ms. Karp.† â€Å"Yeah. I heard about it a month or so after she left.† Lissa tossed a pair of embroidered jeans over her arm, not looking at me. â€Å"Why didn't you tell me?† â€Å"You didn't need to know.† â€Å"You didn't think I could handle it?† I kept my face perfectly blank. As I stared at her, my mind was back in time, back to two years ago. I'd been on day two of my suspension for allegedly destroying Wade's room when a royal party visited the school. I'd been allowed to attend that reception too but had been under heavy guard to make sure I didn't â€Å"try anything.† Two guardians escorted me to the commons and talked quietly with each other along the way. â€Å"She killed the doctor attending her and nearly took out half the patients and nurses on her way out.† â€Å"Do they have any idea where she went?† â€Å"No, they're tracking her†¦but, well, you know how it is.† â€Å"I never expected her to do this. She never seemed like the type.† â€Å"Yeah, well, Sonya was crazy. Did you see how violent she was getting near the end? She was capable of anything.† I'd been trudging along miserably and jerked my head up. â€Å"Sonya? You mean Ms. Karp?† I asked. â€Å"She killed somebody?† The two guardians exchanged looks. Finally, one said gravely, â€Å"She became a Strigoi, Rose.† I stopped walking and stared. â€Å"Ms. Karp? No†¦she wouldn't have†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"I'm afraid so,† the other one replied. â€Å"But†¦you should keep that to yourself. It's a tragedy. Don't make it school gossip.† I went through the rest of the night in a daze. Ms. Karp. Crazy Karp. She'd killed someone to become Strigoi. I couldn't believe it. When the reception ended, I'd managed to sneak off from my guardians and steal a few precious moments with Lissa. The bond had grown strong by now, and I hadn't needed to see her face to know how miserable she was. â€Å"What's wrong?† I asked her. We were in a corner of the hallway, just outside the commons. Her eyes were blank. I could feel how she had a headache; its pain transferred to me. â€Å"I†¦I don't know. I just feel weird. I feel like I'm being followed, like I have to be careful, you know?† I didn't know what to say. I didn't think she was being followed, but Ms. Karp used to say the same thing. Always paranoid. â€Å"It's probably nothing,† I said lightly. â€Å"Probably,† she agreed. Her eyes suddenly narrowed. â€Å"But Wade isn't. He won't shut up about what happened. You can't believe the things he's saying about you.† I could, actually but I didn't care. â€Å"Forget about him. He's nothing.† â€Å"I hate him,† she said. Her voice was uncharacteristically sharp. â€Å"I'm on the committee with him for that fund-raiser, and I hate hearing him run his fat mouth every day and seeing him flirt with anything female that walks by. You shouldn't be punished for what he did. He needs to pay.† My mouth went dry. â€Å"It's okay†¦I don't care. Calm down, Liss.† â€Å"I care,† she snapped, turning her anger on me. â€Å"I wish there was a way I could get back at him. Some way to hurt him like he hurt you.† She put her hands behind her back and paced back and forth furiously, her steps hard and purposeful. The hatred and anger boiled within her. I could feel it in the bond. It felt like a storm, and it scared the hell out of me. Wrapped around it all was an uncertainty, an instability that said Lissa didn't know what to do but that she wanted desperately to do something. Anything. My mind flashed to the night with the baseball bat. And then I thought about Ms. Karp. She became a Strigoi, Rose. It was the scariest moment of my life. Scarier than seeing her in Wade's room. Scarier than seeing her heal that raven. Scarier than my capture by the guardians would be. Because just then, I didn't know my best friend. I didn't know what she was capable of. A year earlier, I would have laughed at anyone who said she'd want to go Strigoi. But a year earlier, I also would have laughed at anyone who said she'd want to cut her wrists or make someone â€Å"pay.† In that moment, I suddenly believed she might do the impossible. And I had to make sure she didn't. Save her. Save her from herself. â€Å"We're leaving,† I said, taking her arm and steering her down the hall. â€Å"Right now.† Confusion momentarily replaced her anger. â€Å"What do you mean? You want to go to the woods or something?