Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Token Economy

Leadership Model Jim Forrest was a skilled professional in related issues managing in substance abuse. Forrest had the opportunity to utilize his abilities as a lead in a mental health center. Forrest began his search for new employees by interviewing each person the same. Forrest talked to each candidate in the same style rather than finding out their strengths and weaknesses so he would have a better idea of where to place them to assist with client care. Although Forrest noticed positive change in client care, he also noticed concerns with his employees slowly surfacing.Forrest began to question his professional relationship with each member of his staff. It is important to recognize leadership comes in various styles to provide applicable direction to accomplish specific objectives in the workplace. Supervisory leadership must discuss the task and goals set for the organization clearly to its employees. Contingency Theory believes individuals are different; therefore there is not one way that is the best way of leading a team. Contingency Theory takes a look at the bigger picture that contains dynamics about supervisory leadership skill and other variables within the circumstances.Success of any organization is influenced by a variety of reasons, one of which is leadership style. One style of leadership may not be appropriate in some cases, however may be best in others. Supervisory Process There are 4 main steps in the supervisory process. The first is the beginning phase of the purpose of the supervisor. One of the elements of this process is obtaining reviews from staff and discussing concerns and ideas to make working together more productive (Lewis, Packard, & Lewis, Chapter 7, 2007).In case 7, Jim did not get feedback from his new staff about the implementation of the token economy. The middle phase of the process is the stage where Jim should have realized that his way was not working for everyone; he should have been open minded and ready to make ch anges when concerns were voiced to him, instead he thought that giving them freedom to make their own schedules they should be following the way he wanted things to be done.At this point Jim should have discussed issues and created an action plan. Jim is now in the facilitative confrontation phase (Lewis, Packard, & Lewis, Chapter 7, 2007), problems have began to surface and Jim hears complaining, with the incident of no one being there when he needed Jim will need to sit and discuss his role with the staff and their issues with the way things are being ran.The transition phase is when changes are made (Lewis, Packard, & Lewis, Chapter 7, 2007). If Jim follows through with the confrontation phase, he may be ready to compromise token economy and focus on rules and regulations to get everyone on the same page to productively help clients. Reference Lewis, J. A. , Packard, T. , & Lewis, M. D. (2007). Management of Human Service Programs (4th ed. ). Retrieved from The University of Phoe nix eBook Collection database..

Tuesday, July 30, 2019

My Summer at Choate Rosemary Hall

This summer at Choate Rosemary Hall was the best summer that I have ever had so far. The classes were challenging but also exiting at the same time. I really love the classes there because the number of student per one teacher is very small so the teachers give pay more attention toward you. Also, the student gets to know each other more so they can work together better. One of my favorite classes during the summer was Anatomy and physiology because we had a lot of hands on experience with dissection. My favorite dissection in the class is when we get to dissect and explore the anatomy and physiology of a rodent’s body because it was the longest and interesting dissection that we had during the summer program. When we finish with the dissection, our teacher takes a picture of our dissection and sends it to us and we had to label it. Another project that I like about Anatomy and Physiology is the owl pellet. We had to put back together a scattered rodent skeleton together and it was very time consuming. Other than the classes I also like the dorm life was. At home my parent do everything for me but at Choate I had to do everything myself, which made me feel like an adult. Every morning I had to wake up by myself and go to breakfast. My Favorite part about dorm life is laundry. My friend and I always wash our cloths together to save some money and we would just sit in the laundry room talking to each other about each other cultures. One time I forgot my highlighter in my pocket during washing so all of my cloths was ruin. The mistake of putting a highlighter in my pocket turns out really cool because it made one of my shirts really pretty so everyone said that I was the best mistake that I’ve ever made. Choate’s campus was big. On the first day of class I wanted to change my schedule and didn’t know anywhere to go to so I had to run around the campus trying to find the summer program office for almost an hour. Every day I have only 30 minutes for lunch because one of my classes was on the other side of the campus and it would take me 10 minutes to walk there. I think my favorite building at Choate is Hill House because that is my dorm, the dining hall, and it’s also the place that my friend and I hang out before study hours. Hill House has an air conditioned lounge that no one knows. Therefore, it was our secret hideout and our hanging spot. Also every Saturday we held a movie night at Hill House because checks in is at 11 p. m. My favorite part about this summer is spending time with friends that I had made during the program. In the beginning I didn’t know anybody else other than the Memphis Prep scholars so I stayed with them. After the first week I start to know more people so I hang out with other people. We would go to the movie almost every Wednesday because we had nothing to do. Sometime we would go to the library to read mangas and books because some of us had to finish our summer reading list. Usually after we go to the library we would go to the candy shop down the street from the library to get ice-cream. Sometime we would skip dinner at Choate’s dining hall and have dinner at a restaurant that is next to the candy shop. The one thing that I hate the most about this summer program is saying good bye. On the last week of the program we eat dinner together at a restaurant every night or ordering Chinese food, trying to spend as much time with each other as possible. Also, on the last mall trip we would try to buy things to gift each other so that we will remember each other. On the night of the Last Dance we went the basement and talked to each other and signed each other shirts and journals. The last day of the summer program was the hardest day for me because all of my friends were leaving. We cry every time someone is leaving and we would stand there watch them leave and by the end of the day all of my tears were dried up. Attending Choate’s summer program is the best thing that had happened to me. The classes and teachers were great. The campus was big and it made me feel like I’m in college. I had made a lot of new friends that I will never forget. Choate summer program is also life changing for me because I learn how to be independent from my parents and do things on my own. It had expanded my knowledge in Anatomy and Physiology. I also learn that there are a lot of opportunities out there waiting for you to take it and you have to work hard to achieve it. The best opportunity that I had taken this year is to apply for Memphis PREP because without them I wouldn’t know about Choate Rosemary Hall or any other boarding school.

