Social science content standards Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Social science content standards - Essay Example tandards presents many good points as to how students can use their knowledge of social studies in the future, whatever that future might mean for each individual student. Not only does our curriculum help enable students the knowledge of past historical events of importance, but we also present them with the tools to be able to look at the past and see how it impacts and changes the present. The age old quote is only to apt here, those who do no know the past are doomed to repeat it. We give students the tools they need to know the glories, triumphs, as well as the worldly knowledge that comes from the failures and defeats that the past teaches us as well. It is important for students to learn and apply these lessons to their own lives, and see the connections between how choices can affect their own future, and how better choices can and often do lead to a better future. This ability to think and comprehend the past and how it directly correlates to the present is all too apparent throughout our curriculum. We offer emphasis on the most important historical events, for nobody is expected to memorize and know everything that has happen, but this also helps students learn how to discern between important events and those of less importance, and see how these events directly led to the presents. It is also our hope that students will be able to see historical trends that have happened through modern history, and by recognizing these they can begin to see not only what happened, but why those things happened. We also teach students the ability to look at documents associated with an era, and learn and appreciate how these documents all go together with the events of a time period to form an overall history. This is a vital task that can be applied to any future career or job, as reading and understanding documents is a task that all students will need to be able to have if they hope to be competitive in the college level education field, or even in the work

I know why the caged bird sings (Author- Maya Angelou) Essay

I know why the caged bird sings (Author- Maya Angelou) - Essay Example Maya related whiteness to beauty since in the society she lived; white people were perceived as beautiful and gorgeous (Angelou, 14). Similarly, in the real world, many black skinned individuals go for the option of using bleaching chemicals to make their skins white believing that they would look good. In chapter 1, Maya describes her stay in the south as putting a razor to one’s throat because of being a black girl. She went through hard times since racism was rampant at the time (Angelou, 10). Many issues are brought out in because of racism such as frustration, embarrassment, and disillusionment. She felt that black people were not seen as full Americans, and her alienation with her people made her feel displaced and unwanted. In relating to the real world scenario, racism still exists, and many black Americans feel that they are displaced in their own country (Angelou, 3). For this reason, black Americans and other minor races living in America, are discriminated; hence, do not share the country’s resources equally. In chapter 7, Momma was scared of speaking rudely and harshly to the white people. She could only do this while generically referring to the whites as ‘they’. Maya further refers Momma as a realist rather than a coward in the society for this reason (Angelou, 18). Relating to the scenario to real world it is true that some black Americans are oppressed and forced to believe that whites are superior in the society. They believe that high ranks in the government are only for

