Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 22

Assignment Example In one analysis, 80 matched pairs of male and female expatriates were obtained to find out the percentage of the type of work they did and the level of education they had achieved. In 1980s, women expatriates were only about 3%, this grew gradually to 13.9% in 1990s. In some countries, due to religious affairs, women are not allowed to work. However, in some countries women were more interested in performing managerial tasks than men. The variations were also a result of geographic location, political stability/instability and culture and beliefs of certain countries. However, the researches that were done could not be carried out on a worldwide basis due to barriers of religious, traditional and cultural grounds. It was also found that women were less satisfied with expatriation and repatriation as compared with men, who were more satisfied with both. Value to reader: In a nutshell, as opposed to former presumptions, women are able to succeed in international assignments. More multinational organizations should be in the practice of employing passionate and ambitious women for managerial tasks. Former Chief Executive Officer and current Chairman of the Board of Procter and Gamble believes that international assignments were the main base which helped him become a global achiever. He joined P&G in 1963 as a staff assistant. As he became more experienced, he was awarded promotions, and in 1990 he assumed leadership of P&G’s international business. Design/Methodology/Approach: Dealing with uncertainty, knowing customers, balancing tensions and appreciating diversity are the main determining factors of success in terms of widespread business. These explain the situations where a manager has to go abroad and tackle with barriers such as language, cultural and ethnic, to know the likes and dislikes of the people and to be able to understand diversity and variations in almost everything. Mr. Pepper reflects about

American Dream Essay Example for Free

American Dream Essay In the literatures we have read this semester all of the characters have a dream that consists of a plan and multiple goals that sum up to the American Dream, however, there have been obstacles that sometimes hinder these American dreams. These obstacles range from internal conflict to society itself. The question is if it is possible for these characters to struggle with obstacles and overcome them to reach their dream? In â€Å"Step Children of a Nation† Isabel Gonzalez explains how the probabilities for Mexican-Americans in America during the mid 20th century for achieving the American Dream were very slim due to the obstacles that were presented by society (Gonzalez 162). Pedro Pietri details in the â€Å"Puerto Rican Obituary† the personal struggles endured by five Puerto Ricans in New York while attempting to achieve the American Dream (Pietri 212). We have no choice but to accept the standard of the United States and act in accordance with the society expectations as we see Ysreal do in Junot Diaz’ â€Å"No Face† (Diaz 417). Each character in these texts has the opportunity of success and only those who are willing to make a persistent and consistent effort will be able to achieve their dream despite their own personal struggles and the obstacles presented by society. Even though there are many obstacles to achieving this dream, it isn’t impossible for it to become a reality. The Mexican-Americans in Step Children of a nation lacked the ambition needed to achieve the American Dream. The most difficult obstacles to overcome are those presented by society. Isabel Gonzalez states what life was like for Mexican Americans trying to achieve the American Dream in the mid 20th century under poor living conditions and economic exploitation. These characters acculturated to the American lifestyle and the non citizens had the desire to become citizens. In fact they supported World War II (Leal) and Gonzalez noted that: It is a well known fact that the number of war casualties among the Mexican-American soldiers was very high in proportion to the population (Gonzalez , 163). But even after this the Anglo-Saxon society continued to discriminate and pursue segregation from their society. The Mexicans were forced to live in slums. During this time the homes these people lived in were hardly fit for animals and had no repairs in years but yet brought in income from Mexicans far beyond the value of the homes (Gonzalez , 165). They arrived in the United States believing a promise of personal economic growth (Aguilar), but instead came to live in substandard conditions with the hope of a better future for their children. Gonzalez states that industries have succeeded in keeping the Mexican the most underpaid and most oppressed worker so that they will always have a surplus of cheap labor (Gonzalez , 167). This economic exploitation caused the children to also have substandard education and health. These situations forced some of the characters to keep quiet due to fear of deportation and the reality of achieving the American Dream nearly impossible. But if these characters wouldn’t have overlooked the possibility of change and set aside their fear they would have been so much closer to achieving the American Dream. Another obstacle the characters from the texts we reviewed in class had to overcome was their own personal