Hong Kong International Airport Is the Main Airport in Hong Kong

Kong International Airport (HKIA) is the main airport in Hong Kong; it is an important regional trans-shipment centre, passenger hub and gateway between the Mainland China and the rest of Asia. And HKIA is the primary hub for several domestic airlines, such as Cathay Pacific Airways, Dragonair, Hong Kong Express Airways, etc. Review the history, HKIA has won seven Skytrax World Airport Awards for customer satisfaction in just ten years (Skytrax, 2010), the second busiest airport in the world in terms of cargo traffic and the 13th busiest airport worldwide in terms of passenger throughput in 2009 (Airports Council International, 2010).This is the strong evidence to proof that HKIA was entering to the World-Class International Airport and we can estimate its development effectively. In this essay, I will go to evaluate the hub airport development of the Hong Kong International Airport, also try to analyze the overall performance and the relevant statistics with other major hub airport to make the comparison and some opinions. The passenger throughput and cargo traffic in HKIA is developed in  tremendous speed in past 10 years.In view of this, the Airport Authority Hong Kong was going to build up some supporting facilities to strengthen its competitiveness, such as Terminal 2, North Satellite Terminal, SkyPier and planning to construct the third runway, etc. This is a very active operation to maintain and develop the position as a hub airport while compare with other major hub airport around the world. There are several major hub airports in Southeast Asia, like the Singapore Changi Airport and the Beijing Capital International Airport, etc.No matter what the passenger and cargo throughput, facilities, connection architecture and awards; it is competed so intensively with the HKIA. First of all, I will go to analysis the development trend of passenger throughput in the HKIA. In the early of 2000’s, the operation of HKIA was back on the train after the tra nsition period from the Kai Tak Airport. Base on the statistics, the total passenger in 2001 was 32,546,029 and ranking 17 (Airports Council International, 2002). After one year, the throughput increase 4. 1% to 33,882,463 and the ranking climb to 15 (Airports Council International, 2003).But in 2003, the passenger drop about 20% to 27,092,290 since the influence of SARS (Airports Council International, 2004). The HKIA was suffered a huge loss in this year, such as the passenger, cargo and economic, etc. Luckily, the recession has to undergo only one year, and it rise up again in the next year. In 2004, the PAX increase 25. 5% to 36,711,920 (Airports Council International, 2005), and the trend continues to increase until 2009. The other statistics which in 2005 increase 9. 7% to 40,269,847 (Airports Council International, 2006), 2006 increase 8. % to 43,857,908 (Airports Council International, 2007), 2007 increase 7. 3% to 47,042,419 (Airports Council International, 2008), 2008 incr ease 1. 7% to 47,857,746 (Airports Council International, 2009). And the trend was adjust lightly in 2009, which is decrease 5% to 45,499,604 (Airports Council International, 2010). The phenomenon was anticipated since the outbreak of H1N1 influenza made the economic slowdown in whole world. Apart from these passenger throughput data, we can analysis the HKIA was very successful as a passenger hub airport, even in Asia.Since the passenger flow was increase equably in past 10 years. And its ranking is good enough which represent the Asia hub airport. And here is the diagram to compare the PAX throughput between HKIA and Changi Airport. [pic]The above diagram shows the passenger traffic comparison between two major hub airports in Asia. Both of them are keeping the ascending trend since 2002, and the top 30 ranking. As we know that, the Singapore Changi Airport had the long term history and winning over 340 awards in a 20-year period from 1987 to 2007.Also, with  80 airlines serving 200 cities in 60 countries, Changi Airport established itself as a major aviation hub in the Asia Pacific region (Changi Airport Group, 2009). But when we look back the passenger throughput in HKIA; it was higher than Singapore Changi Airport about 6,000,000 to 8,000,000 in the past 10 years averagely. The most important is the HKIA just go though the 10 year’s history. It can prove the development of HKIA is very high-speed and prosperity. [pic] Secondly, it is the cargo traffic comparison between the HKIA and Changi Airport. The diagram shows above is the total cargo statistics from 2009 to 2009.Base on the diagram, it is no doubt to prove that the HKIA is acting the leader position in Asia, even in the World since 2002. The cargo traffic was above 2,500,000 tones from 2002, and continued to rise above 3,000,000 from 2004 and until to 2009. And the HKIA keeps the second ranking in the World's busiest airports by cargo traffic since 2002, just behind the Memphis Internation al Airport (Airports Council International, 2003~2010). When compare the cargo traffic with the other busiest cargo airports in Asia – Changi Airport. We can clearly perceive the outcome and difference.Although the history of Changi Airport is longer then HKIA, and it introduced the Air Hub Development Fund in 2003 (Net Resources International, 2010) to attract the airlines and push up the cargo traffic. But the total cargo traffic in the past 8 years was still fall behind HKIA distantly, and the gap becomes has widened in these several years. This is the best statistics to verify that the HKIA is the successful hub airport in the cargo side. Moreover, it is the new development in HKIA. It officially launched two new facilities in January 2010, which are the SkyPier and the North Satellite Concourse.For the Skypier, the temporary SkyPier was made available in 2003. It assists the movement of passengers between HKIA and the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region. With an