Prelude to Philosophy: What is Philosophy? Essay

List 4 reasons students often presuppose a low view of philosophy. 1. The image that one has to be super intelligent to do philosophy. 2. As a discipline, most students study it late in their academic development. 3. Most people don’t think it’s practical. 4. Most students don’t know what philosophy is or how it can benefit them. Know Socrates’ quote: What is the unexamined life? What did he mean when he said it wasn’t worth living? The quote: â€Å"The unexamined life is not worth living.† Socrates didn’t mean that people have no value, or should be executed if they lived unexamined lives. Humans are unique in the animal kingdom; we have the ability to reason and reflect about everything. What he meant was: To live the unexamined life is to live less than a fully human life; not living life the way we were created to live. Know the etymology of the word â€Å"philosophy.† The combination of two Greek terms: phileo and sopos. Phileo means â€Å"love†, sophos means â€Å"wisdom†. Know the working definition of â€Å"philosophy† and explain each of its elements. Philosophy is the critical examination of our foundational beliefs concerning the nature of reality, knowledge, and truth, and our moral and social values. List and explain each of the 6 characteristics under the description of philosophy. 1. The relationship between philosophy and facts: philosophers are generally more interested in what lies behind the facts, their meaning, significance and veracity, than in the facts themselves. 2. The importance of method in philosophical investigation: why someone believes something more so than what they believe. 3. clarification: clear thinking is imperative in finding truth. Two enemies to clear thinking is ambiguity and vagueness. 4. Philosophy examines and evaluates everything; nothing is  taken for granted: Every belief and idea is open to critical examination. Clarification and justification are required before accepting any belief to be true. 5. Philosophy is usually concerned with foundational issues that have been perennial throughout the history of humankind. 6. Philosophy often appeals to systems of principles or guidelines regarded to be true: either reject new claim to be true or adjust system to adapt to the new claim. Philosophers build systems of beliefs and philosophical examination doesn’t begin from a neutral position. Contrast and compare philosophy with religion, science, and art. How are they different and how are they similar? 1. Philosophy and Religion: (compared) Both search for the ultimate – that which has the ultimate meaning and value, the one thing that unifies everything and from which everything finds it’s meaning and origin. (contrasted) Religion usually appeals to some authoritative revelation to discover the truths about the ultimate; philosophy uses rational inquiry in attempting to understand the ultimate. A spiritual aspect normally isn’t found in philosophy. 2. Philosophy and Science: (compared) Both try to understand reality in a methodical fashion. They both use observation and appeal to evidence to support their conclusions. They both derive criteria, hypotheses, and theories that they apply to specific situations to discover the truth about reality. (contrasted) Science generally examines that part of reality associated with the senses, the physical world, philosophies field extends outside of physical reality to what lies beyond. Also, science deals with first-order questions about reality, philosophy deals with second-order questions about disciplines like science. 3. Philosophy and Art: (compared) artists often use their medium to express philosophical ideas, they both also often deal with similar topics, and artists capture what some modern philosophers promote. (contrasted) Art usually only coveys a particular philosophical view, whereas philosophy seeks the rational justification of a view. Philosophy argues for a view, art expresses it. Art is concerned mostly with structure, philosophy is concerned mostly with content. Explain the value of experiential knowledge in distinction to propositional knowledge. Experiential knowledge enhances our understanding beyond what  propositional knowledge can convey. Philosophy: Examining life; love of wisdom. Unexamine Life: Going through daily/routine activities/life, without thinking about what you’re doing and why you’re doing it; going through the motions of life without making the effort to reflect and think about what life is about. Normative Claim: Makes a claim about some actions persons ought to do. Socrates’ â€Å"unexamined life† claim was a normative claim. Wisdom: Wisdom has less to do with how much one knows and more to do with how one uses the knowledge they have. Wisdom is knowledge applied; using the knowledge one has in a way that benefits life. Critical Examination: To analyze. Clarification: To determine what something means. Justification: Addresses the questions: Is this true, and are there good reasons to believe it’s true? Evaluation: Determines the significance or value of the idea. Presuppositions: Beliefs people usually don’t think about or try to prove. They are assumptions people hold about themselves and the world, without knowing which they would not be able to arrive at any other knowledge. Foundational Beliefs: Central and fundamental beliefs, the core of all other beliefs. First-Order Discipline: A field that directly studies reality. Second-Order Discipline: A field that studies the methods and presuppositions of first-order disciplines. It’s not interested in the conclusion but the  means used to arrive at the conclusion and the presuppositions held while attempting to answer the question. Ambiguous: When there is more than one possible meaning. Vague: When the meaning is not clear. Worldview: A comprehensive system of beliefs that functions, first as an explanation and interpretation of the world and, second as an application of that system to the way people live and the values they hold. Scientism: The notion that scientific knowledge is the only kind of knowledge there is. Propositional Knowledge: Consists of beliefs that can be formulated and conveyed in propositions. Experiential Knowledge: Knowledge gained through experiencing something. Rational Animal: Humans.