Monday, July 29, 2019

Caucasion chalk circle

The chalk circle is a symbol of truth. Within the circle, all will be revealed. In the play, Azdak cannot come to a rational decision on who should have the child. His methods of justice are not by the Book of Statutes he sits upon. By putting the women in a circle and observing them act towards the child, he can see which woman is best for it. The circle levels the playing ground, removing the advantage of money or rank or history. There are no distractions to the problem or its solution. Azdak lets justice reveal itself. Similarly, the play opens with another circle of justice, when the members of the two communes sit together to decide who should have the valley. The Expert from the Government Reconstruction Commission is like Azdak, who announces the outcome but does not push; he observes. Within this friendly circle where the communes have equal social status, they can impartially decide the best use of the valley, and it is peacefully and mutually decided for the fruit growers. This circle symbol is reinforced by the Wheel of Fortune brought up by the Singer in Scene 2. He sings about the downfall of the Governor, who was so secure in his power and assumed he would always have it. â€Å"But long is not forever. / Oh Wheel of Fortune! Hope of the people! † (p. 15). This wheel of change is always turning and fits the Marxist message of the play. The Wheel celebrates the historical dialectic where the center of power is always shifting from one group or class to another. It is the hope of the people because eventually, this turning circle of fortune produces justice, as we see in the first scene. The first scene depicts the same landscape where the medieval civil war had taken place that we observe through the rest of the play. In the present time in Scene One, however, there is a socialist society that strives for fairness to all. Looking back, the people perform their own history and see how the Wheel of Justice kept moving until the people were free of their class bondage. When the artificial constructs of society are removed that favor the few, then it is clear who deserves what. Christian Symbolism Brecht often criticizes the Christian church as a tool to support the upper classes and keep the lower classes in their places. The historical church subverts the original teaching of Christ who treated all humans with respect. Brecht uses Christianity symbolically in this play, either to criticize religion, or else to transpose Christian rites into secular ceremonies of brotherhood. For instance, critics have pointed out use of the sacraments of the Catholic Church. The sacraments are the sacred ceremonies that convey God’s grace: Baptism, Communion, Confirmation, Penance, Matrimony, Holy Orders, and Extreme Unction (Last Rites or the Anointing of the Sick). In the play the first sacrament performed is the engagement of Simon and Grusha on Easter. He gives her a cross that belonged to his mother and asks her to wait for him. It symbolizes a true marriage. Later, the sacrament of marriage is made a farce when Grusha is forced into marrying Yussup, and he crudely tells her the purpose of marriage is for her to serve him in bed and in the fields. Simon on the other hand, stands by Grusha, â€Å"for better or worse. † When Grusha flees with Michael to the mountains, she finally decides he belongs to her and performs a Baptism, saying: â€Å"Ill wash you and christen you/ With glacier water† (Scene 3, p. 39). This is not the Church’s baptism but a human bond recognized by Grusha towards the child. At Jussup’s farm in the mountains, the drunken priest represents Holy Orders, and he performs a wedding and offers to do Extreme Unction on the groom. These rites are a parody of religion, but at the same time, they ensnare Grusha into the exploitive social structure that keeps her a slave. She is blackmailed into being respectable for the sake of the child. Another sacrament is Penance, comically performed by Azdak when he rushes into town with his confession that he let the Grand Duke escape. The sacrament of the Eucharist, or Communion, happens when Azdak shares wine with Granny and the bandit, Irakli. Finally, Brecht makes the fool Azdak into a type of Christ figure. He is beaten by the soldiers and almost hung, but is â€Å"resurrected† by the Grand Duke. The Singer says, â€Å"To feed the starving people/ He broke the laws like bread/ There on the seat of Justice/ With the gallows over his head . . . a poor man judged the poor† (Scene 5, p. 80). Azdak is no saint or supernatural figure. He is humane, performing acts humans can do, and is thus both hero and example. The Garden In Scene Two, Governor Abashvili is remodeling and enlarging his palace, in honor of his newborn son, whom he wants to carry on after him. He proposes to knock down the peasant shacks on the estate to do this. Natella says, â€Å"All these miserable slum houses are to be torn down to make room for a garden† (p. 11). This will be a garden for the privileged at the expense of the poor. The slum people are of no account as humans. In fact, in Scene Six, Natella complains about their smell, as if they were animals. Ironically, this same estate is confiscated for the state in Scene Six when Azdak declares it will be given to the people and made into a playground for children. He calls it â€Å"The Garden of Azdak† (p. This is a human Eden, and the Singer speaks of it as a brief â€Å"Golden Age† (p. 96). The garden is also evoked in Scene Three as Grusha is fleeing to the mountains. She meets a carriage of aristocratic women from the south, who stay at an inn. The innkeeper describes the beauty of the land to the ladies, saying, â€Å"We’re planting fruit trees there, a few cherries† (p. 28). He shows them farther away where the land gets more stony, and that is where the shepherds have their flocks. The ladies say, â€Å"You live in a fertile region† (p. He asks what their land is like, and they say they don’t know. They have not paid attention. This scene reinforces the first scene where the fruit growers and goat herders argue over the same valley. The common people have a relationship with the land and are contrasted to the aristocratic ladies who have not paid attention to the land at all. They are just trying to get through it to someplace else. The Rosa Luxemburg Commune wins the valley in the Prologue because they will make great orchards there, a garden for everyone. Making the land into a garden is the symbol of making the land productive and the sscene of social harmony and justice, so everyone can share the fruits. When the Abashvilis try to make a garden for themselves alone, there is only war and misery. The fact that it is Easter Sunday is thus the first of the many religious themes present in the play. For example, the fact that the Fat Prince is the Governors brother brings to mind the Biblical story of Cain and Abel. Grusha goes through ten developmental steps that start in this act. Each of these steps requires that she sacrifice a part of herself to Michael. She does this financially, emotionally, in terms of her promises to Simon, and in terms of her life. The first step occurs when she gives up her money for the child, paying two piasters for milk. The second is when she decides to go back for Michael after leaving him with the peasant woman. The third is when she hits the Ironshirt over the head. Four is when she adopts Michael, the helpless girl adopted the helpless child. Five is when she is offered the chance to leave the baby with the merchant woman so that she can cross the bridge and save herself. Six is when she risks her life and Michaels life to cross the bridge. The remaining developmental steps occur in the next act. This is almost a direct comparison of Azdak to Christ. Brecht will continue this comparison in the next act, when Azdak is killed, resurrected by the Grand Duke, and finally disappears. Theme Analysis Class Warfare The Grand Duke of Grusinia (Georgia) is involved in a foreign war in Persia when the play opens, yet the action focuses on the civil war at home caused by the coup of the Princes. While the aristocratic regimes come and go during the action of the play, the common people are always regarded as less than human. They suffer no matter who is in charge. The Singer uses Governor Abashvili who is executed by his brother, the Fat Prince, as a warning to other aristocrats: â€Å"Oh blindness of the great! They walk like gods/ Great over bent backs, sure/ Of hired fists, trusting/ In their power which has already lasted so long† (Scene One, p. 15). The soldiers or â€Å"hired fists,† like the Ironshirts, change loyalties with regimes and let themselves be used by the rich to persecute the poor. Simon Chachava is an exception to this, remaining loyal to the Duke. One of the most passionate denunciations of the upper classes is by the maid Grusha in Scene Six when she denounces Azdak the Judge and the justice system itself as a servant of the rich. She complains that the wealthy â€Å"drag our men into their wars† (p. 92). Simon’s memories of the war in Scene Four reinforce her complaint as he witnessed his brothers slain around him for the sake of the Duke’s cause. Grusha tries to disguise herself as an upper class lady when she escapes, but she is found out when she knows how to make beds. The women look at her hands and know she works for a living. The servant at the inn sympathizes with her, saying, it is hard to pretend to be â€Å"a lazy useless person . . . once they suspect you can wipe your own arse . . . the game’s up† (Scene Three, p. 32). Natella Abashvili becomes the stereotyped and heartless noble lady who can only run around picking out the right dresses to pack and berating the servants while her husband is being executed and her son is abandoned. In court, Natella’s notion of motherhood has to do with station. She wants her son back so they can be restored to their estate. She only notices what the child is wearing and is shocked to see him in rags. When Azdak asks Grusha if she wouldn’t like the child to be rich, she thinks to herself it is better for him to be poor than to mistreat the poor: â€Å"Hunger he will dread/ Not those who go unfed† (Scene 6, p. 94). He will not always have to be afraid of who is going to chop off his head, as was done to his father, because of a power struggle or because he was unjust to others. Human Sympathy What is it that can heal class divisions? The play answers that human sympathy makes everyone equally valuable. Grusha does not hate Michael because he is the son of the Governor, who oppresses everyone. She is won over because he is a baby, like any other: â€Å"He looks at you like a human being† (Scene 2, p. 23). When Grusha sits with the baby all night trying to consider what to do with it, she hears it call to her as if saying: â€Å"Don’t you know woman, that she who does not listen to a cry for help/ But passes by shutting her ears, will never hear/ The gentle call of a lover† (Scene 2, p. 24). When she risks her life for the child’s, the Singer asks, â€Å"How will the merciful escape the merciless/ The bloodhounds, the trappers? Grusha does get some sympathy along the highway. A peasant woman was willing to take the child until the Ironshirts came. The servant at the inn tried to give her food. The merchants wanted to help her cross the ravine or take the child so she could go on. Her brother gives her a roof for as long as he dares and arranges a marriage for her. Yussup takes in both her and the child without asking questions. She is given partial help but she is the one who has to sacrifice her whole life for Michael. The child would not have survived but for her. She wants to tell Simon this when he comes for her but only thinks it: â€Å"I had to tear myself to pieces for what was not mine/ But alien. / Someone must be the helper† (Scene 4, p. 60). Grusha deserves to be Michael’s mother because of what she passes on to him. From her, his inheritance will not be money or rank, but wisdom: â€Å"I’ve brought him up according to my best knowledge and conscience . . . I brought up the child to be friendly with everyone. And from the beginning, I taught him to work as well as he could† (Scene 6, pp. 88, 89). She wants him to treat others humanely, and that is a priceless gift for him and the future. Azdak recognizes this humanity in Grusha, demonstrated by her unselfish letting go of the child’s arm so she won’t hurt it. Azdak himself is the other great example of human sympathy as he risks his own life for two years to help the poor. It is a great and comic juggling act he performs with great humility. In the case of Granny, for instance, who claims the stolen cow, ham, and waiving of the rent were â€Å"miracles,† Azdak fines the farmers for not believing in miracles. He sits on the floor with Granny and the bandit, treating them as equals. He calls Granny â€Å"Little Mother† or â€Å"Mother Grusinia,† seeing her as the suffering poor. The Singer says, â€Å"So, so, so, so Azdak / Makes miracles come true† (Scene 5, p. 77). Miracles are not supernatural events for Brecht, but human acts. Justice The play uses the dilemma of the child, and the debate of the communes over the valley, to ask, what is Justice? Who should get the child? Who should get the land? Azdak the fool, who is made into a Judge, works his way through to an answer. It is not an expected or a ready-made answer, for, as the Singer comments, â€Å"Truth is a black cat/ In a windowless room at midnight/ and Justice a blind bat† (Scene 5, p. Justice will never come from â€Å"willing Judges† like Prince Kazbeki’s nephew ( Scene 5, p. 75). Azdak’s antics, such as demanding bribes in the court from the rich, comments on the accepted corruption. He says, â€Å"It’s good for Justice to do it in the open† as he moves around in a caravan among the people (Scene 5, p. 75). Everything he does or says satirizes the court system. He asks Grusha, â€Å"You want justice, but do you want to pay for it? When you go to the butcher, you know you have to pay (Scene 6, p. 91). The rich are used to equating money and rank with truth, but it is their truth, not impartial Justice. Out of Azdak’s comic theater in the courtroom, he creates a crazy logic so that the people who need help get it, despite the law. â€Å"His balances were crooked,† says the Singer (Scene 6, p. 77). Grusha, not understanding Azdak’s intent, scolds him for being corrupt. She claims that what would be true justice is to choose â€Å"only bloodsuckers and men who rape children† for judges as a punishment to make them â€Å"sit in judgment over their fellow men, which is worse than swinging from the gallows† (Scene 6, p. Judging is a punishment to an unjust man who will only blacken himself with hypocrisy. This is the justice the poor are used to. Azdak’s reply to her is, â€Å"I’ve noticed that you have a weak spot for justice† (Scene 6, p. 93). After Azdak rules in Grusha’s favor, the Singer states the principle of Justice that Azdak uses: â€Å"what there is shall belong to those who are good for it, thus/ The children to the maternal . . . the valley to the waterers† (Scene 6, p. 97). The play opens and closes with true justice served. Essay Questions What is Brecht’s concept of epic theater? Because