oppressions. In â€Å"Puerto Rican Obituary†, Pietri talks about 5 characters: Juan/ Miguel/ Milagros/ Olga/ Manuel and their daily struggles as a Nuyorican (Monthly Review Foundation) who didn’t accept the standards of the United States. These Nuyoricans were motivated to immigrate to this country by the American dream which turned into a nightmare presented as death. They were divided between two cultures and two languages. Juan/ Miguel/ Milagros/ Olga/ Manuel are attempting to live as a â€Å"gringo†. Their unfortunate situation is that as they attempt to leave behind their language they are also leaving behind their identity (Brook). And as they realize this they are torn between the dream and the nightmare. They feel overworked and underpaid. All died/ dreaming about america/ waking them up in the middle of the night/ screaming: Mira Mira/ your name is on the winning lottery ticket/ for one hundred thousand dollars (Pietri 36-41) The characters in this text believed they can achieve the American Dream by something simpler like winning the lottery. But by believing this almost impossible wish their dream becomes a nightmare which is reflected as their death. They dream of belonging to a community of â€Å"clean-cut lily-white neighborhood/ Puerto Ricanless scenes† and being â€Å"the first spics on the block† where â€Å"gringos want them lynched† (215). By not being able to accomplish this dream the â€Å"puertorriquenos† find themselves shut out of America’s economic opportunities and lifestyle, and realize that they are unemployed, living on welfare, bitter, and degraded. This situation leads to the death of their American dream along with their dignity; therefore the characters in this text do not achieve the American dream. Ysrael is a child with a disfigured face who knows all too well the difference between the nightmare and dream. He is a child that has accepted the fact that he has to wear a mask in public to be accepted in his community. He compares himself to Kaliman. Ysrael’s superpower is the power of INVISBILITY (Diaz , 418). He dreams of escaping Dominican Republic and going â€Å"up north† and has hopes that the doctor will fix him. In the end of the story Ysrael has to make sure to wear his mask when his father comes out but doesn’t have to worry when he’s around his mother. All of this symbolizes the life of an immigrant attempting to achieve the American Dream (Alford). Ysreal’s disfigured face is the life the immigrants have in their country of origin. The surgery that the doctor and the priest promise is the American Dream. The mask is the sacrifices the immigrants make by acculturating to the American society. The superpower of invisibility represents how people are obligated to put themselves out of sight from society when they do not act according to society’s expectations. When Diaz mentions that Ysrael wants to go â€Å"up north† he is referring to the United States. Also the father is stands for the American culture (where Ysrael always has to wear his mask) and the mother represents his own culture or his identity. The boys who throw rocks at him and the cleaning lady represent the obstacles the immigrants must surpass to achieve their dream. In this text Ysrael does achieve the American Dream because he has accepted the fact that he has to wear his mask in front of his father and when he goes out in public. But at the same time he does not lose his identify because those who are around him remind him of how his face became disfigured over and over again (Diaz , 419). Pietri talks about all the obstacles the characters face while attempting to achieve the American dream but if Juan/ Miguel/ Milagros/ Olga/ Manuel would have accepted the standards of society in the United States or if the Mexicans in â€Å"Step Children of a Nation† would have been more ambitious like Ysrael in â€Å"No Face† their nightmare could have converted back to the dream they immigrated to the United States for. So to answer the question if is possible for these characters to struggle with obstacles and overcome them to reach their dream the answer is only if they were all as ambitious, persistent, and committed as Ysrael. The character Ysrael did not let his disfigured face or his father hold him back from achieving his dream. Ysrael had people yell out to him â€Å"No Face† but yet he continues his path to his set goal. He was determined to be persistent and consistent in pursuing his dream. Works Cited Aguilar, Mario E. From Immigrant Ousiders to Indigenous Tribal National Identities. Web. 09 June 2011. Alford, William. Junot Diazs Drown Sex, Race and Power. 10 Feb 2005. Web. 08 June 2011. Brook, Elizabeth. Nuyroican Newness. 2010 11 May. Web. 08 June 2011. Diaz, Junot. No Face. Herencia: The Anthology of Hispanic Literature of the United States. Ed. Nicolas Kanellos. New York: Oxford Press, 2002. 417-420. Print. Gonzalez, Isabel. Step Children of a Nation. Herencia: The Anthology of Hispanic Literature of the United States. Ed. Nicolas Kanellos. New York: Oxford Press, 2002. 162-170. Print. Leal, David A. American Public Opinion. October 2005. webspace. utexas. edu. Web. 08 June 2011. Monthly Review Foundation. Monthly Review: Puerto Rican Obituary. 01 June 2004. Web. 08 June 2011. Pietri, Pedro. Puerto Rican Obituary. Herencia: The Anthology of Hispanic Literature of the United States. Ed. Nicolas Kanellos. New York: Oxford Press, 2002. 212-220. Print.

