Information about the KU Writing and Math Centers Essay Example for Free

Information about the KU Writing and Math Centers Essay Thank you for your letter asking me about studying at Kaplan University. This is very nice place and students feel here very comfortable and confident as they have plenty of possibilities to learn as many new skills as they may want and have time for. To make life of its students a little simpler, the University has established two Centers, which offer a large variety of services. That is why I am writing to you to give all necessary information about the system of student assistance at Kaplan University. The University two Centers are always ready to provide the students with any relevant assistance. There is the Kaplan University Writing Center and the Kaplan University Math Center which are both very helpful during the study. For example, you are working on any writing task like research, survey or just essay you may find it useful to attend Writing Center. This Center purpose is to help students develop their writing skills and technique. The Center staff has developed particular guidance sections outlining basic steps of working on writing task. There are four sections for those who are looking for grammar help or advice on more advanced level of idea generation. The section with the APA writing style guidance is there to help students make their work have a decent scientific style and be free of plagiarism. All these guidance sections are in PDF file format and can be downloaded or printed as often as you need. Writing Center may also give a feedback to your written work. For that you will have to submit your paper by clicking a yellow notepad icon. Once your paper is reviewed, which usually takes about 2 days, you receive an e-mail message and may get the reviewed paper by downloading it from the submission page. In case you are toiling at some math problems and need somebody to give you essential hints or just want to train your knowledge University Math Center is there to help you. As well as Writing Center, Math Center provides with the wide range of information starting from elementary math operations to the complicated equations solving. You can get not only information on certain math problems but also train you solving skills and check your progress either in a particular area or on the whole module. There are specific mathematics modules dealing with particular math operations, so you can work on them one by one or choose any in which you prefer to improve you knowledge. It has to be pointed out that the Centers have the option of communication with a tutor. Thus, Writing Center has a live-chat option where you can meet your tutor and ask him/her any questions related to your written work. However, you won’t have to ask about spelling or grammar issues, while the purpose of such instruction session is to give you more essential help and make your writing skills more advanced and efficient so that you can use them in your further study. Such live sessions are available for 15 hours per week from Monday to Wednesday in the evenings (6 pm -11 pm ET). Math Center Tutor is available also in the evenings from 8 pm to 11 pm on the same days plus Thursday. Just same as writing instructors math tutor will not solve or check your problems or equations; he/she will try to make you comprehend modules concepts and acquire necessary solving skills. I must admit that both University Centers are extremely helpful for those who want to be a better student. The principle of their assistance service is not to do the work for you but to teach you essential techniques and fundamental skills, basing on which one can make progress in study and achieve successful results. Their aim is your clear understanding of the learning material and ability of self-sufficient work. Unfortunately, I have not been for a long time here, and I have not had a chance to use any of these centers yet. However, the time when I’ll have to write my research is approaching and I plan to visit Writing Center soon. What I hope to get there is the information of what are the effective ways of collecting information, thesis formulation, arguments development and other essential points to write an outstanding paper. I am sure center instructors will be of indispensable assistance to me as I am a freshman and I’d advice this service to all my mates. I hope you will find this information useful and in case you need more information, please feel free to contact me. Sincerely, Full Name (insert your full name here) Class and Section Number (insert your class and section number here)

What Is Policy Implementation Politics Essay

What Is Policy Implementation Politics Essay Formatting and implementing policies are different issues in theoretical and practical terms. The implementation might be a complicated process because it concern with political, financial and administrative issues, and it requires motivation, proper lobbying, and technical, professional and administrative support. Policies are written statements of ideas, goals and plans of action, proposed or adopted by some agencies Menou (1991, p.50) Public policymaking is often viewed as a conveyor belt which issues are first recognize as a problem, alternative courses of action are considered, and policies are adopted, implemented by agency personnel, evaluated, changed and finally on the basis of their success. Briefly all this process or activities that occur in public policymaking are the stages of policy cycle which illustrate the life of each policy. Starting from setting the agenda until evaluating the policy than edit it or terminate it by giving an alternative policy which will replace it and pass all the process, each policy must overtake this process that is called policy life cycle. 1. What is policy implementation? 