Realism and Constructivism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Realism and Constructivism - Essay Example The main signpost that helps political realism to find its way through the landscape of international politics is the concept of interest defined in terms of power. This concept provides the link between reason trying to understand international politics and the facts to be understood. It sets politics as an autonomous sphere of action and understanding apart from other spheres, such as economics (understood in terms of interest defined as wealth), ethics, aesthetics, or religion. Without such a concept a theory of politics, international or domestic, would be altogether impossible, for without it we could not distinguish between political and nonpolitical facts, nor could we bring at least a measure of systematic order to the political sphere. Realism assumes that its key concept of interest defined as power is an objective category which is universally valid, but it does not endow that concept with a meaning that is fixed once and for all. The idea of interest is indeed of the esse nce of politics and is unaffected by the circumstances of time and place. Political realism refuses to identify the moral aspirations of a particular nation with the moral laws that govern the universe. As it distinguishes between truth and opinion, so it distinguishes between truth and idolatry. All nations are tempted-and few have been able to resist the temptation for long-to clothe their own particular aspirations and actions in the moral purposes of the universe. The difference between political realism and other schools is real.... 4. Political realism is aware of the moral significance of political action. 5. Political realism refuses to identify the moral aspirations of a particular nation with the moral laws that govern the universe. As it distinguishes between truth and opinion, so it distinguishes between truth and idolatry. All nations are tempted-and few have been able to resist the temptation for long-to clothe their own particular aspirations and actions in the moral purposes of the universe. 6. The difference, then, between political realism and other schools of thought is real, and it is profound. However much the theory of political realism may have been misunderstood and misinterpreted, there is no gainsaying its distinctive intellectual and moral attitude to matters political. Source: (Morgenthau, 1978) Realism then is the more practical approach in understanding society. It takes into account the inherent nature of man in the understanding of their decisions and actions. What governs man is their interest more than their ideologies and ethics. This is the underlying belief behind realism. Therefore the term realism needs no further definition or explanation, everything it encapsulated in the word. Of the threads that make up the Realist school, the most important ideas include: International relations are amenable of objective study. Events can be described in terms of laws, in much the way that a theory in the sciences might be described. These laws remain true at all places and times. The state is the most important actor. At times the state may be represented by the city-state, empire, kingdom or tribe. Implicit in this is that supra-national structures, sub-national ones and individuals are of lesser importance. Thus the

Research Methods in Education Proposal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4750 words

Methods in Education - Research Proposal Example This discourse seeks to investigate whether and to what extent the provisioning education incentives to further the pedagogical knowledge of teachers would help reduce the incidences of turnovers in a commercial international language school in Thailand. Context background The teacher is the most vital aspect of any educational program and the quality of the teacher is dependent upon their qualifications, which includes the extent and duration of their pre-service field experiences and the characteristics of their ongoing professional development (Decker, Decker, Freeman, and Knopf, 2009). In addition, teachers’ beliefs have an influential role in determining their professional behaviour and affect not only their teaching, but also filter new information and suggest major implications for the functioning of educational innovations and teacher development (Mohamed, 2006). The role of teachers in providing quality basic education for all children becomes increasingly pivotal in regards to developing nations seeking to achieve, consolidate and sustain progress towards economic growth and it is estimated that 18 million additional teachers are required by 2015 in order for all children to have access to a high quality education (Mpokosa and Ndaruhutse, 2008). Furthermore, the qualification, training and motivation of teachers ensure that the system is staffed with competent and dedicated professionals (Mpokosa and Ndaruhutse, 2008). These elements have a significant impact