Brecht was a Marxist, he did not like the classical Aristotelian concept of theater as a drama focusing on the story of individual characters. In traditional drama, the audience has a vicarious experience through identification with certain characters that ends with an emotional catharsis. The audience leaves with its personal experience of the drama and does not think about society as a whole. Brecht’s epic theater hopes to do the opposite—it increases the scope to let the audience witness, rather than identify with, the forces of history, and thereby creates a rational reflection on social conditions. Brecht wanted a critical response that would make spectators want to change the world. Theater should be a teaching and political forum. In order to create this new theater, Brecht breaks the dramatic illusion of reality. The spectators should be reminded they are watching a constructed play (such as the play within a play in Caucasian Chalk Circle), because they should understand that all reality is a human construct, and thus can be changed. One way to break the dramatic illusion is through the â€Å"alienation† or â€Å"defamiliarization† effect. The event portrayed is made strange in different ways, such as having characters address the audience directly, or by the use of harsh lighting, by having songs comment on the action, by using camera projections and signs, by speaking the stage directions aloud, or by having a narrator on stage. Brecht also uses what he called â€Å"separation of the elements,† in which the words, music, and sets are self-contained artistic expressions, combining to produce an overlapping montage rather than a unified effect. Brecht was influenced by the subject matter and techniques of Charlie Chaplin and Soviet filmmaker, Sergei Eisenstein. He learned the techniques of avant-garde theater from his mentor, Erwin Piscator. In addition, his epic theater expressed Marxist ideals by being a theater collective rather than the work of individuals. The playwright exchanged ideas with composers, artists, singers, and actors. Brecht wrote the text with such collaborators as Elisabeth Hauptmann, Margarete Steffin, Ruth Berlau, and Emil Burri. Brecht’s techniques have influenced other writers and filmmakers such as Peter Brook, Peter Weiss, Robert Bolt, Jean-Luc Godard, Nagisa Oshima, and Lars von Trier. How does Marxism influence The Caucasian Chalk Circle? Brecht was a Marxist, and his work reflects this philosophy, formulated by Karl Heinrich Marx (1818-1883) and Friedrich Engels (1820-1895), the most famous statement of which is The Communist Manifesto (1848). Marxism is a materialist philosophy that denies any supernatural forces shaping human life. History is therefore a struggle between classes for the means of production and distribution of goods. Marx criticized capitalism as exploiting the workers, because ownership was in the hands of the few. The laborers have to sell their services to capitalists and are not given a fair share of what they themselves produce. Private ownership, Marx felt, must be abolished to create a fair society. Marx advocated revolution by the proletariat or workers against the bourgeoisie, or capitalists, to advance to the next stage of civilization in which the workers would dominate. He saw civilization evolving in stages (the historical dialectic): first, primitive or tribal communism; then slavery with an aristocracy; feudalism with peasants and lords; capitalism with bourgeosie and proletariat; socialism where private property was abolished; and finally, true communism where there would be no property and no supervising state. Inequality would be abolished for good. Exploitation is demonstrated in the play with Grusha and the other servants and peasants doing all the work, and the Governor and his wife doing nothing to contribute to society. The Marxist concept of alienation is demonstrated by the ruling classes losing their humanity or feeling of kinship with others. The Governor’s wife only sees her child as the means to get the inheritance. The ruling classes are contrasted with the common people who appear more human; the rulers seem monstrously selfish and insensitive. The military and the judges support the princes and governors. Even as the princes fight among themselves for power and create chaos with their wars, the common people suffer, and no government is better than another. According to Marxism, however, the forces of history are not static, and we hear of the revolt of the carpet weavers in Nukha in Scene Five. Their revolt is short-lived, but when Azdak becomes the Judge and rules in favor of the poor people, it predicts the time coming when the people will be victorious. What is the underlying structure of the play and what is the purpose of the prologue? Brecht uses a frame story in the prologue, where the workers of the Rosa Luxemburg Commune are putting on the Chalk Circle play. In the main drama, Brecht cobbled together two tales into one: part one sets up the chalk circle motif of the rival mothers derived from a fourteenth century Chinese play and the judgment of Solomon in the Bible (told in scenes 2-4, 6), and part two is Azdak’s story that resolves the dilemma (scenes 5-6), apparently derived from Brecht’s own imagination and folklore. There had already been a version of â€Å"The Chalk Circle† in German by Alfred Henschke (also known as Klabund) in 1925, which differed from Brecht’s by making the biological mother win the test. Brecht disliked Klabund’s sentimental tone and worked on his own revision of the story, experimenting with settings in Denmark and Germany, before choosing to set the story in medieval Georgia, with the prologue in Soviet Georgia, after World War II. At first, the frame story took place in 1934 without reference to the Nazis, but then, he moved the time of the frame story to after the war. Using Soviet Georgia as the frame in the prologue caused problems in the United States where the play was first performed in English during the Cold War. The play had to be performed without the prologue referring to the Soviet communes, leaving it as a mere retelling of the fables. Brecht felt this destroyed the play and thereafter the prologue was treated as a vital part rather than a tacked-on afterthought, as some claimed it was, to make the play more Communist. The prologue is necessary because it sets up the occasion for the telling of the chalk circle story, and Brecht wanted the setting to be a real one: â€Å"this parable-like play has got to be derived from real-life needs† (Notes by Brecht, p. 104). Brecht claimed that the fable the Singer tells the workers is not meant to be a literal parable. The two Communist collectives arguing over a piece of land solve their differences amicably without war before the play starts, and the story is a simply a celebration of their just decision. Brecht calls the prologue a â€Å"background† and the fable a â€Å"true narrative† that contains â€Å"a particular kind of wisdom† (Notes by Brecht, p. The Singer Arkadi says, â€Å"old and new wisdom mix very well† (sc. 1, p. 8). The foreground of the play (the chalk circle story) and the background of the play (the modern Soviet communes) come together to display the forces of history. The workers in present-day Soviet Georgia hear a tale about their ancestors in medieval Georgia who were exploited. The fair judging of Azdak in favor of the peasants foretells their own time of greater justice under the Soviet collective system. How are the characters of Grusha and Azdak important to the message of the play? Brecht comments on Grusha that she is a â€Å"sucker† (Notes by Brecht, p. 100) for taking on the child since it nearly costs her own life and dreams. Grusha, like the workers and peasants, only pays and pays and pays without getting anything back, for the child is not even hers. She is a â€Å"producer† who gets none of the fruits, like the proletariat. Brecht comments that Grusha does not expect justice from Azdak; she just wants â€Å"to go on producing, in other words to pay more† (p. 101). After the hearing, â€Å"She is no longer a sucker† (p. 101). Like the other poor people Azdak has helped, she gets back some of the fruits of her labor and gets back her self-respect. She is accepted by Simon, though she had to break her promise to wait for him, for the sake of the child. Their new family unit represents a constructed or just family that rejects the old prejudices and notions of ownership. The child is divorced from a mother that only wants to gain money from it and given to the woman who loves it. Grusha is divorced from the farmer who married her for his own convenience and given to a man who loves her. Simon takes on a woman and a child who are not technically â€Å"his† in the conventional sense, but he appreciates them and is the proper father and husband. This accords with the Marxist idea of economics and justice, of reassigning property and social roles to be more just and fair. It does not matter what went before or who has â€Å"owned† something in the past. On the other hand, Grusha has earned her reward. Brecht remarks that â€Å"Bit by bit, by making sacrifices, not least of herself, Grusha becomes transformed into a mother for the child† (p. 104). Like the people themselves who make sacrifices, suddenly the tide turns, as Marx predicts. Through small quantitative changes, there is a sudden qualitative change. This is the historical dialectic, the process of evolution, and the character of Azdak becomes the means for that to happen in the play. In every case he judges, there is a sudden shift from the side of the dominant landowner to the poor peasant. Azdak is the trickster figure who turns the law upside down. His Robin Hood justice is the Marxist kind that will be rendered by the sudden shift of history, illustrated by the carpet weaver’s revolution in Nukha. Brecht’s directions call for an actor who can portray â€Å"an utterly upright man† (p. 102) to play the part of Azdak. He is â€Å"a disappointed revolutionary posing as a human wreck, like Shakespeare’s wise men who act the fool† (p. 102). But, Brecht comments, â€Å"Azdak is the disappointed man who is not going to cause disappointment in others† (p. 105). He risks his life, like Grusha, to be human and to make a difference. That is the only way justice can come, Brecht insinuates. The Caucasian Chalk Circle by Bertolt Brecht Leave a reply The Caucasian Chalk Circle by Brecht uses epic theatre to bring forth an idea or meaning for the audience to consider while entertaining the audience. Epic theatre involves the use of alienation techniques to distance the viewer from the story but still concentrate on the overall meaning. The person who just views the story would likely take it as fantasy and not reach the true depth of the play. Brecht shocks the viewer by making the events and actions in the play â€Å"strange and abstract† this contrasts with dramatic plays where the audience sympathises and relates to the characters of the play. The theme throughout the play is natural justice versus class justice. The title has links to other parables and stories before it. The Chalk Circle, a Chinese play involved a legal action where the false claimant was granted custody due a bribe to claim her dead husbands estate. This however was overturned by the emperor, the guarantor of the law, in a retrial as the emperor was the father. This particular story is a whisper to the result of Grusha’s trial. The emperor is portrayed as the epitome of justice and gives a true verdict. The trial scene is also adapted from the parable of King Solomon. Solomon the paragon of justice and truth oversees the trial of two mothers, one child is dead the other alive, they seek custody of the alive child. The king asks the child to be cut in half, the real mother relinquishes her claim and thus gains custody of her rightful child. In these two whispers the law is shown to be equated with justice, however Brecht seeks to highlight that within Grusinia this is not the case and it takes a greedy Azdak who despises the upper classes to give a just Verdict. The class justice presented in the novel has close links to the Marxist view of the law, with the law serving all, but in reality it protects and secures the interests of the ruling classes. The play seeks to emphasise that within this class justice the poor can only gain justice under exceptional circumstances. Azdak as the judge and arbiter of justice has come to this position only through a matter of chances and mistakes. Firstly he harbours the Grand Duke from Shauva, then he confesses to the Ironshirts only to be made judge because the Duke escaped. Then through shear chance just before his execution the Duke redeems him and makes him judge, finally making him the arbiter of justice between Natasha Abashvilli and Grusha. This shows that the poor class can only get justice under a system of whims and extraordinary circumstances and that justice is intrinsically linked to a series of chances and not linked to the law as it should be in a feudal regime. Azdak finally decides in Grusha’s favour on the spur of the moment, the chalk circle is a real test, and it is through this test that Azdak decides the child’s fate. In order to entertain the audience, Brecht sought to keep the verdict in flux, keeping the audience in suspense as to the final outcome. Azdak although seen as the arbiter of justice between Natasha Abashvilli and Grusha is shown throughout the play as greedy and corrupt when dealing with the upper classes. The humour that Azdak displays toward the upper class is entertaining, he constantly refers to them as â€Å"arse-holes.. sows.. well-born stinkers. † This anal imagery is continued right through the novel. Azdak is so disgusted by the odours the upper classes emit that he occasionally â€Å"before passing judgement, I went out and sniffed the roses. † This helps Azdak give the verdicts he gives to the â€Å"monied classes† such as the Invalid, and the landowner. He swindles them into giving him money for a bribe then turns about and gives a contradicting verdict against the upper classes. This duplicity when passing judgement is seen by the audience but the lower classes see that for once the law is on their side. This is the final hint that Grusha will get the child, as she is good for the child and will continue to do good for the child, contrasting to Natasha Abashvilla’s intent to get the child only to keep her late husband’s estate. The singer sums up the meaning of the entire play, linking the prologue with the stories of Azdak and Grusha. â€Å"That what there is shall belong to those who are good for it, thus the children to the maternal, that they thrive; the carriages to good drivers, that they are driven well; and the valley to the waterers, that it shall bear fruit. † Brecht in the play seeks to highlight the difference between justice and the law within Grusinia. The feudal society, or Marxist society, is shown to have harder implications for the poor than the even distribution of wealth which is the main emphasis of the Marxist state. The Marxist law is not equated with justice for all rather justice for the upper classes, or class justice, where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