† I didn't answer. Something in my attitude or words must have startled her, because she didn't question me as I led us out of the commons, cutting across campus toward the parking lot where visitors came. It was filled with cars belonging to tonight's guests. One of them was a large Lincoln Town Car, and I watched as its chauffeur started it up. â€Å"Someone's leaving early,† I said, peering at him from around a cluster of bushes. I glanced behind us and saw nothing. â€Å"They'll probably be here any minute.† Lissa caught on. â€Å"When you said, ? ®We're leaving,' you meant†¦no. Rose, we can't leave the Academy. We'd never get through the wards and checkpoints.† â€Å"We don't have to,† I said firmly. â€Å"He does.† â€Å"But how does that help us?† I took a deep breath, regretting what I had to say but seeing it as the lesser of evils. â€Å"You know how you made Wade do those things?† She flinched but nodded. â€Å"I need you to do the same thing. Go up to that guy and tell him to hide us in his trunk.† Shock and fear poured out of her. She didn't understand, and she was scared. Extremely scared. She'd been scared for weeks now, ever since the healing and the moods and Wade. She was fragile and on the edge of something neither of us understood. But through all of that, she trusted me. She believed I would keep her safe. â€Å"Okay,† she said. She took a few steps toward him, then looked back at me. â€Å"Why? Why are we doing this?† I thought about Lissa's anger, her desire to do anything to get back at Wade. And I thought about Ms. Karp – pretty, unstable Ms. Karp – going Strigoi. â€Å"I'm taking care of you,† I said. â€Å"You don't need to know anything else.† At the mall in Missoula, standing between racks of designer clothes, Lissa asked again, â€Å"Why didn't you tell me?† â€Å"You didn't need to know,† I repeated. She headed toward the dressing room, still whispering with me. â€Å"You're worried I'm going to lose it. Are you worried I'll go Strigoi too?† â€Å"No. No way. That was all her. You'd never do that.† â€Å"Even if I was crazy?† â€Å"No,† I said, trying to make a joke. â€Å"You'd just shave your head and live with thirty cats.† Lissa's feelings grew darker, but she didn't say anything else. Stopping just outside the dressing room, she pulled a black dress off the rack. She brightened a little. â€Å"This is the dress you were born for. I don't care how practical you are now.† Made of silky black material, the dress was strapless and sleek, falling about to the knees. Although it had a slight flair at the hemline, the rest looked like it would definitely manage some serious clinging action. Super sexy. Maybe even challenge-the-school-dress-code sexy. â€Å"That is my dress,† I admitted. I kept staring at it, wanting it so badly that it ached in my chest. This was the kind of dress that changed the world. The kind of dress that started religions. Lissa pulled out my size. â€Å"Try it on.† I shook my head and started to put it back. â€Å"I can't. It would compromise you. One dress isn't worth your grisly death.† â€Å"Then we'll just get it without you trying it on.† She bought the dress. The afternoon continued, and I found myself growing tired. Always watching and being on guard suddenly became a lot less fun. When we hit our last stop, a jewelry store, I felt kind of glad. â€Å"Here you go,† said Lissa, pointing at one of the cases. â€Å"The necklace made to go with your dress.† I looked. A thin gold chain with a gold-and-diamond rose pendant. Emphasis on the diamond part. â€Å"I hate rose stuff.† Lissa had always loved getting me rose things – just to see my reaction, I think. When she saw the necklace's price, her smile fell away. â€Å"Oh, look at that. Even you have limits,† I teased. â€Å"Your crazy spending is stopped at last.† We waited for Victor and Natalie to finish up. He was apparently buying her something, and she looked like she might grow wings and fly away with happiness. I was glad. She'd been dying for his attention. Hopefully he was buying her something extra-expensive to make up for it. We rode home in tired silence, our sleep schedules all messed up by the daylight trip. Sitting next to Dimitri, I leaned back against the seat and yawned, very aware that our arms were touching. That feeling of closeness and connection burned between us. â€Å"So, I can't ever try on clothes again?† I asked quietly not wanting to wake up the others. Victor and the guardians were awake, but the girls had fallen asleep. â€Å"When you aren't on duty, you can. You can do it during your time off.† â€Å"I don't ever want time off. I want to always take care of Lissa.† I yawned again. â€Å"Did you see that dress?† â€Å"I saw the dress.† â€Å"Did you like it?† He didn't answer. I took that as a yes. â€Å"Am I going to endanger my reputation if I wear it to the dance?