extensive air network of 150 destinations,  HKIA has also served well the air transportation needs of the PRD, meeting the economic development needs of Hong Kong and contributing to Mainland's economic growth over the past three decades (HKIA Press Releases, 2010). And the AA has invested over HK$1 billion in the construction of a new North Satellite Concourse (HKIA Press Releases, 2009).It is designed to serve more than five million passengers a year at the initial stage. And ensure the same level of service for the passengers who flying on smaller aircraft (HKIA Press Releases, 2009). Refer to the Executive Director in Airport Authority Hong Kong, said, â€Å"HKIA is dedicated to providing top-notch service and facilities to enhance its competitiveness as a regional and international aviation centre. With the new satellite concourse, less than 10 flights will need to be parked at remote bays every day compared to the current 40 to 50.This means more passengers can embark or disembark their aircraft in a pleasant, weatherproof environment, sparing them the inconvenience of being exposed to hot or rainy weather† (HKIA Press Releases, 2009). The director has briefly explained the objective and function of the North Satellite Concourse. Evidently, the growth project is using to enhance service levels, pave the way to meet future demand and strengthen the connection with the PRD network. Also deepen the role and position as a hub airport around the world.In conclusion, the passenger throughput, total cargo traffic and the facilities development in HKIA has expand quickly in the past ten years. And all the relevant statistics, ranking, awards and reputation has the sustainable increase. It is the positive outcome and result to evaluate the development of the HKIA as a hub airport, also HKIA is the famous, guarantee airport for all the local and foreigner.HKIA Opens New Passenger Concourse to Enhance Service. Retrieved 20 April, 2010, from http://www. hongkongairport. com/eng/media/press-releases/pr_981. html HKIA Press Releases (2010).Airport's New SkyPier and North Satellite Concourse Officially Opened. Retrieved 20 April, 2010, from http://www. hongkongairport. com/eng/media/press-releases/pr_983. html

Management Challenges in the 21st Century Essay

Introduction The traditional management education and training relies heavily on left-brain thinking, deductive reasoning and analytical thinking. The managers of the future require a different set of skills based on the functioning of the right-brain like holistic or systems thinking, intuitive problem-solving and value-driven decision-making. While state parastatals could benefit from a number of these corporate lessons, readers should be clear about the many ways in which government agencies differ from corporate entities. In the corporate world, a single metric – profits – surpasses all others in importance. By contrast, a government organization must achieve success across a wide spectrum of activities. There is no equivalent to the simplifying discipline of a corporate balance sheet. Corporations must adapt or risk bankruptcy, and publicly held companies are accountable to shareholders who scrutinize their performance and profitability each quarter. These factors present strong incentives for corporations to invest in and drive change. The government organisations, in contrast, adapts only because of the will of its leaders and staff. If it dawdles, it does not come under threat of bankruptcy or risk the ire of shareholders. However, the consequences of strategic failure at the parastatals can be far greater than that of a corporation. The Evolutionary Context The best minds in management were thoughtful and precise in identifying the management challenges of the 21st century. However there is nothing entirely new in the list of challenges. Most of them are part of the new and emerging paradigm in management, discussed and debated in the growing management literature on this subject. However what is lacking in the discussion is a clear and precise understanding of the change or evolutionary transition which humanity as a whole is going through. In other words, first we have to understand and identify clearly the evolutionary challenges facing future humanity as a whole and based on this understanding, we have to figure out what will be its implications for business and management. As the intuitive and evolutionary thinkers like Sri Aurobindo and Teil-hard-de-Chardin have pointed out, the main evolutionary challenge facing humanity is the growth of consciousness from the rational, divisive and analytical consciousness of the mind towards th e unitive, holistic and intuitive consciousness of the Sprit. The ultimate goal of this evolution is towards the creation or establishment of a Global Consciousness, wherein humanity discovers its inner spiritual unity. Sri Aurobindo called this higher consciousness as the â€Å"Gnostic† or â€Å"supramental† consciousness and Teil-hard-de-Chardin named it as the â€Å"Omega Point† beyond the rational mind. This is the deeper and inner significance of the present trends towards globalisation, which is moving towards, not exactly a global society or a global government, but a global consciousness. The path to this global consciousness is through a system of values, education and culture which leads to a moral, psychological and spiritual development of the individual and collectivity. When this global consciousness expresses itself in the outer life it will lead to a global civilization, governed and united by the principle of a free, rich, harmonious and mutually complementing diversity. This is the inner imperative of the future evolution of mankind. In the external world, the main thrust of the evolutionary drive of Nature seems to be towards greater distributive justice which means greater diffusion of knowledge, power, wealth and culture into the masses, especially those who are suppressed or exploited in the previous cycles of evolution. This evolutionary thrust is expressing itself in the emerging society through the following movements: 1. Increasing empowerment and participation of woman, with more and more woman entering into the professional world and raising to leadership position. 