Managing Outbreaks of an Infection Essay

NICE and Department of Health Guidelines NICEandDepartment of Health guidelines set the standards for high quality healthcare. It encourages a healthy lifestyle for people. The NICE and Department of Health guidelines are also used by the NHS, Local Authorities, employers, voluntary groups and anyone else involved in delivering care and promoting wellbeing. The recommendations that are given provide guidance on infection control and taking precautions. These should be applied by all healthcare personnel, and other carers, to the care of patients in all healthcare settings. For example, hands must be washed immediately before each and every episode of direct patient contact or care, and after any activity or contact that could potentially result in hands becoming contaminated. Another example is, when handling and disposing sharp objects. Sharps must not be passed directly from hand to hand and handling should be kept to a minimum. Also needles must not be recapped, bent, broken or opened before use or disposal. This is to ensure that infections do not spread and no one gets hurt with the needles. When it comes to precautions then these guidelines say that precautions should be taken with care. Health care professionals should ensure that these precautions benefit the patients who have TB and also prevent anyone else from getting these ill. For example, isolation nursing. The guideline says that this should be done to prevent anyone else from catching the infection and to stop the infection from spreading. What is Tuberculosis (TB)? Tuberculosis (TB) is a bacterial infection that is spread through inhaling tiny droplets from the coughs or sneezes of an infected person.It is a serious condition but can be cured with proper treatment. TB mainly affects the lungs but it can also affect any part of the body, including the bones and nervous system. In some cases the bacteria infect the body but do not cause any symptoms which are known as latent TB. It is called active TB if the bacteria causes symptoms.  A TB infection of the lungs is known as pulmonary TB but TB can occur outside the lungs, which is known as Extrapulmonary TB. What are my Concerns? My concerns are that the TB infection can spread from four patients to more. TB is caused by a type of bacterium called mycobacterium tuberculosis. TB is spread when a person with the TB infection in their lungs coughs or sneezes. Someone else needs to inhale and take in the droplets containing the TB bacteria. To catch it from someone else you would usually have to spend a long period of time in close contact with the infected person for you to catch the infection. For example, TB is more likely to spread between family members who live in the same house. This is because family members are living and are around the infection person mostly. This means they are at more risk of catching the infection. It would be very unlikely for someone to become infected by sitting next to an infected person on a bus. It is my concern that some of my other patients will be able to catch the infection from the four patients who already have TB. This is a concern because we do not want all the patients within our ward being infected with TB. TB is a serious infection. Why I need to prevent an outbreak? I need to prevent this outbreak because TB is an infection which could harm the person who has it. If untreated the patients can become worse. Also we need to prevent it from spreading. This is done to ensure that other people do not catch the infection. Also when one person has the infection then it will keep spreading and everyone in the hospital will be sick. This will be done by isolation. This is when we isolate the patient away from the other patients. This ensures that this infection is not able to spread to anyone else. This means the infection will keep spreading. The bacteria enters our body and once it has entered our body it starts to multiply and because it is a bacterial infection it does not need to attach to another cell to multiply. It is able to multiply on its own. After multiplying it starts to cause mycobacterium infection. Our immune system cannot stop the TB bacteria from growing and spreading after the infection has started to spread into our body. Medication and treatment is then needed for the body to then recover. Preventing an outbreak is important because it can spread and start  to infect other people. If a person is around someone that has been infected then they need to make sure that you stay away from them. This is because the individual is able to catch the infection from affected items and affected people. The NICE guidelines:â€Å"It has long been recognised that people who are sputum microscopy positive from spontaneously expectorated sputum are those cases with the highest infectivity, and pose a risk to household and other close contacts such as workplace contacts. For these reasons, traditionally, patients with pulmonary disease in whom tuberculosis is suspected are isolated in a single room.† Isolation nursing is one way in which an outbreak of infection can be prevented. The Department of Health guidelines:â€Å"This section discusses the evidence and associated recommendations for the use of person al protective equipment by healthcare workers in general care settings, including aprons, gowns, gloves, eye protection and face masks. Where appropriate, in addition to the grade of the evidence underpinning the recommendations, there is an indication of a Health and Safety requirement. The decision to use or wear personal protective equipment must be based upon an assessment of the level of risk associated with a specific patient care activity or intervention and take account of current health and safety legislation.† Using personal and professional equipment is another way in which an outbreak can be prevented. The doctors, nurses and other professionals working in a hospital should make sure that they do everything that prevents the infection from spreading to the workers, all the patients and visitors. Preventing an outbreak is important because we do not want other people getting ill. TB is a serious bacterial infection. Preventing other people from getting it is important. What are the risks and damage of an outbreak on staff, patients, visitors and their families? The risks of this are that staff, patients, visitors and their families are able to catch the TB illness. This is a risk because we will have more patients in the hospital with TB. Once a person is infected with TB bacteria, the chance of developing TB disease is higher if the person; has HIV infection, has been recently infected with TB bacteria (in the last 2 years), has other health problems, like diabetes, that make it hard for the body to fight bacteria, abuses alcohol or uses illegal drugs; or was not treated correctly for TB infection in the past. The damage of  this is that it then damages the individual’s body. This is because they go into getting further illnesses in the future. The department of Health Guidelines: â€Å"The incidence of TB is influenced by risk factors such as exposure to, and susceptibility to, TB and levels of deprivation (poverty, housing, nutrition a nd access to healthcare), and differs in different parts of England and Wales. Where scientific evidence supports it, this guideline makes recommendations on service organisation, as well as for individual teams of healthcare professionals. The guideline aims to focus NHS resources where they will combat the spread of TB, and some sections deal with high- and low-incidence areas separately. The NICE guidelines: â€Å"Anyone exposed to TB bacteria can become infected but people at particular risk are those that are less able to fight infection. Those at risk include: Household and frequent contacts of infectious cases, those who have lived in, travel to or receive visitors from places where TB is still very common, those who live in ethnic minority communities originating from places where TB is very common, those with immune systems weakened by HIV infection, the very young and the elderly, as their immune systems are less robust, those with chronic poor health and nutrition because of lifestyle problems such as homelessness, drug abuse or alcoholism, those living in poor or crowded housing conditions, including those living in hostels. Other conditions that suppress immunity such as renal failure and chemotherapy and diabetes increase the likelihood of reactivation of TB.† What precautions do we need to take? Personal and Professional Equipment is a regulation which protects the person at work from any risk/harm to their health and safety. We need to make sure that we use the right equipment. This will ensure that we are safe. It will also ensure that everything is done well while at work. Wearing/using personal and professional equipment prevents contact with a infectious agent of a bodily fluid that may contact an infectious agent by creating a barrier between the potential infection and then the worker. For example, if we wear a duck mask then it blocks our nose and mouth. These are two portals in which infections can come into a person. That I why blocking these two portals of entry is important so the infection is not able to get into people. If a nurse or doctor does go into the room to then they need to make sure they use personal and professional equipment. This will ensure that they are protected from the infection. The NICE guidelines: â€Å"Healthcare workers caring for people with TB should not use masks, gowns or barrier nursing techniques unless: MDR TB (multidrug-resistant Tuberculosis) is suspected or aerosol-generating procedures are being performed. When such equipment is used, the reason should be explained to the person with TB. The equipment should meet the standards of the Health and Safety Executive which is mentioned in section 9.3.†The Department of Health Guidelines: â€Å"This section discusses the evidence and associated recommendations for the use of personal protective equipment by healthcare workers in general care settings, including aprons, gowns, gloves, eye protection and face masks. Where appropriate, in addition to the grade of the evidence underpinning the recommendations, there is an indication of a Health and Safety requirement. The decision to use or wear personal protective equipment must be based upon an assessment of the level of risk associated with a specific patient care activity or intervention and take account of current health and safety legislation.† Isolation is one more thing which health and social care professionals need to take care of. By isolated patients who have TB is another precaution which needs to be taken. TB is able to spread to other people who do not have TB. That’s why it is important to make sure that we keep the patients who have TB away and isolate them. This needs to be done to ensure that the patient is isolated to prevent illness from spreading. We need to isolate the micro-organism and make sure that the person stays isolated until the TB infection is not treated. The NICE guidelines:â€Å"This isolation has been recommended until three separate sputum tests have been analysed on the patient. If these tests are negative, the patient is usually considered to cause a significantly lower infection risk. They may then be moved from the single room to a shared ward, provided there are no HIV-positive or other patients with major issues on the same ward. If patients are tested positive for tuberculosis, and need to be admitted to hospital, isolation is required until treatment makes the person non-infectious.†The Department of Health Guidelines:â€Å"It is recommended that patients with suspected or confirmed pulmonary TB who are admitted to hospital should remain isolated in a negative pressure room with airborne precautions applied, until discharge criteria are met. In principle these criteria include: a reduction in or  absence of cough, reduced smear burden or smear negativity, assured treatment and an appropriate discharge plan.† Also some other precautions that need to be taking are making sure that everything is clean and looked after. Cleanliness is very important because it prevents infections from spreading. Another precaution which needs to be taken it to make sure that all of the things which the patient with TB has used are disposed and cleaned properly. Also the patients clothes and linen should be washed separately from the other patients linen and clothing. This will ensure that infections do not spread. Taking all of these precautions is important because it ensures that patients, staff and visitors are safe and do not get any infections. The NICE guidelines: â€Å"Linen, Waste and Cleaning for bed linen, books, crockery or washing up facilities should be washed separately. Disposal of infected material should be as clinical waste per hospital policy. Rooms should be cleaned as normal/regularly and a normal full clean after discharge. Extra cleaning is unnecessary.† The department of Health Guidelines: â€Å"There are three levels of TB infection control: Administrative (managerial) control measures/ work place policy, environmental control measures, and personal protective equipment (respiratory protection). Administrative control measures are the most important since environmental control measures and personal protective equipment (respiratory protection) will not work in the absence of solid administrative control measures. Each level operates at a different point in the transmission process: administrative control measures reduce HCW and patient exposure; environmental control measures reduce the concentration of infectious droplet nuclei, personal protective devices (respiratory protection) protect HCWs in areas where the concentration of droplet nuclei cannot be adequately reduced by Administrative and environmental control measures.† How would we educate staff, visitors and patients? Education is vital for people. If we educate staff, visitors and patients about TB then they would be more aware of what TB is, how it affects the body and how to prevent yourself from getting TB. We could do this through putting up posters around the ward and hospital. We could also make leaflets and hand them out to patients and visitors around the hospital. Also doctors and  nurses could speak to family members and friends and tell them about TB. Doing all of this will make people more aware of TB and the risks of it.The Department of Health Guidelines: â€Å"It is recommended that service providers aim to improve awareness of TB among the public, the professions and local authority agencies. Experience suggests that targeted campaigns tailored to the local population work better than national campaigns. Examples include: keeping local GPs informed about local TB services and reminding them of the importance of screening new entrants on arrival and on an ongoing basis. Keeping GPs aware of prompt referral systems. Resourcing TB services adequately so that they are not only involved in teaching clinical colleagues, but also in raising awareness of TB, particularly among high-risk groups; and informing clinicians of peer group networks and encouraging them to seek advice on treatment where appropriate. The NICE guidelines:â€Å"During the development of the guideline, patient and carer representatives on the GDG highlighted these suggestions: a single national source of high-quality TB information in relevant languages, and formats for vision- or hearing-impaired people. TB services to assess local language and other communication needs, and accordingly make information from the national source available locally. Clear discussion between healthcare professionals, people with (or at risk from) TB and their carers about tests, treatment, contact tracing and infection control measures, to enable understanding. People with both HIV and TB to be provided with information about the different specialties who may provide care during and after their treatment for TB. Contact tracing explained and handled sensitively to avoid misunderstanding and stigma. Information set out so as not to medicalise the patient. TB services providing each patient completing anti-tuberculosis treatment with clear ‘inform and advise’ information.† D1: ASSESS HOW THE SUGGESTED MEASURES TO MANAGE AN OUTBREAK OF INFECTION MEET LEGAL REQUIREMENTS AND GUIDELINES OF THE PREVENTION AND CONTROL OF INFECTION IN A HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE SETTING One of the measures that we will use to prevent the outbreak of TB is by using personal and professional equipment. By usingpersonalandprofessionalequipmentit ensures that we are safe. It makes sure that we are trying our best to prevent ourselves from getting any infections. Doing this is important because we need to make sure that the bacterial infection does not get into us.Personal and Professional Equipment  protects a person in hospital from any risk/harm to their health and safety. We need to make sure that we use the right equipment to ensure that we are safe. Wearing/using personal and professional equipment prevents contact with an infectious agent of a bodily fluid that may contact an infectious agent by creating a barrier between the potential infection and then the worker. The NICE guidelines say about Personal and Professional Equipment: â€Å"Healthcare workers caring for people with TB should not use masks, gowns or barrier nursing techniques unless: MDR TB (multidrug-resistant Tuberculosis) is suspected or aerosol-generating procedures are being performed. When such equipment is used, the reason should be explained to the person with TB.†The Department of Health Guidelines say about Personal and Professional Equipment: â€Å"This section discusses the evidence and associated recommendations for the use of personal protective equipment by healthcare workers in general care settings, including aprons, gowns, gloves, eye protection and face masks . The decision to use or wear personal protective equipment must be based upon an assessment of the level of risk associated with a specific patient care activity or intervention and take account of current health and safety legislation.† The strengths of this measure are that by using personal and professional equipment it protects the person at work or visitors from any risk/harm to their health and safety. We need to make sure we use the right equipment. PPE prevents contact with a infectious agent or a bodily fluid that may contact an infectious agent by creating a barrier between the potential infection and the worker. This is important because it prevent the infection from getting into other people. We need to make sure that we prevent the infection from getting to anyone else. It ensures people are safe. Also teaching this to people who do not know e.g. visitors and family members of the patient is also important. This gives them an understanding of how serious the illness is and what should be done to prevent it. It makes them more aware and next time if someone else they know catches TB then they will know what personal and professional equipment to use and the important of them. A weakness of this is that sometimes people might forget to use them. They might go into the patient’s isolated room and not realise that they have forgot to put on equipment. This is a weakness because if people forget to put on protective equipment then they are more likely of catching the TB infection. Also when visitors come into  the hospital then they might not know that they have to use personal and protective equipment, especially children. The nurses or doctors need to make sure that they are there at the ward and are telling visitors about the importance of personal protective equipment. This is another weakness. This is because nurses and doctors might be busy with many other patients within the hospital. They might not always be there to tell the visitors. Meanwhile the visitors might go into the isolation room without realising. Isolation is one more thing which health and social care professionals need to take care of. By isolated patients who have TB is anothe r precaution which needs to be taken. TB is able to spread to other people who do not have TB. That’s why it is important to make sure that we keep the patients who have TB away and isolate them. This needs to be done to ensure that the patient is isolated to prevent illness from spreading. We need to isolate the micro-organism and make sure that the person stays isolated until the TB infection is not treated. The NICE guidelines say about Isolation:â€Å"This isolation has been recommended until three separate sputum tests have been analysed on the patient. If these tests are negative, the patient is usually considered to cause a significantly lower infection risk. They may then be moved from the single room to a shared ward, provided there are no patients with major issues on the same ward. If patients are tested positive for tuberculosis, and need to be admitted to hospital, isolation is required until treatment makes the person non-infectious.†The Department of Health Guidelines say:â€Å"It is recommended that patients with suspected or confirmed TB who are admitted to hospital should remain isolated in a negative pressure room with airborne precautions applied, until discharge criteria are met. In principle these criteria include: a reduction in or absence of cough, reduced smear burden or smear negativity, assured treatment and an appropriate discharge plan.† Strengths of isolation are that it protects the patient from getting any other infection from other people. Isolation nursing also protects staff, visitors and families/friends that have come into the hospital. This is very important because the patients are protected from getting any other illnesses which will make their TB. Also another benefit of isolation is that it gives time for the patient to recover. The patient is alone and isolated which lets them rest and recovery time. This is important for the patient. On the other hand if they were on a shared  ward with other patients then they might not get time to rest and also with visitors as well. Weaknesses of isolation are that the patients might feel socially and emotionally isolated. This is not good for them. They might not like the fact that they are isolated and could feel restricted. This could then lead to them refusing to go into isolation. It is important that they go into isolation because if they don’t then it leads to their infection getting worse as their body is vulnerable and could catch other illnesses. Also they could infect other people with their illnesses which then make them ill. It might make the people isolated moody and depressed. This is not good for them. The aim of isolation nursing is to isolate the micro-organism and not the patient even though the patient is still being isolated. Also some other precautions that need to be taking are making sure that everything is clean and looked after. Cleanliness is very important because it prevents infections from spreading. Another precaution which needs to be taken it to make sure that all of the things which the patient with TB has used are disposed and cleaned properly. Also the patients clothes and linen should be washed separately from the other patients linen and clothing. This will ensure that infections do not spread. Taking all of these precautions is important because it ensures that patients, staff and visitors are safe and do not get any infections. The NICE guidelines say: â€Å"Linen, Waste and Cleaning for bed linen, books, crockery or washing up facilities should be washed separately. Disposal of infected material should be as clinical waste per hospital policy. Rooms should be cleaned as normal/regularly and a normal full clean after discharge. Extra cleaning is unnecessary.† The department of Health Guidelines say: â€Å"There are three levels of TB infection control: Administrative (managerial) control measures/ work place policy, environmental control measures, and personal protective equipment (respiratory protection). Administrative control measures are the most important since environmental control measures and personal protective equipment (respiratory protection) will not work in the absence of solid administrative control measures. Each level operates at a different point in the transmission process: administrative control measures reduce HCW and patient exposure; environmental control measures reduce the concentration of infectious droplet nuclei, personal protective devices (respiratory  protection) protect HCWs in areas where the concentration of droplet nuclei cannot be adequately reduced by Administrative and environmental control measures.†