on the program’s quality and are an important factor in determining the likelihood that the curriculum will contribute to children’s growth and development as well as their success in school and beyond (Decker, Decker, Freeman, and Knopf, 2009). Labour is the most expensive aspect of any educational programs and, in a high-quality program, approximately 70% of the budget is comprised of teachers salaries and benefits (Decker, Decker, Freeman, and Knopf, 2009). For financially challenged programs, low wages result in less qualified employees at the point of entry, less incentive for employees to increase skills because of the lack of significant monetary compensation, and greater employee turnover rates (Decker, Decker, Freeman, and Knopf, 2009). Without adequate staff compensation linked to training and experience, early childhood programs will continue to be of mediocre quality and experience high staff turnover rates and the trade-off for low salaries and benefits is typically a low-quality program (Decker, Decker, Freeman, and Knopf, 2009). However, research indicates that there is a positive relationship between program quality and budget allocations for teacher salaries and benefits in that programs that spent approximately two thirds of their budgets on salaries and staff benefits tended to be of high quality, and quality diminished considerably in programs spending less than one half of their budgets on salaries and staff benefits (Decker, Decker , Freeman, and Knopf, 2009). Providing professional development and technical assistance to all staff members as a means to increase their level of performance, professional standards, performance management, ongoing continuing

Modern transparencies and unwanted-exposures Essay Example for Free

Modern transparencies and unwanted-exposures Essay Human beings have been constructing shelters to serve different purposes since the beginnings of civilization. How a building was constructed depended on three qualities set out by Vitruvius, the Roman architect in his treatise De Architectura †¢ Durability †¢ Utility †¢ Beauty Across the ages, one of these three criteria has been more important than the other. The precept of modern architecture is ‘form follows function’. The function of the building determines its structure. But built into this precept are many other modern and post-modern conceptions of notions such as privacy, publicity, sexuality, art, etc. Some of the key components of design are space, volume, mass, texture, shadow, light, materials, structure, etc. Each of these components has been given varied importance in the different times. Modernist architecture has been influenced heavily by the Austrian architect Adolf Loos who believed that ‘ornament is crime. ’ He said, The evolution of culture marches with the elimination of ornament from useful objects. He believed that the influence of culture on ornamentation would change with changing culture and therefore ornamentation itself would become obsolete. Adolf Loos said, â€Å"Does it follow that the house has nothing in common with art and is architecture not to be included in the arts? Only a very small part of architecture belongs to art: the tomb and the monument. Everything else that fulfils a function is to be excluded from the domain of art. † Ornamentation is tantamount to art, which Loos completely discredits by saying, â€Å"The house has to please everyone, contrary to the work of art which does not. The work is a private matter for the artist. The house is not. † He differentiates designing a house and depicting art in these words, â€Å"The work of art is brought into the world without there being a need for it. The house satisfies a requirement. The work of art is responsible to none; the house is responsible to everyone. The work of art wants to draw people out of their state of comfort. † Loos echoes the philosophy of Deleuze when he says, â€Å"The work of art shows people new directions and thinks of the future. The house thinks of the present. † According to Deleuze, art is supposed to provide signs reading which a person is supposed come out of the rote of daily quotidian life and move towards creativity. Entailed in this function of art is deep discomfort which is why a house is not supposed to perform the function of art. Entailed in the notion of a house is a feeling of comfort in the present. â€Å"The house has to please everyone, contrary to the work of art which does not. The work is a private matter for the artist. The house is not. † â€Å"The house has to serve comfort. The work of art is revolutionary; the house is conservative. † Adolf Loos strived to strip culture of ‘art’ and ‘ornament’ and bring to it pragmatism, functionality and rationalism. Each of these qualities is attributed to the male. They are in stark contrast to the Jugendstil artists from the Wagner school. According to Susan Henderson, â€Å"Loos maintained that strict gender distinctions were basic to the ordered logic of modern society, and he decried the ambiguous