† When he spoke, I could barely hear him. â€Å"You'll endanger the school.† I smiled and fell asleep. When I woke up, my head rested against his shoulder. That long coat of his-the duster-covered me like a blanket. The van had stopped; we were back at school. I pulled the duster off and climbed out after him, suddenly feeling wide awake and happy. Too bad my freedom was about to end. â€Å"Back to prison,† I sighed, walking beside Lissa toward the commons. â€Å"Maybe if you fake a heart attack, I can make a break for it.† â€Å"Without your clothes?† She handed me a bag, and I swung it around happily. â€Å"I can't wait to see the dress.† â€Å"Me either. If they let me go. Kirova's still deciding if I've been good enough.† â€Å"Show her those boring shirts you bought. She'll go into a coma. I'm about ready to.† I laughed and hopped up onto one of the wooden benches, pacing her as I walked along it. I jumped back down when I reached the end. â€Å"They aren't that boring.† â€Å"I don't know what to think of this new, responsible Rose.† I hopped up onto another bench. â€Å"I'm not that responsible.† â€Å"Hey,† called Spiridon. He and the rest of the group trailed behind us. â€Å"You're still on duty. No fun allowed up there.† â€Å"No fun here,† I called back, hearing the laughter in his voice. â€Å"I swear – shit.† I was up on a third bench, near the end of it. My muscles tensed, ready to jump back down. Only when I tried to, my foot didn't go with me. The wood, at one moment seemingly hard and solid, gave way beneath me, almost as though made of paper. It disintegrated. My foot went through, my ankle getting caught in the hole while the rest of my body tried to go in another direction. The bench held me, swinging my body to the ground while still seizing my foot. My ankle bent in an unnatural direction. I crashed down. I heard a cracking sound that wasn't the wood. The worst pain of my life shot through my body. And then I blacked out.

The eNotes Blog Remembering W. S.Merwin

Remembering W. S.Merwin The poet W. S. Merwin passed away on March 15, marking the conclusion to a long and richly productive life. His body of poetry proves difficult to sum up. Over the course of his seven decades of writing, Merwin changed again and again, in style and tone and subject. Merwin’s first volumes of verse, published in the 1950s, reveal his context and influences- Graves, Auden, and Yeats- more than his own passions. These early works are crisply formal and erudite, commanded by a cryptic, abstruse intelligence. In the 1960s, anger entered Merwin’s verse. His poetry became heated by the political woes of the age, namely the Vietnam War and the mounting environmental crisis. By then, Merwin had slipped free from traditional verse forms and had shed almost all punctuation. These qualities can be found in the opening lines of â€Å"For a Coming Extinction† (1967): Gray whaleNow that we are sending you to The EndThat great godTell him That we who follow you invented forgivenessAnd forgive nothing In the late 1970s, Merwin moved to Hawaii, where his poetry ripened into a masterful and unmistakable style. Merwin studied Buddhism and ecology, translated classical Asian poetry, and slowly transformed a blighted pineapple plantation into a thriving rainforest- activities to which he was committed for the rest of his life. The passions of Merwin’s life shine through his art, which increasingly reflected his natural surroundings through beautifully minute observation. Indeed, Merwin’s later poems show the workings of a mind attuned to the riches of the present moment and calibrated to the slow cycles of soils, trees, and migrating birds. In these poems, Merwin’s signature lack of punctuation conveys the immediacy of felt experience and the layered character of time. Consider â€Å"The Making of Amber† (2009): The September flocks form cryinggathering southwardeven small birds knowingfor the first timehow to fly all the way as oneat daybreak the split figis filled with dewthe finch finds itlike something it remembersthen across the afternoonthe grape vine hangs low in the doorwayand grapes one by onetaste warm to the tonguetransparent and soundlessrich with late daylight The poem exemplifies the marvel of Merwin’s best poetry, in which his immense technique seems to disappear, leaving on the page moments of delight, sorrow, or wonder. Merwin’s loss is irreplaceable, but in his poetry he left the record of a life deeply lived and beautifully expressed. As long as there are readers of poetry, his work will live on.