How do you respond to the presentation of Curley’s wife in ‘Of Mice and Men’? Essay

Curley’s wife is presented as quite an ambiguous character. She is seen in two ways: in one way she is seen as `jail bait’, a `tart’ and `tramp’. In another way she is seen as a victim of a male society, the only female on the farm. Even as a main character in the novel, she remains nameless and only as `Curley’s wife’. This makes her sound like Curley’s property like Curley’s horse or clothes. This is also symbolic of the role of women at the time in which Of Mice and Men was set. Curley’s wife is seen as a very promiscuous woman, but that is only because of the picture you build in your mind from the description of her flirtatious attitudes. Before we even meet Curley’s wife she is degraded by Candy, the `old swamper’. He accuses her of having â€Å"the eye† even though she has been married two weeks: â€Å"You know what I think? †¦ I think Curleys married a tart.† Candy says this becaus e, Curley’s wife gives a few of the other workers â€Å"the eye.† or so he thinks. Curley’s wife enters the bunkhouse; she uses the excuse that she is looking for Curley. She does not seem to want to leave. George tells her that he was here earlier. She still does not leave though, â€Å"she put her hands behind her back and leaned against the door frame so that her body was thrown forward.† This demonstrates her flirtatious nature. Curley’s wife backs her story up by saying, â€Å"sometimes he’s in here† looking at her hands as she does so. She finally leaves when George again tells her that Curley isn’t there. â€Å"Nobody can’t blame a person for looking.† Curley’s wife says this almost to protect herself, as if to say, nobody can fault her if she is only looking for her husband. When thinking about or looking at what Curley’s wife is wearing, you would not associate it with every day life on a farm; she is out of place. Does this carry on throughout the story? Is she always out of place? â€Å"She had full rouged lips and wide-spaced eyes, heavily made up. Her fingernails were red. Her hair hung in little rolled cluster s, like sausages. She wore cotton house dress and red mules. On the insteps of which were little bouquets of red ostrich feathers.† The constant reminder of red gives us two ideas: one, red being used as the colour of passion. Yet another sign of Curley’s wife’s flirtatious manner: two, red showing danger. All the signs of red could be a link to the red dress of the girl in Weed, where George and Lennie previously worked. Could there be a link? Curley’s wife recognises that her body and sexuality are her only weapons and she’s using them. In Steinbeck’s words â€Å"she had only one thing to sell and she knew it.† Curley’s wife is portrayed as this `tart’ and `jail bait’ not purely by accident. This portrayal is purely through the author’s actions. The mere fact that she is known only as Curley’s wife is a clear sign of her anonymity. She is given no name or in fact no identity. Is this hatred to women on Steinback’s part, or is he addressing the stereotyp ical attitudes towards women? Curley’s wife like everybody else has dreams. Curley’s wife’s dream is to be a star. Curley’s wife was asked to go on a show when she was younger, but her mother wouldn’t let her. Curley’s wife remembers a man in the â€Å"pitchers.† Said he’d write to her about becoming an actress and being in the movies. Curley’s wife says that her mother stole the letter when it came, to stop her from reaching her dream, when it really didn’t come at all. â€Å"Well I wasn’t gonna stay no place where I couldn’t get nowhere or make something of myself†¦ so I married Curley† this gives a strong impression that she married Curley purely out of spite, toward her mother. She goes on to say that â€Å"I don’ like Curley† this confirms the fact that she married him out of spite. Like the rest of the dreams in of Mice and Men hers so far has failed. â€Å"I coulda made somethin of myself†¦ maybe I will yet.† But Curley’s wife is still holding on to a faint glimmer of hope. This may explain Curley’s wife’s behaviour on the ranch; she may see it as a stage and the workers as her audience. In chapter four our attitudes towards Curley’s wife change dramatically throughout. In the beginning a feeling of sympathy and loneliness is aroused, because of her failed dreams and the way her husband treats her or rather doesn’t treat her â€Å"Think I don’t know where they all went?† Curley and the other ranch workers are spending their evening in a brothel. Toward the end a feeling of hatred or dislike is built up, beginning with her flirtatious manner to Lennie, ending with her racial abuse and threats towards Crooks: â€Å"I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it aint even funny.† This is another sign of the society at that time. Curley’s wife mocks the dream of George, Lennie and Candy, saying that they almost had better things to spend their money on: â€Å"Baloney†¦ I seen too many you guys. If you had two cents in the worl’ why you’d be getting two shots of corn†¦ And sucking the bottom of the glass.† This is a clear sign, to the reader, of her naivetà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½. Here she is mocking others dreams, when not so long ago her dream shattered around her. Curley’s wife’s death can be looked upon in many different ways. From the way the other characters are seen to respond, it is as if they are the victims of the death and not her. The way in which the author describes the body is the opposite: â€Å"She was very pretty and simple, and her face was sweet and young.† This would suggest an innocent frame of mind, as if her death had transformed her. To someone or something better. Even though Curley’s wife is dead, she is still subject to blame. Candy is one of those who feel this way, talking to the lifeless body â€Å"You done it, di’n’t you? I s’pose you’re glad. Everybody knowed you’d mess things up. You wasn’t no good. You aint no good now, you lousy tart.† When the `guys’ find out about her death, I don’t think that Curley seems to realise that his wife is dead. He doesn’t stop to mourn at all, or hold her one last time, as any self-respecting man would do. He is only interested in one thing, revenge. In conclusion Curley’s wife is seen as an ambiguous character. Her moods and mannerisms change throughout the novel. She is presented, as somebody that no one likes not even her own husband. I think this is character is very misunderstood and if anyone was to take the time to get to know her a little better I’m sure Curley’s wife could be a very `nice’ person.

WSJ Article Review Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

WSJ Article Review - Essay Example nd ambition (Fairclough, 2009)† in China represents purchasing power and the fittest customer profile that comprises Ford’s strategy in the country. â€Å"Mei,† as the marketing executives coined this group, means beautiful in Chinese. According to the article, Mei is comprised of the â€Å"twenty-something, college-educated single women (Fairclough).† Furthermore, Mei â€Å"earns 880 to $1,500 a month and wants her first car (Fairclough).† The point of view of the target market â€Å"Mei† is showcased by the individual answers of the members of the target market when asked about their lifestyle. â€Å"Mei’s† stance on living and her view of herself is coined by these answers from the members of the target market. This article is very important to marketing management as it highlights the marketing practices of organizations. By showing certain organizations take the theory and put into real life situations, results can be evaluated afterward in order to strengthen the theories that the company has used. Targeting is shown in the article as the company chooses â€Å"Mei† and coins her into a certain group comprising the same demographics and psychographics which are likely to purchase the product. The logic of choosing the target market first, then probing their lifestyle and knowing them well through consumer research such as Ford’s immersion event is shown in relation to the crafting of appropriate marketing communications plan in order to build a position in the target market’s mind. The article incorporates contemporary trends of marketing that links between consumer behavior through research, marketing strategy, branding and integrated marketing communication in fulfillment of a corporate objective for the company. The logic of the article can be traced back to looking for the right target market, where Ford has chosen â€Å"Mei.† Then, by doing innovative consumer research such as the immersion event apart from the pluralistic researches that

Financial Statements Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Financial Statements - Essay Example Companies are required file their 10-K annual financial report to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The 10-K is filed within 60 days from the end of the company’s accounting period. The 10-K is the SEC’s standard blank form used by companies for submitting their financial reports. Interested parties can acquire the 10-K Securities and Exchange Commission reports for use in enhancing their investment or divestment decisions (Wild, Shaw, Chiappetta, 2011). Part II: The accounting equation is shown as: Assets = Liabilities + Capital. The assets represent all the resources of the company (Wild, Shaw, Chiappetta, 2011). Example: Assets = Liabilities + Capital $ 250,000 = $ 20,000 + $ 200,000 Assets = $50,000, Accts Receivable $ 50,000. Building $200,000. Liabilities = Accounts payable $ 5,000, Notes payable $ 15,000 Capital = Bush, Capital $ 230,000, Bush, drawing $ 30,000 The company owns the resources. Cash is one of the company’s assets (Wild, Shaw, Chiappett a, 2011). Cash includes the coins and paper money. Cash also includes the checks that are paid by the company’s customers. The assets include accounts receivable. Accounts receivable asset represents the amounts owed by the creditors. Sometimes companies sell their product on account. This means the company delivers their products to the customers. In turn, the customers promise to pay their debts after several days or months. The debt amount is recorded as accounts receivable in the company’s books of accounts. The inventory represents items that are being sold in the company’s stores. The inventory also includes unused office supplies, unused cleaning supplies, and other unused items that are owned by the company. The building...The debt amount is recorded as accounts receivable in the company’s books of accounts. The inventory represents items that are being sold in the company’s stores. The inventory also includes unused office supplies, unused cleaning supplies, and other unused items that are owned by the company. The building account is another company asset. Since the company owns the building, the building is included in the assets account. The office equipment is part of the company’s asset account. The office equipment includes the computers, typewriters, calculators, and adding machines. The company has some liabilities to pay (Wild, Shaw, Chiappetta, 2011). The liabilities represent what the company owes its creditors. Similarly, the suppliers may offer the company credit terms when the company buys goods from its suppliers. In exchange for purchased items, the company promises to pay its debts in a few days or months. When this occurs, the company records an accounts payable amount. Further, when company is required to sign a note promising that they will pay the debt within a few days or months, the company records a notes payable amount in its books of accounts. When the company applies or a ten year ba nk loan, the company records a long term loan amount.

