The American Family Association :: Exploratory Essays

The American Family Association A simple observation of television commercials between segments of a sitcom can find many aspects of life that our founding fathers worked to eliminate. Those who laid the building blocks for this country built it with trust in God. They wanted to build a country based on the Bible. In today’s society, that goal is no longer a priority, and violence and sex are seen each and every day. However, there is one group that is working to re-establish these morals in today’s society. The American Family Association, or AFA as it is referred to, believes that the entertainment industry has played a significant role in the deterioration of the values on which our country was founded and which keep our families and society as a whole strong. As stated on the homepage, the American Family Association, founded in 1977 by Don Wildmon, is a non-profit organization that represents and stands for traditional family values, focusing primarily on the influence of television and other media on our society. The mission statement of the AFA gives a summation of their purpose: â€Å"The American Family Association exists to motivate and equip citizens in the culture to reflect Biblical truth (AFA Online).† The AFA believes that God has communicated the absolute truth to man through the Bible and that each person is subject to God’s authority at all times. The AFA trusts that a society based on Biblical truth best aids the well-being of a culture, and reflects the vision of our country’s founding fathers. The group believes in holding companies accountable for attacks on traditional family values, as well as approving companies who are responsible for the programs which they support. The American Family Association was organized in an indirect manner. As stated in the AFA homepage, President Don Wildmon tells about the group’s formation in his own words: One evening in 1977 I sat down with my family to watch TV. On one channel was adultery, on another cursing, on another a man beating another over the head with a hammer.

ACE Hardware Point of Purchase Observation

Determine the shoppers' decision process. B. Methodology The strength of observation methods lies In â€Å"what It Is†. The subject is not required to recall actions, to answer a questionnaire or to complete a personal Interview. Likewise, the observer Is not In a position to Interpret an answer by an Interviewee. Action is recorded not interpretation. Covert observational research is used. Researchers do not identify themselves. Researchers are either mixing in the subjects undetected, or observing from the distance.This method is used so that the subjects' behavior will not be contaminated by the presence of the researcher. Customers will be observed regardless of whether or not they Interested in certain departments or whether they seemed to be only passing through. All persons, once â€Å"picked up†, will be documented and considered In the analysis even If no purchases are made. The observation location will be focused on the ground floor of ACE Hardware BCC.Resear chers will spread accordingly to the customers movements. The conversion rate of the store will be determined by observing the number of customers coming in only from the main door and customers purchasing at the cashiers of the ground level. Any other activities that take place on the other floor(s) ill not be observed. To avoid biases regarding the elements of the store, researchers will also implement some simple personal interview to the ACE Hardware staffs.By doing so, researchers may interpret the observational data collected more accurately. C. Point of Purchase Observation Things to be observed: Store Measurement Conversion or Closure Rate The amount of time a shopper spends In a store Interception Rate (percentage of customers who have contact with a store employee) Shopping Behavior Departments visited Things seen and touched Things put In the cart Time spent Purchase decision Store Management .Display Location of each departments Products put on the rack at the height the eye level Price tags (is there any differences between products displayed on display table and those on the rack) Differences of products on the height of eye level, above eye level, and under eye level (price, type, colors, shape, etc. ) Products arrangement Lighting b. Store Assistances Employees approach to consumers How to deal with queries and complaints c. In Store Promotion Current promotions Terms and conditions of the promotion Upcoming promotions d. Service Environment Must be available in the service Environment

Ground Rules Essay

â€Å"Ground Rules are boundaries, rules and conditions within which learners can safely work and learns†. (Gravells A, 2010). This above definition explains that all learners require boundaries and rules within which to work. These must be made very clear and early on in the course; these terms could be set by organisation and/or produced by the tutor himself. In fact setting ground rules will help everyone know their limits. Learners like routine and will expect tutor to be organised and professional. â€Å"Ground rules articulate a set of expected behaviours for classroom conduct. They can be set by the instructor or created by the students themselves (some people believe that students adhere more to ground rules they have played a role in creating)†. (Carnegie Mellon, 2005). These rules must be shaped as soon as possible to help maintain order, underpin behaviour and promote respect. They should lead to a set of