Harm Principle Examples

Harm Principle Examples In 1993, Canadian farmer Robert Latimer killed his extremely disabled child by putting her in his truck and running a pipe from his exhaust into the cab. Latimer fully admitted his guilt and claimed that, by killing her, he freed her from her chronic pain due to her severe form of cerebral palsy. His daughter was a full quadriplegic and required numerous surgeries to maintain her quality of life. She could not feed herself and was in constant pain despite painkillers she was given. Despite her condition, she was able to sporadically smile and respond to some stimuli. Later in the year, Latimer was convicted of first-degree murder. A year following this, his sentence was lowered to second-degree murder. Latimer, through many different trials and appeal processes was eventually released in 2008 as he was not deemed a danger to society. His case brought up many questions in regards to the law such as euthanasia, mercy killing and how it would affect other mandatory sentences for murder. The case itself calls to attention an argument made by philosopher John Stuart Mill relating to harm and liberty. He brings to light his harm principle and draws attention as to what liberty should be. In this essay, Mills argument for the harm principle will be explained and evaluated. Firstly, the harm principle needs to be analyzed as well as Mills argument for it. His essay titled On Liberty discusses civil and societal rights. His concern is mainly to do with the right to use methods of control on another person. He believes that the right to control another individual can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others (Mill, 1). Essentially, Mill is saying that liberty should not be restricted unless it is to prevent harm to other people. He furthers this argument with saying of over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign (Mill, 1). Here, he claims that individuals can essentially do anything to themselves as authority has no say in what  they do to themselves. It is from this phrase that Mill states individuals have the liberty to think and have their own opinions, thoughts, and beliefs regardless if it applies to minority groups or the majority of society. Mill also states with this comment that he believes that individuals should have the right to pursue their thoughts, beliefs, and ideas regardless of how society views it so long as no harm is done to others. He declares that his harm principle and push for personal freedom over societal rule would be beneficial to society as a whole. He explains this by saying that individuals would be happier (Mill, 1) and would feel less oppressed. He further explains this by saying that since individuals would be pursuing their passions, society would spend less time controlling people and enforcing rules. Mill explains that that his doctrine is only meant only to apply to people in the maturity of their faculties (Mill, 1). He is saying here that his set of guidelines cannot apply to people who are not involved members of society and are outside a set of principles he applies to a civilized society (Mill, 1). Civilized society consists of people who can engage in their own interests, skills, and capabil ities but also have had access to an education. He believes that through personal reflection and freedom, an individual will gain a higher level of power to understand his or her surroundings. However, without access to that educational systems and a developed society, individuals will not reach their potential for personal reflection. Mill explains that people who are dependant of others, like children or the mentally challenged, must protected from themselves as they are not capable of maintaining the state of personal reflection Mill requires. He also states the concept of a civilized society much be maintained in order for individual liberty and the harm principle to be effective for society. He explains that freedom of expression and thought is key to avoid social stagnation and that with individuality comes progress. Next, analysis of Mills argument will be done. He brings up some solid points regarding societal progress due to individuality and thought development. Essentially, Mill claims that  individuals learn from their mistakes and it is through this that personal development occurs. Unfortunately, his essay On liberty has gaps in which he is too vague on the limits of liberty. He also is much too vague on his definition of harm. This is due to the fact that he places way too much importance on individual freedoms to maximize happiness and understanding. He does not take into consideration that personal choices