Views of Cultural Ecologists on Religion and Magic Research Paper

Views of Cultural Ecologists on Religion and Magic - Research Paper Example The history of religions tends to adopt an evolutionary view where it appears that the horizon of religion developed from the earth to heavens. The evolutionary approach mainly supported by cultural ecologists tends to support the connection between religion and ecology. Cultural ecologists focus on discovering the similarities and differences of different cultures with the interest of understanding why people live the way they do and why certain things are unique to some cultures. Ecologists present different views on religion with a particular consistent disagreement with the thinking of outsiders that the more isolated tribe style cultures believe in magic. This paper shows how cultural ecologists view religion and magic, how they relate, as well as why some cultures might believe in one, or both. According to Debnath (2003), the oldest layer of religion, under headings, such as natural religion, hunting magic and agrarian religion, is intimately linked to the relationship between humans and nature. One of the renowned cultural ecologists, Marvin Harris takes pleasure in finding concrete ecological pragmatism everywhere in the history of religion, from Aztec human sacrifice to the Hindu veneration of the cows. The ritual engagement with nature, whether in hunting magic or agricultural fertility rites, often contains an element of magic and thus the attempt to gain power nature. Cultural ecologists view magic as an attempt to gain power over nature, a concept that greatly differs from the religious views where nature appears to influence the way things are and they are not. From an ecological perspective, magic remains an old dream of humankind which has been partially fulfilled in the modern error (Olson, 2010). Religion and magic are viewed as cognitively instrumental, where they provide an explanation of the world in terms of superhuman agency to believers and by extension a religious or magical technique by which they can exert significant control over th eir surroundings. A distinctive difference between religion and magic revolves around the concept of reason and faith in which the reason belongs to the latter while faith and rituals belong to religion (Debnath, 2003). Reasons Why Some Cultures Accept either Religion or Magic or Both Cultural ecologists assert that good or evil fortune follows from one’s choices of habitation. For example, Feng-shui is recognized to have a strong magical or religious component, in which it was believed that cutting down the Feng-shui grove often translates into a disaster to town, and the more old the trees were found the more good luck it conferred to the town residents (Sutton & Anderson, 2009). The magical component associated with the tree is widely accepted in south China, serving to persuade millions of peasants to sacrifice personal gains for the long-term community benefit. This example explains the connection between magic and environment and its role in the conservation of the ecos ystems. The Chinese community widely accepts the concept of magic than any other part of the world owing to its close association to their environment and the perceived benefits in believing in certain magic components in the ecosystem. In many case, religion is widely accepted due to its detachment from the individual figure compared to magic which focuses on the capabilities of the person performing the magic. In addition, the concept of realism and the basis fiction that surround magic further

Should Physician-assisted suicide be legal Essay

Should Physician-assisted suicide be legal - Essay Example The issue of legalisation of physician-assisted suicide at national and international levels has for a long time continued to trigger debate among people in the society and has resulted in diverse perspectives: while in some countries physician-assisted suicide is legal, in others, there is a great struggle between various groups to legalise it and allow people to carry it out when need arises. Those who support and those who oppose the legalisation of physician-assisted suicide argue on their justifications not only according to their thinking but also with consideration of the ethical perspectives (Lachman, 2010). Legalisation of physician-assisted suicide is not a simple decision to make because it involves contradicting perspectives against and for considering the effects it has on the lives of the affected individuals. The rights that people have prevent them from killing others even with any justification and support from any organisation as far as the choice and authorisation are not from the affected individual. ... In this respect, no person has the right to terminate the life of another person because the right to live does not offer any provision for a special case in which a person has to end the life of another. The right to live does not imply in any way the duty of any medical practitioner to induce suicide to a patient in whatever condition he or she may be, but rather the duty to protect life (Jeffrey, 2009). According to some proponents of legalising physician-assisted suicide, it would lessen the pain of the affected as well as their family members so that they contain it with ease. In this way, legalising physician-assisted suicide will allow suffering people to make consultations with the family members before they take the action and before parting because they will be able to set time for it. This would allow them to reduce the negative implications of the suffering individual and come up with a solution that will have benefits for the suffering and those ones who relate to them ( Lachman, 2010). Some people who support legalisation of physician-assisted suicide argue that individuals that are suffering have their own choices and they can decide to die with dignity rather than suffer from pain until death, which may take long to happen. This means that a person has a choice to make on the way he or she can end his life in circumstances that place him or her in a condition of suffering and without comfort, with minimal chances of surviving. As such, the suffering will need their right of choice to end his or her life be respected by the government bodies or other organisations which may have an opinion about the suicide (Jeffrey, 2009). Legalising physician-assisted suicide will help the patients with a terminal illness

US Adaptations Of Japanese Horror Films Case Study

US Adaptations Of Japanese Horror Films - Case Study Example Ringu was shown in Japan in 1998, directed by Hideo Nakata, and was considered one of the most popular J-Horror (Japanese Horror) in the country (Internet Movie Database 2011). It was a film adaptation of the novel series, Ring, created by Koji Suzuki. The Ring was released in The US and international theaters in 2001 and was largely a box-office all throughout countries with its release. The Ring was directed by Gore Verbinski and has received a mostly positive response from the audience while critical reception from known critics (IMDb 2011). Although the two films are tracking one storyline, Ringu was regarded more as a supernatural-biological film while The Ring was more of psychological-horror. Specified genre already claimed differences between these two films (Wee 2011). Summary, In order to give justifiable judgment and comparative execution of the two films, common summary, is necessary for better understanding. The story opened with two girls watching TV, and talked about a deadly videotape. It was explained deadly because the videotape was cursed. The curse was that whoever watched the videotape, the viewer will die after 7 days. One of the two girls admitted that she had watched a certain tape with a group of friends but was hesitant about the effect of the curse. She revealed that that night was her 7th day upon watching the film with her friends. After some irregular incidents happened in her house, she was killed by some negative force that came from the TV and was witnessed by her friend. The friend-witnessed was sent to a mental hospital as revealed in the course of the film. The girl who died happened to be the niece of the protagonist of the story named Reiko in Ringu and Rachel in The Ring.

A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare Essay - 2

A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare - Essay Example He has tried to teach people how to dream of the impossible through this very play by letting people know that it is okay to encounter upon obstacles and pitfalls during the course of their lives. The main thing is to go beyond these and try and succeed no matter what the circumstance might be. The theme of the play is based on the darker aspect of what love is in the real world. Through the fairies, the playwright has tried to give a clear picture of how every couple in the world falls into a plethora of problems because of their relationship and how such a stance might be deceiving at times. At the same time, love also helps people to look into the lighter and more real side of things, for example, through the eyes of Puck Hermia and Lysander are able to live life with better ease as he provides them with a comic sense of understanding. The two finally get married as well, not remembering the events that they had encountered with respect to the darker side of their love, while serving time within the forest. It is this very aspect of love that drives all the characters around in their quest for ultimate peace and happiness and with time, they begin to understand how reality can be different if one has the power and ability to embrace the same. Along with this, a very heavy presence of patriarchal control can also be seen during the course of the story as the father always tries to assert his authority on his daughter. Through this, Shakespeare has tried to depict the kind of oppressed society that women at the time were subject to living within. Thus, even though the story initially portrays love to be of an evil kind, it slowly takes the reader into a realm where love is he one sought after emotion that the protagonists of the story are hell bent on complicating. Towards the end of the story one can easily see how love triumphs and emerges victorious as compared to any other emotion that must have

Business plan Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Business plan - Coursework Example In the past few years, there has been a drastic increase in population with new young families and subdivisions moving towards the urban centers. It is therefore Pizsho’s strategy to take advantage of the golden opportunity of first-moving products and find itself as the best pizza provider within the region. The management team has a strong belief that the shop will be the best option in serving the fast growing population with modern, unique and fresh menu as opposed to the other shops nearby. Currently, Pizsho has well established network in the town with approximately 2000 customers visiting the premises daily. It has trained employees with vast experience in hospitality industry and modern equipment. Although it was started recently, it has expanded rapidly. If this trend continues, it is anticipated that the shop will open other branches. Taking the assumptions that there market conditions prevail, the shop will employ more workers, improve the competence skills and offe r diverse services. This business plan therefore calls for an interesting, profitable establishment with a future anticipation of growing to serve the needy society. Above all, this business plan gives a clear description of a healthy food industry with well established prospects, looking forward to gaining an international popularity. Mission Pizsho has a mission of creating a pleasant and responsive environment for the esteem customers in a productive and well designed atmosphere that facilitates a good work place for all people. The shop is very sensitive to the taste and the appearance as well as ingredients of pizza. It attempts to satisfy its customers with the best services; both tangible and intangible. It maintains the fact that, â€Å"our neighbors are our customers as we are all residents of the market area.† Vision To be the leading food industry that creates and nurture creative, healthy and respectable environment that people can sit, relax and enjoy the best fo ods in the region. In striving to achieve this, it ensures that the workers are fully compensated and motivated to respect the customers and produce quality pizzas. Pizsho seeks to maintain responsible and fair profit, just enough to maintain the business operations healthy and meet its demands. Objectives The objectives of Pizsho are: i. To maximize profits at any given time. ii. To create a stable market place able to sustain sales and marketing goals and attracting customers iii. To arrive at hospitable monthly sales by the end every financial year with a steady increment by the end of the third financial year iv. To establish a modest relationship among all the distributors and customers. Key Performance indicators The business key to success factors are: i. Marketing: promoting the company, its products as well as delivery channels to the rural community ii. To deliver the customer with value proposition iii. Product consistency and

History of Asia since 1600 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

History of Asia since 1600 - Essay Example Although, the exaggerated interest in nationalism in 30’s led to the rise of fascist and Nazi ideas, it also provoked the anti colonial liberation movements in Asia (Smith 95). The current essay will examine the peculiarities and the differences of the nationalistic movements in Eastern, Southern, and South-Eastern Asia at the end of the 19th and the beginning of 20th century. At the beginning of the 20th century, the countries of the South and Eastern Asia were completely dependent on England, France, and the Netherlands as their mother countries. For maintaining these areas, there were established specific methods of governing, from protectorate to politically powerless territories. The World War I gave a push to the creation of national economies, and, consequently, to the formation of the national capital and the working class. Transformation of the existing structures of the society caused the emergence of new conflicts between the labor and the capital, between the national capital and the capital of metropolis, and the decline of traditional elites. On the new basis, the national liberation movement began to develop. The newly formed national political parties sought to overcome the backwardness with the help of gaining national independence and modernization. In India, it was Indian peasantry that formed a major force in the national liberation movement in the interwar period. To involve a broad amount of population into this movement, it was needed to take into account socio-psychological characteristics of the Indian peasantry and urban workers, yesterday’s peasants. Prominent role in the organization of mass non-violent campaign of the resistance to the colonial regime in the 20 - 40’s of the 20th century belonged to Mahatma Gandhi. He was the one to shape India national ideology. Thanks to Gandhi, the idea of the absolute independence of India was put forward. In this respect, Indian