2. Greater empowerment and participation of those workers in the lower levels of the corporate hierarchy. 3. Thrust towards inclusive growth, economic upliftment of the poorer section of the society, people participation in development, and a greater focus on minorities. The Integral View These are the inner and outer evolutionary imperatives of the future. Those individuals or groups organisations, communities or nations who are able to successfully achieve or implement this evolutionary transition will gain evolutionary advantage over others and will be the leaders of the future. What are the implications of this future evolutionary imperative for business and management? First, in the domain of vision, mission and values organizations have to discover a higher purpose which can inspire and trigger this higher evolution within the organisation. Second, in the domain of Human Resources Development, there must be a greater attention to the development of the moral, aesthetic, intuitive and spiritual faculties and potentialities of employees which will lead to their higher evolution. Third, in the domain of Organisational Development, creating a corporate environment and culture which felicitates this higher evolution among employees and also helps them to express this inner and higher growth in the outer life. In this task, building consciously an organizational community governed by the values of French revolution: liberty, equality and fraternity, will be a great help. This means reinventing the values of democracy at the organizational level. In this task, the corporate world can perhaps do a better job than the political world because of two reasons: first, in our modern age the world of business is much more dynamic, efficient and innovative, with a much greater capacity for organisation and execution than the world of politics; second it is easier to implement or organise the triple values in the smaller space of an organization than on the larger scale in a nation. However, the key to a practical synthesis of the triple value lies in the third, Fraternity or more specifically an inner fraternity in the mind, heart and soul of people or in other words, unity of consciousness. Fourth, in the domain of corporate social responsibility, there must be a greater integration of the corporation with the community, which means a more creative deployment of the expertise and resources of the corporation for the development of the surrounding community as a whole. Fifth, in the domain of sustainability a more integral attunement of the corporate life with the laws and way of Nature in the physical as well as psychological and spiritual dimensions Challenges of Management in the 21st Century Corporate executives emphasize the need for a clear, shared vision; a strong organizational culture; ways of doing business that leverage the size and reach of the company; and an institutionalized process that ensures the alignment of the corporation’s vision and its widely dispersed activities. Hierarchical, highly centralized, command-and control models no longer work for most global organizations. Such models reduce speed and agility, hinder innovation and prevent valuable collaboration. Yet, many companies take advantage of their large size, scope and reach. i) Enterprise Mobility Since the inception of Apple’s App Store in 2008, the concept of enterprise mobility has evolved from a nice-to-have novelty into an essential part of doing business. Increasingly, organizations in a broad cross section of markets – financial services, pharmaceuticals and life sciences, consumer products, education, automotive, and manufacturing among them – are seeing the value of mobilizing enterprise information and making it available to customers, employees, and partners. These organizations are making smart phones and tablet devices an important part of their sales, marketing, operations, and human resource strategies by developing customer – facing mobile applications that drive revenue growth, build customer loyalty, and strengthen brand awareness. They’re also creating internally focused applications that aim to improve employee and partner efficiency, communication, and productivity. These initiatives have taken many different forms and met with varying degrees of success, but they illustrate that organizations are taking enterprise mobility seriously. With application downloads expected to top 44 billion by 20161, they’re wise to do so. Enterprises are also leveraging mobility to improve internal operations, strengthen partner ties, and boost employee productivity. Driven by explosive growth in smart phone and tablet sales, enterprise mobility has become an essential part of business. Organizations across industries are developing internal- and external-facing mobile applications that drive revenue, build brand loyalty, strengthen communication with partners, and enhance employee productivity. Companies that have aggressively embraced enterprise mobility are seeing an impressive return on their investment. The rapid and ongoing rollout of new smart phone and tablet devices is driving new customers into the market, but also forces developers to build mobil e applications for multiple platforms and device types. Keeping pace in this market requires an agile, flexible, and iterative approach to application development. In-house development is a complex, expensive, and time consuming process that requires coding in multiple languages, extensive testing on different platforms, and dedicated resources for ongoing updates and maintenance. Mobile web isn’t a viable option for addressing these challenges: security is weak, user interface suboptimal, and functionality limited. ii) Individual and Leadership Challenges