1.1Definition: As a general concept policy implementation can be defined as the third stage of policy cycle its means the stage of the policy process immediately after the passage of a law, or the action that will be taken to put the law into effect or that the problem will be solved. Implementation, viewed most broadly means administration of the law in which various actors, organization, procedures, and techniques work together to put adopted policies into effect in an effort to attain policy or program goals Implementation can be also defined in terms of outputs, or the extent to which programmatic goals are supported or perused, like the level of expenditures that committed to the programs. 1.2 policy cycle : it is a framework that can help to understand better the policy implementation as a stage correlative to other stages. Policy cycle Agenda setting : (Stage 1) we mean by agenda setting the list of problems or issues that government officials or organization are paying serious attention and giving time and considering as a public agenda at the at the public meeting or legislature, in other word it is the set of issues that government decide to take action against. Policy formulation:(stage 2) the passage of legislation designed to remedy past problem or prevent future potential problem, it can be inducements, rules, facts, rights or powers, and typically it is the legislature task Policy implementation:(stage 3) it might consider as the most important part of policy cycle, it means what happen after a bill become a law( Eugene bardach MIT press 1977) or the actions that will be taken to put the law into impact or the problem will be solved by following a set of process to translate the law into actions that ensure the achievement of the legislation. Policy evaluation: (stage 4) considering the results of policy that have been implemented or measuring the actual effects of legislation on the particular problem or to what extent policies achieve its intended results, and thats will be possible by looking for the consequences of the implementation of this policies and learn from it. Policy change or termination: (stage 5) by redesign some policy to become a new policy after evaluates it(Paul Sabatier 1980), or ending outdated policies or programs are found to be unworkable. This stage is the end point of policy cycle that why it can means the policy redirection, project elimination or partial elimination 2. Who implement policy? Typically, the administrative agencies are the primary actors in public policy implementation. However, there are other factors and institutions are also involved in the process such as legislatures, political executive, and the courts. And this is because of the difficulty or the complication of the implementation of policy. 2.1 The bureaucracy: after a law is formulated by the legislature than singed by the executive (president or other chief executives) the next step is for the various administrative agencies to begin the process of implementation, these agencies should carry out the policies under jurisdiction, and those who participate in the legislative process are usually unable or unwilling to develop precise guidelines also because of the complexity, lack of time, interest, or the information of the issue that is under consideration. 2.2 the legislature: typically politics concern with the formulation of policy, which should be handled with the political branches of government, but this traditional view have been changed today because the legislative bodies has become concern with the implementation by drafting a very specific laws which concern with the details and attempt to remove a lot of bureaucratic discretion, and this practice has become a necessity because a lot of failing of policy implementation coming from the problems were not addressed in the original drafting. On the other hand administrative agencies involve in the formulation of policies when they draft regulation in support of existing legislation that typically consider as a legislature task. 2.3 political executives: when presidents, governors, and other chief executives usually find themselves competing with the other political factors to influence administrators by using many tools such as executive order to set policy or the appointment of most heads of executive departments who bring their values, beliefs, and resources to their decisions and action. Whereas the executive effort at control are limited but the indication show that president and governors are generally successful in directing the actions of their subordinates (Marissa Golden, what motivates bureaucrats). 3.4 The courts: also can be involved in policy implementation or influence it when they play the role of interpretation of statutes and administrative rules and regulation and their review of administrative decisions in cases brought before them, it might be the most important influence on the implementation of policies and sometimes the courts go so far to take over the management of programs on behalf of the individuals who substantive and due process right have been violated. Recently, many of supreme courts recognize the need of administrative discretion and flexibility in some kinds of due process ruling, but they still retain jurisdiction over the actions of federal and state agencies. However, there are other factors may influence policy implementation such as community organization which could take a part the implementation of policy or programs especially at the local level. Another actor may involve in the implementation of policy who is pressure groups who always try to seeking to influence the guideline and regulation in the way that will benefit their cause. 