Reaction to “Race, The Power of Illusion” Essay

Viewing this documentary was an extremely valuable experience in my understanding of not only some of the material we’ve been discussing in our course, but also in developing a much more developed grasp on the full extent of our nation’s ugly history of racism. While, by and large, I was already keenly aware of many of the events and incidences discussed throughout the three-part documentary including the assimilation and forced removal of Native Americans, slavery, manifest destiny, the idea of the â€Å"white man’s burden†, and the study of eugenics, there were so many different aspects to these events that you simply do not learn in grade school. Watching these events unfold visually compelled me in way I never quite had been before from an emotional standpoint- the social implications of these events are so much graver and severe than I had even thought previously. As the documentary noted in the third act, racism is so deeply rooted in American soil that one born here or moving here after the most blatant forms of racism have vanished (segregation) finds themselves unwittingly fitting into racialized society. Without viewing films like these and having the kinds of discussions we do in class about institutionalized racism, it is rather easy to accept it as normal having grown up from a place of privilege. What struck me most overall from watching this documentary were the â€Å"big picture† ideas presented about what race actually means. Time and time again evidence is presented that refutes the â€Å"ferociously pervasive† misconception that people belonging to the same race show evidence of significant genetic markers, and that our perceptions of what race means is entirely created by historical, social, and policy markers that all stem from the faulty science that delegates certain attributes to different races. The idea that people of a certain race could inherently exhibit certain attributes over people of other races creates a social hierarchy that initially was designed to justify the enslavement of African men and women. As the documentary observes, the problem is that by claiming that race is  based in biology, as demonstrated in the studies on eugenics presented in â€Å"scientific† works such as â€Å"Types of Mankind†, the perceived inequality between people of different races became much more serious than a power imbalance. The note that, if race was treated as a way to keep people of color subordinate upfront, the inequality would have dissipated following abolition. However, when eugenics went as far as to claim that people of different races were of different species, it justified the idea that Thomas Jefferson’s claim that â€Å"all men are created equal† did not have to include African Americans. I also had never heard any mention of Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia, that, while pitching America’s brand to European countries, was horrifically racist, claiming that blacks were inferior to whites in body and in mind. I was personally horrified upon learning that the Nazi’s claimed inspiration from American eugenicists on the racial profiles that led to the extermination of millions of Jews. The culture and the race of Jewish people were often intertwined, as in the assumption that in the 1920’s many basketball teams consisted of Jewish men due to their â€Å"artful dodger† nature. Another idea presented by the documentary that I had not considered previously was how race effected the experience of citizenship in the US, and how race is determined in the context of citizenship. Back when there was an influx of immigrants from European countries, there was much prejudice against immigrants despite that they were by and large racially homogenous. Over time, as these people from different cultures assimilates, they became accepted as American whites, while African Americans, Asians, and Native Americans were still prejudiced against. It became clear, especially in light of the change of heart about the morality and civility of Native Americans when they initially refused to yield to American imperialism, that race was used more to justify displacement of peoples to maintain certain cultural ideas and â€Å"standards† than it was actually about one’s racial profile. To write off a group of people as immoral and incompetent was a huge reoccurring theme we saw among these groups of oppressed people. This is evident in America’s conquest of the Philippines- when the people of the Phillipines were depicted as  racially similar to African Americans despite baring no visual commonality it became evident that they used race as an easy marker for the foreign, or the â€Å"other†. More interesting still was learning about the laws that defined race in the nineteenth century, and the great lengths Asian and South Asian people went to in justifying that they should be considered Caucasian to gain citizenship in the US. In the case of the Japanese man who committed suicide after having his citizenship rejected, the courts used race as an indicator of values rather than actually observe the actions of the people seeking citizenship. How ironic was it that prior to India gaining independence from Britain in 1947, that families fled to the US where â€Å"all men are created equal† only to be denied citizenship based on their race? This is so sadly indicative of so much of the inequality still evident in this country today.

The Motorcycle Diaries

It is an irony that the guerrilla Ernesto â€Å"Che† Guevara, one of the most intriguing figures of Latin America, has come to be immortalized as an icon of popular culture—a pin-up, poster boy of sorts that lends face to the mass-produced â€Å"Che† shirts and pins. This massive appeal, however, needs to be rooted in the context of what prompted him to become a revolutionary, to a time before he took up arms and became a legend. Retracing such route to a decisive era in Guevara’s early life is the book â€Å"The Motorcycle Diaries: A Journey Around South America.† The Motorcycle Diaries: A Journey Around South America is the memoir of twenty-three year-old medical student Ernesto Guevara de la Serna when he embarked upon a journey across South America with his older friend Rodrigo Granado. In search for fun and adventure, theirs is a rather grand route that spans Argentina, Chile, Peru, the Peruvian Amazon, Colombia and Venezuela. The two start out aboard a lumbering 1939 Norton 500 motorcycle they named â€Å"La Poderosa† (The Mighty One) which eventually crashes on the way and forces them to travel on foot. Chronological entries in The Motorcycle Diaries detail Ernesto’s narrative of the eight-month journey, in which they initially wanted to seek bourgeois pleasures like getting drunk and getting laid. Early on, they pose as Argentinian leprosy doctors in order to gain accommodations and hospitable treatment from local folks.   Further on the road, Ernesto and Alberto share a series of youthful misadventures, at times committing scams to get themselves by. In an event, Ernesto tries to work as a fireman but sleeps out on the sounding fire alarm so that the building on fire burns down. Even if the diaries present the characters’ bawdy behavior, it more importantly accounts for a great discovery that only such journey can offer them. As they themselves experience poverty and come face-to-face with indigent townsfolk, nameless people whose living conditions sharply contrast the lavish lifestyle they were born into, their view of the world changes. Incidents in the diaries concretely speak of these encounters with social injustice. When Ernesto sees a tuberculosis-stricken woman in her death bed, he realizes how dismal the public health system is. When he tours a copper mine (which has taken lives of miners), he discovers how laborers are famished and unfairly treated. Throughout the trip, not only does Ernesto stumble upon the endemic poverty and subjugation of the peoples across South America. He is also able to make his stand regarding a â€Å"unified Latin America.† A passage in the The Motorcycle Diaries reads Although we are too insignificant to be a spokesman for such a noble cause, we believe, and this journey has only served to confirm this belief, that the division of America into unstable and illusory nations is a complete fiction. We are one single mestizo race with remarkable ethnographical similarities, from Mexico down to the Magellan straits. And so, in an attempt to break free from an all narrow-minded provincialism, I propose a toast to Peru and United America. From various South American sights running parallel to each other, Ernesto sees his ideal of Pan-American unification which he would later brace politically. He maintains that since all of Latin America share a common experience and long history of oppression, hence should they have an integrated movement towards their liberation. (Later in his life, Ernesto demonstrated how he lived up to this ideal, touring across the continent to unite different guerrilla units and revolutionary forces in different countries.) What was originally meant to be a journey for fun and adventure turned out to be the provocation necessary to make a â€Å"revolutionary.†   Immersion and encounters with workers being laid-off and fighting for jobs, starving farmers, and other vestiges of feudal rule on agricultural communities make only a few threads weaving the larger story of oppression that proved strong enough to catapult individuals like Ernesto Guevara to the fray. These experiences caused such indignation in Ernesto, sending him to become the revolutionary who changed the history of South America. Both Alberto (who came back to Argentina to pursue medicine and dedicate his practice for the poor) and Ernesto show that the things they saw from their journey are hard truths—realities often obscured to the upper economic classes but inescapable realities nevertheless, needing to be dealt with actions more forceful than charity. The characters of The Motorcycle Diaries are a testament that revolutionaries are made, not born. The ‘life-changing’ theme that prevails in The Motorcycle Diaries is conveyed by other allegories pertaining to the characters’ awakening. For instance, the river separating the leper colony to the medical staff’s island symbolizes the gap between the powerful and the oppressed. Ernesto’s act of dissolving this symbolic divide is a portent to the way he would later take in his life. Ernesto’s Diaries is written with such vividness and animation, and is punctuated with a range of ordinary human emotions, from mischief and vulgarity to a sense of righteousness and justice. He states even his most roguish actions in a matter-of-fact tone that you would think of â€Å"shooting a puma in the dark of the night† (which turns out to be a neighbor’s dog) as if it is the most natural thing to do.   Even if Ernesto writes The Motorcycle Diaries from his own viewpoint, it does not render him heroically ‘larger-than-life.’ In 2004, a film bearing the same title was made based on the book. There are minor deviations from the book to account for, particularly the omission of several interesting incidents (like shooting of the â€Å"puma† and sneaking inside a shipment of melons, etc.). The film also romanticizes the love angle between Ernesto and his fiancà ©e, which, in the diaries, does not appear to be such a highlight.   Despite these, however, the film is still quite able to introduce the essence of the written memoirs to those who have not read them yet. The Motorcycle Diaries: A Journey Around South America has written down how witnessing concrete forms of social injustice could change a person’s worldview and awaken him from his ignorance and unconscious indifference. At least for the man who later became the revolutionary Che Guevara, the journey even served to fuel his future actions in defiance of the prevailing system he found oppressive. The catchphrase â€Å"Before he changed the world, the world changed him† (promoting the film version of The Motorcycle Diaries) speaks truthfully of the bereted man we see ubiquitously as a pop icon. In turn, the book speaks of demystifying the face behind the shirt and the poster and understanding, from his beginnings, the persona who the powers-that-be, for so long, have come to vilify. Guevara, Che, The Motorcycle Diaries: A Journey Around South America. October 1996. New York: Verso.   