gender roles that had invaded art and culture. Jugendstil decadence lay in its unrealistic attitude towards the capitalist economy, its regressive fascination for a dying aristocratic tradition, and a benighted love of ornament that sapped the productive energies from Viennese culture. His call for cultural reclamation through a reinvigorated rhetoric set the stage for embedding a new masculinism in the language of early modernism and the reassertion of middle-class values after a generation of retreat from the productive enterprise. † There exists an in-built contradiction between notion of perfect space that the architect harbours and the real mess of daily life. In both cases the woman is positioned as hidden and within and is always object subject to the male gaze. The domestic space of the Josephine Baker is converted into an erotic space. Josephine is present ‘in absentia’. The architecture is incorporated into the body of Josephine Baker and the body is entrenched in the architecture. â€Å"This is a wide-ranging and multifaceted notion of circulation, which includes passages, traversals, transitions, transitory states erotic circulations. † (Bruno, 1992) Given this understanding of Loos’ psychology it is a little complicated to learn the aesthetics of the Josephine Baker villa in Paris. This villa stands in contrast to many other designs of Loos. Feres el-DahDah says, â€Å"It is an epistolary attempt to detail her image in ‘various points’ through a kind of writing that stretches a third skin between the body of the architect and that of the dancer. The house is an apparatus†¦through which one can somehow rub against, or trap, a dancer’s exoticized body. It is a building designed as a tactical enterprise, as the imaginary ‘prose’ of an amorous conquest in between whose lines (in between the stripes of its facades and the distribution of its rooms) one is to decode a longing to signify desire. In other words, this house corroborates someone’s yearning to touch the absent body of Josephine. † This ‘present absence’ of Josephine Baker is called by Adolf Loos, ‘modern distinction’. The intense longing for the absent object brings to life that objects giving it a surreal physical manifestation. The elevations of the Baker house support this Freudian argument. The empty spaces represent Loos’ phallocentric desired for the absent object. If the Josephine Baker house is a modern depiction of sexuality that uses large unwanted space as a representation of desire for the body of Josephine Baker, large space is also used to represent violence and inspire fear through the designs of panopticons. Panopticon is a prison designed by Jeremy Bentham, the eighteenth century English Philosopher. The function of a panoticon is to watch the prisons without the prisoners themselves being aware either of the observer or of the process of observation. Jeremy Bentham called it ‘sentiment of an invisible omniscience. ’ â€Å"the more constantly the persons to be inspected are under the eyes of the persons who should inspect them, the more perfectly will the purpose †¦ of the establishment have been attained. Ideal perfection, if that were the object, would require that each person should actually be in that predicament, during every instant of time. This being impossible, the next thing to be wished for is, that, at every instant, seeing reason to believe as much, and not being able to satisfy himself to the contrary, he should conceive himself to be so. This point, you will immediately see, is most completely secured by my brothers plan; and, I think, it will appear equally manifest, that it cannot be compassed by any other, or to speak more properly, that if it be compassed by any other, it can only be in proportion as such other may approach to this. † The fundamental structure of a panopticon consists of a circular building. The rooms of the prisoners are present in the circumference of the building. Iron grating is present on the inner circumference. But this grating is virtually invisible to the prisoner. Such a grating traps the prisoner between the feelings of freedom and imprisonment. The prisoner knows that there is a grating but he cannot see it. It places him a limbo between privacy and publicity. Violation of private space is violence nonetheless. The room of the inspector is at the centre of the building. The windows of the prisoners’ room ‘radiate’ through the centre of the inspector’s room such that the inspector has a direct view into the rooms of all the prisoners. The windows would be covered by blinds till the eye level of the prisoners. This function of a window is opposed to that perceived by Adolf Loos, â€Å"to let the light in; not to let the gaze pass through†. Of course, the context of the windows in both cases is very different. In a panopticon, light is allowed to pass through only to the extent that allows the inspector to see the inside of the cell. In a house, light must be let in to brighten the house and make it comfortable to the inhabitants.