Globalisation, the war for talent, digital communications, societal changes, the changing shape of organisations, and the aspirations of the next generation are all challenging 21st Century leaders in new ways. The quest for more sustainable and ethical organisations prompted by the business scandals of the nineties and the growing realisation that we cannot continue to raid our world’s natural resources without considering its future sustainability are also putting extraordinary pressures on today’s leaders to perform against a range of criteria which go far beyond those of successful business performance. Measuring leadership success must increasingly now include questions of the longer term common good: socially, ethically and globally, at the same time as responding to the pace of change in a world where today’s ideas might already be doomed to obsolescence. It is no longer enough to stimulate followers through heroic gestures and charisma alone. 21st Century visionary leaders focus on growing deep organisational engagement amongst their followers, and on generating a shared and common understanding of a dynamic and evolving vision for the future. Visioning today is no longer the static or solitary activity it once was. No longer is it the sole prerogative of the top team. Looking beyond the organisation’s immediate environment into the world to help people to imagine the future, and then converting this image into an exciting destination means developing a climate in which ideas are shared and co-created. It means using all available antennae and tapping into all available networks to continually create new knowledge inside the organisation. This knowledge includes understanding trends and shifts in society, technology, markets and people, looking for tipping points and spotting them early, assessing the speed and destination of these changes, and then of course interpreting these to determine how they will affect the organisation and its purpose over time. Visioning alone though, is not enough. Authenticity is another concept long debated by philosophers and psychologists amongst others, but one that is relatively new to the mainstream study of leadership, although interest in it is growing fast. To be truly authentic, however, also requires a deep understanding how our identity has been shaped by the societal norms around us, a rejection of the pressures to behave as others want us to, and a refusal to display feelings we do not really feel. Fortunately our appetite for filling our workplaces with cultish rituals to be followed blindly and evangelistically is now virtually. Achieving authenticity in a world where our identities are created for us by a mass market media and the immediacy of the internet is not easy. It requires courage, self knowledge, compassion and strong personal conviction. Those who work towards this goal, however, confirm that they find themselves happier in their working relationships, more successful as leaders, and more able to engage and inspire their followers. For the 21st Century leader this is felt to be one of the most challenging but also one of the most important qualities a leader can aspire to. Perhaps one of the most marked shifts in thinking about leadership for the 21st Century is the renewed emphasis we are now placing on mentoring and team development, as well as on growing the next generation of leaders. Many 21st Century leaders aim to try to spend more time with their teams to understand their aspirations and to identify the areas in which they need intervention, mentoring and direction. Others see their leadership roles as being about unlocking the potential of their followers, and helping them deliver without micromanaging. iii) Change Management Organizational change normally involves some threat, real or perceived, of personal loss for those involved. This threat may vary from job security to simply the disruption of an established routine. Furthermore, there may be tradeoffs between the long and short run. As an individual, I may clearly perceive that a particular proposed change is, in the long run, in my own best interests, and I may be very interested in seeing it happen, yet I may have short-run concerns that lead me to oppose particular aspects of the change or even the entire change project. The rate of change is escalating in virtually all organizations. The pressure is intense on anybody connected with the business world to focus time and attention on understanding the forces driving the changing environment and develop or implement the information systems needed to support the altered environment. One of the most difficult problems organizations face is dealing with change. In today’s rapidly changing, high ly competitive environment, the ability to change rapidly, efficiently, and almost continually will distinguish the winners from the losers. Many organizations will disappear because they find themselves unable to adapt. Furthermore, many of the pressures for change in organizations are independent of technologic change. This means that informaticians working for change are doing so in organizations which are already highly stressed by other pressures. Major organizational changes typically involve many different types and levels of personal loss for the people in the organization. For example, change always requires the effort to learn the new, which is a loss in terms of time and energy that could have been used elsewhere. Although some may welcome the learning opportunity, many of us don’t want to invest that time and energy unless we are dissatisfied with the current arrangements or see powerful advantages to the proposed change. Upgrading to new software is a common example, in which the future benefits may not be seen as sufficient to outweigh the short-term investment required to learn the new programs. Second, people want to feel good about themselves. Ideally, people are able to take pride in their work, feel responsible for a job well done, feel they are