Chinas Cultural Revolution: Reforms in the Education System

Chinas Cultural Revolution: Reforms in the Education System The period of the Cultural Revolution in China (1966-1969) witnessed a massive effort by the Maoist leadership to engineer the socialist transformation of Chinese society, one of the area most radically affected by the Cultural Revolution was the Chinese educational system. The Great Leap Forward has brought about much economic instability and lack of agricultural production, leading to the great famine. The goals and policies imposed by the government during the Cultural Revolution greatly decentralized the educational system and shifted focus from an industrial intensive production to an agricultural production. Although many rural schools continued to function throughout this period, formal education virtually ceased in the urban areas. In this paper, we will first take a look at the three main objectives in the educational reforms. With this general background description of the program, we hope to explain some of the goals that the Communist partied hoped to achieve. The second section of this paper will discuss the means that China employed to carry out the three main objectives, analyzing the decentralized manner in the implementation process and the structural impact it had on the educational system. Finally, we will evaluate the repercussion and critiques these reforms had on students and the society as a whole. Educational Reforms The Cultural Revolution had three basic objectives in reforming the educational system. In terms of the content of education, the first objective was to intensify ideological education so as to raise the political consciousness of the students. The second objective was to integrate theory and practice in the educational process in order to make education more responsive to the immediate production needs of the country. In terms of the scope of the educational system, the third objective was to popularize education, especially in the rural areas of China.[1] Prior to the Cultural Revolution, it seems that there was a tendency in Chinese education to emphasize technological and professional training often at the expense of the socialist revolution as envisioned by Chairman Mao. In 1956, with the exception of the third year of senior middle school in which a section of the constitution class was held each week, it was reported that political classes were entirely cancelled. This trend was further reinforced after the Great Leap Forward when educational policy emphasized more study and less work and politics. This general educational policy seems to have led to the consolidation of an elite technocracy drawn largely from the educated bourgeois elements of the past. Thus, the most important goal of educational reform in the Cultural Revolution was to mobilize the students and raise to a higher level their awareness of class contradictions still existing in Chinese society. As Mao made clear, all work in school is for changing the thinking of the student.[2] This educational objective was part of the massive effort of the Cultural Revolution as a whole to revitalize the commitment of the country to the socialist transformation of society. The economic objectives of the educational reforms of the Cultural Revolution should be seen within the context of the overall strategy for economic development. The emphasis on integrating theory with practice, or education with production, was not new in itself. The Ministry of Education stated explicitly in 1950 that the purpose of institutions of higher learning in the Peoples Republic of China is to train high level specialists for national reconstruction in accordance with the principles of the Cultural and Educational policy included in the Common Program of the Peoples Political Consultative Conference of China, and using a method which combines theory and practice. These specialists will have advanced standards of culture, will master modern science and technology, and will have total dedication to serving the people.[3] However, the way in which theory was linked to practice was quite different from that which Mao had in mind for the Cultural Revolution. And the problem her e was not simply one of implementation but of basically different concepts of economic development. From 1949 to 1958, Chinas strategy for economic development essentially followed that of the Soviet model, which stressed the growth of heavy industry at the expense of light industry and agriculture. As bottlenecks began to form, China began searching for alternative developmental strategies. Thus, the Great Leap Forward was an attempt to mobilize the masses on a large and intensive scale to break the bottlenecks in the economy. While this strategy as a whole failed, it marked the point at which China changed from its previous strategy to one placing relatively more emphasis on rural development. This change in developmental strategy brought a basic change in the definition of what practice constituted in the educational process. In one