Chinese Education System: An Analysis

Chinese Education System: An Analysis China is a country which owns a long history. Therefore, Chinese education system is developing continuously. The education heritage is particularly rich. The purpose of this essay is to analyze the development of Chinese education system. This essay firstly will give a literature review. Then the essay will explain the phase of Chinese education system as well as the education system in different social phases in details so that it can be understood that the change of Chinese education system clearly. After that, this essay will discuss how Chinese education system contributes to the Chinese economic growth. At last it concludes that knowing the development of Chinese education system is very significant to the current development of education. Literature Review Education plays a critical role in the development of a country. China has a long history, and then the education heritage is particularly rich. Therefore, China has been accumulated a tremendous wealth of information and experience of education system. Before 1990, China was in the feudal society. It did not have public schools and students went to primary schools. In the feudal society, females were not permitted to accept the education. Since 1900, China has entered the end of Qing Dynasty, which means that China has entered Modern History phase. (Alitto, 1999) With the change of the nature of Chinese society, education system also changed accordingly. From then till 21st century, the change of Chinese education system can be divided into three phases. The first phase is the education system in the modern history, that is, the end of Qing Dynasty; the second period is the education system in the Republic of China from 1915 to 1949; the third is the education system in the Peoples Republic of China from 1949 to now. (Burton, 1996) In each phase, the education system has developed much and made progress at that time, which offered great experience that is rather helpful to current education. Currently, Chinese education system is consisted of four parts, including basic education, secondary vocational and technical education, higher education and adult education. (Rui, 2003) Basic education refers to the pre-school education, general primary education and secondary education General primary education lasts for six years. Secondary education is divided into junior education and senior education. Chinese government attaches great importance to basic education. Since 1986, most areas of the country are universalized in general primary education. Major cities and some economically developed regions are accepted secondary education. Secondary vocational and technical education includes general secondary schools, technical schools, vocational secondary education, as well as various forms of short-term vocational and technical training. Since 1980s, Chinese secondary vocational and technical education had rapid development. In 1997, all types of secondary vocational and technical schools reached 33,464 and the number of students reached 1.8 million. (Geoff, 2005) There were more than 2,100 training centers in the end of 1990s. General higher education refers to college, undergraduate, graduate and other higher educational levels of education. In the higher education, college usually has two or three years for education. Undergraduate usually lasts 4 years and medicine undergraduate usually lasts 5 years. (Sianesi, 2003) In addition, postgraduate education system lasts 2 or 3 years and doctoral education system is 3 years. Through 50 years, the country has made great progress in the development of higher education. Since 1991, China began to implement the degree system. From then, the degrees are divided into bachelor, master and doctorate. After a series of reforms and restructuring, higher education increased energy and had the development in the scales. The structure has become more reasonable and education quality and school effectiveness notably improved. Adult education includes the teaching education, literacy education and other forms of education which aims at the adults. Adult Education has developed rapidly. In 1999, there are 891 adult colleges in China. After entering 21st century, more adult education colleges have opened. More people choose to accept the adult education because they realize the importance of education. Chinese government thinks that education socialization is the main way to build the economic growth. (Krueger, 2001) Only if the comprehensive education is improved, the economic level will grow. Nowadays it has entered the information and technology times, education is especially to the development of a country. Only if the country has rich education, the country can be strong. Therefore, to know the change of education system will be helpful to find out which kinds of education systems should be applied to the development of China. The Phase of Chinese Education System Education System in Different Historical Phase Since 1900, China has entered the end of Qing Dynasty, which means that China has entered Modern History phase. With the change of the nature of Chinese society, education system also changed accordingly. From then till 21st century, the change of Chinese education system can be divided into three phases. The first phase is the education system in the modern history, that is, the end of Qing Dynasty; the second period is the education system in the Republic of China from 1915 to 1949; the third is the education system in the Peoples Republic of China from 1949 to now. In each phase, the education system has developed much and made progress at that time, which offered great experience that is rather helpful to current education. If learning the change of Chinese education system, it will be very necessary to know the education system in different historical phase. The change of Chinese education system can be discussed from three phases. Education System in the Modern History In 1901, Liu Kunyi and Zhang Zhidong put forward to change the school system and imitate the Japanese education system. In 1905, the government of Qing Dynasty repealed KeJu education system, which is a traditional education system and has last many years. From then on, new education system developed fast all over the areas of China. In China, women traditionally are not approved to access to school. Therefore, before the modern history, there are no formal educational institutions for women. However, when China was at the end of Qing Dynasty, it began to build women school so that women could accept education from then on, which is a large change comparing to traditional education system. In modern history, more and more people chose to go to foreign countries for education. It is estimated that the increasing number of students in the United States had reached more than 600 in 