guidelines regarding acceptable and unacceptable behaviour and set clear boundaries within which to work. If they are not set, problems may occur which could disrupt the session and lead to misunderstandings. The instructor should explain the purpose to ensure that discussions are spirited and passionate without descending into argumentation, to ensure that everyone is heard, to ensure that participants work together toward greater understanding rather than contribute disjointed pieces. Some instructors ask students to sign a contract based on the ground rules; others simply discuss and agree to the ground rules informally. It is important for instructors to remind students of these ground rules periodically, particularly if problems occur (for example, students cutting one another off in discussion or making inappropriate personal comments). Instructors should also be sure to hold students accountable to these rules, for example, by exacting a small penalty for infractions (this can be done in a lighthearted way, perhaps by asking students who violate the rules to contribute a quid to a class party fund), by factoring conduct during discussions into a participation grade for the course, or by pulling aside and talking to students whose conduct violates the agreed-upon rules. 2. Establish Ground Rules: Classroom management and discipline can make or break a teacher. Even the most knowledgeable teachers can struggle with maintaining an effective and orderly learning environment.   Setting ground rules and consequences early, practicing procedures and enforcing rules consistently can contribute to a teacher’s educational success. Often problems arise with students because of unclear expectations about your role as a tutor and about their role as a student and a member of the class. Establishing expectations or ground-rules at the beginning of semester can help clarify these expectations and help in maintaining a good working relationship between you and the group, individual students, and among the students themselves. 2.1 Setting up the Rules: To set ground rules for student activities a behaviour code which all the class will agree with it. This helps to create feelings of trust when beginning to address the feelings the students may have when thinking and talking about the emotive problem. Getting the students to generate the ground rules themselves can also help to establish rules that will be more likely to be kept by the group, as students will feel like tutor trusted and valued their perspectives. A set of ground rules can be a helpful tool when having to deal with difficult situations at a later date. For example, if some students are dominating discussion or behaving inappropriately, being able to refer back to the ground rules that the students themselves negotiated can be quite powerful in getting back control of the class. It’s also quite useful to review the ground rules during the semester, to get feedback from students on how they think things are going, if there are any rules that aren’t working or any rules that should be added. Some possible ways to generate a set of ground rules with the learners include the following: (1) Use pyramiding to get students thinking about their expectations and what they would like as ground rules. First, ask students to think about (and write down) what kind of expectations they would like set for the group on their own, then after a couple of minutes, they turn to their partner and share their ideas, and then each pair joins with another pair and this group of 4 shares ideas and negotiates a common set of ideas. After a few minutes (say 5 – 10 minutes), ask one member of each group to report back to the whole class and you write each idea on the board. Once a set of expectations/rules has been generated, discuss the list with the class, clarifying if needed and making changes (if appropriate). (2) Start with a short list of rules and expectations that you have created, project this on an overhead projector (OHP) or write on the board, and ask the learners to form small groups (around 4 students) and discuss the list, do they agree, is anything missing, etc? Then ask each group to feed back to whole learners their comments. This then works in a similar way to the last part of pyramiding. (3) Ground rules can also be set up by having a group discussion. It is best to have the ground rules mutually agreed so that both tutor and learner has an opportunity to put their views forward and they must be doable. Once everyone’s views are considered, a set of rules that suit everyone can be designed. Learners are more likely to be committed and adherent to these rules and less likely to be broken, since they were designed by the group itself. After ground rules are agreed, they will have to be written down and distributed to every member of the classroom, and a copy will be displayed in a visible place in the classroom, all through the length of the course. Also it has to be agreed among in the learners how the tutor will react if rules are broken. Learners have to be warned, as to what actions will be taken and disciplinary procedures made aware which will be different for each institution. This will create a safe and respectful environment in which all participants will have the opportunity to benefit from the learning experience. 