The New Coalition Government in the United Kingdom Assignment

The New Coalition Government in the United Kingdom - Assignment Example These new statutory rules had taken effect last October 1, 2010 and pertain to the gathering of sensitive information and also the handling of confidential correspondence and communications related to child protection and other serious child care incidents.#2 These are all part of social work reforms that are being implemented. However, it must be emphasized that safeguarding is a bit different from child protection in the sense that the former pertains to protecting children from mistreatment, the prevention of impairment in a child’s development and ensuring children grow up in the right environment consistent with their safe and effective care. Child protection is just a part of the overall safeguarding and undertaken to protect vulnerable children who might be suffering.#1 It requires special skill to deal with family situations in which professionals have no other choice but to intervene, or intrude into the family life of a young child. Discussion Parents today are very protective of their children and this is understandable. There are some instances, however, when the children have to be separated from their parents and other adults who might be causing them harm. This is why the English government has taken a right to take care of these vulnerable children as the protector of society.... Although this reaction might be normal for any other person, it must not cloud my judgement on the proper actions to take, such as hesitating to report the matter immediately. For example, I would naturally feel pity for the young Steve and might get into the wrong conclusions about the conditions in the home of Steve and what his parents are doing to him. The appropriate professional response would be to observe Steve objectively, such as how he acts in the classroom or what his reactions are when his stepfather arrives to pick him up. My personal reactions can interfere with my own judgment about what needs to be done in this situation. I need to be quietly inquisitive into the circumstances of Steve’s family life without being obnoxiously intrusive. I have to protect the family’s privacy but not to the extent of possibly neglecting Steve or leaving him at the mercy of his parents. The idea is to correctly identify, understand and deal with possible child abuse. My pe rsonal reactions can lead to an over-reaction, such as reporting Steve’s parents to the authorities when in fact no child abuse has taken place. Steve might just be suffering from some physical ailment. 2. Immediate Concerns – there are some tell-tale signs that all is not well with Steve. The first is his reaction when told about his misbehaviour such as intentionally bumping into other people and his classmates. He was not upset when school staff had told him it is bad for him to keep knocking other people down and even seemed to relish the seemingly violent actions. He is quite aggressive and seems tired just coming into the school in the mornings. It is also noticeable that he is restless and seems always very hungry (which means

Prepare a strategic management report of approximately 3500 words, Essay

Prepare a strategic management report of approximately 3500 words, which evaluates the structure of an organisation and industry in Turkey.Assume that the audie - Essay Example To improve the overall business environment and effectiveness of the organisation, the response patterns and management approaches are identified. The Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey also known as TÃ ¼rkiye Cumhuriyet Merkez BankasÄ ± has its head office located in Ankara, Turkey and was established as a joint-stock company with the majority of shares belonging to the Treasury. The bank has 4770 employees and is the fundamental centralised bank of Turkey controlled by the government (TCMB history, 2005). The first major bank in Turkey was the Ottoman Bank that was jointly set up with French and British capital in 1856. The Ottoman bank became a state bank and achieved the monopoly of issuing bank notes. Although the Turkish Republic extended the period of privilege of the Ottoman Bank until 1935, a new plan to set up the central bank was under way by 1926. The Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey was established by law 1715 which was enacted on June 11, 1930. The central bank had the privilege of issuing bank notes and this remained its monopoly for 30 years (TCMB, retrieved 2005). The privilege was further extended in 1955 and was extended indefinitely in 1994. The main aim of the bank was to support the economic development of the country so the bank was entrusted to the following duties and responsibilities. Several changes were made to the central bank law with the introduction of economic development plans for Turkey during the 1960s. The law 1211 restructured the responsibilities of the central bank and implemented the financial policies within the framework of developmental objectives of the country (TCMB, 2005). The organisation chart shows that the general assembly is subdivided into an auditing committee, the governor and the board. There are four vice governors who oversee the different departments of the banking divisions. Within each of these divisions there are management departments and

How have African-Americans Worked to End Segregation, Discrimination, Essay

How have African-Americans Worked to End Segregation, Discrimination, and Isolation to Attain Equality and Civil Rights - Essay Example With some clever and much-needed moves, they have come out of the stigma that gauged people based on their skin color. This is no more a scenario in US. These people have broken the hard chains and have come out of the discrimination, segregation and isolation. Not only have they come out of the problems surrounding them but have also attained equality in all terms as well as civil rights (Turner-Sadler, 2009, p. 4-11). One of the most important things that played a major role in the fight against discrimination is the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This particular act served as a saving grace for the people as it prevented discrimination on grounds of race, color, national origin or religion among the people. This stand was practiced in both normal activities in the country as well as for employment purposes. Afro-Americans successfully found their way to the top in all sphere of life, be it politically, socially as well as economically. After the Second World War, the Afr ican-Americans moved to some of the commercial cities in the northern and western parts. Usually, the black population is found to be more in the Southern regions. In course of time, the people started moving to other areas where opportunities are more and were a good platform for education was found. This segregation happened in a smooth manner and was made possible by the Civil Rights Act (Wynn, 2010, 30-55). There are lots of aspects that led to the upbringing of the Afro-Americans and one of the most important of all is their political influence. They came to know the importance of attaining political status and worked towards it. In few years, there were lots of African-American leaders in US. Intensity of support is more now and US now boasts of an African-American President at its realm. The first step towards the infusion of African-Americans into the political scenario took place in a slow yet steady manner that paved way for greater stability. Colburn and Adler (2001, pp. 45-75) points out that the political influence that the African-American population gained paved way for development. Richard Hatcher, an African American became the mayor in 1967 which was the beginning of the better phase for the group. With this move, came about a sea of positive changes in the US. Thus through a strong political footage, the African-Americans gained civil rights. Followed by the political affluences came the social status and other perks associated with it. Earlier, discrimination was found in all spheres of life right from jobs, positions and education as well. One of the most dreaded forms of discrimination that is found even now in some parts of the US is that of the employment discrimination. Some sort of discrimination will lead to a lot of adverse situations in the country. If there is no proper employment opportunity for the group then there will not be any sort of developments which may keep that particular society in darkness. In due course of time, thi s may even affect the country at large. There seems to be a significant development in terms of economy as well among the black population. The African-Americans have come to realize the importance of education, political and social status. Conrad (2005, p. 341) rightly points out that there has been a great development in the economical aspect with relation to the African population in America. One of the most important aspects that led

Augustine and Dante Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Augustine and Dante - Essay Example dea of Plato’s intellectual light into a Christian conception of spiritual light by describing the source of intellectual light as Truth or God, presenting it as evidence of God’s work within our minds. This interpretation of intellectual light as Divine Illumination had significant impact on Augustine’s theories regarding the soul, including what the soul was capable of doing and how it related to the body as he wrote in his Confessions. A thousand years later, Dante Alighieri would use these ideas of Divine Illumination to provide the underlying theme for his Divine Comedy. Augustine wrote his famous Confessions when he was in his early-40s. He wrote it as a means of exposing the sinful child he was, how he came to be a Christian and what that has meant in his life. Augustine presents his book in terms of a biography tracing his own spiritual development. He starts with childhood up to age 14 is covered in the first segment of the book in which Augustine exists as the ‘natural’ sinful man. However, as he approached his 20s, one of his friends died and he began studying with Aristotle, adopting a life of philosophy and reveling in a life of sorrow. This represents the second stage in his spiritual development which is a kind of seeking and considering his values. His full enlightenment begins as he sits in the garden one day and hears a child singing a song instructing him to read. Since his friends are talking to him about the Bible at the time, this is the book he begins reading. What he reads convinces him to convert to Christianity. The deaths of his mother and two more friends cause him to stop studying rhetoric and begin to meditate on the spiritual values of confession and the senses. This progression of the soul is almost identical in Dante’s work. The long narrative poem begins when Dante as narrator is rescued from a dark wood in which wild beasts threaten him and he is aware that he is in a place of self-destruction. He travels to the

Public Relations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Public Relations - Essay Example This was the situation in this case. BP was trying to clean up, but its stock was sinking and everyone was turning on it. Many of its press releases from this period seek to reassure the public and the media. BP wanted to convince people that it was doing its best to help clean up the spill. They wanted people to think they were working very hard and tirelessly to do their best and ensure that the livelihood of people in the Gulf area and many of the marine animals were protected. This context is very important to understand. BP was dealing with a massive public relations (and natural) disaster. It was a challenging environment. One of the things that they worked hard to do was be open and transparent about the actions they were taking to solve the problem. That is in part what got them through the mess intact. What was accomplished in the communication? Consider more than just the obvious message. The obvious message here is one of damage control. BP wants to be seen to be working h ard to clean up the environment. They also want to tell people that they are willing to pay for the damage caused. Below this message is an effort by BP to show that they are in control of the situation. They are working hard, but more than that they know what is happening, they can quantify the damage, they are being very responsive to each of the problems that come along. The press release shows to the world that BP is not only working hard but is able to talk about each step of their action in a clear and direct way. For BP, there are no secrets. Everything is above board. That is what is accomplished through this communication. They wanted to send a message with a lot of facts about what they were doing but more than that, they wanted to be seen to be open and transparent. They didn't want to appear to be hiding anything in this situation. Were the press releases related in any way to each other or to major news or industry trends occurring at that time? The press releases were closely related to the events in the Gulf. Indeed, they were a direct response to the oil spill that was happening. Because BP was held to blame for the spill, the press releases were used as a way to assuage the public anger over the issue. It was also a way to get the media to try to start reporting on the story from a positive point view, i.e. what BP was doing to solve the problem. In a situation that extended over many months, BP issued a great number of press releases. The communications department of the company was definitely working overtime through the summer of 2010. Did the company send a consistent and coherent message? The company for the most part sent a consistent and coherent message. The press releases focused on what BP was doing to try to clean up the oil spill. The press releases also focused on some of the technical aspects of the clean-up and effort to stop the well from leaking anymore. Efforts to communicate BP's compensation for those affected by the spill were also included in the press releases. It should be noted that BP received a great deal of criticism when its CEO strayed off of this topic and began to offer an inconsistent message, saying in public for example that the spill was also very hard on him and that he wanted his life back too. That sort of inconsistent messaging caused the company a great deal of grief. In situations like this it is very important to understand that the media will be looking for any perceived inconsistency.

