Wednesday, May 6, 2020

The Environmental Impact Skiing On The Environment

The environmental impact skiing has as a whole on the environment has been a growing concern for some time now. Resorts especially have taken specific notice to their carbon foot print, and actions to reduce it. Several companies have taken this trend of going green and established themselves as the go to people for whatever their service/product may be. In large, the snow sports industry has stepped up their game with sustainability practices in hopes of leaving the world as they found it years ago. One slope side lighting company called â€Å"Arctic Beam† has developed a futuristic looking LED lighting solution that can cut energy usage in half for a typical ski resort. Although slope lighting is not a big issue for many ski resorts, the ones who offer night skiing can benefit tremendously. By reducing energy use by half and ski resort can now invest that half into other sustainable projects and further their steps to becoming an environmentally friendly resort. These lights also reduce light pollution by having a 120 degree angle of light and ability to concentrate the beam to certain areas. Compared to the usual gas light bulbs used today whose light direction is 360 degrees with little control over where the light can be directed. The difference is remarkable with visibility as well. The Arctic Beam puts out light which can be registered more readily by the human eye then light emitted by the gas bulbs. This creates a safer skiing and riding zone by increasing typical nightShow MoreRelatedEssay on The Environmental Impact of Skiing and Tourism1718 Words   |  7 PagesIt is extremely easy to forget the impact imposed by skiing on the mountain environments. Most people believe the only effect that they have on the environment within mountain regions are the tracks in the snow left by their skis. However, there is strong evidence that skiing has both a social and more noticeably, environmental impacts that influence the natural environment. Some expe rts of the Alpine region suggest that tourists directly affect over half of the Alps entire surface area. It can thereforeRead MoreEssay on Real Estate Development in the Ski Industry1259 Words   |  6 Pagesare also well entrenched in environmental issues. Being a resource economics major I now realize that the NH ski industry is no longer the perfect wonderland it seemed to me as a child. Topics such as wildlife habitat, water quality and stream health, air pollution and much more are now all directly impacted by the industry. No longer can lifts be built and new larger, faster snowmaking devices be used without first giving a lot of thoughts to the environmental impacts that may occur. Yet the industryRead More Snow on Arizona SnowBowl? Essays1668 Words   |  7 Pages The Arizona SnowBowl’s fool proof plan is to remodel their whole ski resort. The remodeling would include the building of one new chair lift, the addition of new ski runs, maintenance work on three exi sting chair lifts, lighting for night time skiing, the creation of a half pipe, the addition of a snow play area for families, the improvement of service facilities/infrastructure, and a cultural center for native Americans(Arizona SnowBowl Upgrade proposed Action, September 2002, p.2). Yet, theRead MoreClimate Change in Earth1381 Words   |  6 Pagesmelting of the snow means no skiing, unless of course, importation of snow occurs which is costly and not efficient. If climate does not begin to change the Alps are at risk of not being viable for skiing and thousands loose their jobs. The 1987/88 to 1989/90 winters were generally to warm for successful operation of ski resorts. This not only is a large concern when looking at the environment but also with the demand of skiing. Their has been a general drop in demand for skiing in Switzerland startingRead More Snow on Arizona SnowBowl Essay889 Words   |  4 Pagesconsistent. Some winters there’s excess of snow for skiing, then there are years like the 2001- 2002 ski season where there were only four inches of snow the whole winter. This makes for very unstable ski seasons, which in turn hurts Arizona SnowBowl’s and Flagstaff’s economy. As a solution the Arizona SnowBowl wants to put snow machines on the mountain to create their own snow. The problem with this addition is that artificial snow would impact the mountain in several ways. WhetherRead MoreGlobal Warming Has Left Upon Our Natural Environment1878 Words   |  8 PagesSnowfields, and several major Victorian ski resorts including Mt Buller, Mt Hotham and Falls Creek. The Alps are the only region on the Australian mainland in which deep snow falls naturally, however, with the ongoing impact that global warming has left upon our natural environment, it feels ominously close that the premonition of a snow-deprived winter may be as soon as 2050. More erratic looking winters have confirmed the beliefs of many that the ski industry may not be viable beyond the mid-centuryRead MoreLong-Term Effects of Global Tourism on Economy1742 Words   |  7 Pagesfacilities and service industry. And it is also a kind of leisure entertainment that has complex social phenomenon, involves the politics, economy, culture, history, geography, law, and other social fields. Generally speaking, tourism has a profound impact for the country. Tourism gradually has become a prevalent activity all over the world. Compared to 2009, there were 1002 million international tourists in 2010, which increased 6.6% over the last year.(UNWTO, 2011) And then, according to the theRead MoreTourism and Multiplier Effect Essay1240 Words   |  5 Pageshigh season. This means that the people involved with tourism for the most part will have to seek employment elsewhere, as the tourist season is concentrated in the peak season (mostly summer for areas such as Southern Spain, however for skiing or winter activities in areas such as Switzerland or Austria, this may differ). The tourist work is also likely to be temporary from year to year, low paid and informal, with payment cash in hand. This would indicate a transientRead MoreTourism : Positive And Negative Effects On The Economy779 Words   |  4 Pagesis a â€Å"fertile ground† for all nations in the world, especially developing countries to boost their economic growth, preserve their own proud culture and protect the environment. However, apart from these advantages, the disadvantages that it brings are undeniable. Tourism has both positive and negative effects on the economy, environment and society. First of all, it is important to understand that the development of tourism may bring diverse effects on the economy, both positives and negatives. TourismRead MoreBusiness Feasibility Operations And Strategy : Green Divers1639 Words   |  7 Pagesthe natural environment, cultures and community relationships as well as making sure it is economically viable. I am passionate about what sustainable tourism means and what it can do for developing countries. I want to be able to continue to travel and experience the world it’s always been and share that opportunity with others and future generations to come. I believe that it is very important that we start thinking about what we can begin to do now in order to minimize our impact on natural resources