3. Appropriate Examples of Ground Rules: 3.1 Examples: Each and every learner is different when it comes to behaviours and respect for others. So agreements have to be made about expected behaviour in the classroom. Ground rules are mutually agreed arrangements between the tutors and the learners, which ensure that the views and needs of all learners are valued and appreciated. It helps learning, easy in the classroom. Learners need to know what the teacher expects from them and what they can expect from the teacher during the course. They need to know where the boundaries lie and what will happen if they step over the boundaries. These rules have to be established by thinking carefully, expressing clearly and enforcing consistently. Ground rules can be set either by the tutor, or by the learner or by the tutor and learners together. Here are some examples of Ground rules: * Listen actively and attentively. * Ask for clarification if you are confused. * Do not interrupt one another. * Challenge one another, but do so respectfully. * Critics ideas, not people. * Do not offer opinions without supporting evidence. * Avoid put-downs (even humorous ones). * Take responsibility for the quality of the discussion. * Build on one another’s comments; work toward shared understanding. * Always have your book/readings in front of you. * Do not monopolize discussion. * Speak from your own experience, without generalizing. * If you are offended by anything said during discussion, acknowledge it immediately. * Consider anything that is said in class strictly confidential. * Everyone will be on time. * Respect each other’s point of view. * Listen to each other, and don’t interrupt when another person is speaking. * Don’t criticise or ‘put down’ another person. * Come prepared for each class. * Turn off mobile phones. * Behave Seriously. * No Violence. * Helps other so everybody can enjoy the lesson. 4. Setting Ground Rules to promote respect for others: Well-defined rules in the classroom can prevent many behavioural difficulties. When learners are involved in the development of the rules, they are more likely to adhere to them and understand why they have been put into place. â€Å"Ground rules are boundaries, rules, and conditions within which learners can safely work and learn. If they are followed, they should promote respect for others and ensure the sessions run smoothly†. (A.Gravells, 2008) So agreements have to be made about expected behaviour in the session. Ground rules are mutually agreed arrangements between the tutors and the learners, which ensure that the views and needs of all learners are valued and appreciated. It helps learning, easy in the session. Learners need to know what the tutor expects from them and what they can expect from the tutor during the course. They need to know where the boundaries lie and what will happen if they step over the boundaries. These rules have to be established by thinking carefully, expressing clearly and enforcing consistently. Ground rules can be set either by the tutor, or by the learner or by the tutors and learners together. Ground rules can be set up by having a group discussion. It is best to have the ground rules mutually agreed so that both tutor and students have an opportunity to put their views forward and they must be doable. Once everyone’s views are considered, a set of rules that suit everyone can be designed. Learners are more likely to be committed and adherent to these rules and less likely to be broken, since they were designed by the group itself. It will instil positive discipline and maximise learning since the rules were set up with them and not enforced. As a tutor, ground rules will be to ensure that tutor will be fully prepared for the session, be punctual with start and finishing times for each session and make sure markings are completed in time. Tutor must make sure not to put down anyone, encourage the learners, assist in team work, help with course completion, be professional and honest, be non-judgemental and will have interactive teaching and no politics. Learners must have to decide on their ground rules like, respect for others, punctuality, confidentiality, honesty, equality of opportunity, learn and listen, no interruption, mobile phones off, no abusive language, self-control, no politics. After ground rules are agreed, they will have to be written down and distributed to every member of the classroom, and a copy will be displayed in a visible place in the classroom, all through the length of the course. Also it has to be agreed in the class how the tutor will react if rules are broken. Learners have to be warned, as to what actions will be taken and disciplinary procedures made aware which will be different for each institution. This will create a safe and respectful environment in which all participants will have the opportunity to benefit from the learning experience. Conclusion: This assignment focus on the ground rules between the tutor and learner. It defines some general ground rules between them, ways to establish and setting up in that way so it could promote respect for other learners. As I have already defined that Ground rules are the boundaries and conditions in which a learner can work and learn safely so these rules should be be established at the beginning of a course, and the tutor should explain the purpose they serve to ensure that discussions are spirited and passionate without descending into argumentation. It is vitally important point behind the ground rules that we could provide safe learning environment which promote respect for among the learner. At the end of this assignment, I conclude that these ground rules are the basic rules which create harmonious and safe environment during session, avoid the disaster situations and create a respective feelings for each other.

