Middle school Essay Example for Free

Middle school Essay I want my childs education to be holistic! I dont like cramming and the loads of homework. I want my child to grow in a stress-free environment. The curriculum must stimulate reasoning and analytical skills. At the beginning of every academic year this is what you hear from your parents. Newspaper and magazines highlight the stress and strain students undergo during examinations. Good as it may seem, this generate a false hope parents have woken up to view education from a different dimensions. It makes educator believe that they do not want to support a system that evaluates a childs potential through marks and grades. The success of every child initially depends on parents only. But unfortunately parents suddenly realize the importance of exams, results, percentage and college admissions and begin to rethink and re-valuate their personal convictions. Then they say :I must prepare my child to enter this competitive world. I must help my child to succeed in life. What is this success they talk about? Is it a fulfillment of the childs dream ? Have they channelled the childs talents to achieve? Instead they run from pillar to post collecting question papers and application forms for all the competitive exams. There is no time to consider what the child wants and need. Children are not perceived as individual. Schools become factories churning out prize commodities. As long as parents fail to consider their children as growing individual with aspirations and talents, institutions will continue to capitalize on mass production. No doubt education is a necessity, but what do you want your child to be? Surely, not automatons and generators of wealth. The goal is to develop them into thinking individuals. Only then will we see change. It is the duty of educationists and the governing bodies to give a new meaning, a new direction and strike a new path towards a meaningful education. This is the foundation for a generation of sensitive and cultured human beings. I think this speech will bring a change in parents mind about childs problems about their life. Thank you 2: A Parents Role in Education Home Education Parents have a vital role in their childs education. By taking a few simple steps at home, you can help them enjoy school more, improve their studying and homework skills and prepare for college. The articles in this category, A Parents Role in Education, are full of tips on to help them with their schoolwork, such as creating a positive learning environment to making learning fun. There are also articles on warning signs to help you identify potential learning or school problems. A Parents Role in Education Nothing helps a child succeed like an involved parent. A little willingness from a childs parents can work wonders in the classroom. Read on to learn more about your role as a parent in the education of your child. Creating a Positive Home Learning Environment Your child needs a special place to call their own. Setting aside a room or nook in your home dedicated to your childs education will show him or her that youre serious about their education. Read on to learn more about creating a positive Evaluating Educational Resources on the Web There are many options available when looking for additional educational help online for your child. An awareness of the costs, services, advantages and disadvantages is crucial. Read on to learn how you can best evaluate educational resources Improving Your Childs Grades Parents play an important role in a childs education. This article examines some very simple things you can do every day provide your child with the support and encouragement they need to take on the challenge of improving their grades. Improving your Childs Study Habits Learning skills need to be fostered at home. This article provides tips for parents who want to create a home environment that will help their children develop and maintain positive study habits. Preparing a Child for High School The transition from middle school to high school can be challenging and bewildering for some students. Parents can help make this period of great change easier on their children and themselves. Read on to learn more about preparing a child for Preparing a Child for Junior High School The transition from elementary to middle school or junior high is a difficult one, filled with new social and academic challenges. Here are some tips to help your child prepare for this big change. Reasons Your Child May Be Struggling in School Is your child struggling in school? This article details several of the common reasons why a child might fall behind in their studies and what parents can do to help. Recognizing Student Struggles 1 of 7: The Importance of Identifying Warning Signs The first in a 7 part series, this feature stresses the importance of recognizing your childs classroom difficulties and resolving them quickly. Read on to learn more about the importance of identify warning signs and recognizing student Recognizing Student Struggles 2 of 7: Identifying