One question to answer Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

One question to answer - Assignment Example According to the research, family-centered service also known as Family-centered care promotes prominently context and child health is an aspect that is taken into consideration here. Due to childhood chronic conditions and the diverse changes of the surrounding environment, anticipation to admit the comings of family health care services is at the top gear as far as living a good life becomes an instrument of home in our lives (Nies 10). An educational class is the core principal that forms part of family health services. This includes health, nutrition, oral health, and parenting skills. In the presence of heath care coordination, the norm help one to keep records of accomplishment of their children as far as immunizations activities is of concern. Moreover, playing a role of a parent ensures that one provides maximum parenting care to his or her child through family nutrition and support. Family health services is of useful to us since it enables one to deliver parenting services, health education to their children as well as nutrition and when all this is met life become fun rather than

Go Green And Save the Earth Essay Example for Free

Go Green And Save the Earth Essay Top of Form Global warming is happening and its getting worse everyday. If we dont take this problem upon ourselves, and take drastic action to help save our environment, Earths most precious gifts could be lost forever. Do you want to help? Here are some useful ways to help reduce your own carbon footprint on the Earth! RECYCLE Recycling is more than just tossing a few things in your bin here and there. You need to do more to make a positive impact. One way to reduce waste is to buy products with minimal packaging. Economy size things are great, since they are usually much bigger and you arent buying so many smaller packages. Also you can try to buy reusable products. For example, when cleaning your kitchen you can use a wash cloth that can be laundered afterwards, rather than using half a roll of paper towels. Remember to recycle paper, plastic, newspaper, glass and aluminum cans. If you recycle half of your household waste each year, you will save 2,400 pounds of carbon dioxide annually. LIGHT BULBS Changing out your light bulbs with the energy efficient bulbs not only is great for the earthits great on your bills as well! They actually give off more light than the old ones, and also last much longer! ADJUST YOUR THERMOSTAT This is a trick that will save the planet and your wallet at the same time. Make your home more energy efficient by adding insulation and weather stripping. Also, set your thermostat two degrees higher in the summer and two degrees lower in the winter.Just throw on a sweater, or cuddle with your spouse! This will also allow you to pay less for heating and air conditioning while saving about 2,000 pounds of carbon emissions each year. CARPOOL Join a carpool or take the bus. You can help the environment and save money on gas. If your work isnt too far away, try walking or biking to work. Maybe you can add a few years to your life by getting some exercise too! BUY GREEN PRODUCTS Look for products that say Earth Friendly, Greenlist, Plant Based Ingredients, or All Naturaleven Organic. Buying these products are healthy for you as well. All those extra chemicals are making us sick, and polluting our earth. REUSE PLASTIC BAGS If you cant buy the reusable cloth bags and avoid using the stores bags all togetheryou can at least reuse them at home. Please just dont throw them away. Those things are turning up everywhere! They are killing millions of marine animals in our oceans. These animals are confused by them, and when they are eaten, they die! So please, at least recycle them if your not going to use them for something else! As a concerned citizen, you should do your part to lessen the effects of global warming. Please take global warming seriously.Lets save the planet, and go GREEN!

Discuss the role of John Proctor Essay Example for Free

Discuss the role of John Proctor Essay Discuss the role of John Proctor in The Crucible. Why does he choose to die at the end of the play? John Proctor is the protagonist of the play The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller. This is because Miller uses Proctor as a character to help the audience understand the characters experience. He does this by either making sympathetic expressions or the actions that Proctor makes, whether they are violent or confusing. Miller makes us feel sympathetic for Proctor when Proctors wife, Elizabeth gets taken away to court for being accused of doing the devils work. Proctor knows she is innocent but nobody will believe him. In Act I, John Proctors role is to introduce himself and show his character: Be you deaf? I forbid you leave the house did I not? (Proctor, Act I) This comment suggests he likes to be powerful and in control, in this case, by being forceful. He feels strong about hypocricy, but is even-tempered. Miller tells us that in the presence of Proctor a fool felt his foolishness instantly. He also tells us that proctor is a sinner against his own vision of decent conduct, of which he is talking about the affair with Abigail Williams. This is dramatic irony as, only three characters (including Proctor) are aware of this. When we first meet Proctor he is with Abigail, Mary and Mercy Lewis. Abigails first words are: Gah, Id almost forgotten how strong you are John Proctor! (Abigail, Act I) John Proctor quickly realises what she is implying and replies: Whats this mischief then? (Proctor, Act I) This shows he doesnt want anything to happen between him and Abigail. No, no Abby. Thats done with. (Proctor, Act I) Later on he replies with this to Abigail, and this shows he is strong-willed, recognises what is happening and the mistake. However Abigail thinks that John is just playing around with her and speaks of how he clutched her back behind his house and sweated like a stallion. I may have looked up. (Proctor, Act I) This quotation suggests that Proctor is still interested and this brings across a message that people dont change, in this case Proctor a sinner, but then the strong, powerful part of his character comes across and he threatens to whip her, to which the stage directions say shaking her. This suggests he regrets the affair and wants no more to do with Abigail. As an affair is more likely to have happened in the 20th century, the audience sympathise with him as the play is set in the late 17th century, so Proctor is a man ahead of his time. When Proctor meets Hale, he wants him to make Salem more realistic. He shows his sensible character, but could also be seen that Proctor is trying to be in charge and think he knows too much: He dont believe in witches. (Giles, Act I) I never speak of witches one-way or the other. Will you come Giles? (Proctor, Act I) Ive heard you to be a sensible man Mr Hales. I hope youll leave some of it in Salem. (Proctor, Act I) Act II shows Proctors house, and Proctor is tense, which brings tension upon the audience. He carries a gun, which suggests insecurity among Salem, and himself. He places it leaning on the wall, which is an accessible point, again showing insecurity. It makes the audience feel inferior. AS Elizabeth walks down the stairs he goes to a basin washing his hands and face. This is symbolic as he is trying to forget the affair, because he feels so guilty. This builds more tension: What keeps you so late? Its almost dark. (Elizabeth, Act II) This comment of Elizabeths shows she is anxious and suspicious of his whereabouts. He replies that he was planting far out the forest edge. Then goes on to say: Pray now for a fair summer. (Proctor, Act II) He is trying to please his wife, still feeling guilt. He says with a grin: I mean to please you, Elizabeth. (Proctor, Act II) Elizabeth replies, although hard to say, which suggests denial or disbelief: I know it, John. (Elizabeth, Act II) Proctor and Elizabeth fear each other, and this illustrates the feature of the play-fear. Their short sentences and being silent suggests this, and also brings tension upon their marriage, and the audience. Act II is mostly to do with John Proctor, the visiting of Hale to which he is questioned about his religious efforts, his arguments with his wife, his suspicions of the witchcraft in Salem and Abigail, and the arrest of his wife. He grabs the search warrant off Cheever: Proctor, you dare not touch the warrant. (Cheever, Act II) Ripping the warrant. (Stage directions, Act II) This is Proctors angry side. He knows what Abigail is up to, yet no one will believe him. They go on what Abigail says. As he rips up the warrant, he puts a reputation to his name at the courts of the Witch trials. Act III shows Danforth, a deputy governor, talking to Proctor about witchcraft. He is questioning about the pretence that Mary Warren has confessed. He wants a second view from John Proctor: We burn a hot fire her; it melts down all concealment. (Danforth, Act III) This relates to the title of the play The Crucible. It is a metaphor of a crucible, which points out the message of the play. As a crucible is a container in which metals are heated to extract the pure elements. In the play, witches are to be purified and to come back to God. When Mary is in court, Proctor is determined to get the judges to see what is really happening. He goes into the courts and confesses his sin of adultery with Abigail to try and make the judges see how much of a whore she really is. He risks his well-preserved name to save his wife from being hanged. The judges have no proof: In her life, sir, she have never lied. (Proctor, Act III) Here he talks of Elizabeth, and he thinks she will tell the courts the truth of the affair, but instead she thinks the courts dont know. She worries that she is risking her husbands well-dignified name, and lies: Answer the question! Is your husband a lecher! (Danforth, Act III) No, sir. (Elizabeth, Act III) Proctor gets taken into jail for perverting the course of justice: Marshal! Take him and Corey with him to the jail! (Danforth, Act III) Hale realises what is happening and quits the courts. Act IV is tragic, bringing the death of the hero of the play. Danforth is doing almost anything he can to get a confession from Proctor. For example he gets Elizabeth, his wife that he tries so hard to please, to go and talk to him. They understand what Proctor meant by all the lies. Abigail ran off the Barbados. When Proctor sees Elizabeth again, it creates a tragic atmosphere. To them it seems almost unreal, like they didnt think they would see each other again. The short, quick sentences that they exchange give us a sense of tension: You are a marvel, Elizabeth. (Proctor, Act IV) You have been tortured? (Elizabeth, Act IV) As she asks Proctor this it proves that she wants to forgive him, and that she wants to love him again. He decides to confess about witchery, for Elizabeths sake. Once the confession has been written down he grabs it, saying: You have all witnessed it it is enough. (Proctor, Act IV) He refuses to sign his confession. He doesnt want to blacken his name anymore: God knows how black my sins are! It is enough! (Proctor, Act IV) If he doesnt give it back, or sign the confession, he will be hanged, he will be killed. Instead he rips it like, just like he did the warrant/ He decides to die. The atmosphere turns tragic and goes still. The audiences reaction is also tragic, but also understandable after all, that was the role of John Proctor. He chooses to die because he would blacken his name, and his childrens name Proctor. He realises he has ruined his reputation from the affair, and that the courts in Salem were finished. He couldnt lie anymore. He chose his own death rather than betrayal of his conscience. This shows us that he too has come through the fire to be purified, just like the pure elements extracted from the metals in a crucible.