Iran Awakening

Jessica Muhr May 2nd, 2012 History of the Middle East â€Å"Iran Awakening† â€Å"One Woman’s Journey to Reclaim Her Life and Country† This book, â€Å"Iran Awakening†, is a novel written by Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi. Ebadi weaves the story of her life in a very personal and unique way, telling the account of the overthrow of the shah and the establishment of a new, religious fundamentalist regime in which opposition to the government are imprisoned, tortured, and murdered.By simply reading the Prologue, one can see the love Ebadi has for Iran and her people. This love that Ebadi has for the oppressed of Iran is a theme that appears throughout the book and seems to be a large factor behind her drive to stand up for those who cannot stand up for themselves. In the first chapter, Ebadi recounts her childhood from her birth on June 21st, 1947 in Hamedan, to her childhood in Tehran. Something that may come as a surprise to a reader was the equality between m ale and female in Ebadi’s home.This equality, however, was not common in most Iranian households, â€Å"Male children enjoyed an exalted status, spoiled and cosseted†¦ They often felt themselves the center of the family’s orbit†¦ Affection for a son was an investment†, says Ebadi. In Iranian culture, it was considered natural for a father to love his son more than his daughter. In Ebadi’s home, though, she describes her parent’s affections, attentions, and discipline as equally distributed.This equality in the home seems to play a large role in creating the strong, determined woman Ebadi would come to be, â€Å"My father’s championing of my independence, from the play yard to my later decision to become a judge, instilled a confidence in me that I never felt consciously, but came to regard as my most valued inheritance. † (Ebadi, 12). One may also find it interesting that as a child, Ebadi did not know anything of politics; until the coup d'etat of 1953. On August 19th, 1953, the beloved Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh was toppled in a coup d’etat.Ebadi says that, as children, this news meant nothing. But the adults could see what Ebadi, at the time, could not. The book makes it clear that, to those of Iran who were not paid to think otherwise, Mossadegh was revered as a nationalist hero and the father of Iranian independence for his bold move of nationalizing Iran’s oil industry which had been, until then, controlled by the West. Therefore, it was obvious that this was the beginning of a vast change for Iran. Before the coup, Ebadi’s father, a longtime supporter of the prime minister, had advanced to become minister of agriculture.In this new regime, Ebadi’s father was forced out of his job, fated to languish in lower posts for the rest of his career. This was what caused a silence of all things political in the Ebadi home. Entering law school in 1965 was a â€Å"turning point for me†, says Ebadi. The vast interest in Iran’s politics was shocking to her after coming from a home in which politics were never spoken of. After toying with the idea of studying political science, Ebadi decided on pursuing a judgeship; which is exactly what she did. In March of 1970, at the age of twenty-three, Ebadi became a judge.In 1975, after 6 months of getting to know each other Ebadi married Javad Tavassoni. Her husband, unlike many Iranian men, coped well with her professional ambitions. In the autumn of 1977, there was, what Ebadi describes as, a â€Å"shift in the streets of Tehran†. The shah’s regime was trying to reduce the power of the judiciary by setting up the ‘Mediating Council’, an extrajudicial outfit that would have allowed cases to be judged outside of the formal justice system. Some of the justices wrote a protest letter arguing against the council, demanding that all cases had to be tried before a court of law .This was the first collective action taken by the judges against the shah. Ebadi signed the letter. In January of 1978, President Jimmy Carter arrived in Tehran, Iran and described it as an â€Å"island of stability†, something he later came to regret. Not long after President Carter’s statement, a newspaper article aggressively attacking Khomeini inspired a revolt among the people of Iran, calling for his [Khomeini’s] return; the police shot into the crowd and killed many men. By the summer of 1978, protests had grown larger, making it impossible to avoid them. In early August, a crowded cinema in Abadan was burned to the round. This horrific event burned 400 people alive. The shah blamed this event on religious conservatives; Khomeini accused the SAVAK, the regime’s secret police, which was a