4. Policy implementation approaches: There are two main approaches could help to understand better how policy implementation precedes the top-down approaches and the bottom-up approaches 4.1 The top down approaches: where the state policy implementation is influenced by federal level factors such as the clearness of law or regulations that federal government sends to the state Or the amount of resources that the federal government provides to the state which is crucial to the successful implementation of policies, and thats depend to the resources of the state or the local government some states are more independent on federal governmental aid than others. All this variables are very important to determine the success or the failure of any state implementation efforts. Top-down followers argue that policy designers are the main actors and focus their attention and concentration on the factors which might be manipulated at the national level. However there are so many attempts to develop top-down models of policy implementation one of them is Sabatier and mazmanian model. The top -down approach start by assuming that the decision -making is more taken by central government and it ask the next questions: To what extent the action of implementing officials and target groups consistent with that policy decision? What are the principal factors affecting the policy outputs and impacts, relevant to the official policy and politically significant? How was the policy formulated over time on the basis of experience? To what extent were the objectives attained over time or to what extent were the objectives consistent with the impacts? Nonstatutory variables affecting implementation Socioeconomic conditions and technology Media attention to the problem Public support Attitude and resources of constituency groups Support from sovereigns Commitment and leadership skill of implementing officials Ability of statue to structure implementation 1. Clear and consistent objectives 2. Incorporation of adequate causal theory 3. Financial resources 4. Hierarchal integration in implement institutions 5. Decision rules of implementing agencies 6 .formal access by outsider Stage (depend variables) in the implementation process Policy outputs of compliance with policy actual impacts of perceived impacts major revision Implemnt agency Outputs by target group policy outputs of policy outputs in statute Tractability of the problem 1-Availability of technical theory and technology 2-diversity of target-group behavior 3-extent of behavioral change required Figure 1-Skeletal flow diagram of the variables involved in the implementation process (mazmanian and Sabatier effective policy implementation p-7) These models identify 16 independent variable among three main categories: The tractability of the problem. The ability of the statute to structure implementation. Nonstatutory variables affecting implementation. But this model has been criticized because of the failing to illustrate which is the variables were likely to be more important, and also because of the assumption of the farmers of policy decision are the key actors. 4.2 The bottom-up approaches: there are some bottom-up factors which may affect success or failure of in implementation such as the state capacities (available resources and stuff) and the disposition of state some policies could be easily implemented than other according to attitude of state. For instance the liberalness or the conservativeness of the state political environment will affect how easily a policy is implemented. A welfare policy could be easier to implement in more liberal state rather than more conservative state. Contrary a conservative policy could be easier to implement in more conservative state rather than liberal one. Another factor may affect the implementation of policies which is the varying between states in terms of their capability to implement the federal policies for instance the number of staff that needed to implement some federal policies make a greatly different between various states. Also the amount of resources that each state allocate it to implement federal policies can make a various different in policy implementation from state to state, meaning that state which have more resources is much more likely to implement policy than other states with a few or less fiscal resources. Unlike the top-down model, the bottom-up approach of policy implementation stare by identifying the factors which involve in the service delivery in the local areas and asking about the goals, strategies, activities and also contacts, than try to develop a network technique to identify local, regional and national actors which involve in the policy implementation. This approach argues that the policies are determined by the bargaining between number of organization and their clients rather than being controlled by the central decision making. Also this approach have been received a number of criticisms for the assumption that policy implementation should occurs in a decentralization decision-making environment. Bottom-up approach was somewhat flowed by a rather limited explanation of implementation behavior as both a desirable from the implementation and the only analytical approach for complex organizational and political problem. Policy implementation tasks: It refers to the necessity of getting new way to implement policies, or what managers should do to avoid the negative aspects and complexity of implementation process. This framework divides the process of implement policies into six nearly successive tasks, these machinery will present with examples of how they emerge in apply: 4-1 Legitimation (Task 1) Legitimation means getting buy-in reform the appropriate people in the country to push the reform process forward. Furthermore Legitimation, or getting the policy accepted as important, desirable, and worth achieving, is especially critical for policies that are part of a donor assistance package, which risks being seen as externally imposed. This may result the policy champion or the group of manager and subordinate how might believe in this policy and seek to implement it well. Example provides help or assistance to concern with the negative aspect of corruption. 