regarding an individual can sometimes be harmful to others. The argument of paternalism is a good example of this. Seat belt laws dictate that individuals must wear their belts regardless that they want to or not. The laws are in place in the name of the protection of the individual. With Mills argument, he claims that seat belt laws would be an infringement on personal happiness a nd freedom, regardless of the possibility of injury in an accident. Thus, he does not properly address the issue of an individual making poor choices. To conclude, the case of Robert Latimer was discussed and the momentous exception in law that was done. Through this, the Principle of Harm by John Stuart Mill was explored through its definition in regards to liberty and its link to personal freedom. Also explored was the only circumstance in which Mill believes freedom can be limited: to protect others from harm. Lastly, objections to Mill argument were brought up such as his vagueness in his explanations of liberty and harm as well as its tie to bad personal choices.

Stress Essay -- essays research papers

How to Deal With StressMany students go to school full time, and hold a part time job to earn money for school. Most students have about four classes, and each of the teacher’s of these classes gives an average of about an hour of homework each night; that averages out to four hours per night of homework, plus a part time job. School causes a lot of students stress because there are so many things to do, and so little time to do it. Stress is a normal part of everyone’s life; and is not a disease. It is not necessarily good or bad; however, reactions to stress can be harmful. Lack of time puts the stress on many students, and causes students to often procrastinate because they are constantly trying to meet deadlines and they don’t have the time to work on their assignments. Many students feel their grades are important; they need plenty of time to work on their work so they can do good. I can relate to them because if I get a low grade I get disgusted because I p ut a lot of time and effort in doing that assignment. But I think that a lot of the stress from school is caused, not only by the teachers, but also from the students to do well. Students put too much stress on themselves. A student just has to learn to manage their time well and just do as good as possible. Stress management involves the effort of that student to make emotional and physical changes. The degree of stress and the desire to make the changes will determine the level of change that will take place. If a student wants to change the amount of stress in their life, they have to be willing to work and manage their time properly, even if it means sacrificing hours from a job or a night out with friends to study for a test or write a paper. Many students feel an increase in stress and anxiety when writing a paper, meeting a deadline, or studying for an exam. This can cause twitching, trembling, muscle tension, headaches, sweating, irritability, fatigue, and even dry mouth (An xiety, Stress, and Tension). When talking about stress, there are many things that can influence a student. The five main topics that influence a student’s well being are attitude, physical well being, physical activity, support systems, and relaxation (World Book on Health, 235). Attitude: The attitude of a student can influence whether a situation or emotion is stressful or not. A student with a negative attitude will ... ...oolwork and go out with their friends. It is important that a student interacts with others because it boosts self-confidence and helps maintain social stability in their lives. Lastly, rule number five when dealing with stress is using relaxation techniques. There are many relaxation techniques such as: listening to music, daydreaming, sleeping, writing poetry and many others. Also a student dealing with stress should take time out of their schedule for personal interests and hobbies. Students need to take time from stressful situations and do what makes them happy and have fun. It is also good to take a mini vacation from time to time. This helps keep the stressful student’s mind off of things and allow them to retreat somewhere to think and relax. In conclusion, stress can be very harmful and have a lot of effects on a student’s body. Some stress is good, but a lot of it can be bad. The five ways a student can prevent and deal with stress can be very useful. The student dealing with stress just needs to relax and deal with their problems with ease, instead of making things hard on themselves. Things will fall into place; just have patients and life will be a lot less stressful.