Sunday, July 28, 2019

The Effect of Unisex School Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words - 1

The Effect of Unisex School - Research Paper Example The researcher states that unisex school or coeducation school is therefore a simple, but yet very important question which needs to be answered. In many societies unisex education is still very common. Different societies have different reasons of it. In some societies unisex education is still in practice because of their customs and traditions, in some societies unisex education is considered a better way of imparting education while in some unisex education is offered just as an option along with coeducation. The main reason for endorsement of unisex education was to keep the students ethically decent. It was assumed that the members of the opposite sex send temptations to each other due to which it was considered to be harmful for the society. It was believed that boys and girls studying together can indulge in activities which destroy their moral. They might have a physical relationship even before they are legalized to do so. This may give rise to social problems and therefore until the mid of 20th century coeducation was not common. Many conservative societies also oppose the idea of coeducation. Conservative parents have the fear that their child, especially girls, might become a victim of their male counterparts during the age of puberty. However, time has proved that all these fears and ideas are nothing but misconceptions. In conclusion, the researcher suggests that unisex education has a lot more cons than pros. Some of them are discussed in detail in this research paper.

Communication and self-concept Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Communication and self-concept - Essay Example When I was six years old, I was so much interested in drawing and painting. This is because my elder brother was an artist and I enjoyed what he used to do. I used to see him spend countless hours in his room drawing and painting. Although my paintings did not mean so much to me at the time, I enjoyed drawing. My early interest in drawing and painting was increased by the communication in the family. My parents, relatives, and family friends would always talk of drawings and paintings that my brother used to draw and therefore, my world became centered in drawing. They gave me the direct definition by nicknaming me the baby painter. As I continued to grow, the concept of particular others came into play. I began being influenced by my peers and role models on television shows. This increased my passion for soccer. I saw myself in the eyes of favorite soccer players. I wanted to be one of the best football players and this became part of my life. I played football all through my adolescence until I reached age 17. Some of the life scripts that determined my passion for soccer changed and began working against me. Playing soccer was an acceptable and expected way of life for teenagers in my neighborhood. For example, my parents used to tell me that all work without play makes jack a dull boy. They always taught me to socialize with other people of my age through social activities such as soccer. They believed that socialization makes people to be successful in life. However as I reached age 17, the expectations of the society changed. I was expected to behave in a more mature way by performing well in academics. According to the society, people who have good academic certificates enjoy a higher social status than those without one. The theory of social comparison came into play this time. This happened at the time when I moved to U.S for my studies. I feel that I need to do good academically in order to be successful in the society. After viewing

Saturday, July 27, 2019

The Age of Discovery Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

The Age of Discovery - Essay Example Specifically, whether the phrase Age of Discovery appropriately describes this era as the most significant age of human discovery; the rampant rush to imperialistic tactics by the invading nations and the consequences including the subsequent escalating slave trade. The Age of Discovery refers to the time in history when Europeans discovered the Americas. Explorers following the ships of Christopher Columbus found, on their own planet, a new land mass inhabited by humans. Of all mankind’s explorations, this period of discovery had the most impact on the future of the world’s collective societies. It caused the questioning of Christian religious dogma which encouraged the further use of critical thought on a widespread scale thus allowing society to advance both in knowledge and in the concept of human thought (Kreis, 2002). Until it was proved differently, church officials deemed it heresy to suggest the Earth was round because the Bible refers to the ‘four corners of the world.’ In addition, if God flooded the world and only Noah’s family survived, where did these people come from? The scientific boom that began in the 1600’s and continues to this day owes much to the Age of Discovery that preceded it. T he church was no longer able to stifle scientific knowledge following the events of this era. Additionally, the economy of Portugal, then Spain, Europe, and Asia among others experienced a revival due to the increasing slave trade and the lifestyle and cultural traditions of the native people of the ‘new world’ were forever altered. The term ‘discovery’ would indeed accurately describe this ‘age’ more so than any other era in human history. Simply finding the new land mass populated by humans would itself qualify the definition (Kreis, 2002).

Friday, July 26, 2019

Research foundations in criminal justice Term Paper

Research foundations in criminal justice - Term Paper Example Research foundations in criminal justice This paper explains my developed knowledge. Stages in conducting a research are one of the developed knowledge from the course. The research process involves presentation of a research proposal for approval and implementation of the proposal to generate data that is then analyzed and results and recommendations communicated. Doing a research involves identification of a problem to be investigated that may result from social concerns or personal interests in a field and culminates to research questions, based on background information. Review of literature on the topic of interest follows, leading to accurate identification of existing knowledge gap and potential approach to bridging the gap (Sampson, 2012). A problem statement, statement of purpose, and research hypotheses are then established before development of research methodology. When the research committee approves a proposal, the methodology is implemented and data analyzed, documented, and communication done to target audie nce (Scuth, 2010; King and Wincup, 2008). Literature review informs a researcher of previous developments such as investigated and developed theories together with involved methodologies, and findings. Identified consistency in applied research method, research design and data collection instruments, for example, communicates tradition in a research topic and unless a researcher can develop alternative strategies that better suits the research, such traditional practices informs a proposed research methodology.... dology such as data collection instruments and measures for ensuring ethical studies as other researchers have applied in conducting their researchers (Acton, 2013). Research by other people also helps in development of new theories or modification of existing theories because reviewing and comparing existing knowledge allows for identification of flows in existing theories that new research initiatives can remedy (Corrigan, 2013). Review of other researchers’ findings can inform the need for codification of scattered knowledge into a theory while a review of existing theories may induce problem statements into new research that adds to the existing theories or develops new and overruling theories (Dantzker and Hunter, 2011). The role of existing research as bases for informing future study is another derived knowledge from the course concepts. In addition to directions that a researcher develops from analysis of results from previous studies, a research may recommend further research to remedy its reliability and validity concerns or effects of its confounding factors in research (Bayens and Roberson, 2010). A researcher should therefore be critical to note potential challenges in a study and communicate the challenges together with possible remedies in future research by the researcher or other researchers (Maxfield and Babbie, 2011). Deployment of theory through identification and implementation of a theoretical framework is another area of knowledge that the course concepts have covered. In addition to the role of previous research in facilitating development of research problems and guiding methodologies, theoretical frameworks offer bases for identifying variables in a study and forecasting relationships among the variables. This further informs research

Thursday, July 25, 2019

Polygamy in Egypt Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Polygamy in Egypt - Essay Example ", n. p.). This term is sometimes confusing as when the interpretation of bigamy term is done, you are not permitted to have two separate and different marriages at one time but in polygamy you can both get married to two people at the same time and have two spouses living under a single roof ("What is Polygamy?", n. p.). The antagonists of gay freedom and rights say that when same sex marriages are legitimized, this would lead to making polygamy legal. It might do that, and may be it should do it. What is the issue with polygamy then? Why is it considered illegal? The Mormons didn’t get the legal right within the state to marry multiple people. The answer to this question is short and precise but not an approving one. Polygamy is considered unprotected and illegal by Constitution as Supreme Court does not approve of it. Over a period of hundred years, in Reynolds V. U.S. the Court said that polygamy was â€Å"offence not in favor of society†. This Reynolds decision sai d that criminal certainty of any man accused of having a second wife in the faith that he has to abide by religion to do that. It is a regulation he would defy at the danger of the damnation. The Court evaluated polygamy to killings sanctified b one’s religious faith, as in the burning of wives on the funeral of their husbands or any human sacrifice (Kaminer, n. p.). In the Victorian America, the comparison between Men and women indulging in polygamy made little or no sense. Most people would either go for demise by burning rather than polygamous matrimonies. In today’s world, the Court passes the same precedence in this regard. This analogy is however as outdated as adultery ban itself. After passing this judgment, what then is the difference between a polygamist and an adulterer? Even if it is not illegal for a wedded man to have interred marital affairs with girlfriends and have illegitimate children, then how should it be illegal to have another married wife under the laws of the church? What is the practice and moral disparity between a man who has many families without endorsement of the church and a man who has many families with the consent of the church? (Aziz, n. p.). Recent data by NCSCR (National Centre for Sociological and Criminological Research) showed that in the first three years of marriage, about twenty five percent of all Egyptian men marries again and about seventy percent of these 2nd marriages suffer from divorce then. Today, in Egypt polygamy is allowed for Muslim husbands only. But, polygamy has its roots in the ancient Egypt. In the ancient Egypt, people were allowed to marry two women at the same time. At one time, two or three nuptials ceremony would take place. There have been various debates as to eliminating the polygamy in Egypt. In the ancient Egypt, even though polygamy was legal for all citizens of the society the Kings or the affluent were able to practice it the most (FENSKE, n. p.). In the ancient Egypt, poly gamy was practiced to secure more area in the African continent. The pharaohs were great practitioners of polygamy and made it lawful to apply polygamy for all men of Egypt. Polygamy assisted to build up alliances and expand