case, it meant working in the industrial sector primarily in a technological capacity, while in the other, it meant working in the fields to increase rural production. Thus, in the former case, linking theory and practice meant training more highly s killed specialists to advance the technology for Chinas heavy industry, while in the latter, it meant training less-highly skilled generalists in less time to meet the local production needs of the rural sector. Thus, the economic objectives of the educational reforms were oriented primarily to the development of agriculture and light industry. Up until 1966, educational opportunities, particularly at the higher levels, remained unduly concentrated in the big cities. The rural areas, despite some improvements since 1949, did not benefit from educational expansion to nearly the same degree as the urban areas.[4] In fact, according to a Russian source, after initial success at popularization of educational opportunities between 1950 and 1958, the number of students at all levels of education decreased markedly from 1960 to 1965. It was also said that Liu Shaoqi admitted that in the 1965-66 school year approximately 30% of the children in China were not covered by a system of primary education.[5] This bleak picture was partially confirmed by the Peoples Daily report that in 1965, 30 million school-aged children were not in school, most of them being rural children.[6] Thus, one of the major objectives of the educational reforms was to correct this situation by increasing the number of schools in the rural areas and initiating a large scale recruitment of peasants and workers into the existing educational system. Means of the Reforms The implementation of educational reforms was carried out via a decentralized process, as most schools were placed under local management. In fact, it was reported in 1973 that each school had its own Revolution in Education Committee responsible not only for implementing reforms but also for part of the planning process within its own institution.[7] So it would seem that local experimentation within the general framework of the new educational policies was encouraged. Experimentation was seen as necessary primarily because of the emphasis on adopting flexible methods to meet the diverse needs of different schools and regions. We will identify below the major guidelines regarding the implementation of the educational reforms, as well as describe some of the different ways the reforms were implemented. In order to elevate the political consciousness of the students, the curriculum was heavily stocked with political education courses. The major texts used were drawn from the works of Mao. Aside from increasing the number of political course, other courses also drew upon Maos thoughts to explain various approaches to the analysis of whatever phenomenon was involved.[8] This reliance on Maos thoughts was essentially the concept of putting politics in command of knowledge. At the same time, revolutionary mass criticism and class struggles were actively promoted to bring into sharp relief the various contradictions in society from a more personal perspective. The principal means of linking theory and practice in the educational process were to make production labor a major part of the students curriculum and to direct research to meet local needs. These methods were based on the concept of practical training, although their implementation in China seems to have gone far beyond that prac ticed by other countries. In the rural areas, students would spend much of their time working in the fields and learning from the peasants. The training of the students included clearing marginal lands, planting and harvesting, working on the construction of water conservation projects and irrigation systems and so on. [9]Research in turn was directed towards increasing the crop yield and the mechanization of the local production units. What the specific tasks would be depended on the particular needs of a given locality. As for the urban sector, secondary and higher learning institutions were reported to have set up local factories within the schools not only to train students in practical work, but also to engage in significant production work. In other cases, factories and schools established ties with one another so as to direct the research of the latter to the needs of the former, making possible the immediate application of new findings. At the same time, veteran workers were often brought to the schoo ls to teach in certain areas and students worked at the factories for practical training. Some factories even established schools of their own, although this method seems to have more or less faded out. In brief, the educational reforms designed to attain the economic objectives basically gave the students more practical training and actual work in production than did the previous educational system. It was said that prior to the Cultural Revolution, peasants and workers had much difficulty attending schools because of such obstacles as high