Gender Differences in Classroom Behaviour

Gender Differences in Classroom Behaviour Investigating the differences in classroom behaviour across the genders Introduction: In recent decades there has been an increasing focus on gender differences in an educational context. During the 1970s and 1980s, feminist research on gender and education was motivated by concern at the underachievement, and marginalization, of girls (Francis and Skelton, 2001, p.1). This had been largely due to the different subjects that boys and girls studied, and it was not until the introduction of the National Curriculum which saw boys and girls studying the same subjects for the first time, that the extent of girls’ relative success was revealed (Arnot et al., 1999). Recent years have seen something of a pendulum swing with boys now being a focus for concern. Younger et al. observed in key stage two children a ‘marked disparity between the attainment of boys and girls in English’ with 83 % of girls attaining level 4 in 2004 compared with 72% of boys (Younger et al., 2005, p.20). There is, however inconsistency in the research with Myhill suggesting that not all boys are underachieving and neither are all girls academic success stories (Myhill, 2002). The nature of gender in the education is a difficult effect to isolate since class, race and gender are inevitably interrelated and it is difficult to disentangle the individual effect (MacGilchrist, et al., 2006, p.62) and therefore say conclusively that differences in attainment levels are due to gender alone. The aim of this paper is to investigate the differences in behaviour in respect of gender in the school setting, by looking at the nature of the differences, possible explanations and strategies which teachers can use in the classroom to address these problems, particularly in respect of boys’ underachievement. Theories of Gender Development: That there are patterns of behaviour and social organisation that differ according to sex/gender is not in doubt (Francis, 2006, p.8). There are many theories as to why this is the case, some regarding differences as due to the different biological nature of men and women while others argue that there are environmental reasons for the differences, the dichotomy of nature versus nurture (Rose, 2001, p.256). The idea of gender differences has been taken up by feminist theorists who have argued that that femininity is culturally constructed (Weiner, 1994), as is masculinity (Mac an Ghaill, 1994). Innate Differences: This is the belief that the sexes are inherently different. Evolutionary biologists see differences in gender as having their roots in our genetic make up, stretching back for many generations. Findings from research by Professor John Stein in connection with his work in the context of dyslexia, indicates that boys brains are generally slower to develop. It is therefore not logical to have the same expectations from boys and girls when they come to school for the first time (Scott, 2003, p.84). In recent years many biologists and neuroscientist have been critical of the evolutionary approach (Francis, 2006, p.9), leading to the idea that gender specific behaviour is socially constructed, shaped by a number of factors including culture and the environment. Role Theories: Role theories suggest that gender characteristics are constructed by observing the ways in which other people adopt typical gender roles, being rewarded for engaging in appropriate behaviour and punished in some way when they do not (Gregory, 1969). Proponents of these theories suggest that girls learn how to be girls by watching demure, feminine behaviour, characteristic of girls, while boys learn to be boisterous and tough. These are images that are portrayed to children by a variety of people in their lives, their parents and carers, their teachers, their siblings and reinforced through the media. School is an important arena for the observation of roles and a school policy concerning equal opportunities must reflect an awareness of this. Views on Children’s Acquisition of Gender Knowledge: Skelton and Francis have identified two views on how children acquire their knowledge about gender: Social learning theories which propose that gender identity is learned by children modelling their behaviour on same sex members of their family, peer group, local community as well as the gender stereotypes seen on books and on television; Cognitive development theorists, such as Lawrence Kohlberg, who suggest that a child’s understanding of their gender identity as opposed to their biological sex depends on their stage of cognitive development, their intellectual age. (Skelton and Francis, 2003, p.12). Environmental Factors: It has been suggested that boys and girls are shaped differently by their environment because of the different ways in which they respond to it. Gilligan proposes that girls tend to analyse situations before coming to decisions whereas boys are more likely to stick to rules that they have applied in previous situations. Gilligan suggests that these differences in reaction are as a result of differences in cognitive styles rather than abilities (Gilligan, 1982), but can impact on outcomes in respect of attainment. Environmental factors have been shown to have an effect on children’s attitudes to and performance at school. Home background and parental levels of educational attainment and expectation have been shown to be factors in the different levels of attainment of boys and girls in school. Research presented by Brooker showed that, while boys and girls did not have any marked differences in ability levels on entry to school, over the course of a year girls made more progress than boys. She found that the most successful group were those who came from large families where they had a lot of home support from their siblings (Brooker, 2002, p. 159). Girls typically work more collaboratively, engaging in more socially constructed activities, enhancing learning in the process. Boys from some ethnic minorities have been shown to be under performing against all other educational groups. This has been attributed to peer group pressure, with an anti achievement culture believed to be operating among some black teenage boys. This manifests itself in their disrupting schoolwork and generating a low level of expectation among themselves (Aslop and Hicks, 2001, p.148). The school environment plays an important part in the development of gender attitudes. While it was thought that gender stereotypes would be reinforced by single sex schools, research has shown this not to be the case. When brought together in co educational settings, both boys and girls made more sex stereotypical choices despite a greater variety of facilities. It would therefore appear that co education increases differentiation between the sexes (Leonard, 2006, p.194). Gender Differences in School: With an increasing belief that gender is socially constructed, has come an awareness that school is one of the social contexts in which gender appropriate behaviour is defined and constructed (Myhill and Jones, 2006, p.100). The most prominent area for concern has been the development of gendered behaviour leading to the disengaged or alienated male in school. His behaviour, general unruliness and lack of interest are seen as dominating classroom life (Gray and McLellan, 2006, p.652). Many teachers show a strong belief in gender differences, believing them to influence attitudes to school, motivation, maturity, responsibility, behaviour and identification with the school ethos (Arnot and Gubb, 2001). It has been shown that because so many primary school teachers are female, they have not been trained in how boys and girls learn differently (Gurian, 2002, p.126) and traditional teaching styles adopted may favour the learning dispositions of girls. Expectations: Teacher expectations are an important factor in achievement. If teachers have high expectations, pupils will be highly motivated to learn and succeed (Aslop and Hicks, 2001, p.148). In respect of boys’ underachievement, evidence has tended to note that teachers have low expectations about boys’ levels of academic achievement (Myhill and Jones, 2006, p.101), research supported in a study by Younger and Warrington that demonstrated that teachers tended to underestimate boys’ achievement at GCSE level, while girls’ achievement tended to be overestimated (Younger and Warrington, 1996). Teachers have been shown, in addition to having low expectations of boys, to take advantage of girls, enlisting them as allies in the battle to â€Å"police, teach, control and civilise boys† (Epstein et al., 1998). It is incumbent on schools therefore to have high expectations for boys and to have mechanisms for transmitting this information to the students and developing high expectations. They must also have a focus on not using girls a pseudo teachers, allowing them to develop an appropriate role in the classroom in the context of their peers. Perceptions of Boys and Girls: In studies of primary schools differences have been shown in the ways in which teachers perceived boys and girls. Girls have traditionally been viewed as co operative and conscientious workers with boys being viewed as dominant, demanding but rewarding to teach. Boys have traditionally been viewed as requiring more effort to teach but at the same time having more ability (Skelton and Francis, 2003, p.8). Boys and Underachievement: Changes in educational policy in recent years can lead to boys feeling devalued because, in the early years, especially, they find themselves in a world of learning lacking in masculine figures. Research has also shown that girls have a lack of confidence, even when performing well in comparison with boys (Gray and McLellan, 2006, p.653). The challenge is therefore to re-engage boys in the learning process through appropriate activities and motivation and to develop greater degrees of self esteem in girls. The extraordinary academic progress of girls in recent years has been associated with two features; girls’ continuing advantage in English and their improvement in mathematics and science (Arnot et al., 1999, p.16). As noted above, Gilligan has presented evidence that boys and girls may react to their environment in different ways, but what causes concern for teachers and educators is that maths and science have traditionally been male domains, which now boys are not performing as well in as they have done in the past. Gipps and Murphy expand on this point by suggesting that this should be borne in mind by those who set and mark test papers in order to take into account the different approaches students may adopt when answering questions (Gipps and Murphy, 1994). Schools must give consideration to the strategies being employed to facilitate boys’ learning. Research carried out by Daniels et al. in the context of special education suggests that girls give each other a great deal of help and support, not something often seen in boys. They speculate that this may have at least three important consequences: It can help reduce the amount of extra support required by girls from their teachers as they are getting a lot of this from their peers; The support is likely to be appropriate because the peers know exactly what type of ‘scaffold’ is needed to facilitate learning; The person giving the support can consolidate their own learning by giving support and teaching someone else. (Daniels et al., 1996). Girls have also been shown to give considerable help and attention to boys, helping them by providing equipment and helping them with their homework (Thorne, 1993), reiterating the idea of girls acting as pseudo teachers in the class. Although there is a lot of individual variation amongst males and females, male students of all ages tend to dominate discussions, to make more direct and directive comments to their partners and generally to adopt more ‘executive’ roles in problem solving (Mercer, 2001, p.196). Working with Boys in the Classroom: While girls have been perceived as being hard working in the class, it has been argued that peer group pressure among boys makes it difficult for them to slot into this role. Popularity among ones peers and working hard at school can be seen as mutually incompatible and may result in boys being bullied or excluded from friendship groups (Frosh et al., 2002). The issue in respect of how boys behave in the classroom has been a further area of controversy with arguments ranging from boys being treated less favourably than girls through to boys causing disruption to a degree that hampers learning for other children, but there is evidence to suggest that, regardless of the nature of the interaction, whether positive or negative, teachers do engage more with boys than they do with girls (La France, 1991). Some of the reasoning behind boys underachievement has been questioned. Biddulph, (1998, cited in MacNaughton, 2006, p.140) has suggested that while boys are often accused of not listening in class, the reality is that they suffer from growing spurts that have an adverse affect on their ear canals. MacNaughton questions the fact that if this is the case for boys, then surely the same must be true for girls (MacNaughton, 2006, p.141), suggesting that the physiological explanations do not provide an adequate explanation. There has been a great deal of concern for many years about boys’ behaviour in schools, having been expressed as early as 1930 by Brerton who commented â€Å"Many girls will work at a subject they dislike. No healthy boy ever does!† (Brerton, 1930, p.95). A major factor that has come to light in a great deal of the research concerning boy’s disaffection with school is that fact that it is multifaceted in its nature, with gender being only one of a number of factors. Bob Connell is among a number of researchers who ahs pointed this out writing, â€Å"The making of masculinities in schools is far from the simple learning of norms. It is a process of multiple pathways, shaped by class and ethnicity, producing diverse outcomes.