force of legendary brutality against the government’s opponents. This tragedy pushed many Iranians against the shah. They now realized that the shah was no t merely an American puppet. Ebadi herself says that she was ‘drawn’ to the opposition. She says that it did not seem a contradiction for her, an educated professional woman, to back it (Ebadi, 33). She had no idea that she was backing her own eventual defeat.Ebadi uses something close to irony as she describes a morning when she and several judges and officials stormed into the minister of justice’s office. The minister was not there, instead a startled elder judge sat behind the desk. â€Å"He looked up at us in amazement and his gaze halted when he saw my face. â€Å"You! You of all people, why are you here? † he asked, bewildered and stern. â€Å"Don’t you know that you’re supporting people who will take away your job if they come to power? † â€Å"I’d rather be a free Iranian than an enslaved attorney,† I retorted boldly, self-righteous to the core. (Ebadi, 34) On January 16th, 1979, the shah fled Iran, ending two m illennia of rule by Persian kings. The streets were over-crowded with euphoric citizens, Ebadi herself being one of them. On February 1st, 1979, Khomeini returned to Iran. For about a month, the country of Iran hung in the balance. In most of the cities an emergency military had gone into immediate effect and Khomeini had ordered people to go back into their homes by nightfall with the instruction to go onto their roof at 9pm and scream, Allaho akbar, â€Å"God is greatest†.On February 11th, Khomeini exhorted people to defy the 4pm curfew the military had imposed by coming out into the streets. Ebadi remembers going into the streets, hearing sounds of the gunshots echoing, and taking in the frenzied scene of emotion. The next day, the 22nd of Bahman on the Iranian calendar, the military surrendered and the prime minister fled the country. The country rejoiced, including Ebadi herself. She says, looking back, she has to laugh at the feeling of pride that washed over her for it took scarcely a month for her to realize that she had willingly participated in her own defeat. Ebadi, 38) Merely days after the revolution’s victory, a man named Fathollah Bani-Sadr was appointed provisional overseer of the Ministry of Justice. Expecting praise from this man, Ebadi was shocked when he said, â€Å"Don’t you think that out of respect for our beloved Imam Khomeini, who has graced Iran with his return, it would be better if you covered your hair? † This headscarf â€Å"invitation† was the first in a long string of restraints on the women of Iran. After being away for less than a month, Ebadi could already see the changes that had taken place in Tehran. The streets were renamed after Shia imams, martyred clerics, and Third World heroics of an anti-imperial struggle. † (Ebadi, 41) Her fellow co-workers, male and female, were dirty and smelled. The bow tie had been banned, being â€Å"deemed a symbol of the West’s evils, smelling of cologne signaled counterrevolutionary tendencies, and riding to the ministry car to work was evidence of class privilege† (Ebadi 42). Rumors spread that Islam barred women from being judges. Ebadi was the most distinguished female judge in all of Tehran.So, upon hearing these rumors, she tried to counter her worries with her connections; but even this small comfort proved to be in vain. In the final days of 1979, Ebadi was effectively stripped of her judgeship. She stubbornly stood, though six months pregnant, as the committee flippantly tossed a sheet of paper at her and said, â€Å"Show up to the research office when you’re done with your vacation†, her ‘vacation’ being her maternity leave. The men then began to talk about her as though she was not there, saying things like, â€Å"Without even starting at the research office, she wants a vacation! † another said, â€Å"They’re disorganized! and another, â€Å"They’re so u nmotivated; it’s clear they don’t want to be working! † †¦ The point Ebadi was trying to make is clear by the telling of these statements. Most men, especially those in the government, had lost what little respect they had previously held for women prior to the Revolution. That much, at least, seemed very clear. The post-Revolution’s effect on women was a grim one. As Ebadi read in a newspaper piece titled â€Å"Islamic Revolution†, â€Å"the life of a woman’s was now half that of a man (for instance, if a car hit both on the street, the cash compensation due to the woman’s family was half of that due the man’s), a oman’s testimony in court as a witness now counted only half as much as that of a man’s; a woman had to ask her