Tuesday, May 5, 2020

El Nino Essay Example For Students

El Nino Essay This morning, before writing this column, I spent a considerableamount of time watering my wilting garden. Meanwhile, the New YorkYankees have been rained out for their third consecutive game. And outin California? Rain, no rain, rain, no rain Why are we sufferingsuch severe weather this summer? In case you have not heard, we areexperiencing a weather phenomenon called El Nino. What is El Nino, and How Long Will This Last? According to MichaelMcPhaden, director of the Tropical Atmosphere Ocean Array, an El Ninois born when west-blowing Pacific trade winds relax or reverse. Withoutthe wind at its back, seawater that typically piles up on the jaggedwestern edge of the Pacific around Indonesia, the Philippines andAustralia slides back toward the Americas. The sliding water movesin what scientists call Kelvin waves. It pushes the cold water down. That causes the initial warming, said McPhaden. At the same time, thePacific reacts to the lost wind by building another series of wavesunder water. Called , they roll west toward Indonesia, the Philippinesand Australia. Eventually, the series of waves strikes the coasts ofthose countries. Then, it reverses and heads back toward South America,traveling along the equator. As it passes, McPhaden said, it leavescold water closer to the surface.El Nino normally occurs around Christmas and usually last for a fewweeks to a few months. Sometimes an extremely warm event can developthat last for much longer time periods. A strong El Nino developed in1991 and lasted until 1995. We are apparently experiencing one of thesestronger El Ninos, as this one has lasted for nearly six months . Buthow long will this last? And then what?The Onset of La Nina After an El Nino event, weather conditions usuallyreturn to normal. However, in some years the trade winds can becomeextremely strong and an abnormal accumulation of cold water can occurin the central and eastern Pacific. This event is called La Nina. WhereEl Nino refers to a body of unusually warm water astride the equator bySouth America, La Nina describes a sea thats abnormally cool. Twoindependent computer models that forecast El Nino see on the horizon apronounced cooling of the same area of the Pacific. Sometimes, the coldwater is just enough to return ocean temperatures to normal. Notalways. Sometimes, it overshoots, McPhaden said. That would bring aLa Nina after El Nino.The models say . . . there will be a cold effect sometime next year magnitude and timing to be determined, said Tim Barnett, one of themodel makers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla. Theother model with the La Nina forecast comes from the Center forOcean-Land-Atmosphere Studies, a research institute in Calverton, Md. Climate experts agree that the forecasts should be viewed withconsiderable caution. Even without consulting computers, its a reasonably safe assumptionthat the present warm spell will be followed, eventually, by a coldone. Thats because the makings of a La Nina are built in to an ElNino. As McPhaden puts it, The seeds for the demise of El Nino aresown even at its onset. So maybe its time we stopped blaming El Ninofor all of our maladies. From now on, we can start blaming the onset ofLa Nina. Most people will not notice the transition from El Nino to LaNina, as the weather will still be hot and there will initially beincreased rainfall, particularly in California, which we may from thispoint forward refer to as CaliforNina.