† (Connell, 2000, p.164). Research presented by Marland suggested that teachers treated boys and girls differently and in doing so amplified society’s stereotypes (Marland, 1983). Research in gender and education has highlighted the negative consequences of the construction of masculinity for many boys in education, with many boys coming into conflict with teachers and other authorities (Skelton, 2001). Some theorists have suggested that this could be addressed by having greater concentrations of male teachers in schools. Thornton and Bricheno have countered this, presenting evidence that greater concentrations of male teachers actually leads to poorer discipline in schools (Thornton and Bricheno, 2002, cited in Skelton and Francis, 2003, p.7). Assessing Children’s Perceptions: As with all other teaching and learning that goes on in the school setting, schools must begin the development of the equal opportunity policy in respect of gender by ascertaining the views that the children have, addressing misconceptions, planning what they want to achieve and developing a programme to facilitate this. Skelton suggests that in order to do this the school should begin by asking the following four questions: What images of masculinity and femininity are the children bringing with them into school and what types are they acting out in the classroom and playground? What are the dominant images of masculinity and femininity that the school itself reflects to the children and are these what the school wishes to present? What kinds of role model does the school want and expect of its teachers? What kinds of initiatives/strategies/projects should teachers be undertaking with children to question gender categories? (Skelton, 2001). A Europe wide study carried out by Smith and Gorard revealed that boys in several European countries in general felt that they were treated less favourably than girls but the feelings were strongest among boys in the United Kingdom (Smith and Gorard, 2002, cited in Myhill and Jones, 2006, p.102). This is a finding that is echoed throughout the research literature (Wing, 1999; Francis, 2000). Gender and Mathematics: Recent decades have seen a shift in emphasis from the focus on girls’ underachievement in mathematics, towards generic ideas concerning mathematics and gender. Research has been carried out by the Girls and Mathematics Unit (Lucey et al., 2003, p.55) has proposed that the characteristics of an ideal mathematics learner is a child who is active, keen to explore and investigate new challenges, ideas central to constructivist theories of learning where learners build on what they know already to assimilate new concepts. It has been argued that these are in fact characteristics more often associated with boys, rather then being gender neutral, suggesting that the ideal child is, in fact an ideal boy (Adams and Walderdine, 1986). Concerns in respect of a general decline in mathematics led to the adoption of a National Numeracy Strategy. Research has suggested that girls like to work in an investigative way, keen to learn about new things rather than just getting the correct answer, skills that are fostered by the move towards an approach which focuses on learning about learning and developing strategies for developing mathematical skills and explanations. Clark argues that boys and girls have different ways of exerting their power in the classroom, boys using direct methods such as dominating the classroom dynamics and interacting to a greater degree with the teacher, while girls employ more subtle methods for asserting themselves through working hard and being co operative (Clark 1990), which in turn helps their attainment (Walden and Walkerdine, 1986, p.125), a consequence of their spending more time directly on task. Lucey at al. suggest, that in the context of whole class teaching, in order for all children to experience success, teachers need to avoid lessons becoming an arena for confident children. They argue that a better use of lesson time is to allow children to work at their own pace, in group or pair contexts, where pupils are allowed to develop their own skills, explore a variety of strategies, and at the same time, develop confidence and self esteem. Gender and Literacy: As mentioned above, girls have been performing better than boys in respect of literacy, giving it a central role in the debate about gender and schooling in recent years. Boys’ underachievement in this area has been well documented. In her book Differently Literate, Millard proposed reasons for this, citing one of the main ones as the fact that bots and girls have interests in different aspects of literacy. She argued that boys were largely discriminated against in the school setting where many of the texts available are not related to boys’ interests. The National Literacy Strategy was introduced in 1998, one of the main ideas of which was critical literacy, an idea that texts do not stand alone, but that they are socially constructed making them useful in developing critical literacy skills in respect of gender roles (Marsh, 2003, p. 73). The fact that gender roles are embedded in many of these texts provides opportunities for the challenge of stereotypes by children. This is essential in developing the understanding necessary for overcoming them. Gender and Science: The 1990s saw science become one of the success stories in the primary curriculum, following a number of attempts to reduce sex specific behaviours in science and technology. The research concerning children’s perceptions in science has been mixed. Drawing a scientist has been employed as way of ascertaining children’s perceptions. Some studies have shown that children have developed less gendered ideas about scientists and therefore science while other research has suggested that children’s attitudes have not really changed very much (Reiss, 2003, p.82). The nature of science and its subject matter has been the subject of debate in the gender context. While single and mixed sex groupings have both been shown to be effective in teaching and learning in science in some respects, what has been identified as more important is the teacher’s attitudes in respect of gender equity, preferably in the context of a whole school approach to gender issues in science. It is important to facilitate the development of diverse ideas with respect to scientific concepts and to have assessment systems which are fair. Addressing the Issues: Head states the implication of gender research for teachers is that if girls and boys: â€Å"prefer different learning procedures then teachers should be flexible in their choice of teaching and assessment methods. But these gender differences are not absolute, there is considerable overlap between the two sexes and considerable variation within one group. A flexible approach to pedagogy should therefore be of general benefit to the school population.† (Head, 1996, p.68). It has been recognised that children work hard to demonstrate their gender identity, not being easily swayed by alternative images (Francis, 1998). Schools do have a responsibility to ensure that they have a policy on sex discrimination, and must ensure that it is being properly implemented. In the light of the evidence presented by Francis (above) and others, it is not sufficient for teachers to present alternative views for children. The approach must be more proactive with children being given opportunities to actively challenge stereotypical views that they may hold. The role of the teacher in facilitating gender awareness and equality in the classroom cannot be overestimated. Teachers should avoid using stereo typical language pertaining to gender, should use reading and teaching materials which can be interrogated in respect of gender, and should foster attitudes pertaining to equal opportunities and inclusion in the classroom. Skelton and Francis suggest that this can be achieved in the primary classroom through an active challenge of gender stereotypes, including the following activities: Teachers should ensure that they are involved in a full range of activities in the classroom, paying particular attention that they are not avoiding areas in the classroom traditionally associated with the opposite sex, such as male teachers avoiding the home corner and female teachers avoiding the construction toys; Children should be presented with a range of play and learning activities in which they can be encouraged to challenge gender stereotypes; Teachers should take opportunities, as and when they arise, to discuss issues pertaining to gender, through the use of appropriate materials; When boys or girls are dominating particular play areas or activities, that can be challenged through the use of circle time or class discussion. The teacher can play a role in challenging behaviour through the use of open ended questioning such as â€Å"can boys and girls play together with blocks, do you think that of you worked together you could make something better than you can on your own?† In this way the teacher can be encouraging children to be reflective about their roles in the class and in society generally; Teachers need to help children in the development of skills with which they may not normally associate themselves. (Skelton and Francis, 2003, p.17-18). Conclusion: The growing body of literature on masculinities and femininities in education has advanced our understandings of the complex ways in which boys and girls construct and negotiate their identities within schools (Jackson, 2006, p.xiv). Research supports the view that pupils take up various positions with respect to attitudes to schooling but, while identifying the existence of clearly gendered pupil types, it challenges the simplistic notions about how boys and girls may differ (Gray and McLellan, 2006, p.654). Many of the practices recommended in schools’ equal opportunities policies to redress gender inequalities have done little, if anything, to change the way in which boyhood and girlhood is perceived and judged by adults as well as acted out by children in the primary classroom (Francis and Skelton, 2003, p.13). Research has demonstrated that, despite their improved achievement, many facets of girls’ educational experience remain negatively affected by the masculine values and expectations reflected in educational institutions (Francis and Skelton, 2001, p.3). Evidence that has been presented in respect of girls outstripping boys in terms of school achievement has not gone unchallenged, with Gorard et al. suggesting that data presented masks the fact that exam performance has increased for both boys and girls on a yearly basis, and the statistical information has, in any case, been misinterpreted (Gorard et al., 1999). The boys’ underachievement debate has been cri ticised because of the narrow parameters of the argument where it has been suggested that all boys, irrespective of social class, ethnicity and so on are underachieving (Francis and Skelton, 2001, p.165). It is essential that schools develop policies which take a holistic view of inclusion and equal opportunities in respect of gender. These must be implemented and their success evaluated, and efforts made to re-engage boys in the education process. References: Adams, C. and Walkerdine, V. (1986) Investigating Gender in the Primary School. London: ILEA. Alsop, S. and Hicks, K. (2001) Teaching Science: A Handbook for Primary and Secondary School Teachers. London: Kogan Page. Arnot, M., David, M. and Weiner, G. (1999) Closing the Gender Gap. Cambridge: Polity Press. Arnot, M. and Gubb, J. (2001) Adding value to boys’ and girls’ education. A gender and achievement project in West Sussex. Chichester: West Sussex County Council. Brerton, C. (1930) Modern Language in Day and Evening Schools. London: University of London. Brooker, L. (2002) Starting School: Young Children Learning Cultures. Buckingham: Open University Press. Clark, M. (1990)The Great Gender divide: Gender in the Primary School. Melbourne: Curriculum Corporation. Connell, B. (2000) The Men and the Boys. Cambridge: Polity Press. Daniels, H., Hey, V., Leonard, D. and Smith, M. (1996) Gender and Special Needs Provision in Mainstream Schools. ESRC Report no. R000235059. Epstein, D., Elwood, J., Hey, V. and Maw, J. (1998) Failing Boys? Issues in Gender and Achievement. Buckingham: Open University Press. Francis, B. (2006) The Nature of Gender in C. Skelton, B. Francis, and L. Smulyan, (2006) The SAGE Handbook of Gender and Education. London: Sage. Francis, B. (2000) Boys, Girls and Achievement: Addressing the Classroom Issues. London: RoutledgeFalmer. Francis, B. (1998) Power Plays. Stoke-on-Trent: Trentham Books. Francis, B. and Skelton, C. (Eds)(2001) Investigating Gender: Contemporary Perspectives in Education. Buckingham: Open University Press. Frosh, S., Phoenix, A. and Patman, R. (2002) Young Masculinities. Basingstoke: Palgrove. Gilligan, C. (1982) In a Different Voice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Gipps, C. and Murphy, P. (1994) A Fair Test? Assessment, Achievement and Equity. Buckingham: Open University Press. Gorard, S., Rees, G. and Salisbury, J. (1999) Reappraising the apparent underachievement of boys at school. Gender and Education, 11, 4, 391-400. Gray, J. and McLellan, R. (2006) A matter of attitude? Developing a profile of boys’ and girls’ responses to primary schooling. Gender and Education, 18, 6, 651-672. Gregory, R. (1969) A Shorter Textbook of Human Development. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill. Gurian, M. (2002) Boys and Girls Learn Differently! San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass. Head, J. (1996) Gender identity and cognitive style in P. Murphy and C.Gipps (Eds) Equity in the Classroom: Towards an Effective Pedagogy for Girls and Boys. London: Falmer Publishing. Jackson, C. (2006) Lads and Ladettes in Schools. Oxford: Oxford University Press. LaFrance, M. (1991) School for scandal: differential experiences for females and males. Gender and Education, 3, 1, 3-13. Leonard, D. (2006) Single-Sex Schooling in C. Skelton, B. Francis and L. Smulyan, (Eds)(2006) The SAGE Handbook of Gender and Education. London: Sage. Lucey, H., Brown., Denvir, H., Askew,M. and Rhodes, V. (2003) Girls and boys in the primary maths classroom in C. Skelton and B. Francis (Eds) Boys and Girls in the Primary Classroom. Buckingham: Open University Press. Mac an Ghaill, M. (1994) The Making of Men: Masculinities, Sexualities and Schooling. Buckingham: Open University Press. MacGilchrist, B., Myers, K. and Reed, J. (2006) The Intelligent School. London: Sage Publications. MacNaughton, G. (2006) Constructing gender in the early years education in C. Skelton, B. Francis and L. Smulyan, (Eds)(2006) The SAGE Handbook of Gender and Education. London: Sage. Marsh, M. (2003) Superhero stories: Literacy, gender and popular culture in C. Skelton and B. Francis (Eds) Boys and Girls in the Primary Classroom. Buckingham: Open University Press. Mercer, N. (2001) Talking and working together in J. Wearmouth (Ed) Special Educational Provision in the Context of Inclusion. London: David Fulton Publishers. Millard, E. (1997) Differently Literate: Boys, Girls and the Schooling of Literacy. London: Falmer Press. Myhill, D. and Jones, S. (2006) â€Å"She doesn’t shot at no girls†: pupils’ perceptions of gender equity in the classroom. Cambridge Journal of Education, 39, 1, 99-113. Myhill, D. (2002) Bad boys and good girls? Patterns of interaction and response in whole class teaching. British Educational Research Journal, 28, 3, 339-352. Reiss, M. (2003) Gender equity in primary science in C. Skelton and B. Francis (Eds) Boys and Girls in the Primary Classroom. Buckingham: Open University Press. Rose, S. (2001) Escaping evolutionary psychology in H. Rose and S. Rose (Eds) Alas Poor Darwin: Arguments Against Evolutionary Psychology. London: Vintage. Scott, W. (2003) Making meaningful connections in early learning in J. Fisher (Ed) The Foundations of Learning. Buckingham: Open University Press. Skelton, C. (2001) Schooling the Boys: Masculinities and Primary Education. Buckingham: Open University Press. Skelton, C. and Francis, B. (2003) Boys and Girls in the Primary Classroom. Buckingham: Open University Press. Skelton, C., Francis, B. and Smulyan, L. (2006) The SAGE Handbook of Gender and Education. London: Sage. Thorne, B. (1993) Gender Play: Girls and Boys in School. Buckingham: Open University Press. Walden, R. and Walkerdine, V. (1986) Characteristics. Views and relationships in the classroomin L.Burton (Ed) Girl