Wednesday, July 24, 2019

Evaluation of Starbucks Dilemmas Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Evaluation of Starbucks Dilemmas - Essay Example It also enhances the relationships between management, stakeholders and the society. Business ethics involves decision making process which focuses on moral awareness which leads to moral judgement or moral motivation. From prior studies, it can be evidently stated that ethical considerations provided by organisations in the post-modern era not only tends to boost its industry relations, but also tends to strengthen its existence in the market. Thus, ethical concerns by organisations play a crucial role in rewarding the company with competitive advantages in its targeted market (Shaw, 2010). Hereby, this paper will intend to provide a brief description of Starbucks, a coffee company in relation to its ethical considerations. With this concern, the paper will focus on the ethical dilemmas faced by the company and its ethical practices implemented in the recent company operations. From a rational perspective, these facts will be further analysed so as to obtain a comprehensive explanat ion business ethics related issues faced by the company based on which recommendations will also be suggested. Overview of the Company It was in the year 1971 that Starbucks was founded in Seattle, Washington. The main reason in instigating the company was the love and desire for coffee in the then American community. As days passed on, this company grew up slowly with its branded coffee and by the year 1981, it established a well equipped coffee roasting plant. It had also built four retail stores that sold the whole bean coffee in the markets around Seattle. Starbucks continued growing rapidly into the market with continuous development of retail stores and establishment of new enterprises. Within five years, the number of Starbucks’ stores grew nearly about tenfold with various locations prevailing in different countries like U.S, Japan, and Singapore among others. In the year 1998, Starbucks partnered with Conservation International (CI), which is a non-profit organisatio n and it enormously helped Starbucks to promote bio-diversity especially in the coffee-growing regions in order to support the producers of shade grown coffee. The result with this partnership has also laid impact on the positive response towards the environment and also among the farmers engaged in the initial level of the company’s supply chain. From the very beginning Starbucks made some strategy of loan guarantees that helped to provide loans to the farmers and with this financial support they enabled themselves to double their income which facilitates farmers’ motivation (Stanley, 2002). Issues or Dilemmas Facing by Starbucks One of the major and most hazardous operational issues faced by Starbucks was that it had limited control over fluctuating global prices. As a consequence, increase in the commodity prices in the global market forced the company to increase its product price. Furthermore, with an increase in its product price and simultaneously in its profit earned, Starbucks should also require taking appropriate measures for community services which can be observed as an ethical issue faced by the company. For instance, the farmers play a very crucial role in the production process of coffee in the supply chain of Starbucks. But unfortunately it was these groups of people who are observed to suffer a lot of hardships that can hamper the production process to an extent which is likely to have significant influence into the

Tuesday, July 23, 2019

Criminology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 10

Criminology - Essay Example How is it possible, for example, to justify the actions of a criminal, who killed a little child? It is absolutely impossible to let this person exist further, moreover to give him a chance to appear among other members of the society again one day. Such people should be eliminated, they should not exist, because their behavior can’t be corrected anyhow. So, death penalty is very helpful here and should be used. On the other hand modern world is trying to follow democratic principles. Notwithstanding that the majority of European countries and many states of the US cancelled death penalty, in some countries death penalty is still widely used. For example, in China it is applied every day to any kinds of crimes (Evans, 2012). Is it right? No, it is absolutely wrong because it contradicts humanistic and democratic principles. The best way is to use death penalty only sometimes for the most severe crimes. However, cases are rarely considered separately, the law is the same for everybody, and many innocent people are still in risk. Thus, the issue remains

Religion and Ethnic Diversity Paper Essay Example for Free

Religion and Ethnic Diversity Paper Essay According to Grace Communion International, people of the black churches believed much like the European Americans. They shared the belief that God’s past dealings give light of future life. The black churches tend to see America as the land of captivity rather than the promise land. The black churches shared similar beliefs to other groups but they did not always see quite the same, black churches tend to hold church into the late afternoon and felt they should try to help all members of the church with all aspects of life, other groups did not hold church for many hours. The historically black churches took it upon themselves to care for blacks, not just spiritually but physically as well because they felt they were discriminated against. The churches made it their job to try to care for the people who had no one else to care for them. Many churches offered services to blacks and whites, even though they did this the blacks were still segregated from the whites. It was standard practice for things of this nature to be done before there were churches built specifically for them, some didn’t even allow their presence. The black churches received a lot of discrimination, hatred, and prejudice from the white community. Often times they were not treated equal to white people as they should have been. I feel that reading a little bit about the black churches has given me a lot more history on it but it has not really helped me to understand the religion more than I already did. I have visited a black church and while they do not believe very different they practice their religion very differently. Black of the African decent are otherwise known as African Americans differ from many other groups based on their hair, skin tones, physical appearance, and the way they talk. Black people even have beliefs about how children should be raised and cared for. They may have similar qualities of other groups but there are many more differences. African Americans have had many, many experiences with other groups and how they differ from them and what qualities they display. Blacks are often discriminated against by many groups for the choices they make and the beliefs they practice. Blacks as a group tend to keep to their own and mind their business. Blacks originally over from Africa bring many things to the American culture such as food, clothing styles, music and much more. The African decent in foods has altered spices and more, and clothing varies by pattern and style of clothing but both have made a rather large impact. For many years in history  blacks were made to be slaves and were bought, sold and bartered for in America and even other countries. They were enslaved for a very long time until the north and south finally went to war over the matter and they gained their American right to freedom. Blacks were also segregated from whites for many years. Blacks were very heavily discriminated against by many groups but especially whites. Whites made enslaving blacks very important in their lives, while whites were the main source of slave drivers, there were also very wealthy black people who chose to have black slaves. Blacks received discrimination from many directions. I feel that I already had a very fair amount of information on blacks and the discrimination and prejudice they have received in the past and continue to receive. Blacks are often not given enough credit for all that they have to put up with, but society in my opinion has lightened up tremendously. Prejudice and discrimination in historically black churches and blacks are very similar, they were made to remain segregated for many years, and they were also discriminated against by many especially the whites, both groups revolve around blacks which make the prejudice and discrimination very similar. The prejudice and discrimination that blacks and the historically black church differ in the fact that the churches were not enslaved. There are not that many differences due to the fact that the churches are for the blacks. There are far more similarities than differences in the groups. From my personal knowledge of these two groups I can conclude that blacks are mostly discriminated against by whites, especially further back in history. Other groups discriminate against blacks and the historically black church but whites much more commonly discriminate against them and are prejudice. The more time that passes the better the circumstances become between groups.

Monday, July 22, 2019

Probability lesson plan Essay Example for Free

Probability lesson plan Essay Probability the study of chance (Mathematics-sophomore) The purpose of this lesson aid is to help each student to know the basic principle of probability and to apply it to their everyday life. Probability or the study of chance is an important branch of mathematics that can be applied in other branch of sciences like biology, chemistry and physics. Example: What is the probability of getting a black queen from a standard deck of cards? We all know that there are 52 cards in a standard deck of cards and there are only two queens in it. So, the probability of drawing a queen is 2 out of 52 or 4. 16 %. Quiz: 1. What is the probability of getting a red card in a standard deck of card? 2. What is the chance of getting a face card in a deck of card? 3. In a game of poker, what is the chance of getting a straight? 4. Given a fair die, what is the probability of getting a 7 if you to toss the die two times? 5. Given the same die, what is the chance of drawing an even number? 6. Given a pair of dice, what is the chance of drawing an odd number? 7. Given a pair of dice, what is the chance of rolling a 7? 8. What is the probability of getting a flush in a deck of cards? 9. What is the probability of getting a royal flush in a game of poker? 10. Given a tetrahedron, what is the chance of rolling a 4? Lucky 9 The material needed in this game is a standard deck of playing cards. The rule of this game is obtaining a sum of nine from the two cards that will be given to you by the dealer. If none of the player has an exact card value of nine, the player with the highest card value wins. Instruction: 1. This game is for 2-4 persons. Each player is given two cards. 2. Each player will sum up their card using their respective value. The face card has a value of ten. 3. The player may opt to get another card if he/she is not satisfied with the sum of his/her card but it can be done only once. 4. If all the players are player are already satisfied with their cards, each will reveal their cards and add them up. 5. If the player obtains an exact value of nine, that player wins. 6. If the added card value is greater than nine, only the ones digit will be taken. Example, the total card values is equal to 14 then your score is 4. 7. If none of the players got an exact added value of nine, then the player with the highest score wins. If two or more player acquires the same added value, then it is a tie. For further explanation on probability, visit: http://www. betweenwaters. com/probab/probab. html. In this site, you will play a probability game. Just play this game and you will understand the concept of probability. Reference: Lemoine, Shirley (2001). Probability: the study of chance. Retrieved August 24, 2007 from http://www. col-ed. org/cur/math/math15. txt.