the Warning SignConfidence Levels This article is the second in a seven part series aimed to help parents recognize the warning signs given off by struggling students. Read on to learn more about how you can remain aware of your childs confidence level, and how you can help Recognizing Student Struggles 3 of 7: Identifying the Warning SignGrades As part of the Recognizing Student Struggles series, this feature explains what a sudden decline in grades might say about a students curricular experience. It also offers suggestions for the most appropriate methods of correction should your Recognizing Student Struggles 4 of 7: Identifying the Warning SignAttitude As part of the Recognizing Student Struggles series, this article explores the attitude changes to look for in struggling students and offers suggestions for improving a childs educational experience. Recognizing Student Struggles 5 of 7: Identifying the Warning SignHomework Is your child struggling with their homework. A new approach and an involved parent can work wonders for a childs success in the classroom. This is the fifth article in the Recognizing Student Struggles series. Recognizing Student Struggles 6 of 7: Identifying the Warning SignClass Standing This feature in the Recognizing Student Struggles series discusses the importance listening to your childs teacher and making use of their feedback. It also highlights what can be done if youre told that your child has fallen behind in his or Recognizing Student Struggles 7 of 7: Identifying the Warning Sign(Lack of ) Determination This article (the last in the Recognizing Student Struggles series) explains several ways to assess a students progress and level of determination based on their responses to failure. The 28 educational standards of the state of New York The state of New York has 28 standards that guide elementary and middle school education. This article outlines those standards in detail. The Educational Advantages of Using Computers and the Internet Computer programs and the Internet create educational opportunities not available to previous generations. Read on to learn how modern technologies can become valuable educational tools. Transform Your Childs Poor Report Card Have your childs grades taken a turn for the worse? Did they just bring home their first poor report card? Dont worry. Read on to learn more about how you can help your child transform his or her poor report card.

Zora Neale Hurston, Alice Walker, and Paule Marshall :: essays papers

Zora Neale Hurston, Alice Walker, and Paule Marshall Alice Walker, through her essay "In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens", and Paule Marshall, in "Poets In The Kitchen", both write about the African-American women of the past and how these women have had an impact on their writing. Walker and Marshall write about an identity they have found with these women because of their exposure to the African culture. These women were searching for independence and freedom. Walker expresses independence as found in the creative spirit, and Marshall finds it through the spoken word. Walker and Marshall celebrate these women's lives and they see them as inspirations to become black women writers. Zora Neale Hurston's "Sweat" embodies some aspects that are found in Walker's and Marshall's essays. Delia, the main character, has an identity that is found through her hard work and spirituality. She also finds her freedom and independence in her home. It is essential to first analyze Walker's and Marshall's essays through each of the themes of identity, independence, and inspiration, respectively. Then these themes will be drawn out of Hurston's work to show the similarity between each of these writers' works. Walker and Marshall write about an identity that they have found with African-American women of the past. They both refer to great writers such as Zora Neale Hurston or Phillis Wheatley. But more importantly, they connect themselves to their ancestors. The see that their writings can be identified with what the unknown African-American women of the past longed to say but they did not have the freedom to do so. They both admire many literary greats such as Charles Dickens, Virginia Woolf, and Jane Austen, but they appreciate these authors' works more than they can identify with them. Walker's and Marshall's identification is related to the African-American culture that they have been exposed to throughout their lives. Walker states that: Therefore we must pull out of ourselves and look at and identify with our lives the living creativity some of our great-grandmothers were not allowed to know. I stress some of them because it is well-known that the majority of our great-grandmothers knew without even "knowing" it, the reality of their spirituality, even if they didn't recognize it beyond what happened in the singing at church (Walker, 1996: 2318-2319). Walker delves into the subconscious and ever-present spirituality that is found in African-American women and she believes that it is important to identify with this.