Life History Essay Example for Free

Life History Essay The purpose of getting a life history on a person is to be able to paint a picture of who they are. The information from the history should not just be a random collection of facts. The history should be an account of the persons life story, including important themes in their life that reflect the development of their personality and their relationships with other people. Life histories play key roles in psychological treatment and research. While the following guidelines are rather typical of the sort of questions asked, interviews vary considerable depending on whos doing them and why. Your purpose in conducting this interview is educational. While your objective is collecting the same information you might in a real clinical or research situation, keep in mind this is a didactic exercise. Therefore, be willing to sacrifice sensitive or upsetting information to protect the comfort and privacy of your subject. Be sure to let him or her know (s)he does not need to talk about anything (s)he doesnt want to. While doing the interview, pay careful attention to how the person is responding to your questions, and always be respectful of his/her privacy. If it seems like the person is uncomfortable discussing some aspect of his or her life, dont press for an answer. Move on to the next part of the interview. Each of you will interview a classmate. Then, that classmate will interview you. I expect each interview to take about 1.5 hours. You should take notes, and if you have access to a tape recorder, I would recommend using it too. Be sure to check your recorder to see that it is working, though, and take notes anywaymachines fail at the darndest times! Be sure to print a copy of these guidelines and bring them with you. Dont be afraid to refer back to them for questions and guidance about topics to broach. This assignment is due on 5/29/00. Beginning the Interview It is best to begin the interview by giving the person free range to tell their life story. Where they start their story and how they tell it will reveal what immediately strikes them as important. So begin the interview with the following instructions: Id like to find out about your life history. Could you tell me about it? Describe it to me as if you were telling me your life story. Most people will leave out certain details. If the details seem important, use open-ended questions to probe for more information, such as And then what happened? or What did you do after that? We also want to find out about how people thought and felt about what happened to them. If they omit this information, use such questions as How did you feel about that? or What did you think about that at the time? The Importance of Reflection It is best if the interview doesnt turn into a question and answer session where you ask questions and they give short answers. Its difficult to do, but try to turn the interview into a smoothly flowing discussion. Use the technique known as reflection to encourage a person to talk more about something. Simply reflect back to the person some important aspect of what they have just said. You may simply repeat the exact words the person used, or you may sometimes add in some thought or feeling that you detected in what the person said. Reflections are NOT in the form of a question. If you can do this effectively, you wont have to bombard the person with all of the questions listed above. Here are some examples: Person: My father and I used to play ball in the backyard. We had a lot of fun with that. You: You and your father had some fun times. Person: When he said that to me, it really annoyed me. I couldnt believe my best friend would say something like that. You: He could really get you angry with his remarks. Other examples of open-ended reflections might be: I guess you really enjoyed that time of your life. It sounds like it upset you when he said that. It seems like that was a very important event for you. When a question does seem necessary, open-ended questions are most likely to lead to richer responses (rather than yes or no). Open ended questions invite answers that are descriptive and elaborative, rather than monosyllables. How do you feel about school is an open-ended questions, because it allows great latitude in the response that might be given. Do you like school would merely prompt a few word response; similarly, a multple-choice format limits responses. There are situations where open-ended questions are not optimal (e.g., When and where were you born is fine). But usually, the goal is getting the subject to talk about important topics, rather than answer hundreds of questions you think might be relevant. Open-ended questions are usually best for initiating a flowing conversation. Areas to Explore People will also leave out certain topic areas that are important. You will need to ask questions about this areas, but always try to do so in an open-ended way that allows people to express themselves freely, according to what strikes them as important. You should get information about all of the following areas. Start with the first open-ended question, and work your way down to the following questions, if needed. 1. The history of parents and grandparents: Tell me about your parents lives. What can you tell me about your grandparents lives? (Inquire about their lives before and after marriage, including important events in their life, their childhood, education, occupation, ethnic and religious background. If they leave out a parent or grandparent, inquire about them) 2. Early childhood (before school): What do you know about yourself as a baby. What was your mothers pregnancy like? Were there any family stories or jokes about what you were like as a child? What are your earliest childhood memories? What do you remember or know about major early events in your life like eating habits, walking, talking, and toilet training? Were there any stresses in your family at that time? 3. School Years: What were your early years in school like? Do you remember the very first day of school? How did you do at school work through the years? What were your relationships like with your teachers and schoolmates? Who were your friends and what sorts of things did you do with them? 4. Adolescence: What was your adolescence like? How was your social and school life at that time? When did you enter puberty. How did your life change then? What was your relationship with your friends during your teen years? What was your relationship with your family at that time? When did you start to date, and what were those relationships like? 5. Adult Life (including college): What has been important about your adult life? What have your adult relationships with friends and co- workers been like? What has your relationship with your (husband/wife, fiance, boyfriend/girlfriend) been like? What types of jobs have you worked at, and what did you think about those jobs? What was college like for you? What hobbies or other interests do you have? 6. Family Information (if you didnt already get this info): What has your family been like over the years. Tell me about your brothers and sisters (age, education, marital status, their relationship with the interviewee) How would you describe the personalities of the people in your family? What role did each parent take in raising you? Were there any emotional problems in the family, or conflicts between family members? Did your family ever move? What was that like? What is the ethnic background of your family? What has been your religious upbringing, and your attitudes about religion? Describe your own family. (relationship with children, how children relate to each other and spouse, typical activities, etc.) Questions Answers about the Assignment Here are some questions a classmate asked. I felt it might be helpful to share them, and my replies, with the rest of you. I do have a tape recorder ( I am not sure if I trust it very much, what if it doesnt pick up the voice or ), Point the mike at the interviewee, talk a few minutes, then play it back to see if its working. If your partner has a tape, use it too as a back-up. I actually do use two sometimes in my work. And, of course, take notes in case the darn thing decides to fail when you need it most. but what should I do about notes? (i dont write very fast at all) And how can/should an interviewer take notes so as to minimize its interference in the interview? Learning to use shorthand is part of learning to be a good inteviewer. Just write what you must to reconstruct the conversation. You can go back and fill in the details later. Its ok to ask the interviewee to wait while you write (just a second, pleaseok, thanks, go ahead.). This is less disruptive than you might imagine, as long as you dont do it too frequently. Are we supposed to ask All the questions? That is a stupid lead-in on my part, but it seems like that would take longer than 1.5 hours. I actually expect the interviews will run about 2 hours, but if I assigned that people would run over anyway, so I thought Id do you a favor by starting with a lower expectation. Try to pace yourself. If you find youre spending lots of time on one part of your subjects life, move the conversation (great. Thanks. Now, could you tell me about [new topic]). I dont expect anyone will follow the guidelines exactly. Thats why Im offering them as guidelines rather than a rigid set of questions. Are there wrong responses to this interview? I would not want to ramble and be a bore. I like to talk/share. I am trying to decide if I should warn my interviewer. That really is the interviewers jobto politely redirect the subject when (s)he rambles off. Some of that is inevitable, even desirable, but it is important to redirect things when the subject lapses into long, relatively unimportant tangents. Besides what if you just dont remember or it takes too long to try and remember or you only remember vaguely or if things are difficult to explain? Well, you wont be able to say much about those things. Thats ok. Its not as though I think about these things all that often or in specific articulable terms, ya know? Or do I sound like an idiot? No, I feel the same way about some of the questions. For example, I dont know much about my toilet training. I suppose if I was still in diapers at age 4 I probably WOULD know about it, so often, when something in early childhood is unremarkable, we dont know much about it. Thats fine. Should we try to think of responses? What should/can I do to be a better interviewee/interviewer? I dont think you need to prepare to be interviewed. Of course, theres no harm in thinking a little about the questions ahead of time, but I think it would be a poor idea to prepare your responses. That wouldnt give your interviewer a very natural experience. By the way, what is the age range difference between what is referred to in/by Schoool Years versus Adolescence? School Years generally refers to middle- and later-childhood, say the ages of 6-12. Also, What is due on the 26nd? Notes? A write-up of some sort? Q A transcript type record? No. Both interviews should be complete by that date. Your write up will be due on the last meeting of class. You say this is a Didactic experienceas opposed to what? What sort of instruction is that intended to give us? Did you mean to convey anything specific, may I ask? Not to sound suspicious, just trying to understand. Im trying to remind you that this is a learning experience. So, if you start discussing things that are upsetting to the interviewee, or (s)he is reluctant to discuss, I wouldnt encourage you to push or dig deeper. One might do such things during a professional assessment, or as a therapist, but this is an educational experience for the interviewer, not a clinical intervention to benefit the interviewee. Consequently, its appropriate to sacrifice information that be essential in a different context. For example, if you find that your subject was beaten as a kid, you might not push for details in this exercise (that would be an unwarrented intrusion), although I certainly might in a real clinical or research interview.