1910. Education System in the Republic of China After the republican revolution, the new education system of the late Qing Dynasty has been basically complete. The government of Republic of China basically inherited the education system in the Qing Dynasty. Beijing government of Republic of China kept the original charge of education, changing the Culture Division to the Ministry of Education to retain the same subordinate bodies. In the education sector, it began to imitate the education in the United States in the early years, not Japan. In 1918, the Church School in China increased to 6000 and owned 300,000 students. Between 1920s and 1930s, Civilian education and rural education were developed by a group of people. During the period of Republic of China, the government has implemented to establish a large number of specialized schools and colleges. According to related references, there are totally 32 stated-owned universities all over the countries. At that time, private schools began to rise, which has never existed in the p ast. Education System in the Peoples Republic of China In 1949, China has an important historical change, that is, Peoples Republic of China was established. After that, China became a socialist country, so the education system was changed to develop towards Soviet Union. The government of Peoples Republic of China decided to split some completed universities. As Peoples Republic of China was at the beginning stage of establishment, it required a large number of industrial and technical personnel. Then the government created a large number of Chinese technology institutes. At the same time, college entrance examination has also formally established in 1955. In 1950, China has provided nine-year compulsory education for a fifth of the worlds population.(Geoff, 2005) Nine-year compulsory education operates in 90 percent of Chinas populated areas, and illiteracy in the young and mid-aged population has fallen from over 80 percent down to five percent.(Agelasto, 2001) Between 1966 and 1976, the outbreak of Cultural Revolution made the develo pment of the education system in China have been geared particularly to the advancement of economic modernization. At the same time, all schools were closed the lessons and university entrance exams were canceled. Until 1977, the Culture Revolution has finished and college entrance was recovered. Among the notable official efforts to improve the system were a 1984 decision to formulate major laws on education in the next several years and a 1985 plan to reform the education system. (Rui, 2003) Investment in education has increased in recent years; the proportion of the overall budget allocated to education has been increased by one percentage point every year since 1998. (Chan, 2001) Nowadays, there are preschools, kindergartens, schools for the deaf and blind, key schools, primary schools, secondary schools and various institutions of higher learning. In current times, the education stage in China can be divided into four stages: the first stage is Primary School and the age is fro m 6 to 12; the second stage is Junior middle school and the age is from 12 to 15; the third stage is senior high school and the age is from 15 to 18; the fourth stage is university or colleges and the age is from 18 to 22. Of them, primary school and junior middle school can share compulsory education. The Development of Chinese Education System Promotes Economic Growth In 1950s, Chinese economic development level was obviously lower than any other developed countries. With the reform and opening up policy, Chinese government began to attach more importance on the education. As a result, the government tried best to let every child accept the education. In 1960, Chinese annual GNP per person was less tan USD 191.61 dollars. (Wang, 2003) However, through the endeavor in several years, the annual GNP per person in 1995 has reached USD572.12 dollars. In 1960, Chinese high education only took up 1.75 percent in the whole country. Accompanying with reform and opening up policy, Chinese government enlarged the scales of universities. Between 1990 and 1998, the total quantities of students who studied in the school increased from previous 2.0627 millions to 3.4088 millions. Its annual growth rate has reached 8.2 percent. (Sicular, 2002) The development of education needs large investments of capitals. However, education also consumes much labor. At present, the workers who engage in the education are over 10 millions. Every year, a lot of scientific results create large economic efficiency directly. And increase the social wealth. Therefore, education can impact on the growth of GDP directly. In addition, the industry which supports and ensures the educational service can enlarge with the development of education. Through this, it can obtain large investments and outputs of the materials. (Law, 1996) Therefore, the development can influence on the GDP indirectly and promote the growth of GDP. Between 1952 and 1978, the educations contribution to the increase of Chinese national economy is RMB 96.2 billions. (Xiao, 2006) This number took up 41 percent of total growth of national economy. From 1978 to 1997, the educations contribution to the increase of Chinese national economy is RMB705.3 billions, which took up 47.8 percent of total national economy. It can be seen that the growth of a national economy will increase the educational investments. Meanwhile, educational development can promote the growth of national economy. Enlarging education, especially high education, not only could satisfy social development and peoples demand, but also offer more job positions of educational service. In a certain degree, enlarging high education may create new employments for society and also take the development of industry which supports and ensures the education, such as architecture industry, financial industry, publishing industry and so on. It is investigated that in 2005, peoples bank deposit owned 14000 billions. Of all, education deposit took up 44 percent. (Krueger, 2001) At present, in Chinese cities, the fastest consumption is education, which has increased by 20 percent every year. Development of higher education, increased personal income in the market economy, People are not only familiar that education has a great impact on the quality of life, but also deeply appreciate that education has directly impacted on economic efficiency in the future. According to the above statistics, it can be found that Chinese education industry is so-called public schools which are made of most national governments, local government, so that the country resulted in insufficient investment in education. As a result, education resources should not be a reasonable configuration and the schools efficiency is not high. (Kwong, 2005) In order to meet the needs of higher education, it is essential to not only to increase