part of a high-quality enterprise, and feel that their time has some significance. In many work situations, the work itself and the organizational culture make it difficult for people to feel good about themselves. In these poorer situations, people usually invent strategies to help them feel better about themselves, and these strategies involve getting some sense of control, belongingness, and significance out of their work. Sometimes this involves opposition to management, on the assumption that management is always up to no good. More commonly, the worker-management relationships are not completely alienated. Still, the workers’ strategies for achieving â€Å"good† feelings are unknown to or quite misunderstood by management. Therefore, change initiatives, unknowingly and unintentionally, threaten to cause the workers serious personal loss. Not surprisingly, the workers resist and do all they can to sabotage such change initiatives. Third, change initiatives often require large losses for middle managers. Generally, people perceive that information systems increase the ability of top executives to know more about what is going on and to exert more direct control. This means a serious loss of personal and organizational significance for the middle manager. Sometimes middle managers fight this loss. Any significant organizational change involves changing habits, which is, changing the way we actually do our work. This usually involves changes in the way we interact, both with people and our tools. New systems require us to learn a new set of behaviours. Resistance to change is an ongoing problem. At both the individual and the organizational levels, resistance to change impairs concerted efforts to improve performance. Many corporate change efforts have been initiated at tremendous cost only to be halted by resistance among the organization’s employees. Organizations as a whole also manifest behaviour similar to that of individuals when faced with the need to change. The relationship between individual and organizational resistance to change is important. An organization is a complex system of relationships between people, leaders, technologies, and work processes. From this interaction emerge organizational behaviour, culture, and performance. These emergent properties and behaviours are tightly linked in two directions to the lower-level interactions. Organizational resistance to change is an emergent property, and individual resistance to change can give rise to organizational resistance. A self-reinforcing loop of increasing resistance can develop as individuals create a environment in which resistance to change is the norm. That environment in turn encourages increased resistance to change among individual employees. The self-reinforcing nature of this loop can be tremendously powerful, defeating repeated attempts to break out of it. iv) Manpower Management Parallel with the changes in the global arena, the qualifications of the workforce has been changed. The changes of the workforce required a shift from traditional personnel management to human resource management. With the evolution of HRM, this field has gained a more strategic perspective in practice. Human resources have started to be seen as an inimitable and most valuable factor for organizations to gain competitive advantage. With this perspective, HRM departments has gained more importance and become strategic players in the organization. Today, the new HRM requires being strategic partner in the organization by aligning all the HR functions with the mission, vision and strategies of the organization. Considering this, it is possible to say that high quality workforce can create this advantage. The change that has most impacted organizations in the past decade has been the increasing realization that human resources of an organization are the primary source of competitive advantage. It is now accepted that high qualified employees in the organization and the way how they are managed is very important to gain competitive advantage. HRM must change as the business environment and the world in which it operates changes. Parallel to these changes in technology, globalization and dynamics of labour market, the way to manage human resources has changed. HRM managers have moved from handling simple personnel issues to making a strategic contribution to the future directions and development of the organization. With the evolution of HRM function from traditional to strategic, its roles and importance has gained more attention. The HR function and its process now have become more strategic and HR managers have been a part of the top management team. This strategic approach to HRM has led this function to be involved in strategic planning and decision making processes by coordinating all human functions for employees. Aligning the strategies of the organization with the HR functions has become the essential part of gaining competitive advantage. The role of the HR for the 21st century is named as strategically reactive in business strategy implementation through supporting the long term strategies with the necessary employee qualifications and developing the cultural and technical capabilities required for the strategies of the organization. The need for managing the employees strategically in the 21st century also requires the management and the organization structure to be more flexible. The work system has started to change with autonomous work groups with high qualified workforces, outsourcing some of the operational HR functions, downsizing, delayering, employee participation to the decision systems, high wages for the high qualified human resources, virtual and network organizations. 