Analysis of Drama Through the Movie the Devil Wears Prada

I chose to write my drama essay on a film, specifically The Devil Wears Prada. I chose this film because it is my favorite movie of all time. It is my favorite because of how benevolent the characters can be, I will explain this in more detail soon. I definitely consider The Devil Wears Prada to be a drama because of all the controversial events that goes on in the movie; I will also explain this in more detail later. The Devil Wears Prada is a story about a young journalist Andrea Sachs, played by Anne Hathaway, who scores a job at a famous fashion magazine called Runway Magazine. Although she is a journalist she ends up getting the position as one of the assistants to the head of Runway Magazine, Miranda Priestly, who is played by Meryl Streep. Meryl Streep is depicted in the movie as a cutthroat bitch; she constantly says mean things to her employees with disregard to their feelings. For example, Miranda meets Andrea for the first time and Andrea is not the most fashion worthy person, she wears stripes with plaid and wears military boots with her dresses to work. Miranda looks up and down at Andrea and says to her â€Å"you have no style or fashion,† Andrea starts to respond with â€Å"well I think†¦Ã¢â‚¬  and Miranda quickly cuts her off and says â€Å"No no it wasn’t a question† (Frankel, 2006). Even though Meryl Streep is very cruel to Andy, she still keeps the job because she is told by a coworker that if she works with Miranda for a year, then she can get any job in the city after that. Her co-worker is Emily, played by Emily Blunt; she is also very rude and does not treat Andy with any respect. Emily is the executive assistant to Miranda which means that during fashion week in Paris, Emily will get to attend Miranda and Andy will stay at the office in New York. Andy does not mind anyways because she does not care to meet all the fashion designers, which are in Paris. Over a period of time working at Runway, Andy decides to get a makeover because she feels she will be more respected by Miranda. After the makeover, Miranda does notice the more positive things that Andy is doing and even starts to call Andy by her real name. Before Andy had her makeover Miranda would simply call her, â€Å"my new Emily† (Frankel, 2006). Andy became extremely good at her job, but she noticed that the better she came at her job, the more her life with her boyfriend started to fail because of all the time her job consumed. One day Emily got into an accident, she was hit by a cab, while running an errand for Miranda. Therefore Emily cannot go to Paris with Miranda. Miranda calls Andy in and tells her that she will be attending fashion week instead of Emily, Andy is somewhat pleased but feels bad for Emily who has basically starved herself to fit her dresses for the trip. Then Miranda tells Andy, that she must tell Emily that she is going to Paris and Emily will not be going. This causes so much controversy, resulting in Emily no longer will speaking to Andy. During the trip in Paris, Andy finds out that other fashion designers are plotting against Miranda to take over Runway Magazine. At the same time as this is going on, Miranda was just told by her fourth husband that he wants a divorce. He said that Miranda never spent any time with him or their twin daughters. For some reason, Andy tries to tell Miranda about the other designer’s intentions and when she is successful, Miranda said she knew all along about the plot against her. Andy is so mad that Miranda knew about the plot and did not even appreciate that Andy was trying to protect her, that she leaves Paris and throws her business phone away. Two weeks later in New York, Andy applies for a job at the New York Times; she comes to find out that the editor at the paper had contacted Miranda. Andy is very worried that Miranda said negative things about her, because of the way she quit her job. She comes to find out that Miranda said all positive things about Andy and quote, â€Å"you would be an idiot not to hire her† (Frankel, 2006). Therefore, Andy got the job as a journalist at the New York Times. This is definitely a drama because of how many events are going on that cause disagreements. For example, the whole issue with Emily not being able to go to Paris, and that Andy was the one who had to break it to her. I felt as the viewer, this caused a lot of tension. When I watched this scene I actually empathized with Emily because Andy had to take her dream of Paris and crush it, nonetheless while she was still recovering in the hospital. Despite all the hate I felt toward Emily before, because she was so mean to everyone around her, I still felt horrible for her. No matter how mean a person is, I don’t believe they should be hurt intentionally because every person has feelings. Another reason this is a drama is because of the irony; Andy gets her first job as an Assistant to a very powerful woman, which she has never even heard of before. In the opening of the movie they show a scene of all the women getting ready for their interview with Miranda. The women are putting on designer clothing, high end make up and all wearing stiletto shoes. Then they show how Andy gets ready and she just brushes her hair and her teeth and grabs a bagel. It’s ironic how the one girl who does not care about her image gets the job. Miranda explained to her later that the reason Andy got the job is because she saw determination in her, and she did not look like one of the â€Å"Barbie Airheads† who have had the job before (Frankel, 2006). I personally enjoyed this drama because of how mean all these powerful people can be. I find it amusing because it’s shocking that people have such disregard for others emotions. I know that I can be mean at times but I do show remorse afterwards. Being a victim of bullying all through school, it shocks me to see that this is where all the bullies seem to work. I also love this movie because of the plot, Andy, the shy and respectful young lady, comes out on top. Whereas the mean and backstabbing women such as Emily are out of jobs. Finally I enjoy this drama because of all the fashion, I might not dress up every day or shop at high end stores, but I do love to look at all the beautiful clothing. If I had the confidence and money to buy these clothes and wear them I would, so I love seeing a poor girl like Andy be able to just walk into the Runway Magazine closet and pick out whatever Chanel shoes she wants or Prada handbags, that’s a dream come true in my book.