Monday, April 13, 2020

Bilingual Education Essays - Multilingualism, Linguistic Rights

Bilingual Education Essays - Multilingualism, Linguistic Rights Bilingual Education Bilingual Education Imagine being brought up in a family speaking only one language for your entire life and then you had to move to a foreign land where the language is different. If you had a choice of progressively learning this new language over the course of six to nine years or being put into a classroom and have to virtually teach yourself the language by listening to others around you, which would you choose? Late exit bilingual education is a more effective form of bilingual education compared to the English immersion form of bilingual education in the fact that there are more benefits and less adverse effects. There are many reasons why late exit bilingual education should be the choice of public schools everywhere with high minority populations. One of the effects of late exit bilingual education is that the students would be able to maintain their cultural background instead of having to give up one or the other. Language is a big part of a personfs culture. Late exit bilingual education giv es the non-English speaking students more time to master the English language, which is not an easy language to learn in three years as the English immersion strategy teaches. The findings of the Ramirez team in 1991 evaluating the effectiveness of English immersion, early exit bilingual education, and late exit bilingual education further prove why late exit bilingual education is the one that needs to be used. To look at why keeping onefs culture is important one just needs to look at how and why this country was founded. The first Americans from England came here so they wouldnft have to conform to everything the rulers of England wanted. Immigrants founded this country. One of the greatest things about the United States is that there are so many different types of cultures everywhere you look. It is true that one needs to learn the English language to be successful, but forcing one to give up his or her cultural background is going against everything this country stands for. English immersion does just that by forcing the student to give up his or her cultural background and language (Faltis 191). Late exit bilingual education allows the child to progress effectively through the educational system with the instruction given in English to the extent to make this possible (Schneider, 1976, p. 128.). To throw a student into a classroom that speaks a language that is not familiar to them and forcing them to adjust in three years like English immersion does is not fair to the student. A sink or swim technique is not very beneficial and can cause more harms than good. The English language takes longer than that to gain mastery in even for people who have a firm English base to start from. The expected time to master the English language is anywhere from four to nine years for the average person (Collier, 1992). Time is needed for development, which is just not offered with English immersion. I was in a class with three Hispanic immigrants while I was in high school. They knew no English and were forced to adapt to the all-English environment through English immersion. As expected by the observers of these students, the immigrant students passed the class with D-es only because the teacher felt it was the best thing for them. We need to realize that these non-English speaking students and other like them who go through the English immersion program will graduate from high school by the mercy of teachers and will not be prepared to be successful in the so-called ereal worldf. This leads me to statistics that further the notion that late exit bilingual education is more effective than English immersion. These results were published in the Ramirez report. The Ramirez report contains some very important evidence that suggests late exit bilingual education is the more beneficial program to use. By looking at the report it is clear that even teachers of the English immersion strategy believe that many of the students in their classes would be better off if they remained in the program for more than the three years that it takes now. The report has evidence that