Planning And Strategic Management Management Essay

Planning And Strategic Management Management Essay Nestle is the worlds leading nutrition, health, wellness company. The headquarter of Nestle company is located in Vevey, Switzerland. That is in 1866, there was a first European condensed milk factory opened in Cham, Switzerland. The name of the company is Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Company which established by brothers George Page and Chatles Page. After that year, the founder of Nestle, Henri Nestle, a German pharmacist, developed a combination of cows milk, wheat flour and sugar, which name as Farine Lactee. The launched of Farine Lactee had become the largest competitor of Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Company. In 1905, Nestle merged with Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Company after a couple of decades as fierce competitors to form the Nestle and Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Company. In 1929, the chocolate company Peter, Cailler , Kohler Chocolats Suisses S.A. joined Nestle. And in 1947, Nestle change its name to Nestle Alimentana S.A after merged with Maggi, a well-known manufacturer of seasonings and soups. In 1974, Nestle for the first time diversified outside the food industry and they become a major shareholder in LOreal, one of the worlds leading maker of cosmetic products. And then finally, the last name change that the company would endure was in 1977, where it adopted the name Nestle S.A. The first product that launched by Nestle is Farine Lactee Nestle, a combination of cows milk, wheat flour and sugar. Farine Lactee was launched by Henri Nestle in 1867 and it was supported by the public. After that, Nestle also launched Milo in 1934. Milo is a chocolate and malt powder which is mixed with hot or cold water to produce a beverage and it is developed by Thomas Mayne in Sdyney, Australia. After the launched of Milo, another product launched by Nestle that famous among the world which is Nescafe. Nescafe is a powdered coffee that was introduced in Switzerland on April 1, 1938 after being developed for seven or eight years by Max Morgenthaler and Vernon Chapman. Another product that pull Nestle toward success is Nestle Pure Life, a bottled mineral water that launched in 1998. The smart strategy of Nestle had bring them toward the road of success. In 2012, Nestle has around 8,000 brands on the market included coffee, bottled water, milkshakes and other beverages, breakfast cereals, infant foods, performance and healthcare nutrition, seasonings, soups and sauces, frozen and refrigerated foods, and pet food. Organizational chart Chairman P.Brabeck-Letmathe Chief Executive Officer Nestle Health Science P.Bulcke L.Cantarell Corporate Governance Compliance Corporate Human Corporate Services Communication Resources D.P.Frick R.Ramsauer J.M. Duvoisin Operations Finance Strategic, Business Units, Innovation Technology and RD Control Marketing and Sales J.Lopez W.L. Martello P.Bula W.Bauer Nestle Waters Nestle Nutrition Nestle Professional J.J. Harris K.Schmidt M.Caira Zone EUR: Zone AOA: Zone AMS: Europe Asia/Oceana/Africas Americas L.Freixe N.Nandkishorr C.Johnson The organizational chart of Nestle showed that it is a hybrid structure. Hybrid structure is the combination of functional structure and divisional structure. A functional structure is a structure that make grouping by similar work specialties. This structure group people together because they hold similar positions in an organization, perform a similar set of tasks, or use the same kind of skills. The functional structure in the organization chart of Nestle was shown in the upper part that is from the chairman until the level of the Operations, Finance Control, Strategic, Business Units, Marketing and Sales as well as Innovation Technology and RD. A divisional structure is a structure that make grouping by similarity of purpose. This structure group departments according to organizational outputs such as by product type, customer, or geography. The divisional structure in the organization chart of Nestle was shown in the lower part. There are product divisional structure that is Nestle Waters, Nestle Nutrition, and Nestle Professional. After that, it continues with the geographic divisional structure that is Zone EUR: Europe, Zone AOA: Asia/Oceana/Africas and Zone AMS: Americas. The hybrid structure of Nestle consists all the advantages of functional structure and divisional structure. This structure helps to creates unity among the staff members which is very important for all the large-scale business as well as Nestle. This structure also make the management more flexible as the senior management can communicate with the junior employees easily and maintain good relationship between each other. Besides that, the resources can be allocated and used efficiently. Therefore, wastage of time and resources can be avoided. Planning and Strategic Management Basic strategies used to respond to uncertainty Nestle is a company that mainly act as a prospector while responding to uncertainty. Prospectors focus on developing new products or services and in seeking out new markets, rather than waiting for things to happen. Nestle had create many brands and many different types of products to satisfy consumers needs and wants. The table below showed the list of product of Nestle. Types of Products Brand Baby foods Cerelac, Gerber, Gerber Graduates, NaturNes, Nestum Bottled water Nestle Pure Life, Perrier, Poland Spring, S.Pellegrino Cereals Chocapic, Cini Minis, Cookie Crisp, Estrelitas, Fitness, Nesquik Cereal Chocolate confectionery Aero, Butterfinger, Cailler, Crunch, Kit Kat, Orion, Smarties, Wonka Coffee Nescafe, Nescafe 3 in 1, Nescafe Cappuccino, Nescafe Classic, Nescafe Decaff, Nescafe Dolce Gusto, Nescafe Gold, Nespresso Culinary, chilled and frozen food Buitoni, Herta, Hot Pockets, Lean Cuisine, Maggi, Stouffers, Thomy Dairy Carnation, Coffee-Mate, La Laitià ¨re, Nido Drinks Juicy Juice, Milo, Nesquik, Nestea Food service Chef, Chef-Mate, Maggi, Milo, Minors, Nescafe, Nestea, Sjora, Lean Cuisine, Stouffers Healthcare nutrition Boost, Nutren Junior, Peptamen, Resource Ice cream Dreyers, Extrà ªme, Hà ¤agen-Dazs, Mà ¶venpick, Nestle Ice Cream Petcare Alpo, Bakers Complete, Beneful, Cat Chow, Chef Michaels Canine Creations, Dog Chow, Fancy Feast, Felix, Friskies, Gourmet, Purina, Purina ONE, Pro Plan Sports Nutrition PowerBar Weight management Jenny Craig In the effort of seeking out new markets, Nestle had employed around 330 000 people in over 150 countries and have 461 factories or operations in 83 countries. Nestle also becomes one of the sponsors in many events. For example, on 27 January 2012, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) announced that Nestle will be the main sponsor for the further development of IAAFs Kids Athletics Program for the consecutive of 5 years starting from January 2012. This is one of the biggest grassroots development programs in the world of sports. In the year 2012, Nestle expect that it will be a challenging year as they will face many uncertainties in the global economy and. However, as a prospector, the company had made specific plans to overcome the uncertainties. They believe that they have good fundamentals and can will be able to diversify the global uncertainties. Nestle aim to continue the innovation and renovation of their products as well as launching further promotion of nutritional diets and healthy lifestyles Nestle will remain vigilant and will take all necessary method to soften any impact on their business due to the volatile commodity prices that were expected to continue in 2012. Besides that, Nestle company can also be consider as an analyzer. Analyzers let other organizations take the risks of product development and marketing and then imitate or perhaps slightly improve on what seems to work best. For example, Nestle was Gail Bordens most successful imitators in the production of milk. Nestle imitate and make changes based on the condensed milk manufactured by Bordens first canned milk factory. Nestle invented a powdered milk food that primarily composed of cows milk and then mixed with water. By 1868, this product was being sold in Switzerland, Germany, France and England. After five year, the product was available throughout Europe. Eventually, Pet Milk and Carnation Milk were produced and sold in United States. In the 21th century, humans wants are unlimited. Therefore, Nestle create new brands on the products that already exist in the market and are needed for the consumers to widen their choice. Mission and Vision Nestles mission is to be the recognized leader in Nutrition, Health and Wellness and the industry reference for financial performance. Good Food, Good Life is the promise they commit to everyday, everywhere to enhance lives, throughout life, with good food and beverages. Nestles vision is As the leading Nutrition, Health and Wellness Company we enhance lives by offering tastier and healthier food and beverage choices at all stages of life and at any time of the day, helping consumers care for themselves and their families. This is the foundation of our promise of Good Food, Good Life and puts nutrition at the heart of everything we do. It is our firm belief that, for a company to be successful over time and create value for its shareholders, it must also create value for society. We call this Creating Shared Value. Built on strong foundations of compliance and sustainable business practices, this is our way to do business and to be the trusted leader in Nutrition, Health and Wellness. SWOT analysis Grand Strategy Grand strategy is a systematic, comprehensive, long-term plan of all the company use to achieve their goals. Market, product, and organization development is the main element of this strategy. There are three types of strategy such as growth strategy, stability strategy and defensive strategy. Growth strategy involves the expansion of a company. Stability strategy is a strategy there are no-change strategy or little change strategy. Defensive strategy is a control to reduce the probability of loss. Nestle is a company that apply growth strategy. Nestle started the business in the year 1866 with the first European condensed milk factory and today becomes the worlds biggest food producer. The products of Nestle such as milk, beverages, coffee, ice-cream, confectionery and chocolate as well as junior food, has make a sales of CHF 44.1 billion in 2012 from CHF 74,660 million at 1999. The net profit increased by 8% to CHF 9.5 billion with the latest update on 9 August 2012. Now, Nestle had employed around 330,000 people in over 150 countries and have many operations or factories in the world compare to the number of employees in 1998 that only have 299,800 people. Besides that, Nestle is increasing the size of their company year by year. One of the strategies is organizing many different types of promotion. They give discounts to customers by using coupons. For example, Nestle Toll House Birthday Sugar Cookies can save 55$ if we print out the coupons to buy it. In addition, Nestle also provide food samples to customers during promotion. For instance, free samples of Maggi MeeGoreng were given out on 2nd  July 2012 to 2nd  August 2012. These were the successful strategy of Nestle nowadays. Nestle begin the business in 1866 with the combination of cows milk, wheat flour and sugar. After 1 year, infant cereal developed for a whole new world to babies. Next, Milo, Nescafe, Nestea, Nestle Pure Life, and Power Bar were launched in the years after 1929. Although these products launched, they merged with another company such as Maggi merged with Ursina-Franck. Nestle took the high risk of investment in the following year such as joint venture with LOreal, General Mills, Coca-Cola and Fonterra. In conclusion, Nestle is trying their best in the sales of products. they have smart plans to overcome the uncertainties. Growth strategy was used to increase their capital and Nestle will invest new products and new markets in the future. Competitive Strategies Nestle mainly focused on differentiation strategy. Nestle is a quality focused company. They differentiate their products with their competitors by giving them better customer satisfaction and quality with in an acceptable price limit. All their market is based on quality products and customer satisfaction. The main factor that motivates a customer is to buy their goods is the nutritional content in their products. They also focused on creating a strong brand by creating brand equity. In order to have a better quality on their products, Nestle had created Nestle Nutrition, which is a global business organization designed to strengthen the focus on their core nutrition business. They believe that strengthening their leadership in this market is the key element of their corporate strategy. In order to reinforce their competitive advantage in this area, Nestle created Nestle Nutrition as an autonomous global business unit within the organization, and charged it with the operational and profit and loss responsibility for the claim-based business of Infant Nutrition, HealthCare Nutrition, and Performance Nutrition. This unit aims to deliver superior business performance by offering consumers trusted, science based nutrition products and services. In order to produce a better quality product, Nestle had made an effort on research and development. Research and development is a key of competitive advantage for Nestle. Without research and development, Nestle could not have become the leader in food and beverage industries. With 29 research, development and technology facilities worldwide, Nestle has the largest research and development network compare with other food company. Based on the research and development done by Nestle, they are able to produce many products that have a high quality in nutrition, wellness, taste, health, texture or convenience. Besides that, Nestle also use cost-leadership strategy for minor products. Nestle had used a new strategy called Nestles Popularly Positioned Products (PPPs) strategy that provide consumers with high-quality, nutritious products, regardless of where they sell them and the price point at which they sell them. PPPs focuses on the specific needs of 3 billion lower-income consumers worldwide. PPPs offer these consumers the opportunity to consume high-quality food products that provide nutritional value at an affordable cost and appropriate format. With a range of locally adapted distribution methods, including street markets, mobile street vendors and door to door distributors, PPPs are a source of income for street traders and individual distributors and contribute to the creation of local jobs. Recommendation Utilizing the identified strengths and opportunities Overcome the identified strengths and opportunities Conclusion Overall achievement Firstly, on 21 May 2012, Nestle was in the rank of No. 18 in The Gartner Supply Chain Top 25. The Gartner Supply Chain Top 25 is about leadership. Nestle has created a successful supply chain segment for its popular Nespresso line. Nestle is also highly advanced and integrated in its raw material sourcing strategies, and has invested significantly in supply development and innovation. Moreover, on 12 April 2012, Nestle becomes the first food and beverage company that receives A+ rating, which is the highest standard in Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) for Creating Shared Value report. This shows that Nestle do take seriously their responsibility to create shared value and conduct their business in a sustainable way. Next, Nestle won the ACCA Malaysia Sustainability Reporting Award 2011. This was because Nestle use Sustainability Reporting to communicate to stakeholders regarding the progress of their Creating Shared Value strategy, which is to create value simultaneously for society and their shareholders while carrying out our business activities. On 19 May 2011, Nestle receives top environment award which is the 27th World Environment Center (WEC) Gold Medal award for its commitment to environmental sustainability. This shows that Nestle was recognized as a global company that has demonstrated an example of sustainability in business practice. Furthermore, on 7 June 2011, Nestle became winner of the Stockholm Industry Water Award for its leadership and performance to improve water management in its internal operations and throughout its supply chain. Nestle also has a leading role in the 2030 Water Resources Group. Besides that, in July 2010, Nestle Malaysia was crowned as a winner of the Asia Responsible Entrepreneurship Awards 2010 (AREA). This awards show that Nestle was recognized as an organization that have shown a lot of efforts, perseverance and courage in corporate social responsibility initiatives. Last but not least, Nestle won the StarBiz-ICR Malaysia CR Awards in the year 2009. Nestle was one of the seven public-listed companies which were recognized and honoured for their outstanding Corporate Responsibility practices at the StarBiz-ICR Malaysia CR Awards 2009 presentation ceremony. (Management, 2012) (Brands, 2012) (Nestle is, 2012) (Nestle becomes main sponsor of IAAF Kids Athletics programme, 2012) (Message to Shareholders (Annual Report 2011), 2012) (Reports Downloads, 2011) (Nestle is, 2011) (The Gartner Supply Chain Top 25 for 2012, 2012) (Insight: The challenges of achieving greater transparency, 2012) (Nestle Wins ACCA Malaysia Sustainabiliti Reporting Award 2011, 2011) (Nestle receives top environment award, 2012) (Nestle Wins the Stockholm Industry Water Award, 2012) (Awards and Recognition, 2012) References and Appendixes