husband permission to divorce. The drafters of the penal code had apparently consulted the seventh century for legal advice. † (Ebadi, 51). Ebadi’s head pounded with rage as she read this news. â€Å"The grim statues that I would spend the rest of my life fighting stared back at me from the page†, she writes. One effect of the new Islamic penal code was the imbalance it caused within Ebadi’s marriage. â€Å"The day Javad and I married each other, we joined our lives together as two equals†, she writes. But under these laws, he stayed a person and I became a chattel. They permitted him to divorce me at will, take custody of our future children, and acquire three wives and stick them in the house with me. † (Ebadi, 53). Ebadi knew her husband had no intentions of putting this new law to use, but she still could not accept the distraction the imbalance between them was causing her. At length, Ebadi came up with a solution: within the course of the next morning, her and her husband drove to the local notary where her husband readily signed a postnuptual agreement.This granted Ebadi the right to divorce her husband without permissi on, as well as primary custody of their children in the event of a separation. â€Å"Why are you doing this? † the astonished notary asked [Javad]. â€Å"My decision is irrevocable, â€Å" Javad replied. â€Å"I want to save my life. † This eased Ebadi’s feeling of unrest greatly, her and her husband were equals again, but a small part of her was still at unease. â€Å"After all, I couldn’t drag all the men of Iran down to the notary, could I? † (Ebadi, 54). September 22nd, 1980 marked the day that Saddam Hussein launched a full-blown invasion on Iran.Though the popular discontent with the revolution had by no means abated: as Ebadi mentions, during the war, â€Å"the newspapers still had long lists of the executed, all the former regime’s officials and counterrevolutionaries who had been shot or hung, and sometimes pages filled with macabre photos of gallows and dead bodies. † Despite all of this, the people went on, just as they h ad through the upheaval after the revolution. In short, the decade after the revolution was one filled with much strife, war, and repression.This strife first became personal to Ebadi in the form of the political imprisonment and murder of her brother-in-law Fuad at the young age of 24. â€Å"Fuad’s death made me even more obstinate†, she writes. â€Å"We had been told not to discuss his death with anyone, so I talked about his execution night and day. In taxis, at the corner shop, in line for bread, I would approach perfect strangers and tell them about this sweet boy who was sentenced to twenty years in prison for selling newspapers, and then executed. † (Ebadi, 89)This tragic event in Ebadi’s life, the hot outrage that it made her feel, is remembered as the spark which would lead to her return to legal practice in the 1990’s. Things had, of course, continued to happen since Fuad’s death in the fall of 1988. In 1989, Khomeini had died, the komitehs harsh, unnecessary punishments grew more serious and frequent: Ebadi writes of one instance in which her friend’s fiance is whipped 80 times with no legal grounds whatsoever. The extreme laws against women grew more and more severe.When Ebadi was arrested for the first time (for a crime of wardrobe), she mentions an elderly woman who was arrested for the â€Å"crime† of wearing slippers. Yet over time, it again â€Å"became fashionable for the daughters of Traditional families to attend college†, Ebadi writes. â€Å"Throughout the nineties, the number of women with college degrees rose steadily, and eventually the women began to outnumber the men in universities by a small margin. † This new wave of educated women emerging from Iran created a people that was no longer content to slip back into their old, traditional roles in the home.This new attitude was often met by extreme clashes within the family. Ebadi writes of one such woman who, upon re questing a divorce from her husband, was refused by her father. Facing a lifetime of unhappiness, the woman doused herself in gasoline and set herself ablaze. In 1992, Ebadi again began practicing law, this time exclusively taking on pro bono cases. She pored over religious texts, attempting to gain sufficient knowledge to argue against particular interpretations that would claim that, within Islam, discriminatory interpretations were to be made.Ebadi began to take on only the cases of women and children, for these were the ones who were constantly at the mercy of a sick, twisted government. Ebadi took on many cases; one was that of the family of Zahra Kanzemi, an Iranian journalist who had