Wednesday, March 11, 2020

Structures and Agency Essays

Structures and Agency Essays Structures and Agency Essay Structures and Agency Essay and emplaced in terms of lifestyle, conditions, etc. Our actions therefore respond to the structures of one kind or another, in which we are situated. Another way of thinking about how structure changes us comes from the 19th century social scientist, Durkheim. An example comes from Durkheims work on suicide, which listed three categories in which suicide could occur: Egoistic: for reasons of self-dissatisfaction or in response to personal emotion. Altruistic: for the good of other people Anomic: because all structures have broken down and life no longer has meaning This shows that even in relation to this extreme decision, the individual does not act without reasons – reasons are taken in response to structures. Durkheims theory of social facts clarifies the relationship between structure and infrastructure. Structures have priority, externality and constrain, in relation to our behaviour. Structuralists reject pluralism: they argue that the atomized actor is the only actor we can know. We can therefore predict life chances according to structures such as class, race and gender. From a structuralist approach we can understand the relevance of the debate to politics. Structuralist Marxists would argue that human action and choice is determined by class. Society is composed of superstructure, what we can call civil society which includes things such as education, the arts and culture and substructure which is constituted of the material and economic base. Marx argued that the substructure defines the superstructure – clearly a structuralist and deterministic view of society and culture. Both levels, according to Marx, are controlled by a ruling class. Men make their own history, but not under circumstances of their own choosing. Marcuse, for example, argues that we do not live in a free society, but a one-dimensional one. There is no freedom, simply reproduction of the views of the ruling class. Similarly, structuralist feminism, of the 1960s, held patriarchy as the key structural influence. The work of Germaine Greer and Kate Millet reflects this. They saw the systematic exclusion and subordination of women from many aspects of the economy and society, and explained the position and behaviour of women through the structures set up by men. There are criticisms of this approach. Firstly, structuralist accounts underestimate the reflexivity and autonomy of human actions. They tend to concentrate on the individuals position in a hierarchy, and do not deal with the ambiguity and ambivalence of human experience. There is a skewed reality at work: they attribute too much power/influence to few structures. Marxists, for example, have been accused by feminists of ignoring gender as a structure. Furthermore, they postulate repetitive patterns of behaviour and therefore cannot explain how changes, for example Glasnost and the abandonment of Communism have occurred. Loyal and Barnes elucidate the key differences between structure and agency. They suggest â€Å"agency stands for ‘the freedom of the contingently acting subject over and against the constraints that are thought to derive from enduring social structures. To the extent that human beings have agency, they may act independently of and in opposition to structural constraints, and/or may (re)constitute social structures through their freely chosen actions. To the extent that they lack agency, human beings are conceived of as automata, following the dictates of social structures and exercising no choice in what they do. That, at any rate, is the commonest way of contrasting agency and structure in the context of what has become known as the structure/agency debate. †5 No current theorists would argue that either agency or structure are completely in control of our behaviour, although much is still influenced by this debate: most people today hold the view that agency and structure are enmeshed together. It is still a debate which informs how we think and research. A consequence of the abandonment of extreme positions is the new prevalence of postmodern thought, for which structure is no longer the complete answer. Stuart Hall, for example, admitted in the 1980s that we are living in new times, not defined by class, as in the Marxist approach of his work. Feminists have also accepted that patriarchy is not the sole reason for womens behaviour. Postmodernism has filled the vacuum. Postmodernism reflects the ambiguity and ambivalence of life, and suggests that structures such as class are discursive, representations of how life occurs, not real life. This is a thread in the work of Baudrillard, Barthes, Foucault and Derrida. Derridas work, for example, foregrounds the play of meaning in his differance which implies defer and differ. The point is that meaning is always deferred: there is never a final truth or fact, and reality is always being rewritten. This radically destabilises the idea of a shared reality, emphasising the elasticity of human experience and the need to look at life processually. Everything is moving, unfixed, unfastened, and there are no underlying fixed structures. Postmodernism also emphasises the need to be tolerant of other peoples viewpoints. It encourages multiculturalism. Another strand is Hybridity theory, which claims that everything is hybrid in some sense: that there is no purity. Consequently, no language or point of view is superior. â€Å"Giddens in the form of what he calls ‘Structuration’ theory has set out to try and transcend the dualism of structure and agency. His basic argument is that, rather than representing different phenomena, they are mutually dependent and internally related. 