Disintegration of the Nuclear Family Essay

Social scientists have noticed that the concept of the family has changed in the past 40 years, and this has led some to comment on the ‘disintegration of the nuclear family’. Do you agree with the claim that the nuclear family unit is breaking down? The conventional nuclear family model, Murdock first spoke of, which entails the father as the employed bread winner and the wife as the stay at home housewife and mother looking after their children. This early idealistic model of the stable family life has changed and evolved. Some of these contributing factors that may have changed the family dynamics are, equality between men and women, the loss of religious influence over the traditional marriage, the accepted lifestyle of same sexed families, the increasing number of sole parents as well as blended families have diversely changed the way society sees the evolving complexities of the family unit. This essay aims to show that the traditional nuclear family unit has not disintegrated, but has evolved. The phrase the nuclear family was first used by Murdock in 1949 , in that time, most family units resembled what he referred as both sexed adults in a socially approved sexual cohabiting marriage with children that were biological or adopted (Murdock, 1949, p 1). Within the boundaries of the nuclear family, some parents found it a haven, where defined rules and standards were adhered to. Children thrived on the security and constant attention of the availability of their mother to drive them to soccer or ballet practise. Fathers had a defined role as the breadwinner, the head of the household. However to some, they found the nuclear family structure to be bounding, confining and demeaning. Mothers were discouraged from working, fathers were overburdened with the demands of being the sole breadwinner, parents who were unhappily married were ‘compelled to stayed together, â€Å"for the sake of the children† and to avoid the stigma of divorce’ (Elkind, 1994, p.8). Si nce equality for women in education and in the work force, women are staying in workforce longer and combining career with motherhood. Compared to forty years ago, where women were seen in gender specific jobs, including teachers, nurses, hairdressers, receptionists and retail sales. Today ‘women now occupying over a third of all manager positions, and growth areas in occupations requiring high skills and advanced education’ (Jericho G, 2012). According to Edger, maternity leave, child care and return to paid workforce are readily available to today’s mothers (Edger, 2005, p 36). The post modern family have what Elkind observes that couples marry later, and have fewer children. Although economically it is beneficial if both parents are working. (Edger, 2005, p10). In the post modern family, the gender roles have changed. (Holmes, Hughes, Julian, 2003, p.284). Most modern women in Western cultures are now looking for relationships where they are in a partnership with household chores and child raising being shared. Has religion lost its influence over the traditional marriage? According a Sydney Herald article, ‘ the divorce rate is four hundred percent greater then forty years ago, that more young couples are rejecting marriage’ preferring a de facto relationship. (Maley, 2003, p.13). The Catholic Church has also seen some decline in marriages. In Pope Francis’ recent speech, ‘The family is important, and it is necessary for the survival of humanity. Without the family, the cultural survival of the human race would be at risk. The family, whether we like it or not, is the foundation†¦Today, there are those who say that marriage is out of fashion. Is it out of fashion?†¦ many preach the importance of ‘enjoying’ the moment. They say that it is not worth making a life-long commitment, making a definitive decision †¦ because we do not know what tomorrow will bring. I ask you, instead, to be revolutionaries,†¦I am asking you to rebel agains t this culture that sees everything as temporary and that ultimately believes you are incapable of responsibility, that believes you are incapable of true love’ (Pope Francis, 2013) Along with religious factors, same- sexed families have diversely changed. According to Australian Bureau of Statistics it revealed that 33,700 Australian couples are living together in a same-sex relationship, with 17,600 male couples and 16,100 female couples. There are almost twice as many children living in same-sex couple families as there were in 2001, with most of these children living in female same-sex couple families. Figures showed 6300 children are living in same-sex couple families from 2011, up from 3400 in 2001. With the availability of modern science, sperm donors, in vitro fertilisation, surrogacy and the availability to adopt or foster a child gives the same-sex family opportunity to increase their family of two, to three or more. The report also ‘unveiled a trend against traditional housework gender roles, with cooking, cleaning and laundry