Legalization of Drugs Fails to Resolve Social Problems Essay -- Argume

One need only turn on the 11o'clock news to determine whether the "war on drugs" has been a success or a failure. Border police and the FBI continue to nab ever-increasing caches of illegal drugs, while our "tough on crime" policies haul thousands to jail on drug trafficking and possession charges. Yet, people young and old continue to purchase and consume large amounts of drugs for a variety of reasons, ranging from medicinal to escapism. Even the most ardent drug enforcers have to admit that the current offensive against drugs has been a dismal failure, because the government cannot prevent what people want to do merely through laws (and their enforcement). But does this automatically mean that drugs should be legalized? We already have a case study to determine whether drug legalization policies will be successful. America's struggles with alcohol provide a ready-made experiment in which the pros and cons of drug legalization can be measured in terms of lives affected and dollars spent. In the early portion of the 20th century, our government responded to the demands of various temperance groups and prohibited the sale and distribution of alcoholic beverages. At about the same time, organized crime gained power in cities such as Chicago and New York. Since the general populace still had a voracious appetite for alcohol, gangsters such as Al Capone made millions dealing in this illicit trade. As their motive was to maximize profits regardless of cost, the gangsters handled rivals in their own, intimate way - as the "Valentine's Day Massacre" graphically showed. The violence contributed to the eventual repeal of Prohibition laws, and America enjoyed the products of fermented grapes, wheat and... ... So, instead of changing strategy in the current war on drugs, we either doggedly try the same old tactics that fail miserably or surrender unconditionally in the name of individual "rights." Well, what about the right of someone to drive without fear of sudden death via intoxicant? What about the baby doomed to a painful life from drug-induced ailments? What about the spouse painted black, blue and red by someone's fists, bat or gun? Or the fan too scared to talk with a blustery drunk for fear of pulverization? Or of anyone paying higher car and health insurance rates? A famous person once said, "Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it." In this situation, it would be doubly tragic, for "history" continues even today, instructing us on decisions of past generations. And yet once more, we're about to fail the final exam.

Graduation Speech: Always Follow Your Dreams :: Graduation Speech, Commencement Address

I'd like to start out by saying that I am truly honored to speak here today and thank you to my class for choosing me. From the day I first stepped into the learning world of Mrs. Jacobson's kindergarten class spotting tons of building blocks and crayons until the day I walked out of Mr. Fulton's class with memories of burning gummy bears and rubber corks stuck in his ceiling, the majority of my life has been consumed by school. I thought it would never end. Do you know how long we've been in school? Thirteen years and 181 days for each year. That's 2,353 days or 14,118 hours or 847,080 minutes or 50,824,800 seconds. Good lord!!! That's a long time. Why would anyone do this? And half our class probably has scoliosis from teachers loading our backpacks with 75 pounds of books. That's hard to do. I think modern schooling is trying to rise a generation of Quazi Motos. But these 12 years of schooling have provided all of us with memories. Growing up in the community of Murry we are left with a variety of good times and bad times. In intermediate school, you thought it was the end of the world if you were beat by a girl in tetherball or you'd start crying when you lost all your pogs in an intense pog tournament at one of our three recesses. The times that have left positive feelings towards my many years of schooling would have to include watching Mr. Patterson singing the Fig Newton jingle, or watching our Falcon football team destroy Lakewood this year in our Homecoming football game. Or what about the time when Coach Davis, our head basketball coach, went a whole game with his zipper being undone? But my fondest memory of Murry is remembering Mr. Johnson on my first day of freshman year. He had such a lovely full head of hair, but since the class of 2003 has came through, it has gotten a little thinner and a little grayer. These types of memories have shaped us and made us grow into the powerful young adults we are today. Now we're sitting here ready to tackle the challenges of the real world. Graduation is not an end, but more of a rendezvous point from where we go our separate ways. The only thing that lies ahead is the future. Dreams and goals are what push us to be better and what have gotten us here.