the investment of government, but also to introduce a wide range of social groups, state-owned enterprises and private enterprises, individuals or other social groups to become the subject of education. (Fong, 2004) To develop higher education, the main diversity of our country realize the education level of economic development with the developed countries there is a large gap between supply and demand of funds for education has become a constraint in the development of education. The main diversification of education can finance m any non-governmental funds, reducing the countrys financial burden. (Dow, 2005) In a large extent, it could insist the school autonomy and academic freedom, promoting the healthy development of science and culture. (Cleverley, 2004) Meanwhile, the main diversification of education can guarantee a successful transition from the stage of a small number of higher educational to popularity stage. It can transfer large number of personnel to enterprises, especially for small and medium enterprises In fact, developed countries own a high degree of private schools. According to the findings, China has entered the high educational popularity phase. However, China is a large population base and has a feature of regional imbalances in the development of education. (Chen, 2006) The contribution of higher education to the GDP Chinese eastern, central and western regions were respectively 1.47%, 1.17%, 0.68%. Of all, Shanghais contribution took up the highest rate2.75 percent. But Qinghais contribution took up the minimum only 0.17%. (Bassanini, 2001) To achieve the sustainable economic development in China, it is necessary to boost economic development in the eastern part to drive the economy in the center and western China because higher education must be a balanced development of the region. Therefore, Chinese educational development still needs a long road and the country should develop a wide range of forms of higher education. At the same time, it is very significant to improve the quality of education rather than just the number of students. I n this situation, China can deliver more talents to the society, and finally will improve the national economic growth. In the past 20 yearsà ¯Ã‚ ¼Ã…’China has experienced the reform and opening-up policy, thus Chinese education the implemented the bounds of history. In the new international and domestic environment, China must face the important responsibility how to maintain the society to attach great importance to education reform and investment in education system. (Croizier, 2000) It is the fundamental guarantee for China economic sustainable development to ensure that the implementation of compulsory education in rural areas. Through effective measures, Chinese national education system could play a leading role and become an important cornerstone for economic development. Conclusion It can be seen that from 1900 to now, the education system in China has changed too much. Therefore, to know the change of education system will be helpful to find out which kinds of education systems should be applied to the development of China. Of course, there are still some disadvantages of current education system. The government is improving the education system and making better on this point.

Real Boys Essay -- English Literature Essays

Real Boys While Reading the book Real Boys by Dr. William Pollack, I realized that our society is holding boys to contradictory standards aiding the problems that many of them face while in adolescence. This book introduces the reader to numerous boys who share their feelings of shame and despair in trying to live up to the "Boy Code". Pollack feels the pain that comes from boys prematurely separating from their mothers puts them on the cycle to hardening themselves emotionally. The one acceptable emotion becomes anger. Throughout the book Pollack encourages parents to take time with their sons in helping them express their feelings while showing them empathy and love. Pollack discusses the ways parents can help their boys escape from the gender straightjacket that is imposed upon them. Pollack exposes myths that negatively portray boys as macho creatures shaped by testosterone with no social skills. He instead presents examples of boys who are emphatic as a result of nurturing parents and educates the reader to be aware that boys express their love through action and work. Pollack includes chapters regarding the different but equally important role of mothers and fathers in bringing up their sons. He also writes about the effect of healthy relationships with peers and the devastation that some boys feel when they discover they are homosexual. Pollack takes on the schools in failing boys in a number of ways but specifically for failing to understand the Boy Code. Boys continue to lose self-esteem as the mask of masculinity tightens and they conform to what society expects from them, interfering with their ability to learn effectively. Dr. Pollack not only gives us the problems that face the adolescent boy he also gives us suggestions to remedy and rectify the situation. This is nice instead of simply offering negative statements he actually offers the reader a solution. Another beneficial aspect of Dr. Pollack’s writing is the fact that he uses so many references to his research and the research of other notable psychologists instead of over emphasizing the personal instances in his own life. When he wants to emphasize a point with a real life person, he uses a third party. When speaking of these contradictory codes that a young boys is taught to live by, Dr. Pollack says: "Boys have had to learn to walk a fine line. Have intimacy without sentimen... ...ollack talks on breaking down gender stereotypes; he seems to perpetuate them by seeming to insist that the mom be the central part of upbringing. Extensive sections on single moms but the only discussion of single dad households is two sentences which state that research showing relatively positive outcomes (i.e. relative to mom getting sole custody, not relative to intact families) is controversial. Pollack notes that Dads are more likely to suffer from depression after a divorce but does not draw the logical reason. Dads lose far more than moms in a divorce. Yes moms economic status goes down more, but she tends to keep what is really important... the kids. Even today the courts are horribly biased against men in divorce cases. A mom must be totally unfit to not get at least joint custody, dad has to fight for minimal visitation rights. These are however minor quibbles with the book, the central principle of the book: Today’s boys are in big trouble, and much of that tr ouble stems from never being allowed to show any negative emotion other than anger, is a very important one. Boys are not toxic they need our love and support, even if they put on a tough self-sufficient disguise.