been killed in police custody in 2003. Another was that of a student who was beaten to death by paramilitaries during a 1999 protest; Ebadi herself was imprisoned during the course of this case. While digging through the paperwork for a case representing the children of a couple who had been slai n in their home, Ebadi stumbled across the official authorization of her own assassination.The response Ebadi has to this shocking information was one of the major instances that. I believe, greatly endears her to the reader as an extremely brace and powerful woman. â€Å"I wasn’t scared, really, nor was I angry†, she writes. Instead, Ebadi simply wanted to know why. One thing that is truly unique about Ebadi is the way in which she writes about her life choices. She writes about them as if they were natural, obvious, and just the thing anyone would have done in her place. In reality, this is not so.Many others around Ebadi had the education and ability to make the same choices that Ebadi had made, but they did not, some even emigrating during the Iran-Iraq war. For Ebadi, patriotic to the core, the only choice was to stay. She has a love for her country that defies the instability and repression the government tries to place upon her. Ebadi knows, deep within herself, that the government is not the country. The only moral choice she could live with was to fight injustice with law; the very law the injustices claimed themselves to be. Following the ‘Reform Era’, you can see Ebadi breathe a huge sigh of relief.The years of constant anxiousness over everything, even her girl’s birthday parties, were behind her. The days when young people would be whipped for venturing into the mountains together, women would be detained or lashed for simply wearing a smudge of makeup or nail-polish, or for wearing any color clothing besides navy or black tones, were happily retired. Moderate President Khatami sought to pull back the system’s interference in the people’s private lives, but as Ebadi states, â€Å"President Khatami deserves only a measure of credit for this shift.Really it was because my daughters’ uncowed generation started fighting back, and, through the force of their sheer numbers and boldness, made it unf easible for the state to impose itself as before. † This book was, in my opinion, a fantastic portrait of a life lived in truth. It was a delight to see how Ebadi’s simple courage and outright stubbornness made a vast difference in the lives of many, even in the face of extreme adversity, like her own possible assassination. In conclusion, I will once again quote Ebadi, as she articulates the dignity of the reform movement within Iran. It so happened that I believed in the secular separation of religion and government because, fundamentally, Islam, like any religion, is subject to interpretation. It can be interpreted to oppress women or interpreted to liberate them†¦ I am a lawyer by training, and know only too well the permanent limitations of trying to enshrine inalienable rights in sources that lack fixed terms and definitions. But I am also a citizen of the Islamic Republic, and I know the futility of approaching the question any other way.My objective is not to vent my own political sensibilities but to push for a law that would save a family like Leila's† — a child who was raped and murdered — â€Å"from becoming homeless in their quest to finance the executions of their daughter's convicted murderers. If I'm forced to ferret through musty books of Islamic jurisprudence and rely on sources that stress the egalitarian ethics of Islam, then so be it. Is it harder this way? Of course it is. But is there an alternative battlefield? Desperate wishing aside, I cannot see one. † – Shirin Ebadi

Distracted Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Distracted - Essay Example But the beliefs of freedom, his trust in advantages of electronic communication, fast mobility are but illusions of the modern civilization. Distracted. Yes we all are distracted, we face an erosion of attention and there is a Dark Age looming ahead of all of us. Maggie is absolutely correct in her observations in Distracted that the modern man is engrossed in everything else but the true essence of life for which he was born. (Jackson 2008). â€Å"Virtual love affairs and online games? Simultaneous books and instantaneous travel? Cubist painters, simultaneous poets, and telegraph operators were undoubtedly the front line of industrial society’s plunge into a culture of simultaneity and split screen attention. They were the first one to confront questions that we now wrestle daily. How do we navigate seen and unseen? Part I, Lengthening