Sunday, July 21, 2019

The History Of The Blues Harmonica Music Essay

The History Of The Blues Harmonica Music Essay The harmonica is a free reed instrument; this means that sound is generated as air flows past a thin strip of material and makes it vibrate producing sound. Air pressure is usually generated by breathing or blowing into a hole, cane or pipe. The air flows over one side of the reed, creating an area of low pressure and causing the reed to flex towards the opposite side. The frame enclosing the reed is built so that when it flexes it blocks the air flow, reducing the low pressure area and allowing the reed to bend back. The harmonica is known to have different names like the Gob Iron, the Tin Sandwich, the Mouth Organ but most commonly the harp, probably because of its mechanism being so similar to the Jews harp, which consists of a single reed mounted on a frame that is plucked to create a note that resonates in the players mouth. The first free reed instruments were invented in the Ancient Far East and were not known in the West until quite recently. Among these ancient instruments there is the khaen of Laos; which consists of various pipes bound together in a set of rows, very much like a pan pipe, or the shÄâ€Å"ng of China and the shÃ…Â  of Japan, which are more of a group of tubes, traditionally inserted into a hollow dried fruit like a gourd, which nowadays is made of steel. (see Illustration x) These traditional instruments have survived to modern times and are currently used in social music and courtship rituals, and the sheng is still one of the instruments used in Chinese opera. The metal free reeds system used in the khaen and sheng is thought to be the ancestor of the reeds used in harmonicas in the present. The shÄâ€Å"ng was brought to Russia at the end of the 18th century. It seems it inspired a lot of devices in the early 19th century, which was the foundation for the development of the more modern free reeds. A Czech organ builder named Franz Kirschnek fashioned a new kind of free reed to be used in organ pipes. He might have just adapted an earlier model of free reed or he actually come up with the idea completely independently. Harmonicas, as we know them today When we talk about the harmonica as we know it today, it is hard to determine exactly who the inventor was. There were no factories at the time, and it was a case of individual artisans who were trying out new ideas. At the time, many people tried to construct instruments with free reeds in Vienna, Paris, London, and America, so its not clear who might have been the first but credit does go to a young German by the name of Friedrich Buschmann, who later on was also known to invent the concertina. He was a clockmaker, and around 1816 he devised an object used as a piano tuner and called it mundaeoline, which is German means mouth harp. What can be determined is that one of the oldest artisans to make harmonicas was Christian Messner. Around the late 1820s he got one of these little harmonicas from Vienna, thought it was an interesting instrument, repaired it and awoke an interest in his colleagues, who asked him to make them one too. He saw it could become a lucrative business and became the first harmonica maker in South-West Germany. At this point it was only possible to blow into harmonicas; it was later, around 1847 when Johannes Richter added a secondary draw reed plate under the blow plate. From 1840, Messners nephew Christian Weiss decided to set up his own small company and began to work on his own designs. In 1857, another young clockmaker named Matthias Hohner bought and managed to copy one of Buschmanns creations. With this and a bit of espionage from the Weiss Harmonica Company he managed to introduce his own design. He gave the instrument a nicer look, ornamenting its cover plates and displaying his brand name. He was a talented salesman and businessman. He improved production and bought out his competitors. By the 1870s, mass production began at the Hohner Company and they started an aggressive overseas marketing campaign; the harmonica now looked very much like the ones we know today. The American civil war made the harmonica very popular in the USA. Hohner had already sent harmonicas over and the soldiers found it easy to play and carry. Within a comparatively short space of time, the Hohner Company was shipping millions of Richter Marine Band harmonicas to America every year. Around the 1900s, half of the harmonicas made in Germany were sold to the United States. In the 1920s, Hohner was making over 50 million harmonicas every year, and distributing them all over the world. From then on they have been the leading harmonica company. Up until then, harmonicas could only be played in a major scale (or natural minor), so by blowing naturally, you could not get any half steps or sharps and flats. For example, a C Major scale would be: C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C and that would be the C Diatonic harmonica. It would be like only playing the white keys on a piano. Hohner then decided to develop a chromatic harmonica that could play all 12 notes of a scale, making it a very versatile instrument which is used for music which requires a great variety of notes. It is specially used in jazz, pop and of course classical music. Although it allows the possibility to play any scale, in any key, it cant bend notes very well so the player cant really achieve a bluesy kind of sound as well as on the diatonic (bluesy sound explained further). In the Seydel Factory in Saxony, they still use the original machines that were used 130 years ago to make their harmonicas and although the parts are mass produced they must still be assembled by hand, someone at some point in the line of production must check and fine tune the harmonica manually. Special small plates and files are used to make precise adjustments to the reeds and it is a task that cannot be undertaken mechanically; every reed must be tuned by hand. The harmonica is one of the most portable instruments; it fits in any pocket or bag and is easy to carry around. There are endless stories about how harmonicas saved lives; from stopping bullets by being in the soldiers uniform in the right place at the right time, to other stories of many musicians that made a living out of playing it. It is a close and intimate instrument, and very personal as players wouldnt let other people play their harmonica (especially for hygienic reasons). Companion of isolated men, from prisoners, soldiers and shepherds to astronauts, as it was the first musical instrument in outer space. On a Gemini space flight in December 1965, astronaut Wally Schirra reported an unidentified flying object in a polar orbit, We have an object, looks like a satellite going from north to south, probably in polar orbit. Looks like he might be going to re-enter soon. You just might let me pick up that thing. I see a command module and eight smaller modules in front. The pilot of the command module is wearing a red suit and then played Jingle Bells on a four hole, eight-note Little Lady Hohner harmonica that he had managed to smuggle on board. It is an extraordinary little device, invented as a toy, considered a beautiful instrument and that has now been with us for over 150 years and will still go on for many more. How do harmonicas work? Parts and Mechanisms The harmonica was initially designed to be able to play various notes at the same time in combinations that were harmonic and made intuitive sense because they could automatically support melodious notes. By blowing and sucking the player can easily get the notes sounding right, without the need to work on getting the notes to sound clearly like on the guitar, it is a bit more like playing keys on the piano. Anyone can buy a good functional harmonica without having to spend a lot of money, and that is something you cant say about guitars or keyboards. Although usually out of the box harmonicas need a lot of fine tuning and customizing for advanced and professional playing. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦they are raw materials waiting to be formed in to a real instrument. Then again that also happens with most professional instruments. The basic mechanism is as explained in the previous section about free reed instruments. For the purpose of this analysis from now on when the harmonica is mentioned, it will be referring to the ten hole diatonic, the most commonly used harmonica for folk, rock and of course blues music. The diatonic harmonica consists of two cover plates, two reed plates and a comb (see illustration x). Cover plates cover the reed-plates and are usually made of metal. There are two types of cover plates: traditional stamped metal open designs like the Hohner Marine Band, and enclosed designs such as the Suzuki Promaster. The first are usually lighter and smaller than the enclosed ones which often are heavier but give out a louder tonal quality. The comb is the main body of the instrument. Its the central part of the harmonica and its what everything is bolted or nailed to. Its called a comb because it looks very much like a hair comb. As air goes though the harmonica, it usually carries saliva, so this inner structure must be made out of a type of material that can resist exposure to moisture and that way avoid expanding or smelling. Traditionally they are made from pear wood, although they can also be found made out of plastic or metal. There are two brass reed plates on a diatonic harmonica, each with 10 to 12 reeds riveted on to it. The reeds are shorter for the higher pitch, so the lower the note is, the longer the reed. The top plate is for the blow notes and the bottom is for the draw notes, so the reeds are facing the opposite direction. After a while reeds do go out of tune, and some notes might lose their brightness, they start to sound flat and inconsistent. That indicates the harmonica needs re-tuning. Although every hole in the harmonica can easily produce one note as the player blows air in to it, and one as he draws air, there are many more hidden notes that can be found by bending (a term used by guitarists, who actually bend the strings up or down to create a subtle change in the pitch) or overblowing. (see illustration Bendable Notes Chart) If while doing a draw note, the airflow is increased, the draw reed over-flexes and the air pressure causes the blow reed from the same hole to vibrate too, making a new note pop out, so basically you are drawing air through the blow reed. The best way to understand how air pressure is changed is by whistling and trying to change the pitch of the initial note. The changes your mouth, tongue and throat make are similar to the ones a harmonica player makes when he bends a note. Bending notes is a tough technique for beginner harmonica players and it is where the secret to getting a bluesy sound lies, because its the way to get the flat third, fifth and seventh; the blue notes. The Bluesy Sound The term the blues usually refers to melancholy and sadness and is constantly heard in lyrics to describe a depressed mood. Blues is a form of expression and a feeling that is brought to a musical form. In very technical words, the blues form is characterized by specific chord progressions also found in other genres like folk, jazz, and rock and roll. The twelve-bar blues chord progression is one of the most common, although there are others like the eight-bar, used in songs like Key to the highway, originally by Big Bill Broonzy, or the sixteen-bar as in Ray Charles Sweet 16 Bars or in Herby Hancocks Watermelon Man. The basic twelve-bar framework blues progression has a distinctive form in phrase and chord structure and duration. The structure is based on the Tonic, Subdominant and Dominant chords of the key. For example: A blues song in the key of C would have the following structure: Take the Tonic Subdominant Dominant chords and play them in the following order: T T T T | S S T T | D S T T So the chords for a blues tune in the key of C would be C, F and G and they would be played in the following order: C C C C | F F C C | G F C C Fitting the lyrics in this structure makes them sing very much like poetry sound when it is read out loud. The structure consists on an AAB pattern, consisting of a line being sung over the first four bars, in repetitions over the next four bars, and a longer finishing line over the last four bars. Using Robert Johnsons Sweet Home Chicago as a standard twelve bar Blues example for analysis, we find the following pattern: Bar 1 Bar 2 Bar 3 Bar 4 A Come on, Baby dont you want to go Bar 5 Bar 6 Bar 7 Bar 8 A I said, come on, Baby dont you want to go Bar 9 Bar 10 Bar 11 Bar 12 B To that same old place Sweet home Chicago This progression of chords is the basis of thousands other rock and pop songs that often have a blue sound even without using the traditional twelve-bar arrangement. The harmonica player has to be very aware of what key and chord the song is in, because he has to fit in that progression or the notes he plays would not sound right. He then also has to know very well when and where to fit in the blue notes that, for expressive reasons are played flattened or gradually bent (minor 3rd to major 3rd, explained further along) in relation to the pitch of the major scale. After all, the blues is a feeling and although it can be analysed technically as any other musical genre, to play it right it has to be felt. Like Muddy Watters puts it when youve got no bread and your love sick youve got the blues. And although people cant even begin to imagine slavery, working in the cotton fields, or being racially discriminated like it was in those days, they can still feel the romanticism of that feeling in a sense of a Im with them! support. The blues is not all just about playing the twelve-bar, like Mick Abrahams from Fleetwood Mac says in the documentary Blues Britannia Can Blue Men Sing the Whites, If you can play one note in the twelve-bar solo and make somebody cry or laugh, or all the lovely emotions that are associated with music, thats truly to me the blues its almost a prayer Nonetheless some blues artists also used the blues as a base for more comical, raunchy lyrics, such as Big Joe Turners Rebecca (Rebecca, Rebecca, get you big legs off me, Rebecca, Rebecca, get you big legs off me. It may be sending you baby, but its worrying the hell out of me) or Tampa Reds Tight Like That (There was a little black rooster met a little brown hen, made a date at the barn about a half past ten). What got the Harmonica in to blues? The main thing that got the harmonica into the blues was its inexpensivenessà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ which now is a thing of the past as Paul Jones lead singer and harmonica player for Manfred Mann, says in the documentary Tin Sandwich Anyone?, and it is because at the time they were an affordable instrument that the African Americans managed to popularise by introducing it to the blues. Little Walter was quoted saying When I started to play harmonicas, they were a dime! Now theyre a dollar and a half! Those people ought to remember who popularised them that way! The first harmonica recordings made around 1924 by many unknown musicians totally revolutionised the way the instrument was played, and gave way to the blues harmonica as we know it. The harmonica allowed for some very visceral, meaningful sounds that almost felt like wails of