4-2 Constituency-building (Task2) Constituency-building, or gaining active support from groups that see the proposed reform as desirable or beneficial, needs to translate into commitment to act toward achieving the policy objectives. Â  So the task is pushing group to commit the reform by giving their best effort and resources to make it achieve. So many tools can be used to fulfill this task such as inviting public and private actors to workshops to discuss issues that relevant to each sector, and try to resolve the points which are not consensus, and try to draft the policies. 4-3 Resource Accumulation (Task 3( Resource accumulation means ensuring that present and future budgets and human resource allocations are sufficient to support policy implementation requirements, this task to secure the resources of the policy implementation process ,organization have different ways to accomplish this task by negotiate with the ministries about the budget allocated, or find a new resources allocation. 4-4 Organizational Design/Structure (Task 4( Organizational design/structure involves adjusting the objectives, procedures, systems, and structures of the agencies responsible for policy implementation. This task may include establishing new organizations, formal or informal, that links the various entities with a role in implementation, by establish action planning and results monitoring, this may lead to contribute of structure in the success of reducing fees charged. Mobilizing Actions (Task 5) Mobilizing actions builds upon the favorable constituencies assembled for the policy (Task 2) and marshals their policy implementation. Commitment and resources engage in concrete efforts to make change happen. Its focus is on identifying, activating, and pursuing action strategies. It move toward mobilized constituency and funds among the structures of organization, by create, develop and carry out the steps essential to interpret aims into results. These actions may help to build a consensus between government and civil society stakeholders, roles, responsibilities, and actions to make decentralization operational. Monitoring Impact (Task 6) Monitoring impact, or setting up and using systems to monitor implementation progress, is the final policy implementation task. Monitoring systems not only alert decision-makers to implementation snags, but also inform them of the intended and unintended impacts of implementation efforts. This monitoring may include establish a Policy Analysis and Implementation Unit to assist the president Economic Cabinet to improve policy decision-making with a strong focus on tracking implementation and results achieved. A good example here could be the livestock action plan committees monitored and noted problems in compliance with the plans steps to reduce excessive regulation in the countries of West Africa. Livestock producers credited this oversight with keeping the reforms on track and achieving the intended reductions in petty corruption and commerce-inhibiting regulation. Conclusion: The policy implementers should improve their understanding of the implementation process and implementation outcome by using the result of the several researches to redesign policies so they can do their work better and that is the policy makers and managers should be able to use the knowledge generated from the new finding in the research of policy implementation to facilitate the implementation. Also increasing use of the private sector including faith-based organization to implement policies raises new challenges for both those who design and those who implement policies, these challenges aside, the future of implementation research as an optimistic one and one that should greatly improve the understanding of this crucial phase of the policy cycle.

The Great Gatsby :: essays research papers

A good novel has a number of themes. The following are important themes of The Great Gatsby. The corruption of the American dream, sight and insight, the meaning of the past, and the education of a young man. The American Dream was based on the assumption that each person, no matter what his origins, could succeed in life on the sole basis of his or her own skill and effort. The dream was embodied in the ideal of the self-made man, just as it was embodied in Fitzgerald's own family by his grandfather, P. F. McQuillan. The Great Gatsby is a novel about what happened to the American dream in the 1920s, a period when the old values that gave substance to the dream had been corrupted by the vulgar pursuit of wealth. The characters are Midwesterners who have come East in pursuit of this new dream of money, fame, success, glamour, and excitement. Tom and Daisy must have a huge house, a stable of polo ponies, and friends in Europe. Gatsby must have his enormous mansion before he can feel confident enough to try to win Daisy. The energy that might have gone into the pursuit of noble goals has been channeled into the pursuit of power and pleasure, and a very showy, but fundamentally empty form of success. The characters might be divided into three groups: 1. Nick, the observer and commentator, who sees what has gone wrong; 2. Gatsby, who lives the dream purely; and 3. Tom, Daisy, and Jordan, the "foul dust" who are the prime examples of the corruption of the dream. The primary images and symbols that Fitzgerald employs in developing the theme are: 1. the green light; 2. the eyes of Dr. T. J. Eckleburg; 3. the image of the East and Midwest; 4. Owl Eyes; 5. Dan Cody's yacht; and 6. religious terms such as grail and incarnation. Both the character groupings and the images and symbols suggest a second major theme that we can call "sight and insight." As you read the novel, you will come across many images of blindness; is this because hardly anyone seems to see what is really going on? The characters have little self-knowledge and even less knowledge of each other. Even Gatsby- we might say, especially Gatsby- lacks the insight to understand what is happening. He never truly sees either Daisy or himself, so blinded is he by his dream. The only characters who see, in the sense of "understand," are Nick and Owl Eyes. The ever present eyes of Dr. Eckleburg seem to reinforce the theme that there is no all-seeing presence in the