The protestant ethic :: essays research papers

Who would probably get the six hours of leisure, a Protestant or a Catholic? The Protestant group is mostly made up of the Northern European descent. The Catholic group comes mostly from the Southern European descent. Supposedly The Northern group was a little more advanced than the Southern group. The Catholics created less industrialized products, while the Protestants created highly advanced things which allowed their industrial lives to prosper. To me this sounds a lot like who is better the light skinned whites are the darker skinned whites. I mean I understand the facts as to what advancements actually came from a certain place but I think that no one Protestant was actually better than another Catholic. One could argue that maybe the Protestant group is a more advanced group because perhaps they have a personal relationship with God and the Catholic group doesn’t. Is that why the Catholic group isn’t as â€Å"blessed† as the Protestants? I mean you could really make up a lot of arguments as to why that is the way that it is. I mean today it is still like this in the world. Guess what the North Americans are a lot more advanced than the Southern Americans. Hmm?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Status is something people aspire to, even if they don’t have the means to achieve it†, (Fancy). Could this mean that the Northern Europeans didn’t have the means to achieve things such as the Protestant did? Why did the Protestants have the means and where did they get them from, was it from God? â€Å"People saw that social mobility was possible for themselves.†(Fancy). â€Å"Hard work was an acceptable means to achieve it† (Fancy). Did the Southern Europeans really work as hard as the Protestants? Maybe the Protestants worked 50 hours more than the Catholics and maybe that is why they seem to have created more of a industrialized nation. I have just listed at least three reasons as to why the Northerners where so much more â€Å"better off†, than the Southerners. I know that Weber also kind of felt the way that I do about this having to really boil down to what spiritual beliefs played a role in who was to be more successful. â€Å"Spirit†, which had its roots from the Protestantism could not have grown in the modern capitalistic world. Weber believed that Europe was already acquainted with capitalism before the Protestant revolt. For a good century or so capitalism had been a growing monster.

Lost Time Is Never Found Again

It was Ben Franklin who said: â€Å"lost time is never found again. † Mr. Benjamin Franklin  also said: â€Å"Remember that time is money. † Each of us has exactly 24 hours per day. Neither more nor less minute. Those of us that maintain a full time job know very well that we trade our time weekly in exchange for money. Some of us earn more money for less time and of course the opposite is true. Nowadays there are two categories of people. People from the first group work hard in order to make enough for a living, to satisfy their basic needs.While the others consider money as a way to win more power and better social position, sometimes – even friends. They say â€Å"Money makes the world go round† and time represents only money for them. In my opinion, there cannot exist any statement that is undoubtedly true. And in this way, we are not able to say whether time is money or not. Some people will always believe that time is only money but nothing else; others will defend the opposite thesis.All of us should realize that the material world around us makes time money. I confess that all of us should be realists. No one can lead normal life without enough money. People constantly work in order to earn. And they need time. It is mainly money for them. Their credo is â€Å"Don’t lose time, make money! † Certainly, interests, requests, opinions of other people can and should be considered by you at definition of how you spend yours of time. But nevertheless, the final decision always for you.