Writing Causal Argument Essay on Introduction to Gender Studies

Writing Causal Argument Essay on Introduction to Gender Studies There are many ways for a student to get his or her point across and through writing. One of the best methods happens to be through the use of a causal argumentative essay. While we believe most students know the basics for creation of an argumentative essay, some of you may just be hearing about it for the first time. A causal argumentative essay is simply an essay where the use of compelling arguments to pass your opinions across is allowed. But unlike the argumentative essay, here you are also allowed to write informally to your audience. So here are some tips on writing a compelling causal argumentative essay. Pick a position. When discussing your views on a subject matter through an essay, the first step to take is picking the side of the fence you intend to seat. Once this is done, you can easily start conducting your essay work by choosing a topic. If writing on gender studies, and you believe women studies should take on greater importance than men studies, then choose a topic that clearly states this. A great example is ‘Discussing the Role of Women’s Studies in Driving the Creation of Man Studies as an Academic Discipline.’ Here you are irrevocably stating that advances in women’s studies led to the clamor for a similar course for men. You can find similar examples in our list of 20 introduction to gender studies causal argument essay topics. Plan a winning argument. Note that a causal argument essay has given you the right to argue how you choose. Therefore, making use of salient points and relatable case studies is the best way to drive your point home. To start, you still need to structure the entire paper. Therefore using an introduction that summarises what you intend to accomplish, the essay body has to drive prove your argument and a great conclusion should round it all up. Introduce your argument in style. It is a causal argumentative essay, so take some liberties, surprise your audience and state your beliefs forcefully. An excellent introduction allows you to do all this and more. It also serves as an intro into what you intend to discuss in the preceding paragraphs of your essay. Make a case and state your case. Now you are at the point of writing the body of your essay which forms the most integral part of all your works. Here, you are charged with stating your grievances and challenging the cause of these grievances. In gender studies, coming against patriarchy using the suffrage movement is the way to go. A good conclusion can be a winning argument on its own. So why not attempt to round up your essay with hard-biting truths on what society will become if women are not equally a part of it. This leaves your reader in no position to question where your allegations lie. We have provided even more ammunition for anyone interested in writing a causal argument essay on gender studies in the article 10 facts for causal argument essay on introduction to gender studies.

Does Kant Adequatly Address the Problems Evident in the Controversy Essay

Does Kant Adequatly Address the Problems Evident in the Controversy between Empiricism and Rationalism - Essay Example According to Kant, the difference (dispute) that emerges between rationalism and empiricism is the level in which we are dependent on sense experience in order for us to gain and acquire knowledge. Rationalists claim that, very independent we gain knowledge and ideas (Kenny 45-46). This independent way of gaining concepts as it is own sense experience. Empiricists claim on the other side that sense experience is the final source of all our knowledge and ideals. When empiricists say that we are only able to access appearances, they are not saying that we only have access to illusory representations. To some level denying some confidence in their explanations, in this case, they ought to have been clear on this matter. Nonetheless, for Kant, appearances can, and in fact do, provide us with the ground for knowledge on facts and ideas (Kenny 48). To him the mind is the source of experience and knowledge, Descartes (1988). This is the concept, according to Kant, the concept of pure of cat egories. This is particularly clear in the sense that the mind makes contributions to experiences (Descartes 123). The mind plays a significant role and imposes on experience certain categories that make knowledge possible. In this case when Kant says that we cannot know the thing in itself he does not only mean that reality is inaccessible but also that we cannot experience anything outside in the way human mind operates Ann (1970). And from this explanation it is not a wrong concept, â€Å"but it justifies how human beings acquire knowledge† (Anne 90). Now, we have a look science and advancements in knowledge, it is evident that we have knowledge; Kant would never have denied it. Rationalist, in real sense have developed the argument in two ways. They say that there are circumstances