Effect of Parent Involvement in Education

Effect of Parent Involvement in Education This essay is going to investigate whether parental involvement within a childs education has a positive or negative impact on the child and their education. This will include looking at the parental involvement within education and how the government feel about it and how the government deal with parental involvement and what educational provisions have been set out for parental involvement for all those concerned. Parental Involvement has been on the Labour Governments agenda since they came into power in 1997. New Labour has not been short on appeals to return to family values, particularly when the issues of crime, parenting and education have been the topic of discussion (Mooney et al, 1999:6). In 1997, when New Labour came into power, there were suggestions to create parenting classes for those parents who need help with their childs behaviour, education and also to help themselves become better and more pro active parents within all aspects of their childs life. Jack Straw wants parenting classes to be accepted in the same way as ante natal classes, through such classes will involve compulsory counselling and guidance classes for parents who are struggling as parents and for parents ordered by the courts to receive help dealing with their children (Mooney et al, 1999:6). Jack Straws wishes are significant because when a child is in a happy and supportive home environment then the child i s more likely to enjoy school and be more successful in their education, which will lead to happier children. The importance of parents in the education of their children is not a new concept. Parents have been their childrens first educators since prehistoric times. The first formal parent education classes occurred in The United States in 1815, concerns about childrens development come from many levels including womens associations, colleges, parent cooperatives, government and schools (Berger, 1991:209). Education was used to enlighten middle income families as well as to help mainstream immigrants and the underclass parents. In recent times the focus on parental involvement emerged during the 1960s with provisions, such as Head Start, Home Start and Follow Through USA (Berger, 1991:209). This continued in the 1980s and 1990s, though there were still concerns, this time about poorly educated pupils, exclusion, truancy, teenage pregnancy and poverty. These issues emphasize that parental involvement within a childs education is essential in order to have pupils who are fully engaged in th eir education and schooling. In more recent times, there are different stereotypical versions of parents and families; there are single parent families, same sex families, the traditional families. There is also many ways in which parents and families can get financial support from the government, for example child tax credits, child benefits, CSA. As well as that, there are many different facilities for parents to use if they need to go back to work, such as childminders, family support and nurseries. There is also support and provisions available to benefit both children and parents. Parents can put their child into some type of education for example private nurseries or childminders from as young as 3 months, for parents who had to go back to work. When this happens then parents can apply for childcare vouchers to help them with childcare costs. From the age of 3 until the age of 4 children get 12.5 hours, these are provided by the Labour government and offered by the Local Authorities (LA) so again parents c an place their child in nursery or preschool from the age of 3 and give them a head start and get taster ready for school. In 2007, the government introduced the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) provision, which was a combination of the Foundation Stage and Birth to Three Matters provisions. The EYFS began in September 2008. The EYFS is based around four themes, a unique child, positive relationships, enabling environments and learning and development. The positive relationship theme is to enable the children to become strong and independent, from a base of loving and secure relationships with parents (DFES, 2008). The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) is also linked to a supporting programme called the Parents as Partners in Early Learning Project (PPEL). The Parents as Partners in Early Learning Project began in October 2006; the project team undertook an audit to review current provisions with an initial baseline audit of policies and practices across 150 LAs (Local Authorit ies) in England. (DCSF, 2007). From the age of 4 until the age of 16 or 17 for new secondary school pupils from September 2008, children have to by law either go to school or be in some type of full time education for example home schooling. If the child does not attend school or if they are not in some kind of full time education then the parents will be punished. This could be by a fine or it could even be imprisonment. According to the DCSF (2009) parents should support school by ensuring that their child attends school, if they do not then the parents can face fines between  £30 and  £150 and for those parents who continue to let their children miss school, the maximum possible is already  £1,000 per parent per child and they could also face up to three months imprisonment (DCSF, 2009). For many parents, they like to be involved with their childs education in some way. Parental involvement is when a childs parent or parents get involved with their childs education and also work in partnership with their childs school. According to some researchers like Desforges et al (2003:5) parental involvement did not have to be parents being in direct contact with their childs school, but could be a naturally occurring parental involvement like good parenting at home Parental involvement takes many forms including good parenting in the home, including the provision of a secure and stable environment, intellectual stimulation, parent-child discussion, good models of constructive social and educational values and high aspirations relating to personal fulfillment and good citizenship; contact with schools to share information; participation in school events; participation in the work of the school; and participation in school governance. (Desforges et al, 2003:5) According to Mackinnon et al (1995:26) the 1967 Plowden Report based on extensive research, it concluded that parents; attitudes to education were of supreme importance in influencing childrens educational success more so than the parents educational or occupational status, than material circumstances at home and at schools themselves. Mackinnon et al (1995:26) continues the concept of greater parental involvement was favourably received and this involvement has increased in the year since Plowden. This shows that parental attitude whether negative or positive has an impact on their childs education, because if a parent has a negative impact on education because they had a poor, unsuccessful or appalling experience of education, then they are more likely to show a negative or very little interested in their childs education, which in retrospect their child will more than likely have a negative attitude towards education. It is also shown that children perform better when a parent s hows interest in their child education according to research carried out on the attainment in Secondary Schools by Feinstein et al (1999) found that children of parents showing high levels of interest in their schooling can progress between 15-17% more in maths and reading between the ages of 11 and 16 as compared to pupils whose parents showed no interest. There are many different policies and legislations on parental involvement, which start from around the 1980s. Most of these legislation and policies are mainly in favour of parents as consumers of education and parents as partners in education, these policies and legislation are; The 1980 Education Act, this Act gave the Parents the right to choose the school they wanted their child to go to, although the LEA could refuse on the grounds of inefficient use of resources (and parents could appeal), parents were given the right to be represented on school governing bodies, parents on such matters as criteria for admission, exam results, curriculum, discipline and organisation. (Mackinnon et al, 1995:59). When Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minster, she created these labels as schools are producers and parents are consumers, because as parents you look at what school is best for your child or best in the league table is that area, and something parents actually move to an area of a school t hat they want their child to go to in order to be inside the school boundaries. This is the same as if you were going shopping clothes, etc when youre shopping you tend to look for the best quality, price, etc and the shops that you buy from are the producers as they are providing that item you. Same with school, they try to sell their schools to parents by prospectuses, open evenings, league tables and Ofsted. The 1988 Education Reform Act gave the parents more power, Parents may send their children to any school that has room for them, provided that it caters for their age and aptitude. Parents could vote in a secret ballot to opt out of the school from the LEA finance and control and be given grant maintained status (Mackinnon et al, 1995:62) and finally the 1991 Parents Charter give even more choice for parents, in this charter parents were promised five key documents. These documents were a report on their childs progress at least once a year, regular reports on their childs school from independent inspectors, performances tables for local schools and finally an annual report from the school governors. The most important policy for parents was the 2005 White paper; this is an important paper because it puts parents and their child at the heart of the school. The White Paper suggested that parents receive regular, meaningful reports during the school year about how their child is doing, with opportunities to discuss their childs progress with their teachers; parents have the chance to form Parent Councils to influence school decisions on issues such as school meals, uniform and discipline, such Councils will be required in Trust schools (DCSF, 2005:9). There are many ways in which parents can be involved with their childs education from before they even start school, by choosing the right school for them to go too, and once the child is at school, their parent or parents can be involved in many different ways with their childs education. Ball (1998) came up with seven different ways of parental involvement; these varied from decision making and management of school parents and community representatives participate in school governing bodies, parent/teacher associations and advisory committees, to school support for learning at home schools may help families to develop learning at home to help in turn the childs learning in school (Ball, 1998). There are two main ways of involvement, in which a parent can be involved in their childs education; these are formal involvement and informal involvement. The more formal ways of involvement are for parents to be involved in Parent Teacher Association (PTA) which promotes partnership between pupils, parents and teachers and local authorities and encourages parents to support their childrens education. Also being a parent governor at a childs school is also a formal involvement, because as a parent governor, they can make a valuable contribution to the running of their childs school. The informal ways of a parent being involved in their childs education, are by attending awards evenings/days, attending parents, career and option evenings, also meeting with their childs teacher(s) and also parents coming into schools to help with reading time or fund raising events. Parents can be directly involved with their childs education by helping their child with their homework every day or by talking to their childs teacher on a regular basis. Parents can also be involved by volunteering to help out with activities such as fundraising, school events, or even being a part of the actual classroom by helping out with any reading schemes available in a childs school. Parents can also be on their childs school governing board as a parent governor. The government and LEAs have also funded different opportunities for parental involvement and parent school interaction; examples of these are The Home School Agreement. Home-school agreements can raise standards and contribute to school effectiveness by enhancing partnerships between parents and teachers. The processes involved in introducing and reviewing the agreement will clarify what the school is trying to achieve, and the agreement will set out the role of the school, parents and pupils in this vital partnership. Providing that staff, pupils and parents have been consulted effectively when drawing together the agreement, it should successfully build on existing working relationships between home and school. The partnership promoted by an agreement should result in; better home-school communication, parents and teachers working together on issues of concern, parents supporting and helping their childrens learning at home more effectively, the identification of issues that need to be addressed through the School Development Plan. The clarification of roles and responsibilities in a home-school agreement, supported by effective home-school policy and practice, should generate high expectations, parental encouragement and support, and strong home-school links (DCSF 2008). Parental involvement does not just benefit the child, but it can also benefit the school and the parents. The ways in which parental involvement can benefit the school are; that it reduces workload and pressure of the teachers and management staff, more enrichment activities can be provided which can boost the curriculum and the school. Parent/school interaction. The benefits for the parents are; reduced barriers between parents and the school, parents can feel and achieved self confidence and self worth, parent involvement may encourage parents to go back to education themselves, parents can monitor the work level in which their child is at, parents can also develop the feel for the school community and life and finally parents can get to spend some quality time with their child without even know they have. The issues of parental involvement are because of many factors. Parental involvement is mainly voluntary you cannot always rely on the parents, parents can or may cause problems for the teacher, parental volunteers may need to get CRB checks done on them because of the Ofsteds rules on safeguarding children in