Description of the at-risk student Essay examples -- essays papers

Description of the at-risk student Across the United States, there are certain factors that predict a student’s likelihood of becoming at-risk for failure. Benard says that, â€Å"Social science research has defined poverty, a social problem, as the factor most likely to put a person at-risk for ... school failure†(1997). Since there were 12.1 million children living in poverty in the United States in 2002, according to the census, the at-risk rates for students is just as high. Poverty is not the only risk factor, however. Children raised by a single parent are twice as likely to drop out as those raised by two parents. Also, black and Hispanic children, children with poorly educated mothers, students with poor health and nutrition, and students in a poorly funded school are more likely to drop out of school (Natriello 2002). Although some of these factors are interrelated, they increase the number of at risk students in the United States. Along with these environmental risk factors for failure a re situational factors. Students who have to change schools frequently have higher failure rates than those who stay in one school (Natriello 2002). Students with a poor academic history and those students with history of poor behavior have lower risk of graduation, along with students who teachers perceive as uninterested and poorly motivated (U.S. Dept. of Ed. 1994). The risk factors for failure in school are all closely related, and all contribute to the 35-40% of students in the United States who are at-risk (Natriello 2002). Students at risk are often difficult for teachers to deal with, so over time educators have developed different strategies for teaching these students. Management of at-risk students in the past ... ...students/atrisk/at400.htm Newspaper Articles (no author) (June 17, 2003). â€Å"Officials to Assist Students at Risk of Failing High School.† The Cambridge Reporter. Retrieved on November 3, 2003 from Lexis-Nexis Database. Schacter, Ronald (2003, October). Growing Minority Leadership.www.techlearning.com. Retrieved October 5, 2003 from Lexis-Nexis. Stuart, Bob (June 7, 2003). â€Å"Virginia Governor Targets Students at Risk for Failing†. The News Virginian. Retrieved on November 3, 2003 from Lexis-Nexis Database. Natriello, Gary (2002). Students at Risk. In D.L. Levinson, P.W. Cookson, Jr., A.R. Sadovnik (Eds.), Education and Sociology: An Encyclopedia. New York: Routledge Falmer National Center for Educational Statistics. Retrieved on November 15, 2003 from nces.ed.gov. U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved on November 15, 2003 from www.census.gov

Family Structure in the UK Essays -- Social Science, Family Life, Brit

As family structure has changed in the UK, so child care arrangements have become more diverse and complex. What are the implications of these changes for children? Introduction In the last 50 years or so, family life has changed becoming more diverse and complex, which has been the source of research by social scientists especially the effects of divorce on children. Marriage is no longer an institution that couples need to suffer if times are difficult, divorce is easier and cohabitation is more morally acceptable. The ideology of the nuclear family whilst not outdated is not the only type of family in which to raise children. The modern more complex family arrangements include step families, lone parents, step sibling relationships and shared care arrangements, which are the subject of more recent research. For the purpose of this study it will focus on the research relating to divorce and the new arrangements for children. One psychological study reported divorce as pathological; possibly in the early days using moral judgements to imply that ‘divorce is bad for children’. ‘They feel that their childhood has been lost forever. Divorce is a price they pay, as forfeit to their parents’ failures, jeopardizing their future lives’ (Wallerstein and Blakeslee, 1989, p. 43) More modern liberalised studies are comparing the divorced with the non-divorced children, to demonstrate that divorced families may have been labelled wrongly and in some cases may be a positive change. It is this more optimistic viewpoint which this research seeks to promote. Literature review As families are changing; the ideological nuclear family which existed in the past is less common, and attitudes are changing (Kelly 2003, p 237). C... ...hood , 10, 131-146. Pryor, J., & Rodgers, B. (2001). Children in Changing Families Life After Parental Separation. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd. Simpson, B. (1998). Changing Families: An ethnographic approach to divorce and separation. Oxford: Berg. Smart, C. (2003). Introduction: New Perspectives on Childhood and Divorce. Childhood , 123-129. Smart, C., & May, V. (2007). The Parenting Contest: Problems of Ongoing Conflict over Children. In M. Maclean (Ed.), Parenting after Partnering, containing conflict after separation (pp. 65 - 80). Oxford: Hart Publishing. Trinder, L. (2007). Dangerous Dads and Malicious Mothers: The Relevance of Gender to Contact Disputes. In M. Maclean (Ed.), Parenting after Partnering, containing conflict after separation (pp. 81-94). Oxford: Hart Publishing. Wallerstein, J. S., & Blakeslee, S. (1989). Second Chances. Reading: Corgi.