shadows, exploring our landscape of distraction, chapter 1, tracing the roots of our attention deficit culture gongs a bell into my ears that modern technology is a mere notion of living with the power to reach out to people when we are physically far away from them (Jackson 29) We are trying to live in a virtual world when we have the ability to live in harmony with the real one. It is costing us dearly to be wired to our mobiles, internets, ipods, television sets and high tech gadgets that have made us their slave while we glorify them to be our best assets. Humans are born with the basic sense of touch, smell, sight and taste. These are getting redundant as virtual reality does not offer them as yet. A caring hand, a tender voice, the fragrance of a rose and the taste of home made food made lovingly by a close one will never be a substitute for the best from the cyber world. Our connections to the electronic mediums of modern life are degenerating our biology. The basic human virtues are at stake and we are not in power but in constant failure of

Motivating Junior High Students to Learn Math Research Paper

Motivating Junior High Students to Learn Math - Research Paper Example This research will begin with the statement that if junior high school students could be motivated to learn mathematics, they could achieve lifelong success since mathematics is the core of other academic disciplines such as accounting, construction, engineering, and medicine. Students in junior high school are energized by four main goals which include success, curiosity, creativity and satisfying relationships in their studies. In motivating students to learn mathematics, the teacher should ensure student engagement in learning. Engaged students are committed to their learning despite any challenges or obstacles and aim at accomplishing their studies. Educators agree that motivating junior high school student to learn mathematics is challenging. The social structure has changed hence teachers and other stakeholders need to change if the needs of the junior high school students are to be attained. Some societal changes include an increase in family breakups, working parents, and inn ovations in technology. The complexity of mathematical content in the curriculum has also changed. There is a strong relationship between school achievement and the quality of life. Motivation to learn mathematics can either be intrinsic or extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation is the desire of students to engage in learning activities which bring joy and self-confidence to them. This motivation focuses on the learning goals such as mastery of mathematical concepts.

The Coming Anarchy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Coming Anarchy - Essay Example Kaplan argues that all these developments which are a result of natural resource scarcity and overpopulation will lead to a global anarchy where war and crime are indistinguishable. Kaplan cites loss of power of central governments, political borders becoming obsolete and transfer of power to security firms and private armies as the reason for the rise of global anarchy (Kaplan, 1994). Kaplan’s thesis of the coming anarchy has great support not only from other scholars and experts in the field but also from general public and political community. The support for the thesis mainly rises by the fact that it has been very accurate in predicting the current events in Africa. Also it has been praised for its broad range of reasoning and thought provoking style. The thesis is not free of criticism. It has attracted a lot of criticism for its unscholarly presentation and unprofessional approach. It is argued that there are many flaws in the argument along with poor interpretation of the findings and methodological errors. This paper is an argumentative essay that refutes the claim that resource scarcity will lead to anarchy. The supporters of the thesis believe in it for the logical explanation that is used to prove it. The environmental scarcity of resources which is due to increased demand as a result of overpopulation, degradation of resources, unequal distribution, etc will result in civil violence. Ecological marginalisation and resource capture will be the causes behind civil violence and this in turn will lead to social effects such as migration, legitimate institutes become disrupted and agricultural production is constrained (Barbier & Homer-Dixon, 1996). The supporters agree with the end result of these will be the one predicted in â€Å"The Coming Anarchy†. Further explanation is that convinces many of its supporters is that as scarcity of natural resources