Motivation Theory

Needs – drives – behaviour – goals – reduction or release of tension Behaviour is both directed to, and results from, unsatisfied needs. The word unsatisfied is most important. As Maslow says, â€Å"If we are interested in what actually motivates us and not what has or will, or might motivate us, then a satisfied need is not a motivator. † Kelly’s model of motivation presents a sort of chicken-egg dilemma. Which comes first, the goal or the need? When we talk about behaviour being goal-oriented, we mean that individuals feel a need, want, desire or drive to do something that leads to the achievement of a goal.But is the goal, as part of the self, already there? Is it the factor that stimulates the need? Are goals and needs the same thing? It is useful to separate the two concepts. We can define a goal as that outcome which we strive to attain in order to satisfy certain needs. The goal is the end result, the need the driving force that spurs us towards that result. A student might have a goal to get an A in a course, but this goal may reflect a number of different needs.He or she may feel a need to confirm his or her competence; friends may all be getting A’s; he or she may wish to have the esteem of others; simply to do the best possible: to keep a scholarship. It is difficult to infer needs from goals. We talk about money as a motivator. Money represents so many different things to different people that saying that individuals â€Å"work for money† is meaningless. What we have to know is what needs the money is satisfying. Is it survival, status, belonging, achievement, a convenient scorecard for performance?Remember, behaviour is both directed to, and results from, unsatisfied needs. Every individual has a number of needs which vie for satisfaction. How do we choose between these competing forces? Do we try to satisfy them all? Much like a small child in a candy store, faced with the dilemma of spending his or her allowance, we are forced to decide what we want the most; that is we satisfy the strongest need first. Although there is general agreement among psychologists that man experiences a variety of needs, there is considerable disagreement as to what these needs are – and their relative importance.There have been a number of attempts to present models of motivation which list a specific number of motivating needs, with the implication that these lists are all-inclusive and represent the total picture of needs. Unfortunately, each of these models has weaknesses and gaps, and we are still without a general theory of motivation. In this article, I will describe the four main theories of motivation. These are Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Herzberg’s Dual-Factor Theory, The Need for Achievement and David McClelland’s work and Vroom’s Expectancy Motivation Theory. Hierarchy of Needs – Abraham MaslowOne model of motivation that has gained a l ot of attention, but not complete acceptance, has been put forward by Abraham Maslow. Maslow’s theory argues that individuals are motivated to satisfy a number of different kinds of needs, some of which are more powerful than others (or to use the psychological jargon, are more prepotent than others). The term prepotency refers to the idea that some needs are felt as being more pressing than others. Maslow argues that until these most pressing needs are satisfied, other needs have little effect on an individual’s behaviour.In other words, we satisfy the most prepotent needs first and then progress to the less pressing ones. As one need becomes satisfied, and therefore less important to us, other needs loom up and become motivators of our behaviour. Maslow represents this prepotency of needs as a hierarchy. The most prepotent needs are shown at the bottom of the ladder, with prepotency decreasing as one progresses upwards. SELF-ACTUALISATION – reaching your maxim um potential, doing you own best thing ESTEEM – respect from others, self-respect, recognitionBELONGING – affiliation, acceptance, being part of something SAFETY – physical safety, psychological security PHYSIOLOGICAL – hunger, thirst, sex, rest The first needs that anyone must satisfy are physiological. As Maslow says: â€Å"Undoubtedly these physiological needs are the most prepotent of all needs. What this means specifically is that in the human being who is missing everything in life in an extreme fashion, it is most likely that the major motivation would be the physiological needs rather than any others.A person who is lacking food, safety, love and esteem would probably hunger for food more strongly than anything else†. Once the first level needs are largely satisfied, Maslow maintains, the next level of needs emerges. Individuals become concerned with the need for safety and security – protection from physical harm, disaster, illness and security of income, life-style and relationships. Similarly, once these safety needs have become largely satisfied, individuals become concerned with belonging – a sense of membership in some group or groups, a need for affiliation and a feeling of acceptance by others.When there is a feeling that the individual belongs somewhere, he or she is next motivated by a desire to be held in esteem. People need to be thought of as worthwhile by others, to be recognised as people with some value. They also have a strong need to see themselves as worthwhile people. Without this type of self-concept, one sees oneself as drifting, cut off, pointless. Much of this dissatisfaction with certain types of job centres around the fact that they are perceived, by the people performing them, as demeaning and therefore damaging to their self-concept.Finally, Maslow says, when all these needs have been satisfied at least to some extent, people are motivated by a desire to self-actualise, to ach ieve whatever they define as their maximum potential, to do their thing to the best of their ability. Maslow describes self-actualisation as follows: â€Å"A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately happy. What a man can do, he must do. This need we may call self-actualisation †¦ It refers to the desire for self-fulfilment, namely the tendency for one to become actualised in what one is potentially.This tendency might be phrased as the desire to become more and more what one is, to become everything that one is capable of becoming. The specific form these needs take will of course vary greatly from person to person. In one individual it may be expressed maternally, as the desire to be an ideal mother, in another athletically, in still another aesthetically, the painting of pictures, and in another inventively in the creation of new contrivances. It is not necessarily a creative urge although in people who have any capabilitie s for creation it will take this form.†Several points must be made concerning Maslow’s model of motivation. First, it should be made clear that he does not mean that individuals experience only one type of need at a time. In fact, we probably experience all levels of needs all the time, only to varying degrees. In many parts of the world, hunger is a genuine reality but we have all experienced the phenomenon of not being able to concentrate upon a job because of a growling stomach. Productivity drops prior to lunch as people transfer their thoughts from their jobs to the upcoming meal.After lunch, food it not uppermost in people’s minds but perhaps rest is, as a sense of drowsiness sets in. Similarly, in almost all organisational settings, individuals juggle their needs for security (â€Å"Can I keep this job? †) with needs for esteem (â€Å"If I do what is demanded by the job, how will my peers see me, and how will I see myself? †) Given a situatio n where management is demanding a certain level of performance, but where group norms are to produce below these levels, all these issues are experienced. If the individual does not produce to the level demanded by management, he or she may lose the job (security).But if he or she conforms to management’s norms rather than those of the group, it may ostracise him or her (belonging) while the individual may see him or herself as a turncoat (esteem) and may have a feeling of having let the side down (self-esteem. ) We do not progress simply from one level in the hierarchy to another in a straightforward, orderly manner; there is a constant, but ever-changing pull from all levels and types of needs. A second point that must be made about Maslow’s hierarchy is that the order in which he has set up the needs does not necessarily reflect their prepotence for every individual.Some people may have such a high need for esteem that they are able to subordinate their needs for sa fety, or their physiological or belonging needs to these. The war hero springs to mind. There is little concern for safety or physical comfort as the seeker of glory rushes forward into the muzzle of destruction. A third, and very important point to be made about Maslow’s hierarchical model is the assertion that once a need is satisfied it is no longer a motivator – until it re-emerges. Food is a poor motivator after a meal. The point in this is clear for management.Unfortunately, many organisations and individuals still fail to get the message. Most incentive schemes are based upon needs that have already been largely satisfied. If management placed emphasis on needs that have not been satisfied, employees would be more likely to be motivated towards achieving the goals of the organisation. Human behaviour is primarily directed towards unsatisfied needs. Finally, an important aspect of Maslow’s model is that it provides for constant growth of the individual. Th ere is no point at which everything has been achieved.Having satisfied the lower needs, one is always striving to do things to the best of one’s ability, and best is always defined as being slightly better than before. There has been a great deal of debate over Maslow’s hierarchical concept of motivation. It has a basic attraction to most people because it seems to be logical, to make sense. Dual-Factor Theory – Frederick Herzberg Frederick Herzberg and his associates began their research into motivation during the 1950?s, examining the models and assumptions of Maslow and others.The result of this work was the formulation of what Herzberg termed the Motivation-Hygiene Theory (M-H). The basic hypotheses of this theory are that: 1. There are two types of motivators, one type which results in satisfaction with the job, and the other which merely prevents dissatisfaction. The two types are quite separate and distinct from one another. Herzberg called the factors wh ich result in job satisfaction motivators and those that simply prevented dissatisfaction hygienes 2. The factors that lead to job satisfaction (the motivators) are:achievement recognition work itself responsibility advancement 3. The factors which may prevent dissatisfaction (the hygienes) are: company policy and administration working conditions supervision interpersonal relations money status securityHygienes, if applied effectively, can at best prevent dissatisfaction: if applied poorly, they can result in negative feelings about the job. Motivators are those things that allow for psychological growth and development on the job. They are closely related to the concept of self-actualisation, involving a challenge, an opportunity to extend oneself to the fullest, to taste the pleasure of accomplishment, and to be recognised as having done something worthwhile. Hygienes are simply factors that describe the conditions of work rather than the work itself.Herberg’s point is tha t if you want to motivate people, you have to be concerned with the job itselfand not simply with the surroundings. In a medical sense, growth, healing and development occur as natural internal processes. They are the result of proper diet, exercise, sleep etc. Hygienic procedures simply prevent disease from occurring. They do not promote growth per se. Herzberg says that we should focus our attention on the individuals in jobs, not on the things that we surround them with.He maintains that we tend to think that growth and development will occur if we provide good working conditions, status, security and administration, whereas in fact what stimulates growth (and motivation to grow and develop) are opportunities for achievement, recognition, responsibility and advancement. Once again, this theory has a basic attraction. As Joe Kelly puts it, however: â€Å"It is always as well to bear in mind that academics, who place considerable value on autonomy and inner direction, have an obse ssion about making work meaningful.The notion that it is possible to realise man’s true nature through creative work which is its own reward is an exceedingly attractive proposition to the learned don which is rarely fully shared by his wife†. Herzberg goes further than Maslow, cutting the hierarchy off near the top and maintaining that