6 Structure only exists through agency and agents have ‘rules and resources’ between them which will facilitate or constrain their actions. These actions, can lead, in turn, to the reconstitution of the structure, defined as rules and resources, which will, in turn, affect future action. Thus, we have a close interrelationship between structure and agency. Giddens’ metaphor for this is that rather than being dist inct phenomena structure and agency are in fact two sides of the same coin. As such, we have a conception of the mutual constitution of structure and agency. As Taylor argues, â€Å"†¦this conception is the most distinctive feature of ‘Structuration’ theory, yet a feature which serves crucially to undermine the theory as a whole. †7 This approach combines the best of agency and structure approaches the actor is situated, but not clueless. This emphasises reflexivity, and assumes a high degree of self-awareness on the part of the actor, but also allows for the influence of structures and awareness of emplacement. Structuration theory is Giddens attempt to bridge the gap between theories which place emphasis on either structure or agency at the expense of the other. Structuralism represents one extreme on a continuum of theory in which social structures such as class, gender or race are seen as systems which are so pervasive through time and space that people have little or no choice but to operate within them. At the other end of the continuum, there is an emphasis is on the subjective individual, structures are seen as ephemeral; they are relative and secondary to agency. These extremes can be characterized as systems without actors in the case of the former, and actors without systems in the case of the latter. Giddens explains the relation between theses two extremes by offering a theory of structuration that: â€Å"†¦provide[s] an account of human agency which recognizes that human beings are purposive actors, who virtually all the time know what they are doing (under some description) and why. At the same time [as understanding that] the actions of each individual are embedded in social contexts stretching away from his or her activities and which causally influence their nature. 8 Grasping the recursive nature of social practices the duality of structure – is according to Giddens, the key to achieving this. The study of politics largely concerns conceptions of power; ‘who gets what, when and how. ’9 We can understand the role of the state to include controlling and distributing limited resources which determines who benefits, and is included, and who does not benefit and is excluded. Structure and agency can assign responsibility for political actions; it is t he head of state or the political-economic environment that causes events and change? An acknowledgement of the structure agency debate allows us to acknowledge the influence of structures and agents in the political world. The structure agency debate cannot be seen as an approach to political analysis in the same way that rational choice theory might be. However, it is an important way of considering and analysing issues. Let us examine for example, the cause of the Second Gulf War in Iraq. Structure and agency debates will examine this with the approach of; were the actors involved free to make decisions independently of structures and so, as individuals, change the course of history? Or was it a situation in which structure was the predominant factor and the actions of the individuals involved was pre-ordained? From an agency perspective, there are clearly two actors who made key decisions which led to the conflict; George Bush and Saddam Hussein. We can understand that George Bush may have been inclined to go to war as he was simply following in his father’s footsteps, attempting to finish off his father’s unfinished business and trying to consolidate American hegemony. Similarly, we can see that Saddam Hussein was responsible for the conflict by his continued refusal to allow weapons inspectors to sites and his recalcitrance to convince the world that they were not harbouring terrorism and producing weapons of mass destruction. On the structure side of the debate we can see that there were factors of structure; Bush and Hussein were individuals acting in accordance with the structures they themselves may have been unaware of, so that these actors were situated in an environment which meant the course of action was inevitable. Some structural factors that could be considered would be; rising oil prices which, had they continued would have undoubtedly fuelled the recession and increased US domestic stability. Furthermore, instability in the region and the history of Iraqi development of banned weapons and expelled weapons inspectors meant that in a structural sense, there was a sense of inevitability of the conflict. The issue of hegemony could also be regarded as a structuralist consideration as it pervades both economy and culture; it is the field on which the game is played. In providing an explanatory framework for political analysis, postmodernism is largely defunct. Postmodernist accounts of structure and agency reduce it to a discourse in which structure and agency are no more than arbitrary discursive constructs. In the case of war in Iraq we can see that this is a gross oversimplification. However, we can clearly see that these phenomena – Saddam, Bush, oil, terrorism and political stability are very much ‘out there’ with their own characteristics and properties. Structure and agency can produce social effect without being articulated in discourse. Furthermore, Giddens’ rejection of the dualism of structure and agency, regarding it as two sides of the same, replies to the criticism of dualistic constructs. The dialectical approach, and in particular, Giddens’ structuration theory provides a plausible explanation which, as Giddens elucidates, the two sides of the same coin. In the case aforementioned, this constructs a much more plausible explanation which takes into consideration all factors involved. Giddens suggests ‘systems’, in this case, the political climate, influence people’s actions, but in turn, social contexts, or ‘structures’ continue to exist only if they are sustained by people’s repeated actions, for example the actions of Bush and Saddam. â€Å"Giddens concept of the ‘duality of structure’ melds agency and structure into one instead of regarding them as a dualism that consists of two separable albeit connected phenomena; unless and until structure is instantiated it has only virtual existence in the form of memory traces in people’s minds. †10 To conclude, the structure-agency debate is useful insofar as it provides a framework within which to explain social change; and to attribute causation, and this is what Giddens recognises in his two sided coin analogy. Giddens is right that we can only see one side of the coin at a time; this results from our own perceptual limitations when we trying to interpret phenomena. Political theory needs abstraction and over-simplification of the world to enable us to explain phenomena and change; the structure agency debate is one tool to enable us to do this.