pain and sorrow. They almost felt like an extension from the voice and were definitely very expressive and profound close intimate instruments. It was amazing how such a small simple instrument was able to communicate so many things and create so many different effects. Harmonica players at the time discovered that it was possible to lower the pitch of some of the notes by changing the shape of the air space inside his mouth whilst playing: Bending. They also found that drawing instead of blowing, and not playing in the key of the harmonica, but in the key of the dominant 7th chord, they could create sounds that had nothing to do with the major-key folk for which the harmonica was originally intended: the Cross Harp. Train imitations and fox-chases, or many of the typical blues licks, would have been unimaginable without these two features. Bending is probably the first way the player starts hearing a bluesy sound coming from this little instrument. Bends are essential for blues and rock harmonica sound, due to the sad and soulful sound the instrument can draw out. That wailing and howling of the blues harmonica is achieved by bending. Playing the harmonica in the same key as the song is in would mean the player is in the first position or strait. He would be mostly using blow notes and it is the way he would get a melody, or more of a folk sound. The cross harp, or second position, consists on taking the harmonica in a different key from the song (being in the circle of fifths) and mostly playing draw notes. For example: Accompanying a guitarist playing a song in A, the harmonica player could play an A harmonica in first position, or a D harmonica in the second position. Both would fit in but the D harmonica would make it sound more bluesy than the A harmonica. The way the cross harp works is that there are only so many scales one can do on each harmonica. On a piano or a guitar all scales can be played from all keys on the same instrument, but on the harmonica the player has to change keys. This way draw notes can be played easier and so can the blue notes. Usually beginner harmonicas come with a cross harp chart in the box (see illustration. x), where you can see what key you have to be on to sound bluesy or melodic. Many other techniques can be also used in combination. Vibrato, commonly used with other instruments, can also be done on the harmonica. Vibrato, as the name indicates, gives the notes a vibrating sound. Usually it is made by contracting the muscles on the throat and varying the airflow. Another typical way to do it is by opening a closing your hands around the instrument freeing more or less air. Vibrato is a very common effect used by singers and other instruments. Thanks to the way the harmonica is constructed, it also allows the player to play chords. A chord is a set of two or more notes played together harmonically. By stretching the mouth over two, three or four holes and playing them together as one melodic note you can get chords on the harmonica. By playing chords the player can also get a vamping effect, which is achieved by alternating chords and single notes to accompany himself while playing a song. The idea of vamping is to fill in the silences in the melody with chords in the right beat. By keeping that beat going, the player can make it sound like two harmonicas are playing; one doing the chords and another one doing the melody. Little Walter and Sonny Terry were both known for great vamping in their tunes. Usually their sound was very rich and full and the harmonica sounded more powerful. The Blues Harmonica Blues Origins and Background The blues goes back to the 17th century, in the United States. Blues is defined as the folk genre for the African-American population, mainly the Deep South, which originated from their spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads. At the time united states were a British colony that brought slaves from Africa who populated most of the south of the country. They worked on the tobacco, cotton and rice plantations and were not allowed to practice their cultures and religions. The first bluesmen were people that used to sing about how their life was to try and relieve the pain. In a way they were trying to send messages that travelled from plantation to plantation, to show what being a slave was. Blues became, for the African-Americans, a form of expression and a way to tell their stories. It was emotionally deep, straight to the point and full of meaning. John Mayall, from the Blues Breakers says the main charm about the blues is that it has such an authenticity about in the fact that when you listen to it you hear these stories, and visualize that these are real stories. And often they were, as narrative of the lyrics was usually about the cruelty of police offices, oppression at the hands of white people and hard times. For example, in Blind Lemon Jeffersons Rising High Water Blues, he tells the story of the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 where he lost his girlfriend: Black water rising, Southern people cant make no time, Black water rising, Southern people cant make no time, And I cant get no hearing from that Memphis girl of mine After the war, lyrics became simpler and focused almost entirely on relationship despairs or sexual worries. Themes that recurrently appeared in pre-war blues such as economic depression, farming, gambling, magic, the devil, fires and floods were less common in post-war blues. Other lyrics by artist like Skip James, Reverend Gary Davis or Blind Willie Johnson were also artist recognized by more religious or spiritual performances, highly influenced by the Christian conversions. 1920s, First Harmonica Recordings As for the harmonica, Pete Hampton was probably the first African-American harmonica player to be recorded. Despite a productive recording career in the early 1900s with songs like Nigger Blues, he only seemed to have used the harmonica for one particular song titled Mouth Organ Coon, where the harmonica probably adopted the term Mouth Organ. He already used many effects including vocalising through the harmonica, the use of fox chase and train-like rhythm arrangements and simultaneous whistling. Hampton used an F diatonic harmonica and he played it in first position. Soon after that, Henry Whitter was the first to record in the cross harp position. Even though he was a white musician, he had adopted a remarkable African-American influence on his harmonica playing. He claimed to have made test recordings in March 1923 and recorded the final tracks around December 1923 in New York City, recording the first three harmonica solos. The tunes appear to be in the key of A, and Whitter played in the second position on a D harmonica. He also had a train imitation, this one played in first position in what looked like a key of B although it might have originally been played on a C harp, an slowed down at some point. Another early country music star was DeFord Bailey who became the first African American performer on the Grand Ole Opry, which was a weekly country music stage concert in Nashville, Tennessee that presented different artists from the genre from 1925. Bailey could play various instruments but he was best known for playing the harmonica and he played every Saturday night for 15 years, after he had to leave because of a dispute with management. He developed the fox-hunt and train techniques and he used a custom made megaphone to amplify the sound from his harmonica. At the time, music was totally acoustic and the harmonica could be played comfortably and heard perfectly while accompanying a guitar and a singer. Some players used a class or a jug to funnel the sound and gain a bit more amplification like DeFord Baileys custom megaphone. (See Pic XfunnelX) By then, the harmonica had proved to be an interesting new instrument full of different sounds and effects, radically departing from the manufactures intentions of a toy. 1930s, Lomax and the re-discovery The Emancipation Act of 1863, between 1870 and 1900, which freed the Black communities from slavery and had permitted them to build up the so called juke joints as places where Blacks could go to listen to some music, dance or have a gamble after a days work. Performances where held in places like the Cotton Club in Harlem, New York or many bars along the famous Beale Street in Memphis. This style was known as the Delta Blues, which consisted on traditional, rural country blues performed acoustically in more of a polished city urban style, also introducing new sounds like the bottle neck slide guitar and the floorboard stomping. By the end of the twenties, Vaudeville and tent-show singers, circus artists, boogie-woogie pianists, jug and jazz bands were to be heard at some point playing some form of the blues. Blues was becoming a vehicle for some people to earn a living by playing and entertaining the audiences. It was exclusively race music and the majority of white people didnt really know what it was or nor have the interest to listen to it. Outside the phonograph stores, black people would stand in line anxious to obtain the latest blues disc and by now there was already a reasonably large archive of blues music given by artists like Lead Belly, Henry Thomas and Big Walter Horton. Many harmonica players were recording in duos with guitarists like Hammie Nixon and Sleepy John Estes, or trios like Sonny Terry, Blind Boy Fuller and Bull City Red. Around the 1930s, John Lomax, pioneering musicologist and folklorist, together with his son Alan Lomax made a great number of non-commercial recordings for the Archive of American Folk songs. They went around the south of the United States with a mobile recording device, capturing many root songs, field hollers and ring shouts. This contributed in a great way to the blues because they managed to capture, catalogue and generate an archive of traditional and rural sounds. The instruments flexibility also captured the attention of classical music during this decade. Although some conservative musicians didnt approve of it and degraded it by considering it a toy, young Larry Adler managed to perform a minuet by Beethoven and later on had works written for the instrument by the composers like Ralph Vaughan Williams, Darius Milhaud, Malcolm Arnold and Arthur Benjamin. 1940s, Pre-war and Post-war Blues During the war, the United States experienced a shortage of harmonicas mainly because materials like wood and metal that were used to make harmonicas were in short supply due to military demand. Another problem was that Germany and Japan were the primary manufacturers of harmonicas and of course where the Axis powers opposed to the United States and the allied forces. Companies like Finn Harkon Magnus, developed a molded plastic harmonica that used plastic combs and far fewer pieces than traditional metal or wood harmonicas, which in a way made the harmonica more hygienic and far more efficient to mass produce. The sound from these harmonicas was inferior to the traditional ones but their inexpensiveness made them become a common toy among children. Between the late 30s and the 40s, many African-Americans were starting to migrate to other states further north in hope to find more acceptable working conditions. Many musicians based in Memphis moved to big cities like Chicago and New York encouraged by their music and the idea of making a living from entertainment. It was the beginning of what would later be called the Chicago Electric Blues. 1950s Chess Records and the Chicago Blues The 50s were the beginning of an era of high quality harmonica players. For instance Sonny Boy Williamson II, is one of the most important harmonica players of this era. The blues gradually began to use more electric amplification for the guitar, double bass, and vocals. Using a full blues band, as he usually played backed by a piano or a guitar, a bass and a drummer, Sonny Boy became a popular act in the South with his daily broadcasts when he was hired to play the King Biscuit Time show, advertising the King Biscuit brand of baking flour on the radio. Sonny Boy Williamson II also helped popularize the cross-harp technique and his way of playing which was very expressive, very sensual and very technical. Another key factor to this new era of blues harmonica was the Chess brothers. Leonard and Philip Chess were two Jewish immigrants from Poland who came to Chicago in 1928. They owned some bars on the south side of Chicago, their largest establishment being a nightclub called the Macomba. The Macomba had live performances and many of those were blues entertainers that had migrated to Chicago from the Mississippi delta during the late 30s and 40s. The Chess brothers realized that these artists were not being properly represented or recorded, so they decided to start recording them themselves. They entered into a partnership with Charles and Evelyn Aron in Aristocrat Records who had just opened Aristocrat Records to record blues, jazz and rhythm blues. The most important artist they recorded was McKinley Morganfield, who went by the name of Muddy Waters. He had come from Mississippi to Chicago a few years before and had been working on his own until he met the Chess brothers. His first records where of himself accompanied by a guitar or a piano. His deep raw singing style reflected the spirit of the blues and was quite unique. The Chess brothers were able to build Muddy Waters into Chicagos leading blues singer through their connections with radio stations and local clubs. In late 1949, Leonard and Phil Chess became the sole owners of Aristocrat Records and reorganized the company changing its name to Chess Records. Historically, the music business had always been dominated by a few major record labels which were Columbia, Victor, Decca, Capitol, Mercury, and MGM. These major labels had paid some attention to the blues and other root genres but had always placed the artists on secondary labels that were focused toward the race audience. Chess Records grew in those early days of both rhythm and blues and along with other independent record companies like Atlantic, Aladdin, Specialty, Imperial, Modern and King were giving the public music that they could not get from the established major record companies. Other young Mississippi bluesmen that were drawn to Chicago joined Muddy Waters band. One of the most brilliant musicians to play with Muddy was Little Walter Jacobs, whose outstanding harmonica made the band even better. The young harmonicist revolutionized the instrument by playing the harmonica through a microphone, typically a Bullet microphone sold for use by radio taxi dispatchers. He cupped in his hands around it with the harmonica, and tightened the air around the harp. It gave the instrument a punchy, mid-range, powerful, distorted sound that could be heard as loud as an electric guitar. MUCH MORE ABOUT LITTE WALTER His style, is amps and effects, his solo career. In 1952, Chess formed a subsidiary label called Checker where Little Walter recorded some of his own work. His first release was an instrumental piece called Juke which topped the Rhythm and Blues charts for eight weeks. He was able to top the charts again in 1955 with the song My Babe. A young record producer in Memphis Tennessee named Sam Phillips was recording a 300 pound farm worker named Chester Burnette, who became known as the Howlin Wolf. At the time, Phillips, who later established Sun Re