The Similarities and Differences Between Professional Football and Basketball

humanism A new concept of human individuality, originating in the citystates of fourteenth- and fifteenth-century Italy, that was based on desire for excellence in scholarship, creative work, and education. The humanist movement spread to northern Europe, France, England, and elsewhere, and continued to flourish until the mid-seventeenth century. Among its more familiar literary figures are, in Italy, Dante Alighieri, Francesco Petrarca (known as Petrarch), Giovanni Boccaccio, Baldassare Castiglione, and Niccolo Machiavelli; in England, Thomas More, Francis Bacon, and John Milton; in France, Francois Rabelais and Michel de Montaigne.Books setting forth an ideal of the well-formed individual, ruler, or commonwealth are a major aspect of the humanist movement, from Leonardo Bruni’s Dialogues ( –? ) to Roger Ascham’s Schoolmaster ( ), Machiavelli’s The Prince ( , publ. ), Castiglione’s The Courtier (ca. , publ. ), and More’s Utopia ( ). Durin g the Renaissance the term humanista meant nothing more than a teacher of Latin. But the Latin classics proved to be the key to the era’s renewed understanding of the individual’s goals and ideas.Latin authors addressed issues like the dignity of man, the role of fate, and the strength of human will: the factors in life that make for human happiness, or flourishing. HUMANISM 145 (Greek was somewhat less familiar, at least at first, among the humanists; Petrarch and Dante could not read it. ) The Renaissance’s new studia humanitatis contrasts with the earlier medieval version of education, which consisted of the trivium (grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic) and the quadrivium (arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy).In the medieval scheme, there was little room for the study of history or moral philosophy. Now, though, education could be based on the ethical ideas suggested by the ancients in their literary and philosophical speculations. The key terms of the It alian humanists are fame, fortune, glory, and virtue. They see creative achievement and knowledge as heroic tasks, analogous to the brave deeds of conquerors and emperors. In the Middle Ages, prior to the humanist revolution, the sense of history was providential, based on the sacred narrative of the Bible, and moving from creation to revelation and edemption. (Saint Augustine’s City of God [ – / ] was the major commentary on this narrative. ) In the Italian Renaissance, with political life controlled by rivalrous city-states, history became a matter of daring strategy, not scriptural validation. Providential history did not disappear, of course; it was a significant influence in the Reformation. But it had been challenged. Another aspect of the humanist movement was its sense of intimacy with the classical past. Petrarch wrote a series of familiar letters addressed to Homer, Virgil, Cicero, Livy, and others.Allied to this closeness with antiquity was a desire to corr ect the distortions of ancient texts, to recover them in their original fullness. The ambition to search for the source characterized the humanist attitude toward religious texts and ideas. The great Netherlandish humanist Desiderius Erasmus translated the New Testament into Latin ( ), saving the sacred text from the errors committed in the Vulgate (the medieval Latin Bible, in the universally read version produced by Saint Jerome). In an effort analogous to his philological study of the original text of the Bible, Erasmus in his Colloquies ( reacted against the medieval corruptions of church hierarchy. Through his description in the Colloquies of friendly, egalitarian conversation on both spiritual and worldly matters, he tried to regain the original ethical ideal of Christian community and decency: a humorous, liberal-minded fellowship. For humanists like Castiglione in The Courtier, the self became a work of art, with the individual’s â€Å"knowledge and skill informed by proportion and 146 HUMANISM grace† ( Joseph Mazzeo). The Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt, in his great Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy ( , first described the ambition of figures like Leonardo da Vinci and the architect Leon Battista