21st century HR requires factors like; increased centrality of people to organizational success, focus on whole systems and integrated solutions, strategic alignment and impact, capacity for change. These factors are described below briefly: * Increased Centrality of People to Organizational Success: Undoubtedly the most powerful force affecting the evolution of HRM is the increased centrality of people to organizational success. The emergence of resource based views of organizations has placed increasing importance on intellectual and social capital. * Focus on Whole Systems and Integrated Solutions: It is clear that HRM has become increasingly systematic during their evolutions. With the strategic proactive role of HRM, the challenge for HRM is to continue to develop innovative systems by focusing on the integrated functions and systems of organization. * Strategic Alignment and Impact: 21st century HR has become more integrated by its measurement efforts and it is expected that the importance of these efforts will increase in the coming years. This is all being driven by increased pressure to work on issues that are most important to the business and to provide organizational leaders with understandable information that helps them to make better and more strategic decisions about the workforce. Ultimately, it is essential to work together to enhance HR’s capacity to contribute to organizational and financial performance. * Capacity for Change: Today’s organizations must thrive in complex and unpredictable environments and must be extremely agile. This demands the development and implementation of structures and processes that facilitate incremental change. The new human resources management for the 21st century should play a strategic role by contributing the strategy formulation process and being a strategic partner during the implementation of these strategies. The HR practices should be designed consistent with the strategies of the organization taking into consideration the essential HR needs. In parallel with these, organizations can be able to be more flexible, flat and agile in rder to struggle with the changes in the competitive environment by gaining competitive advantage with their HR assets. HR professionals need to lead flatter organizations by encouraging individuals to exercise more initiative, autonomy and accountability by providing tools and techniques that improve their effectiveness and by enabling the acquisition of critical competencies through continuous learning opportunities (Schoonover, 2010).

Analysis of Animosity and Sexism in Sporting Activities Involving Women

Analysis of Animosity and Sexism in Sporting Activities Involving Women Throughout this paper the issues of women, athletics, stereotyping and opportunities that are/are not available to females in the professional arena of athletics will be explored. Indeed, racism and sexism has traditionally (and continues to be a great extent) steeped in American society, as well as institutions. There have been a number of laws passed regarding this practice, i.e. Affirmative Action being the one more notable, as well as others. Nevertheless, from a legal, social, and political perspective, females are still stereotyped as the weaker sex, and inevitably this mentality continues to impact women in U.S. society, as well as capabilities within other aspects of society. It is my intention to address these variables both individually as well as intertwining units. Within the world of sports, or athletics, we have particularly seen evidence of this within the Olympics. The Olympics is the epitome of sports for all people, male, female, as well as color, and ethnicity from around the world. Title IX was supposed to change the world, and it has: the number of women participating in college sports has jumped up considerable since the law was enacted twenty-five years ago. But the world changes slowly. U.S.A. Today surveyed 303 Division I schools to see where Title IX has taken us in it twenty-five years and found that men still get most of the money. Taken together, the results are like a good new, bad news joke. The good news: the number of female athletes has increased 22% since 1992. The bad: for every one-dollar spent on woman s colleges sports three dollars is spent on men s. Female athletes get just 38% of the scholarship money, 27% of recruiting money and 25% of operating budgets. It is encouraging to see the increases for women but very di scouraging to see that they are not really sharing equally in the money. The money side of the ledger still gets the vast amount of the money, says Patty Viverito, Chairwoman of the NCAA s Committee on Women s Athletics. The newspaper took a detailed look at the issue in late 1995, when it stated numbers for 1994 of the 107 Division I-A school. Since then, the Equity In Athletics Disclosure Act, requires all colleges to report data on men and women s athletics. The Federal law took effect April 1, 1997. To ensure that A college is in compliance with Title IX, The Department of Education office for Civil Rights, uses a three-pronged test to decide. A school is in compliance if it passes a single prong. One prong asks its school to show a history of continuing expansion of women s athletics programs. Another asks if interest and abilities of women athletes have been met. The only measurable prong asks if the percentage of women athletes at a school is substantially proportional to the percentage of women in its undergraduate enrollment. Though the rules do not specify what constitutes substantially proportionality, some out of court settlements suggest coming within five percentage points might be enough. U.S.A. Today found that 28 of the 303 Division I-A schools, only 9% passed the proportionality test. That includes 9 of 108 schools in Division I-A, made up of big time football schools. That is the same number passed in 1995. (Brady and Witosky, p, o4C) Some critics have stated that Title IX has no powers of enforcement. Historically it has taken a lawsuit by female athletes to achieve corrective action. For example, the Black Women In Sports Foundation has received a $50,000 grant form Athletic Footwear Association to conduct a program that will introduce African American girls and women to golf and