Saturday, July 20, 2019

Anthrax :: viruses, diseases,vaccines

A minor scratch or abrasion, usually on an exposed area of the face or neck or arms, is infected by spores from the soil or a contaminated animal or carcass. The spores germinate, vegetative cells multiply, and a characteristic gelatinous edema develops at the site. This develops into papule within 12-36 hours after infection. The papule changes rapidly to a vesicle, then a pustule, and finally into a necrotic ulcer from Unlike chemical agents like Cyanide which disperse over time, Anthrax [spores] can survive in soil, water and elsewhere for as long as 40 years and is highly resistant to eradication. They can only be killed by steam sterilization or burning, but not by disinfectants. An infection of wild stock populations could follow a biological attack with spores. The infected animals could then pass on the disease to people. An Anthrax Vaccine does exist and it is at present produced under contract to the Department of Defense. The immunization consists of three injections given two weeks apart followed by three additional shots given at 6, 12, and 18 months. Annual booster injections of the vaccine are required to maintain a protective level of immunity. This particular method is effective when dealing with Anthrax contacted through the skin and is believed to be effective against inhaled spores in the case of a biological warfare attack. For those unvaccinated individuals, antibiotics like penicillin is known to lessen the severity of the illness, two million units every two hours administered intervenously It was formerly thought that inhaled spores are 100% fatal despite treatment but monkeys exposed to Anthrax spores have responded successfully to antibiotics, implying that antibiotic therapy may be useful in a biological warfare setting.

Education Roles Essay -- Education Educate Papers

Education Roles Emerging from an extended period of ideological hostility between stubbornly-defined cold war blocs, we enter an era of strident nationalism and ethnic conflict. We observe conflicts of ethnic differences and historic disagreements, now fueled by the frustration of failed economic systems and faltering political regimes. Feelings of unity often arise out of a sense of shared experiences and common goals. In Canada, however, and in many other countries, people have been driven apart by geographic, racial, ethnic, linguistic, cultural and legal circumstances. As the widespread trend toward state division and republic formation continues, we must come to ask ourselves what can hold diverse people together. Primary and secondary school education-and specifically, the content and the form of national histories that are taught in classrooms around the world-provides a unique venue for the study of the development of nationalism. It may be the primary forum in which people construct, think about and interpret stories about themselves and their past, present and future. Through the Canadian experience, nationalism can be seen outside a context of war and deprivation. Yet as Michael Ignatieff-British resident and son of a Russian-born Canadian diplomat-writes of Canada, "Here we have one of the five richest nations on earth, a country so uniquely blessed with space and opportunity that the world's poor are beating at the door to get in, and it is tearing itself apart." Especially in the aftermath of an emotionally intense and statistically close referendum on Quà ©bec sovereignty in October 1995, Canada too must examine the possibilities for national unity. As I have thought about these possibilities, I have ... ...mmunity-active approaches to education, I am trying to understand the teacher's role and the role of education in general in individual development. Through current and further academic studies, I am attempting to understand the role of education in the social, economic, cultural and political development of the nation-state. The opportunity to study abroad for a year under a Rotary Scholarship would allow me to gain a greater understanding of the possible outcomes of various experiements in education attempted in another country as govenments, teachers, students and other citizens respond to social, economic and political conditions. The process and the aftermath of this experience would challenge me to explore the possibilities for creating and forwarding honest national histories-both abroad and in Canada-within which each individual's voice might be articulated.

Friday, July 19, 2019

Dionysius I of Syracuse Essay -- History, Dionysius

Dionysius I of Syracuse garnered a reputation as a warmongering tyrant who harmed his people with his oppressive regime. However many surviving sources that explore his rule were written by people who were ideologically opposed to perceived tyrants. It is therefore quite possible that aspects of Dionysius rule where left out or exaggerated to suit the author`s anti-tyrannical agenda. It is the intention of this paper to argue that Dionysius rule did in fact benefit Syracuse more than he harmed it during his lifetime. His domestic and foreign affairs will be explored in order to show how he in fact benefitted the Syracusan state as well as the majority of its people. It will however also be argued that his legacy did harm the Syracusan state but that overall Dionysius rule was beneficial in his lifetime. Sources tend to portray Dionysius rule in a negative light and seemingly avoid the latter part of his reign. L. Pearson suggested that the reason for this was because Philistus was in exile at the time (since many sources rely on him for a firsthand account) meaning there was a lack of information. Diodorus provides the most compressive surviving work of Dionysius rule but follows the anti-tyrannical tradition. According to Diodorus, Dionysius came to power by discrediting the military leaders` in order to have him appointed general with supreme power by the assembly (Diodorus 13.91-2, 95). Dionysius was now able to do whatever was necessary to win the war giving him virtually limitless power over the state. He also convinced the assembly to recall Syracusan who were in exile to help aid in the war, providing Dionysius with plenty of new supporters among the returning people (Diodorus 13.92). He then gained a bodyguard o... ...le benefited from his rule. The rulers building projects and preparations for war created many jobs that would last a number of years. Stabile employment was found by many people and projects such as the fortified wall saved them from a Carthaginian siege. Dionysius large army helped to protect the state as well as expand its influence in both Sicily and Italy. As time went on the oppressive aspects of Dionysius reign ebbed away as he sought to improve his image in order to gain powerful allies. This eventually bore fruit meaning Dionysus was able to elevate Syracuse to an international level. However his legacy was harmful to Syracuse as it led to the suffering of its people and the weakening of the state. During his life time however Dionysius did benefit Syracuse became it was ultimately left it in a better position than it was before he came to power.