entrance examination standards (primarily for colleges and universities), high costs and expenses, inaccessibility since most schools were located in the cities, conflict of class schedules with local production time tables, and the lack of direct and immediate relevance of the courses offered to local production needs. As a result, educational opportunities were still not extended to many in the country living in the rural areas. During the Cultural Revolution, many of the reforms were implemented specifically to erase such barriers to education. Some of the broad guidelines for popularizing education were: 1) lowering educational standards, thus making possible the large scale recruitment of peasants and workers into the existing educational system, and especially to higher learning institutions; 2) lowering educational fees and expenses; 3) shortening the number of years for a basic education, usually from a 6-3-3 to a 5-2-2 system, while higher education was usually reduced from four or five years to two or three years (this allowed more to enter the educational system since less time would be taken off needed production work and the school population would be reduced for a given amount of students going through); 4) promoting popularly-sponsored schools-this expansion occurred mainly in the rural areas and was limited basically to the primary school level; 5) adapting curriculum and schedules to local req uirements; and 6) simplifying teaching materials.[10] Within these reform guidelines, however, schools at all levels could experiment with different ways of implementing the reforms. For example, Peking University with its more carefully selected students continued to have higher standards of education than many other colleges and universities. However, an attempt was made to lessen the gap.[11] Or with regard to popularly sponsored schools, there arose mobile schools, spare-time schools, half-work, half-study schools and so on. Furthermore, the specific curriculum of each school, except perhaps for the political education courses, varied according to the needs of the particular region. Thus, the popularization of education was carried out under a flexible and decentralized educational system. Repercussion of the Reforms While the drastic educational reform measures have given peasants opportunities to attain basic education in rural areas, as well as agricultural production and political gains, it naturally came with lasting negative impacts that promoted many post-modernists critiques. In the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, values like collaboration, diligence, modesty, and respect for elders and teachers were discarded as a result of the purge of the old Chinese cultures and traditions. Many have failed to retain the virtues during the revolution. Second, due to political struggle and line drawn between working classes and intellectuals, as well as political and violent nature of the social revolution, substantial innocent teachers and professionals were subjected to personal attacks and humiliation, some even executed. Third, specific strategies of the reformed curriculum and examination system proved to be misguided and wasted the schooling of many young people. The disconnection between a cademic achievement and students future career, the emphasis on political correctness over academic achievement, and the neglecting of theory learning and over-emphasis on hands-on experiences were all examples of poor decisions. Fourth, the Cultural Revolution both liberated students and dominated them. It liberated students and people because it opened their eyes to the inequality existing in education and society; However, it imposed political control and dominated them because it did not allow real democratic, independent and critical thinking ability.[12] As Freire (1970) put it, If teachers help students from oppressed communities to read the word but do not also teach them to read the world, students might become literate in a technical sense but will remain passive objects of history rather than active subjects.[13] Conclusion The Cultural Revolution opened peoples eyes but imposed the governments intentions on the people and dictated their thinking. Thus, people were forced to follow the governments ideology. In accordance with the three objectives set forth by the Communist Party, strategies were carried out in a decentralized manner that placed significant amount of decision making on local management. To raise political awareness, much of the curriculum were inspired by Maos thinking. His principles such as practice training were also preached to the students, which compliments well with the second objective; to integrate theory and practice while increasing agricultural production. At the time, schools and factories were tightly assimilated, as much of the students from urban areas were organized to work in rural areas, in order to experience the real China and raise consciousness on the large class segregation that existed. Lastly, with adjustments to the curriculum