when the content embodied in knowledge outstrips the information that can be provided in the real life experience. Also, they have build in some way, that reason in some form provides informati on and knowledge to the world. Empiricists, in this case provide some additional information of knowledge thought about the world (Kenny 50). Empiricists provide a sum up of lines and levels of thought. In that case they establish on accounts of how learning and experience provides on the information that rationalist provide, which according to Kant we have so far. According to Kant Empiricists will in most cases opt for skepticism as a lope to rationalism, Ann (1970). The say that if then experience cannot provide concepts or knowledge the rationalist cite, they then in that case do not have. In that case according to Kant, â€Å"empiricists attack the rationalists on accounts of how reason is a source of concepts and knowledge†. According to Kant, rationalist focus on what they call necessary truth. By this they articulate that some things are necessary true. Kant points that the simplest form of truth is the self-evident truth. In that regard, Kant says, that you even do n ot have to think. He illustrates that for instance as a simple calculation; one plus one, the answer is two Descartes (1988). This to him you do not have through the world to necessarily count this in order to prove it. Kant says that this is something you ought to believe that one plus one, the answer is two (Descartes 124). One of the criticisms that empiricists would set-forward is that, one plus one is two, is a mere trivial. It is tautological, suggesting it is true, certain, but not because it is not self

Social Work Program Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Social Work Program - Essay Example My dad saw me and waved, that I didn’t â€Å"see† either. My dad was, however, quite enthusiastic and cool about the whole thing, though he never actually discussed it with me, since he could see I was ashamed of what he did. The turning point came the day when he left his court, it was freezing and mum decided to drive to him and, I agreed to accompany her. I was disappointed in a way, I expected to find hordes of desperate uneducated and hopeless people at the shelter, a few appeared that way, but several of those I talked to seemed reasonable and sane enough for me to wonder what they were doing in shelters. A young man, who told me of his dream to join college, was shattered by addiction to drugs, and he left home because he could not face his parents. He still hoped to pull himself out of the situation; that night I plucked the courage and asked dad to tell me about what he did. By the time he was done, my perspective had undergone a paradigm shift, and when I aske d him why, he told me a story about his past, which I was not familiar with. For three years in his youth he had struggled with drugs and ended up in a shelter where he spent 6 months. Someone helped him get back on his feet again, but he had decided he would always show his appreciation for as long as he could. Therefore, my dad, a hotshot banker, once depended on a shelter from sustenance, now I was ashamed, not of his past, but my closed-mindedness. From that point on, I tried to learn as much as I could about social work from my dad and my teachers. Now I can say that my dad’s example influenced me a lot and I appreciate the chance to have helped me find my true vocation. My key values in live are honesty, fairness and compassion for everyone, I believe everyone deserves a second chance, and nobody should be judged because of their current situation, since it is important we try to find out how someone has got there. I also avoid judging or criticizing people because I be lieve until you know all about someone’s problems and the background circumstances, you are ill-equipped to decide if he/she is willing to change his/her life or not. Everyone should be listened to, supported and given the benefit to doubt his or her social status (Arwen, 2012). The main strength that may enable me to become a good social worker is that I have a compassionate nature. Besides, I am an adept at compartmentalizing my issues; that is to say, if someone makes me angry at some point I will not project it on the next person I meet, since I deal with issues independently. I believe this is particularly crucial, since many of the people social workers need to face are not easy to deal with and require infinite amount of patience. I may not have it in infinite quantities, but I have enough to deal with most of the challenges a social worker is expected to deal with. Communication skills are vital for any social worker, and I have excellent communication skills, I am a good listener who can easily assume the other person’s perspective, hence, understand their situation better. Social work requires emotional maturity and experience; in the past, I have spent many hours volunteering and, as such, I consider myself modestly experienced. I hope to join the