tennis, and to each other in ten U.S. cities. The program to begin soon will train black women in the elements of sports and mentoring techniques. Then the mentors will be matched with girls who are interested in learning sports. We want to create relationships that will continue as the adult and child learn the sport together, said Gina Sloane Green, President and Executive Director of the Foundation We are not trying to recruit adults who are experienced players. Instead, our adult mentors need only a strong interest in learning the game and a desire to make contributions to a young person s life. The chosen cities chosen for the prog ram are: Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Norfolk, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City, and Washington D.C. The foundation hopes to involve between 100 and 150 mentors and children in each city during the first year. Local coordinators and instructors are being recruited who will conduct a series of clinics. They will be held first for the adults and then for the adults and children together. After that the mentor adult is responsible for registering the child in a local sports program and for providing transportation. We plan to arrange scholarships to local organizations and programs so that the children can continue to play and learn for as long as they want Green said. The Black Women In Sports Foundation was established in 1992 to increase opportunities for African American women in all levels of sports, from participation, to lifetime careers. In 1993, it produced a video, entitled, Amazing Grace, Black Women In Sports, that encourages young women to pursue career opportunities in sports. The Athletic Footwear Association sponsors the video. (Walter, p. A-8) In my opinion there has been an ongoing effort to advance women in sports. Much of this has to do with so-called Civil Rights, or giving U.S. citizens equal opportunities. Civil Rights, Affirmative Action etc., has been the tradition over the past 20 or 30 years, and fortunately for women in sports, it has served as a factor in advancing women in sports. Recently, Timer Incorporated announced that it would debut the first test issue of Sports Illustrated Women/Sports on April 21. The magazine, aimed at women 18-34, will be sent to 450,000 female Sports Illustrated subscribers as well as women selected form a Time Warner database, and 250,000 copies will be sent to newsstands for sale. The first issue will have more than 100 editorial pages and 70 advertising pages. The new magazine was to have publication twice in 1997 with completed frequencies in 1998. It has been said that grumpy old men had their way in the Olympics for generations. However when we look at Atlanta we can see a new leaf turning over. In the Atlanta games there was 36% more women competing then in any other previous Olympics. Most of the recognizable names on the American team were women. Jackie-Joyner-Kersee, Janet Evans, Mia Hamm, Shannon Miller, Gail Devers, Rebecca Lobo, etc. Two new Olympics sports have been added for women this year: soccer, and softball. For the first time U.S.A. basketball put women under professional contract for a year to train an Olympic team rather than gather college all stars at the last minute. In Track and Field, the 5,000 meter run has replaced its 3,000 for women and the triple jump has been added for women, to look more like the men s program. There has been progress, and partly for the right reasons, said Donna Deverona, twice an Olympian and twice gold medallist in swimming in the 1960 . This was a time when female sport champi ons were what she called unique pioneers. Deverona acknowledges that the growth of women team sports in the Olympics is a step in the right direction. She goes on to state The team is formerly the male sandbox, and women need to know that they can be team players, that they can be aggressive, sweat, and work together, and have strategies. Rebecca Lobo, former University of Connecticut basketball superstar, stated My own experience was that women only competed in sports like gymnastics, swimming and diving when I watched the Olympics. I think its wonderful for little girls now to see team sports on TV, too, because a lot more kids play team sports rather than individual sports. Mia Hamm, the world s finest female soccer player, states We tell people we are the U.S. National soccer team and we are going to World Championship s Tournament or something like that and it s Oh, that s nice , But now that we are able to attach the word Olympics to ourselves, they can identify with that. Joa n Benoit Samuleson, champion of the first ever women s Olympic marathon in 1984, states There weren t opportunity s for women in running then, and having three brothers and being very competitive, I did have the skiing. I was going to go that way By the time Samuleson won the marathon gold it was 2474 years after man first ran a marathon (a Greek messenger) and 88 years after a man won the marathon in the first modern Olympics. Samuleson goes on to state The longest race I ran in high school was 800 meters, because they thought that if women ran farther, it could cause bodily injury and they would be unable to bear children, she goes on to say We are making strides year after year and you know, Rome was not built in a day. Since the 14th century men have fought to keep women out of the Olympic games. It would not be until the 6th modern Olympics in 1920 in Antwerp that the United States allowed women to compete. Also, it was not until the last two decades, under the current International Olympic Committee and President Juan Antonio Samanach, that women s participation began to grow significantly. For the 1976 Montreal Olympics, the male to female ratio for athletes was 6 to 1, for the Atlanta games it was 3 to 1. We can see that we are moving in the right direction. The passage of Title IX in 1972, federal legislation that mandates full equality for women s intercollegiate sports, experiences