schedules, time commitment, academ ic and financial requirements, the barriers to entry were significantly reduced for many rural youths. Basic education was finally attainable by peasants and popularized in the rural area. However, this caused a reduction of higher education and development of specialized skilled workers in the urban area, in accordance with the focus on agricultural production rather than industrial production. The extremist nature of the reforms achieved by China was unlike what other countries could have accomplish. While political agendas and production goals were met, it came at a great cost to students that lasted through the generation. Connections to their ancestors culture and virtues were cut in favor of Maos thinking and the way of the new China. This led to activities that post-modernists could consider contradictive to the development of humanity, which was evident in the case of innocent individuals who retained the old culture or decided against Maos thinking were humiliated or executed. Students freedom of critical thinking was taken away, replaced by political correctness and over-emphasis on hand-on experiences, ultimately hindering their theoretical knowledge and future career development. Bibliography Seybolt, Peter. Editors Introduction, 1971 Huey, Alison B. The Revolutionary Committee of Peking Middle School #31, 1970 Gardner and Idema, Chinas Educational Revolution, Cambridge Univ. Press, 1973 Klepikoy, V. Z. The Fate of Public Education in China, Sovetskaia Pedagoka #8, 1968, translated by J.ÂÂ   Barry Eliot, CE 1 Peoples Daily, Chinas Educational Revolution, 1965 McCormick, Robert. Revolution in Education Committees, The China Quarterly #57, 1974 Wuyuan Rev. Comm. et al., A New Type of School That Combines. Theory with Practice, 1968 Yu-lin Special Region Rev. Comm. and Kuei-ping Rev. Comm, Train Workers to Have Socialist Consciousness and Culture, 1970, Wan, Guofang. The Educational Reforms in the Cultural Revolution in China: A Postmodern Critique, 1998. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED427419 Lankshear, C. and Mclaren, P.L. Critical Literacy, New York: State University of New York Press, 1993 Shor, I. Empowering Education, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1992. [1] Peter Seybolt, Editors Introduction, 1971, p. 4. [2] Alison B. Huey, The Revolutionary Committee of Peking Middle School #31, 1970, p. 206. [3] Seybolt, p. 4. [4] Gardner and Idema, Chinas Educational Revolution, Cambridge Univ. Press, 1973, p. 257 [5] V. Z. Klepikoy, The Fate of Public Education in China, Sovetskaia Pedagoka #8, 1968, trans, J. Barry Eliot, CE 1, p. 42. [6] Peoples Daily, Chinas Educational Revolution, 1965, p. 258. [7] Robert McCormick, Revolution in Education Committees, The China Quarterly #57,1974, p. 133. [8] Wuyuan Rev. Comm. et al., A New Type of School That Combines. Theory with Practice, 1968, p. 24-31 [9] Yu-lin Special Region Rev. Comm. and Kuei-ping Rev. Comm, Train Workers to Have Socialist Consciousness and Culture, 1970, p. 40-45 [10] Gardner and Idema, p. 279-280. [11] Ibid., p. 286. [12] Wan, Guofang. The Educational Reforms in the Cultural Revolution in China: A Postmodern Critique, 1998. [13] Lankshear, C. and Mclaren, P.L., Critical Literacy, New York: State University of New York Press., 1993

Introducing New Software and Hardware :: Sales Consumerism Technology Essays

Introducing New Software and Hardware ICT Coursework-Spreadsheet Identify: Mr Smith, who is the owner of JC SPORTS, has discovered three main problems with his shop's basketball sales, these were due to: 1. The old-fashioned manual systems in his company. (Manual system). 2. The lack of interest for the latest new products on the market. (Marketing system). 3. The lack of a new hardware & software systems. (Computer system). Surprisingly, because of poor product handling, out of all the sales in his sports and design shop, the amount of basketball sports goods sold dropped massively over the past six months. At the time, I happened to assist Mr Smith as he was recording down his sales. Mr Smith was not very clever when it came to using computers. He needed a quite a lot of helping out. Due to the fact that I was one of his best customers, Mr Smith then showed me his most baffling results that he recently found out. The problem was that Mr Smith was pretty old fashioned and used the ancient, long gone manual technology like the typewriter to sort out his business instead of using the modern day computer software and technology such as the word processor and the spreadsheet. Since I was compiling this project, I offered to help him solve this very problem by myself doing a series of analysis on the sales, marketing and systems later on in that very same week. It was a challenge. Mr Smith was very much obliged and gave me his sales report immediately. I also advised him to shape up and use the latest up-to-date, business & industrial technology around him and not use his very old, former technology. Later on at home, as I assessed the report, I took into consideration any possible alternative solutions and objectives of the following concerning a sales analysis, marketing analysis and a system analysis. These were ========== 1. Write a questionnaire: Write questionnaire in Microsoft Word. (For the customers- Customers will fill it in) 2. Do a survey: Plot survey results in Microsoft PowerPoint. (For the customers- Questionnaires will be sent out to customers as part of survey) 3. Enter all information and data into both Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel. 4. Cut down prices: this will help by attracting customers who would like to buy the product at an affordable price. 