Monday, February 24, 2020

Country Profile Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Country Profile - Research Paper Example Kenya is a country situated in the eastern coast of Africa and lies on the equator. The country hares borders with five countries; Tanzania lies to the South, Uganda lies to the West, South Sudan to the North-West, Ethiopia lies to the North part of Kenya while Somalia lies to the North-Eastern side of the country. (Pateman, 28). The Republic of Kenya has a total land area of 582,684 square km. (224,960 square miles) this is nearly the same size as Texas. The country got its name from Mount Kenya, which is quite a significant landmark and is the second highest mountain peak in Africa. The capital city of Kenya is Nairobi which is also the largest city in the Eastern Africa region. HISTORY The history of Kenya can be evidently be traced in the late 1800s when the Kenya-Uganda railways was being constructed by the British. Before then, the country was under the Protectorate of Sultan of Zanzibar who handed over the country to the Germans. The Germans later handed over the country to Im perial British East Africa which was in charge of constructing the railways going through the two countries (from Kenya to Uganda). Later on after the First World War and the completing of the Kenya-Uganda railways most of the British and European settlers in the early 20th century chose to settle in the country especially the central highlands this was in order for them to practice farming and grow coffee and tea. This in did not go down well with the locals as they felt their lands had been grabbed by the colonialists who had forbidden them from cultivating their lands by imposing huge taxes soon their houses and farming. The natives later started a resistance and they called the resistance Mau Mau Rebellion. From the October of 1952 to December 1959 the country was under the state of emergency and the Mau Mau fighters were engaged in guerrilla war against British rule. The capture of key Mau Mau fighters led to the war ending and thereafter the first direct elections for the Afri cans in the Legislative Council was held in the 1957 and in December 12th 1963 Kenya gained independence from Britain and also formed their first constitution on the same day. (YouTube) and (Pateman). One year later on 12th December 1964 Kenya was declared a republic. The first president of the country was Jomo Kenyatta who was the president until his untimely death in 1978. Daniel Arap Moi took over the country from 1978 until 2002 when a new political revolution led by the current president Mwai Kibaki won the election took over. In 2007 there was a massive ethnic unrest and political violence after different political parties accused the current president of rigging the election, this led to approximately more than 1000 people being killed and more than 60,000 displaced in the ethnic violence that was the aftermath of the flawed election. President Mwai Kibaki is expected to hand over the presidency in 2013. STRUCTURE OF GOVERNMENT Kenya is a democratic republic in the sense that the president is both the head of state and also he is the head of the government. The country has also a multi party system of politics. After the 2007 ethnic clashes caused by the elections, there has been constitutional amendments that enabled the sharing of the executive powers between the two political rivals in the government that is the President and the Prime Minister. The executive power is mainly exercised by the

Friday, February 7, 2020

Is a College Degree Necessary Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Is a College Degree Necessary - Essay Example In my opinion, not every student should go to college. First of all, not every vocation needs a college degree. We live in a complex and diverse society and there are many different characters, such as, doctors, businessmen, professors, lawyers, skilled laborers, salesmen, gardeners, and so on. Different vocations need different degrees. A good mechanics does not need a college degree; he just needs to learn the skills about the way to fix all kinds of cars. A great gardener also does not need a college degree; he just needs to know the way to grow saplings make landscape designs. According to Mike, there are many high school kids who do not find college-prep classes interesting. Because of this, many of them drop out. They do not think that their schools are preparing them the way they should be. Here, an important point is that these kids are not defiant or lazy; rather they want to experience everything, learn practical skills, and pursue a respectable professional career upon graduating from high schools. On the other hand, if everyone goes to college to get a college degree, our society will be in a kind of disharmony. When you get a college degree, you will be unwilling to get some low-paying, dirty, or tiring job like dustman, dishwasher, or doorman. These jobs are of grass root level but necessary. We can imagine if nobody wants to do these jobs, the world will be in a disaster as no one would clean trash, nobody would wash dishes, and no one would clean streets. Our world will be dirty and cluttered. According to Mike, labor experts believe that the U.S. is likely to face a severe shortage of skilled workers. For example, the blue-collar baby boomers are leaving their jobs due to retirements and schools are not paying attention towards preparing others to replace them. The fact is that the U.S. needs blue-collar workers, such as, machinists, carpenters, welders, electricians, cable technicians, etc. just the