responsibilities more evenly shared in same-sex couples, unlike opposite-sex couples where women tend to do more than men’ (Wright J. 2013). Sole parenting along with same sex families has become a common evolvement. Either by choice, necessity, death of spouse or divorce are now an accepted commonality compared to forty years ago. Although ‘Sole parents have to battle with the emotional and physical stress of juggling family responsibilities and work’, the dependency of local community support systems coincide with the ‘ability to work is dependant on access to non-parental child care, after-school care, (and) a job in the local neighbourhood’ (Edger, 2005, p.11) for a flexible, family friendly workplace. A blended family is the new formation of a previous disintegrated family unit. According to Holmes, Hughes and Julian, a couple starts as a family that grows to include children, who then have their own offspring. ‘If you include a divorce in this picture, new partners, step-parents, step-siblings and half-brothers and -sisters, you can see the boundaries of the family becoming more fluid.’ (Holmes. D/ Hughes. K / Julian. R, 2003, p. 282). Many of today’s families are made up of these blended families, step and half family members, foster, adopted and extended multi-generation non blood related family members. As a result the family unit is still alive and thriving, however it has grown and become more diverse in its members. In conclusion, it is clear that the nuclear family unit has not disintegrated, but has changed and evolved with the times and improved women’s rights. In particular to family diversity, reflecting in the growing freedom and acceptability of different lifestyles. Those relationships could have a fluid tenure, where individuals may form a family for a time, then go on to form new family ties and connections blending in numerous connections that may make up a modern family. References Chadwick V, 2013, Tick for same-sex marriages ,The Age, Victoria Australia, viewed on 14 August 2013. Elkind D, Kappan P. D, 1995, School and family in the post-modern world, p. 8-14. Elkind D, 1994, Ties that stress: The new family imbalance, Harvard College, United states of America, Pg. 1-4. Edger D, 2005, The war over work: the future of work and family, Melbourne University Press, Australia. Jericho G, 2012, Changing role of women in the workplace, The Drum tv, viewed on 14 August 2013, www.abc.net.au. Maley B, 2003, The Sydney Morning Herald comment section, Sydney. Murdock G.P, 1949, Social Structure, The Macmillan Company, New York. Pope Francis, 2013, Marriage and family from the world youth day speech, viewed 8 August 13 www.marriageuniqueforareason.org/-about-marriage-and-the-family-from-world-youth-day, Rio de Janeiro, South America. Wright J, 2013, Number of children with same-sex parents soars, The Age, Victoria, viewed on 14 August 2013, www.theage.com.au.

The Speech Of Steve Jobs - 1035 Words

Speeches appear in all shapes and sizes, some fantastic, some horrible, some motivational and some inspirational. The single detail I can tell you there is always a few that will linger and stick around in your head. These speeches go through history as being remembered and studied for decades. A few that come to mind are â€Å"I have a dream† by Martin Luther King, â€Å"Never give up†¦Don’t ever give up,† by Jimmy Valvano and â€Å"You’ve got to find what you love,† by Steve Jobs. Each and every one of these speeches was written by men who were challenged to make difficult decisions in their lives which would inadvertently affect their future in one way or another. The most current speech of the four is Steve Jobs’ â€Å"You’ve got to find what you love.† His speech targets college graduates of the 21st century. After I read Steve Jobs’ speech, I understood the power of his words. At the beginning, he stated that he, unlike the graduates, never graduated from college; he dropped out after 6 months. Additionally, he reveals information about himself throughout the speech, such as being adopted, and the fascination for calligraphy. At the age of 20, Steve and a friend created Apple, a computer company in his parent s garage, later to be fired from his own company. But of course that did not stop Jobs; he ended up creating two more companies called NeXT and Pixar. Presumably, the scariest time in his life started when he was diagnosed with an incurable pancreatic cancer laterShow MoreRelatedThe Speech Of Steve Jobs1050 Words   |  5 Pagesby Jimmy Valvano and â€Å"You’ve got to find what you love,â₠¬  by Steve Jobs. Each and every one of these speeches was written by men who were challenged to make difficult decisions in their lives which would inadvertently affect their future in one way or another. The most current speech of the four is Steve Jobs’ â€Å"You’ve got to find what you love.