Alberti to become the uomo universale, or universal man. Here Burckhardt evokes the supremely well-rounded, eccentrically talented Alberti (who became worldfamous as the inventor of the laws of perspective): â€Å"In all by which praise is won, Leon Battista was from childhood the first: . . . with his feet together, he could spring over a man’s head; . . . in the cathedral, he threw a coin in the air till it was heard to ring against the distant roof. . . He acquired every sort of accomplishment and dexterity, cross-examining artists, scholars and artisans of all descriptions, down to the cobblers, about the secrets and peculiarities of their craft. . . . He also wrote an Italian treatise on domestic life in four books; and eve n a funeral oration on his dog. . . . And all that he had and knew he imparted, as rich natures always do, without the least reserve, giving away his chief discoveries for nothing. † Burckhardt concludes by remarking, of this godlike lusus naturae, that â€Å"an iron will pervaded and sustained his whole personality. Alberti proved that the individual can do anything, and with perfect style. The humanist was an intellectual hero and adventurer. His interest in magic and mystical lore, like Francis Bacon’s devotion to science, was a way to achieve power over the secret sources of nature. For Pico della Mirandola, author of the Oration on the Dignity of Man ( ), the human self was distinguished by flexibility and aspiration, and was capable of raising itself almost to divine level: wrestling successfully with the Protean, the endlessly various, character of God’s creation.The Renaissance is the real home of humanism. But Victorian sages like Matthew Arnold, Thomas Carlyle, and John Ruskin shared the humanist belief in individual aspiration and excellence, necessarily grounded in the strength of the surrounding culture. Their concerns lived on in the works of American critics a hundred years later: for example, Lionel Trilling and Irving Howe. In the early twentieth century, a â€Å"new humanism† was promoted by the literary critics Irving Babbitt and Paul Elmer More, who reacted against the overly specialized aspects of philology as it was then practiced.But Babbitt and More were felt to be too vaguely emotive, their moralizing too glib. When critics like Robert Penn Warren and Cleanth Brooks turned, in the s, toward a stricter consideration of the technical aspects of poetic lan- HUMANISM 147 guage, they were in fact promoting another version of the humanist ideal: man as the hero of articulation, expressing his precarious and uniquely complicated existence, and fighting with the weapons of skilled ambiguity, irony, and paradox (see NC ). Humanism can be a pejorative term in current literary and cultural criticism, especially in the disciplines of cultural studies and new historicism. This turn began with the philosopher Martin Heidegger, whose â€Å"Letter on Humanism† ( ) criticized Jean-Paul Sartre for his humanist existentialism. Heidegger asserted that man, Sartre’s focus, was a limited concept and should be superseded by the notion of Being (in German, Sein or Dasein, two distinct but related terms).Later philosophers like Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida, both highly influential in literary studies, followed Heidegger’s lead in questioning the centrality of the human. But humanism always seems to return, if humanism is understood as the commitment to asking whether particular goals, practices, and ideas serve or damage the hope for human excellence and happiness. The definition of humanist ideals remains a constant concern of philosophy and cultural commentary, as seen recently i n the works of thinkers like Martha Nussbaum and Tzvetan Todorov.On Renaissance ideas of humanism, see Joseph Mazzeo, Renaissance and Revolution ( ); Paul Oskar Kristeller, Renaissance Thought ( ); Hans Baron, The Crisis of the Early Italian Renaissance ( ); Eugenio Garin, Italian Humanism ( ); and Thomas M. Greene, The Vulnerable Text ( ). Constance Jordan provides an interesting account of Renaissance humanism in its attitude toward women in Renaissance Feminism ( ). Rebecca Bushnell in A Culture of Teaching ( ) connects Renaissance ideals with contemporary American debates over education.