Corning Glass

Case Studies Corning Glass Background Corning Glass is a large, multinational organization involved in glass and related products with an increasing emphasis on high-value, technologically-specialized products, many of which are now part of joint-venture programmes and developments. Innovation ‘Claim to Fame’ This firm is another of the ‘100 club’, having been founded back in the mid-nineteenth century. It was a pioneer in process innovation enabling high-volume manufacture of glass, but in the twentieth century moved into developments of specialized glasses which led through to a variety of product/process innovation links.It has successfully managed to avoid the commoditization of its core products by repeatedly climbing up the technological ladder to enter new and more difficult fields in which it can preserve competitive advantage. Its consistent investment in R&D has meant it has a ‘technology till’ into which it has been able to dip each t ime the company has faced crisis. At first perhaps by accident but in more recent times as a function of strategic design, they have built a capability for reinventing themselves – moving from a glassmaker to a fibreglass pioneer to a key player in photonics, fibre optics and moving into Internet services.How Do They Manage Innovation? Corning’s history is one of continuous innovation, much of it around process, but one which is also punctuated by breakthrough shifts into new and key areas. They have increasingly come to use external partners bringing new and often very different knowledge sets and have learnt to let go of their earlier reliance on doing it all in-house. Similarly they began life as a technology push company but some big mistakes, such as their expensive failure in trying to create a technology-driven market for automotive safety glass, led them to rethink and shift to a much more market-linked organization.A key stage came in the 1980s when they recog nized that growth and increasing diversification of innovation options required that they systematize their approach to its management – prior to that it had been a classic culture of individual champions driving a technology system. They identified their ability to ‘dance’ as being key to their innovation success – that is, getting different and complementary knowledge sets to come together around a new product concept and turn it into reality at high speed once the core principle had been articulated. Innovation Strategy and LeadershipThe company has always held innovation as a core strategic value, and they link this strongly to generating and managing intellectual property – their knowledge bank. ‘What really matters for innovation †¦ is continuous generation, management and deployment of intellectual property as a strategic asset’. This has been a boardroom issue on a number of occasions when the company has faced crisis †“ for example, when the market for television tubes declined and they were forced to make significant cutbacks  ©2005 Joe Tidd, John Bessant, Keith Pavitt www. wileyeurope. om/college/tidd 1 Case Studies and changes – but it has helped them move forward each time into new technological and market fields . Their strategy until recently can be described as strongly technologyled but there has been a marked shift in the late-twentieth century, first to a marketoriented approach and most recently to a network-based model which sees key alliances as the way forward. A number of key strategic enablers are worth flagging: †¢ Consistent support for 150 years for the core values of innovation through knowledge generation and application Willingness to let go – to reinvent themselves by moving on from their proud heritage and into new fields †¢ Consistent commitment to R&D funding – typically it has run between 8 and 10% ever since the founding of the compan y when it was one of the first to set up an R&D lab . †¢ The use of ‘deep dive’ sessions – essentially strategic review meetings where the role as well as direction of R&D within the organization is explored and through which a close integration between this strong resource and key application domains can be achieved.These sessions helped shift the focus from a largely responsive, market-led business to one which was trying to set the pace through deploying key strategic technologies. Enabling the Process The company has a fairly ‘standard’ process for steady state innovation – using a version of a stage gate model to funnel development ideas through a well-resourced system designed to generate customized solutions to particular market needs. This has worked well for them in their traditional markets where the pace of change is relatively slow and where the envelope within which product development takes place is clearly defined.They have particularly good links between product development and manufacturing with feedback into the design process – a key theme emerging out of their early presence as a strong player in process technology innovation. Their move into new markets and less certain product/market definitions has meant that they are now experimenting with different routes to managing the ‘do different’ innovation process. These include: †¢ Learning with others – rather than trying to own all the resources, there has been a growing trend to network- and alliance-based product development.Their existing skill of being able to configure rapid response cross-functional teams has helped them in this process. †¢ Learning from new networks – allied to this has been a significant expansion of the selection environment in which they work, so that they explore much less familiar territory through their co-operation with a wide group of outside agencies in joint ventures and other collaborations. †¢ Related to this has been their extended use of technology sharing partnerships with major players which also had large but complementary R&D capabilities.Working with big players on complementary projects helps both partners move the frontier forward quickly by being able to focus resources.  ©2005 Joe Tidd, John Bessant, Keith Pavitt www. wileyeurope. com/college/tidd 2 Case Studies Building an Innovative Organization †¢ Emphasizing knowledge flows across the organization and creating structures to †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ enable creative interchanges amongst them. Strong core value of quality and continuous improvement.Deliberate attempt to create communities of practice – enable setting up of differentmix teams to bring some variety into the knowledge ‘gene pool’. Use of ‘storytelling’ as a mechanism to build and communicate shared memory and ‘collective ingenuity’. Development of ‘fle xible critical mass’ – the ability to quickly concentrate key human resources on high priority projects. This is underpinned by the storytelling since this quickly and effectively communicates and shares ‘good practice’ around how such teams can quickly form and perform.Linkages and Networking Corning has been involved in many joint ventures of a significant scale and their learning from these has led to a growing emphasis on actively building links as a key innovation strategy. They have a long tradition of R&D networking and co-operation – for example, much of their competence base in photonics arose out of close networks and collaborations made with institutes in the former Soviet Union which contained excellent science but lacked resources and access to development facilities.Reflection on the sources of their innovation success have led them to extend their ‘virtual’ global laboratory and they have developed sophisticated ways of h arvesting intellectual property from such collaborations without taking over or compromising the autonomy and independence of the laboratories and institutes with which they work. Learning and Capability Development A key development has been in the use of storytelling and other approaches to try and recapture the earlier strengths of the company which had, to some extent, been lost in the later part of the twentieth century.It provides an accepted and widely-used mechanism to ‘recapture grounded experience in the company itself’ – rather than have reliance on ‘best practice’ or other prescriptions delivered from outside. For more on Corning and the ways in which it manages innovation see M. Graham and A. Shuldiner, Corning and the Craft of Innovation (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001).  ©2005 Joe Tidd, John Bessant, Keith Pavitt www. wileyeurope. com/college/tidd 3