5. Include deals: this is making special offers to customers that they will find hard to resist. 6. Advertise: this will help more and more people, customers and business associates know more about the product. 7. Introduce new appropriate hardware and software. Analyse: Continuing assessing my project, I conducted a feasibility study on

Not White Just Right Response Essay

After reading â€Å"Not White, Just Right†, an article by Rachel Jones, I could not help but relate to her. In the article, Jones elaborates more on her popular essay, â€Å"What’s Wrong with Black English† while also mentioning others who share in her opinion. I, too, was ridiculed in school for talking too â€Å"white†. In public schools African American students are mocked and shunned by their â€Å"brothers and sisters† for speaking or even behaving in an intelligent manner, as if intelligence is unacceptable in our community. I have been the outcast for that single reason. However those who spoke like third graders in the tenth grade were praised and welcomed in the Black community. To that I have to admit that we have fallen from the times of Dr. King and Fredrick Douglas, when we knew as African Americans that we are just as intelligent as Caucasian men. This is not the future our leaders have fought so hard for. It is infuriating to witness young African Americans not only in public school but in college speaking as if they have no intelligence. I am only a freshman and I cannot count the number of times I’ve heard other freshmen and upperclassmen use grammatically incorrect phrases like, â€Å"what that is† and â€Å"I ain’t goin nowhere†. Speech like this amongst my African American peers only angered me in high school, now it depresses me. It is depressing to see so many educated African Americans speak as if they had dropped out of high school, just because it is â€Å"cool† and they do not want to talk â€Å"white†. A mentality like that will always keep us as African Americans at the bottom of society. How do we expect to be seen as equally intelligent as Caucasian people if we do not even speak as if we are educated on a higher level? Therefore, in conclusion, I would like to thank Ra chel Jones for writing those two texts about young African American lingual. It is about time that someone made it public to the Black community that this speech is NOT conserving our culture; it is keeping us from reaching our goals and becoming successful.

How Pericles changed Athens essays

How Pericles changed Athens essays There are two important matters that the Funeral Oration of Pericles proves, these two matters are, the great respect that Athenians have for their warrior class and how the Athenians were exceedingly proud of their city and its customs. The following paper discusses the way of life of Athenians and how the Funeral Oration of Pericles influenced it. It is a well-known fact that the Athenians had a great deal of respect for the warrior class and believed them to be among the top members of their society. The warriors were seen as the top portion of their classes. They are classified as heros and/ or idols. The Athenians were also extremely proud of their city and its traditions. To the people of Athens their country was at the top and there was no other country that could be superior. The purpose of the funeral oration was not only to respect the departed but also to reward the citizens national pride and their passion to defend their country. The oration was a eulogy that focuses on the prominence of Athens and her ancestors. A member of the family gave the eulogy, generally it was a son if possible. It was required by the law for the dissertation to have some necessary components. The speech had to be in regard to the lives of both the deceased and the ancestors of the deceased. At the end of the eulogy that Pericles gave he spoke in reference to the soldiers and the ancestors of Athens. Although it seemed that he was not sure if he had an impact on the people and he was unsure as to if he had been able to get through to the citizens of Athens. He states, My task is now finished. I have performed it to the best of my ability, and in words, at least, the requirements of the law are now satisfied. (Thucydides, 109) The speech recounted the significant life that the departed lived and the great achievements that these people accomplished. Pericles spoke to the public about the soldiers who had ju...