Factors to Take Into Account When Planning Healthy and Safe Indoor and Outdoor Environments and Services Essay

There are a number of important principles to think about when you are planning for healthy and safe environments or activities with children and young people. Most of these are common sense – just remember: everyone is an individual and may have particular needs. If you are clear about the following points it will become second nature to include safety in your planning. †¢Every child is an individual – with different needs depending on their age and abilities. You must think about this when planning activities, for example when they involve physical play, or if more consideration must be given to the needs of a child who has just become mobile than to an older child, when planning room layouts. †¢Some children have specific needs such as sensory impairments; for example think about the challenges to a child with limited hearing understanding explanations about safety. †¢The different needs of families and carers must be considered. †¢Always be clear about why you are using the environment in question, the activities a child encounters and what sorts of services are offered. †¢The duty of care of a setting to children, parents and carers is a legal obligation. You should always have the child’s safety and welfare uppermost in your mind when planning. †¢The desired outcomes for the child and young people are the starting point. Most activities with children and young people should have clear aims and objectives that are based around the required outcomes linked to their age; for example the EYFS for children under 5 years of age. †¢Lines of responsibility and accountability: everyone employed in a setting has a responsibility for the health and safety of children and staff, but there should be clear reporting responsibilities (Tassoni et al, 2010). All children should be given equal opportunities and this should be remembered in the learning environment. All pupils, including those with special needs, should be considered when planning and setting out materials and resources. The environment may often need to be adapted for the needs of particular children within the class. Factors to be considered include the following: †¢Light – This may need to be adjusted or teaching areas changed if a visually impaired pupil’s eyes are light sensitive. †¢Accessibility – A pupil in a wheelchair needs to have as much access to classroom facilities as others. Furniture and resources may need to be moved to allow for this. †¢Sound – Some pupils may be sensitive to sounds, for example a child on the autistic spectrum who is disturbed by loud or unusual noises. It is not always possible for such noises to be avoided, but teaching assistants need to be aware of the effect that they can have on pupils (Burnham, 2007). The Learning Environment The emotional environment †¢The emotional environment is created by all the people in the setting, but adults have to ensure that it is warm and accepting of everyone. †¢Adults need to empathise with children and support their emotions. †¢When children feel confident in the environment they are willing to try things out, knowing that effort is valued. †¢When children know that their feelings are accepted they learn to express them, confident that adults will help them with how they are feeling. The outdoor environment †¢Being outdoors has a positive impact on children’s sense of well-being and helps all aspects of children’s development. †¢Being outdoors offers opportunities for doing things in different ways and on different scales than when indoors. †¢It gives children first-hand contact with weather, seasons and the naturalworld. †¢Outdoor environments offer children freedom to explore, use their senses, and be physically active and exuberant. The indoor environment †¢The indoor environment provides a safe, secure yet challenging space for children. †¢For some children, the indoor environment is like a second ‘home’, providing a place for activity, rest, eating and sleeping. †¢The indoor environment contains resources which are appropriate, well maintained and accessible for all children. †¢Indoor spaces are planned so that they can be used flexibly and an appropriate range of activities is provided. Effective practice †¢Understand that some children may need extra support to express their feelings and come to terms with them. †¢Encourage children to help to plan the layout of the environment and to contribute to keeping it tidy. †¢Ensure that children have opportunities to be outside on a daily basis all year round. †¢Help children to understand how to behave outdoors and inside by talking about personal safety, risks and the safety of others. †¢Create an indoor environment that is reassuring and comforting for all children, while providing interest through novelty from time to time. †¢Where possible link the indoor and outdoor environments so that children can move freely between them. Challenges and dilemmas †¢Finding ways to promote the importance and value of the outdoor environment to all those involved in the setting, for example, the senior management team, other professionals, staff and parents. †¢Meeting the needs of children of different ages in a shared outdoor space. †¢Overcoming problems in accessing and using the outdoor environment because of the design or organisation of the building. †¢Ensuring the indoor environment is ‘homely’ enough to feel comfortable while providing an environment suitable for learning (Child Development Guide, 2007).