educational settings, which may make offended some parents, there is also a lot of paper work involved for the school, and CRB checks can take as long as six weeks to process. The most important issue of parental involvement is that not all parents can help or support their child as they may not have the skills, this can make some parents who want to be involved within their childs school inadequate. Even though many parents want to be involved in their childs education, they do not for a variety of reasons or because of boundaries, the many four main issues for parents not to be involved in their childs education are skills, class, gender and ethnicity. Skills, Knowledge and understanding is one of the main four boundaries because of the poor levels of educational achievement and skills development of some parents, resulting in mistrust of education and difficulties in engaging with the education process on behalf of their children. A knowledge defect in some groups of parents, for example, little knowledge of the importance of childrens games, nursery rhymes and traditional stories in developing childrens learning and the lack of knowledge of the local educational opportunities available for them and their children. Another boundary is social class. The words Social Class are used to describe how different segments of the population may be grouped together. These groups are considered to share roughly the same level of resources and similar styles of living. Class membership is generally indicated by the use of the Registrar Generals (RG) Scale of five social or occupational categories, though other systems of classification of socio economic groups are used. The main dividing line is between manual (working class) and non manual (middle class) occupations, although it should be noted that the range of lifestyles and material wealth within these two groups can vary considerably. There are four main groups that define social class, these are; upper class made up of between 5 and 10 per cent of the population, including company directors, financiers, senior civil servants. As a group the upper class own a substantial part of the nations wealth. The upper middle class, these are made up if 25 -3 0 per cent of the population, including professionals, senior managers and those running small businesses. The groups are sometimes referred to as the professional managerial class. Lower middle class, is made up of 35 40 per cent of the population, including white collar workers who are employed in shops and offices. This group may be referred to as the personal service class and the final class is the working class, this is made up of 35 40 cent of the population, including manual workers who may be skilled or unskilled, working in heavy industry, manufacturing, transport or agriculture (Trowler 1995:139). Social class has a huge influence on which school a parent chooses to send the children and also shapes the relationship between parent and school. In the 1959 Crowther Report it states that the extensive research that was commissioned confirmed earlier findings about the relationship between fathers occupational status and pupil educational attainment. The higher the father s status, the greater the childs chance of attending a grammar rather than a secondary modern school, though the occupational group skilled manual workers was so large that their children were by far the largest single group in all types of school. It was argued that there was considerable wastage of talent and much attention was paid to the neglected educational territory of pupil who left school at 15 to follow craft or technical, rather than an academic career. Mackinnon et al (1995:23). Parents social class has become a boundary within parental involvement within a childs education, it is believed by some that if you are in a lower social class, you are more likely to fail, drop out and underachieve because thats what is expected of them, also some parents from lower social class may feel intimidated by those parents from a higher social class. According to Douglas (1964) working class parents do not value education. Parents who are most interested in their childrens education c ome mainly from the middle classes. Parents from a lower social background may not have received a good education so they do not have the skills to help their children. Also parents from a lower social class may not be able to afford to take time of work to help out, as they need the money to live and provide for their children Another boundary is gender. The words Gender refers to the differences between men and women. Gender has been a big issue within education for many of years, in the 17th and 18th centuries education for girls was at a fairly low standard, but increased in the mid 19th century when all children has the right to attend school.. In the 17th and 118th centuries, education was only aimed for rich boys and young men and they were the only children allowed to go to school, while the girls and young women had to stay at home with their mother and do housework and look after their family. When females were allowed to attend school, females were not allowed to do many subjects from the curriculum. They had to learn needlework, etc. The males on the other hand got to learn subjects such as metalwork and engineering and also languages such as Greek. Since the 1975 Sex Discrimination Act both male and females can do the same subjects. This Act prohibited sex discrimination in admission to schools, appointment of teachers (with exceptions for single sex schools) and careers advice and stipulated that neither girls nor boys should be refused access to any course, facilities or other benefits provided solely on the grounds of their sex. (Mackinnon et al, 1995:57). Todays boys are the students who are underachieving, twice as many boys as girls achieve below level 3 in English in Key Stage 2 (DCSF, 1994). Gender is an issue when it comes to parental involvement because it is mainly the female parent or the guardians who looks after those children who gets involved with their childs education. Currently there is considerably lower participation by fathers than by mothers in schools and in family learning initiatives (C lawley et al, 2004:3). This could be for a number of reasons, it could because they are a single parent family, it is also possible that the father may have to work or cannot take time off work, it is much harder for men to be involved with volunteering at schools because they may be ask to have a CBR check done, even through both males and females have to have them done now. The final boundary is ethnicity. What is meant by the term, ethnicity refers to the sense of shared cultural identify which binds a community together. It is used to distinguish one community from another and can be the basis for collective action by and conflict between communities. Ethnicity is an issue within education because many of the pupils from ethnic groups are underachieving, and most of them are boys. Figures shows that on entry into preschool, children of White UK heritage have the highest mean score in cognitive skills (verbal and non verbal), with the lowest scores being recorded for Pakistani children. Difference in scores between ethnic groups are reduced when the factors of parents educational and occupational status is taken into account. Bangladeshi, Black and Pakistani pupils perform less well than other pupils in the early key stages. Pupils for these three ethnic groups also tend to achieve significantly less well by the end of compulsory education and the per cent of these ethnic groups completing further/higher education such as college and university is even lower. Only thirty seven per cent of ethnic minority students get a first or upper second degree compared with 53 per cent of white graduates. (National Statistics, 2001) Students from ethnic groups are underachieving because they are at a disadvantage when it comes to learning because they may not speak or only speak very little English. Students from ethnic groups may have a different type of learning and their culture may be different to the culture in England also the way of teaching in England. There are a number of policies and legislations in force such as the 1981 Rampton report, which states the main requirement, as they see it, was for a change in attitude in the community at large towards acceptance of ethnic minorities. In specifically education matters, stress was laid on both initial and in service training of teacher to attune them to the needs of ethnic minority groups and to improve their understanding of multicultural approach to education (Mackinnon et al 1995:37), the Rampton Report was then replaced with the 1985 Swann Education for all Report, this report was almost eight time longer than Rampton and it also included the above (from Rampton Report) and more such as the effectiveness of racism awareness training should be investigated, Its further recommended that greater effort should be made to employ and promote teachers from ethnic minority groups, though without positive discrimination or lowering of standards (Mackinnon et al, 1995:39). There was also the 1976 Race Relation Act this act prohibited discrimination on the grounds of race in admission to schools, appointment of teachers, careers advice, access to facilities and the award of discretionary grants. Positive discrimination in favour of disadvantages racial groups (ethnic groups) neither is nor normally allowed e.g. in recruitment or promotion. In some closely defined circumstances, however, where it can be shown that a particular racial group has a special need with regard to education or training access to facilities may be restricted or allocated first to its members, this act was amended in 2000. The reason why ethnicity is an issue when it comes to parental involvement is quite simply the same issues as why children from ethnic groups are underachieving. Parents from ethnic groups may not want to or cannot get involved with their childs education because of language problems, lack of skills i.e. poor English, reading maths, ICT skills. Parents may feel threatened by the school or teacher and especially other parents from other ethnic groups. Parents may not be able to afford to take time off work or may have other younger children to look after. The government is doing to overcome the above boundaries and many other boundaries There are many different initiatives that the government, LEAs Schools, local communities and university have set up in order to overcome these boundaries that parent may have when it comes to parent involvement in their childs education. The department of Education have supported and sponsored many different parental involvement initiatives like the Home School Agreement. The Millennium Commission set up Clubs called the Clutch Club, these clubs are set up to help parents learn Information and Communication Technology (computer skills). Set up by the Millennium Commission one of the National lottery good causes, the Millennium Awards, these are grants to help individuals develop their interests whilst at the same time putting something back into their local community. The Open University and Living Achieve Awards Scheme aims to encourage and to enable parents of school children to gain new skills in I CT and an understanding of their use for teaching in their childrens schools. It has already involved around 300 parents with children at school in and around Milton Keynes (DCSF, 2008). In Nottingham there has been a project set up to help parents from ethnic group, called AMBER, which stands for Adult Minorities Breaking Educational Restrictions, helps families from ethnic minorities gain a better understanding of the education system within the UK and provides guidance for them. The project, launched in 1995, began by working mainly with Asian and African-Caribbean parents but has since been expanded to include other groups in the City and County of Nottingham who have been at a disadvantage when it comes to participating in school life. The project aims, to allow and support parents to become involved in their childrens education, to provide the opportunity for school-based adult learning and to train parent support workers to facilitate these aims. AMBER works with parents who participate informally through fundraising and general school support activities, social events, etc. and more formally through in-class help, governorship and parent consultations. (DCSF, 2006). If programs like these continue to develop all over the UK and achieve the goals they want and need to achieve the boundaries that are stopping the parents from being involved within their childrens education, will no longer be a huge boundary stopping them. Some researchers who believe that some parents use the fact that there are boundaries such as social class to hide behind but in fact they are not really interested or have time to be involved in their childs education. The researchers in question are Douglas (1964) and Newson (1989). Douglas (1964) argued that working class parents do not value education. Newson (1989) continues by suggesting that middle class parents are measurably more child centred than working class. However figures show that 80 per cent of working class parents in Nottingham were actively helping their children with reading (Newson 1989). Other researchers would argue that parents do not hide behind risks and barriers when it comes to parental involvement. Blackstone et al (2004) argued that working class parents do care as much as middle class parents, but working class parents felt less confident about dealing with schools. It is important for parents to be involved in their childs education, as it shows them how interested they are in what the child is doing and learning at school, which builds up self esteem. However much time a parent puts into their child and their education all count towards being involved, from volunteering at their childs school on a regular basis, to helping them with their homework when they ask for help, to most importantly to ask them what they have done at school each day, because this shows the child that the parent are showing an interest within their education. Even though there are boundaries that some parents need to overcome, these can be overcome with the help and support of the government and the childs school. Also additional research needs to be carried out in order to address how educational initiatives and policies impact on parental involvement and pupils. On a more local level the importance of effective communication needs to be addressed. Its improvement woul d be a great benefit to parents, education professionals and especially the pupils, as this will help with the pupils educational engagement, knowing that they have support at all angles from school to home.