Wednesday, January 29, 2020

Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior Essay Example for Free

Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior Essay â€Å"Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior†, is an article written by the 48-year-old lawyer and mother Amy Chua. The article is published in The Wall Street Journal on January 8th in 2011. In the article Amy Chua focuses on how the western parents up bring their children versus how the Chinese parents up bring their children. The receivers of the article are the western parents because she wants them to lean from the Chinese parents. Though the whole article Amy is subjective but because of her education she also seems reliable. By using the appeal form logos she refers to studies that compares the Chinese children and the western children ´s academic skills, where the result is that it ´s the Chinese children who are the wisest. The Chinese parents spend ten times more on academic activities with their children than the western parents. A fact which Amy does not mention in the article is that the Chinese children aren ´t free to spend much time with their friends and that can affect them negatively. Through the whole article Amy argues for that the way Chinese parents up bring their children is better than the western parents – therefor the title which also arouses much attention because the article was published in a newspaper which is only published in Western countries. The main statement is that the Chinese parents demand a lot more of their children when it comes to logical skills. For example Amy Chua says â€Å"Chinese parents demand perfect grades because they believe that their child can get them.[1]† followed by another statement â€Å"By contrast, I don’t think most Westerners have the same view of children being permanently indented to their parents.[2]† Indirectly Amy Chua says that the western parents are over-fond. Amy means that the western parents do not believe in thei r children. She emphasizes that the western parents should use more punishment and in general there should be more discipline. According the Chinese parents is the second best just not good enough. For example Amy Chua says â€Å"If a Chinese child gets a B – which would never happen[3]†¦Ã¢â‚¬  which shows that only straight as is good enough and everything under A would be a disaster. The Chinese parent’s reaction is a complete contrast to how the western people would react. The western parents would support their children even though they get very low grades. Seen from Amy Chua ´s perspective are the western children lazy and not good enough. It ´s like Amy thinks that she and the rest of the Chinese parents have found the perfect formula to up bring children. A very important value for the western parents is that their children also must spend time with their friends and have fun. Amy points out that nothing is fun until you ´re good at it. But if the child does not like to play the certain instrument and wants to join a football team or something likely that would neither be okay because it is the parents who decide what fun is for the child. If Amy Chua ´s children had been asked – Amy already had made the decision for them. The Chinese children does not have the same kind of freedom as any other child because their tiger mothers already have set straight lines for their life. The children are not allowed to take care of their own lives. The social qualities are being sat lowest on the list of values. The social qualities should in a modern society be more important than being good at playing the piano. In many ways it can seem right that logical skills are important now and in the future but if Amy and the rest of the Chinese parents do not accept their children ´s individuality something is completely wrong. It ´s kind of like that the Chinese children only keep improve their skills because they wants to make their parents happy which put a stop to their own happiness and goals in life. Amy Chua tries to understand the western way of upbringing but through the whole article she is pro the so-called â€Å"tiger mother technique†. Amy wants the western parents to learn something from the Chinese parents because then we could have a lot more genius people based on the result in Asia. Amy is so focused on good results and success that she forgets the social values and happiness – she overlooks her own mistakes. Her children have might never been to a birthday party after school or in the cinema with their friends – they have not experienced the social spirit which lead to loss of social values like friendship, love and free choices. There are a lot of ways and hundreds of different methods to up bring children and none of them are better than other because it ´s a very individual thing from family to family. Some people would perhaps find Amy Chua ´s formula interesting and some would say that it is a disaster. Medias, friends, family, magazines or whatever influences on how a certain mother and father decides to up bring their child/children and there will always be mistakes – for example: the western children are too lazy and Chinese children have lack of social skills – but that does not make one of them better than the other one.