† His speech targets college graduates of the 21st century. After I read Steve Jobs’ speech, I understood the power of his words. At the beginning, heRead MoreSteve Jobs Speech Draft : Steve Job944 Words   |  4 PagesSteve Jobs Speech Draft Steve Job’s was one of the most successful men in the world. He accomplished many things in his life before he lost his bout with cancer. Jobs, ironically himself a college dropout, presented the 2005 commencement speech at Stanford University that was both inspiring and gave people a look into how he became the man that he was. I believe Steve Jobs speech is somewhat awkward due to his audience, utilizes the art of storytelling to engage his audience, and utilizes hisRead MoreSteve Jobs Tribute Speech1556 Words   |  7 Pagesgadgets and computers. That man is Steve Jobs. †¢ CEO of Apple †¢ Bad health o Everyone knew that the time would eventually come, but no one could have predicted that it’d happen so soon. ââ€" ª On October 5th, 2011: Steve Jobs, our generations hero of the technology industry, died. Going to share his journey, because we can all learn something from it. Plot: In 1955, a child that was going to change the world was born †¢ Steve Jobs’ biological mother was very youngRead MorePersuasive Speech : Steve Jobs1380 Words   |  6 PagesClever Title Steve Jobs, the creator of Apple, Pixar, and NeXT says, â€Å"The only way to do great work is to love what you do† during the June 12, 2005, Stanford University commencement address. Jobs gives a speech about his life and the hardships he experienced to further motivate the college graduates to reach their dreams by doing what they love and to succeed even as they get knocked down. Jobs tells the audience. â€Å"Your time is limited,† meaning that, when doing something they love, they must keepRead MoreTribute Speech to Steve Jobs2556 Words   |  11 PagesTribute Speech to Steve Jobs Steve Jobs was like the Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell and the Albert Einstein of our time.   He not only innovated personal computing, but personal media and communication, iTunes which became one of the most popular music and video retailers and Pixar which was one of his side projects had become one of the greatest animation digital movie creators and software. But all that is a just part of the list of his legacy, because in the end he still left behind AppleRead MoreAnalysis Of Steve Jobs Commencement Speech859 Words   |  4 PagesSteve Jobs Commencement Address If Steve Jobs can find success in the world without a college degree then surely these college graduates have a better chance than he did. Seven years ago the world witnessed the death of one of the greatest inventors and business men of this age. He started multiple companies including Pixar, NeXT and Apple. He revolutionized personal and cell phones to what is now used. Jobs was asked to give the commencement speech at Stanford University. In the speech he usesRead MoreRhetorical Analysis Of Steve Jobs Speech735 Words   |  3 Pages Steve Jobs, a businessman in Silicon Valley, gave the Stanford Commencement Address in 2005. Rhetorical tools are used to persuade the audience. Ethos deals with the speakers credibility, Pathos appeals to emotion and Logos appeals to logic. Steve Jobs’ successfully used the rhetorical tools Ethos, Pathos, and Logos throughout his speech. Within Steve Jobs’ Commencement Address, the rhetorical tool Ethos is used. Jobs began by saying, â€Å"I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is theRead MoreRhetorical Analysis Of Steve Jobs Speech848 Words   |  4 Pagesmany inspirational speeches have been remembered, because of how they connect with the audience. Steve Job’s speech during the Stanford’s graduation was inspiring to many of the college graduates. Many people think in order to be successful a college degree is mandatory. Even if they do not like what they are doing. People should love what they do, and should not follow dogma. With his speech, Steve Job’s convinced the multicultural population at Stanford University to be prominent and to pursueRead MoreRhetorical Analysis Of Steve Jobs Speech1208 Words   |  5 Pagesperspective on whether to listen or not? Yes. This man, Steve Jobs, a college dropout, someone who didn’t even have enough for food stood before th e students of Stanford College; graduating class of 2005. Words are just words if not spoken in a correct manner. What a person speaks with passion is what moves an audience. Throughout time, speeches have been remembered because of how they connected with their audiences: â€Å"If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, likeRead MoreSteve Jobs Commencement Speech Analysis1111 Words   |  5 Pagescompany in the world today, was founded in Silicon Valley in 1976 by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. In 2005, Steve Jobs gave the commencement speech to the graduating class of Stanford. In his speech, Jobs’ speech uses emotion and his ethos in his life story to connect to the students, parents, and family members to tell them that you should never stop pursuing your dreams, no matter the circumstances. Jobs begins his speech telling the listeners that â€Å"I never graduated from college. Truth be