motivation results only from some elements of esteem needs and self-actualisation. The Need for Achievement – David McClelland The one single motivating factor which has received the most attention in terms of research, is the need for achievement (n-ach). As a result, we know more about n-ach than any other motivational factor.Much of this knowledge is due the work of David McClelland of Harvard. To illustrate what he means by the need for achievement, McClelland cites the following example: â€Å"Several years ago, a careful study was made of 450 workers who had been thrown out of work by a plant shutdown in Erie, Pennsylvania. Most of the unemployed workers stayed at home for a while and then checked with the employment service to see if their old jobs or similar ones were available. But a small minority among them behaved differently; the day they were laid off, they started job hunting.They checked both national and local employment offices; they studied the Help Wanted sections of the papers; they checked through their union, their church and various fraternal organisations; they looked into training courses to learn a new skill; they even left town to look for work, while the majority when questioned said they would not under any circumstances move away to obtain a job. Obviously the members of the active minority were differently motivated†. Individuals with a high n-ach have a number of distinctive characteristics which separate them from their peers.First of all, they like situations where they can take personal responsibility for finding solutions to problems. This allows them to gain perso nal satisfaction from their achievements. They do not like situations where success or failure results from chance. The important thing is that the outcome be the result of their own skill and effort. A second characteristic of high n-ach people is that they like to set moderately high goals for themselves. These goals are neither so low that they can be achieved with little challenge, nor so high that they are impossible.High n-ach individuals prefer goals that require all-out effort and the exercise of all their abilities. Once again, the achievement of this type of objective results in greater personal satisfaction. This phenomenon can be observed in very young children. A child may be given a game of ring toss, told that he or she scores whenever a ring lands over the peg and then left alone to play the game. McClelland comments: â€Å"Obviously children who stand next to the peg can score a ringer every time; but if they stand a long distance away, they will hardly ever get a ringer.The curious fact is that children with a high concern for achievement quite consistently stand at moderate distances from the peg where they are apt to get achievement satisfaction †¦ The ones with low n-Achievement, on the other hand, distribute their choices of where to stand quite randomly over the entire distance. In other words, people with high n-Achievement prefer a situation where there is a challenge, where there is some real risk of not succeeding, but not so great a risk that they might not overcome it by their own efforts†.A third distinctive characteristic of high achievers is that they want concrete feedback on their performance. Only certain types of jobs provide this kind of feedback, however, and so some kinds of jobs are unattractive to high achievers. For instance, teachers receive only imprecise, hazy feedback as to the effectiveness of their efforts while production managers have a daily output chart to look at with either joy or disappointment . There are some additional minor characteristics possessed by high achievers. They tend to enjoy travel, are willing to give up a bird inthe hand for two in the bush and prefer experts to friends as working partners. The image is clear; the high achiever is a personality type suited admirably to certain jobs and not others. It would be wrong to treat all individuals as high achievers and attempt to motivate them by offering them challenging jobs, rapid and objective feedback on performance and personal responsibility for success or failure. The need for affiliation and the need for power McClelland has also identified two other types of need, the need for affiliation (n-affil) and the need for power (n-pow).His testing procedure is concerned with the application of what is known as the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), a series of pictures which are presented to a subject, one at a time. The individual is asked to tell a story about each picture. The underlying assumption of the TA T procedure is that it will reveal the dominant thoughts and attitudes of subjects. For instance, an individual with high n-ach will formulate stories concerned with getting things done, challenging situations, feelings of satisfaction at having done a good job and so on.The individual with a high need for affiliation (n-affil) will reflect sensitivity to the feelings of others, a desire for friendly relationships and a reference to situations which involve human interactions. High n-power subjects will relate stories reflecting the process of influencing others, controlling and manipulating others. The need for affiliation The need for affiliation is similar to Maslow’s need to belong. It can be a dominant motivating force affecting behaviour and may manifest itself in many different ways.The novelist John O’Hara was supposedly obsessed with the fact that, not having a college degree, he was excluded from membership of certain clubs and societies. At the other end of the spectrum, James Coyne, a former Governor of the Bank of Canada, was described as the most unclubbable man in the country, as he held an aversion to joining groups. In its most straightforward form, a need for affiliation manifests itself in a desire to be liked by others, to be part of a group, to enter into warm, personal relationships.High n-affil people value relationships over accomplishments, and friendship over power. The need for power In studying the motivational profiles of North American managers, McClelland noticed that many of those who reach the top of organisations and are rated as highly effective in their positions, demonstrate a concern for influencing people. This is, in McClelland’s terms, a need for power. This need is not simply seen as the raw desire to control others or simply to exert authority.McClelland makes the point that: â€Å"†¦ this need must be disciplined and controlled so that it is directed toward the benefit of the institution as a whole and not toward the manager’s personal aggrandisement. Moreover, the top manager’s need for power ought to be greater than his or her need for being liked by people. † Power motivation refers not to autocratic, tyrannical behaviour but to a need to have some impact, to be influential and effective in achieving organisational goals. Results McClelland examined the motivational needs of a large group of managers whose units demonstrated varying degrees of morale.The most important factor, in predicting whether a manager’s subordinates would exhibit high morale, turned out to be how their need for power related to their need for affiliation. Teams which exhibited higher morale were those in which the manager’s need or power exceeded their desire to be liked. McClelland puts forward the following explanation: â€Å"Sociologists have long argued that, for a bureaucracy to function effectively, those who manage it must be universalistic in applyi ng rules. That is, if they make exceptions for the particular needs of individuals, the whole system will break down.The manager with a high need to be liked is precisely the one who wants to stay on good terms with everybody and therefore is the one most likely to make exceptions in terms of in terms of particular needs. †¦Sociological theory and our data both argue †¦ that the person whose need for affiliation is high does not make a good manager. † Organisation man? Power-motivated managers, like achievement orientated managers and the affiliators, demonstrate distinct characteristics: They are highly organisation-minded. They feel responsible for building organisations to which they belong.They believe strongly in centralised authority. They like to work. This is different from the high achiever who likes to minimise work by becoming more efficient. While the high achiever minimises effort and maximises output, the power-motivated manager enjoys work for its own sake. They are willing to sacrifice some of their own self-interest for the good of the organisation. They have a strong sense of justice, feeling that hard work and sacrifice should be rewarded. The picture of McClelland’s power-motivated manager is reminiscent of the organisation mancaricatured by William Whyte.The message seems to be that if one is dedicated to the institution, committed to the work ethic and unflagging in energy and devotion, success will follow. However, the increasing popularity of switching jobs as a method of rapid advancement and the rapidity of change in organisations somewhat contradicts this type of thinking. Expectancy Theory of motivation – Victor Vroom Victor Vroom, of Carnegie-Mellon in Pittsburgh, has challenged the assertion of the human relationists that job satisfaction leads to increased productivity.(This theory has been called the contented cow approach to management.) The assumption is that if management keeps employees happy, t hey will respond by increasing productivity. Herzberg, in a delightful film of motivation, highlights the fallacy of this assumption with an interview between a manager and a secretary. The secretary is complaining about the job, and the manager lists all the things that have been done for the secretary – increases salary, new typewriter, better hours, status and so on – at the end of which she looks straight at him and asks, So what have to done for me lately?The point may be made that satisfied needs do not motivate people Hygienes simply keep employees quiet for a time. For an individual to be motivated to perform a certain task, he or she must expect that completion of the task will lead to achievement of his or her goals. The task is not necessarily the goal itself but is often the means of goal attainment. Vroom defines motivation as: â€Å"A process governing choices, made by persons or lower organisms, among alternative forms of voluntary behaviour.†In o rganisational terms, this concept of motivation pictures an individual, occupying a role, faced with a set of alternative voluntary behaviours, all of which have some associated outcomes attached to them. If the individual chooses behaviour 1, outcome A results; if 2 then B results and so on. Knowing that individuals choose behaviours in order to obtain certain outcomes is nothing new. The question is why they choose one outcome over another.The answer provided by the motivational theories in the other articles in this short series (Maslow, Herzberg, McClelland) is that the choice reflects the strength of the individual’s desire or need for a specific outcome at a certain time. However, Vroom makes the point that task goals (productivity, quality standards or similar goals attached to jobs) are often means to an end, rather than the end in itself. There is a second level of outcomes which reflect the real goals of individuals and these may be attained, in varying degrees, thr ough task behaviour.An individual is motivated to behave in a certain manner because (a) he or she has a strong desire for a certain task outcome and a reasonable expectation of achieving that outcome and (b) because he or she also expects that the achievement of the task outcome will result in reward in terms of pay, promotion, job security, or satisfaction of individual needs – physiological, safety, esteem and so on. Let us take a look at how the model works. Imagine a manager has as a task goal, receive good ratings for internal customer service.The choice of this task goal reflects three things: The strength of the need for good ratings versus some other goal. The expectation that this goal can be achieved. The expectation that the achievement of this task goal will lead to desired rewards – promotion, increased security and so on. Vroom would maintain that we do things in our jobs in order to achieve second level rewards: â€Å"If a worker sees high productivity as a path leading to the attainment of one or more of his or her personal goals, he or she will tend to be a high producer.Conversely, if he or she sees low productivity as path to the achievement of his or her goals, he or she will tend to be a low producer†. Certainly Vroom has hit on an important aspect of motivation. We do not attempt simply to satisfy a need or even a set of needs in a straightforward, â€Å"If I do this, then I will achieve that† manner. We work with a chain of goals and rewards, where goals in one area are only a means of achieving goals in another.