and expectations for girls and women began to change dramatically. Recently female politicians in Germany called on the IOC to bar from the Olympics any nation attempting to forbid female participation, They stated that 35 countries had registered only male athletes for Atlanta. They called this female apartheid which is as damaging as racial apartheid that kept South Africa from participating in the Olympic games for more than 30 years. That protest was targeted at Middle East countries, whose Islamic Fundamentalist frown on female athletic participation because it necessitates what they feel is public immodesty. For instance showing their bare legs while participating in sports. Hassiba Boulermia is a prime example of such prejudice. She was an Algerian middle distant runner who was spat on and stoned while training in her country because of the perceived public immodesty. She kept training anyway and won the Barcelona Olympic 1500 meters and proceeded to shout Algeria ! at the TV cameras and carried the Algerian flag. Boulmerta was able to open a door for other young girls in her country. If the IOC were to boycott such countries from the Olympics other countries will not have a chance to open he door and see the light to let these young women compete. In the long run it would only hurt these women in Middle East countries instead of help them Nevertheless we can see that there are cultural, religious, political, and social imperatives which must be considered. However when it comes to the Olympics, a place of all sports for everyone, these universal imperatives are brought into question. All women should have an equal opportunity to compete. However we are gradually realizing that there is ongoing erosion of stereotypes and prejudices against in the women in the arena of what was traditionally a man s sport. It may take more time but we are definitely moving in the right direction.

Marketing plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 3

Marketing plan - Essay Example It comprises of a careful mix or composition of all the ingredients that help cure hangovers. The company has its headquarters located in the United States of America. The management comprises of five individuals with employees being fifteen in number. Our mission is to give our customers a sensational feeling that connects fun to the real world without jeopardizing any other operations. Since our existence, we have cherished and valued the sober state of individuals as being the most productive state and we seek to maintain that feeling and effect even after wild parties in the most convenient and enjoyable way. The idea is to generate interesting content easily spread on the canvas because of their interest. The consumer must obviously be the main actor of this content in which it participates since it is a new product Second, it is to create content only interesting but also related to business objective. It must also be consistent with the brand image and value of Hang Down Ultimate Drink. Finally, it must meet the expectations of consumers of the beverage. As we have already noted above, social networks are the ideal place to foster dialogue with consumers. This not helps to enhance the words of the consumers but also to collect valuable information about expectations, desires, disappointments consumer. Generate conversations is also the perfect way to â€Å"humanize† the brand and its values The economic situation of the world depends on the American dollar and how it trades in the market determines the revenue rates that the company receives. Moreover, the existence of an economically sound environment boosts and promotes trade in various parts where the company has set various outlets. The law has a high influence over the operation of the company. It is responsible for ensuring that a healthy competitive business environment

The Electronic Commerce In the US Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Electronic Commerce In the US - Case Study Example Since this is a new medium for commerce and as the global marketing of goods or services is growing enormously, there is a need for redrafting the legal environment suitably. The legitimate revenues to the governments were previously realized through taxes on sales, as applicable under the standard law. This new face of marketing which is termed electronic commerce has once again highlighted the need for creating new laws to safeguard the interests of the customers as well as the manufacturers and revamping the source for taxes to be levied. The changes, which result from electronic commerce and related technology offer significant benefits to business, consumers, and government. They increase convenience, efficiency, and productivity and reduce costs. It is important to look forward to the changes and how they will influence the current tax laws as they relate to maintaining consistent revenue flows and taxpayer equity. In the U.S., the emergence of electronic commerce has left a prominent impact on the telecommunication, information and computer sectors, advertising, publishing, and media industries. The issues brought forth by the electronic commerce, which relate to sales tax and use tax, have attracted the attention of the federal, state and local governments. Promoting the growth of internet commerce is inevitable because of its potential in generating revenues and jobs and increasing productivity. However, the state and local governments are dependent on a consistent inflow of revenues to maintain essential services. Sales and use tax account for 36.7 percent of overall tax revenues. There is a need for a cooperative and simplified sales and use the tax system to provide for efficient and equitable taxation of interstate commerce. The Internet Tax Freedom Act created the Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce and this commission recommended that while the internet should not be taxed more than other channels, it should not permit the avoidance of tax. The remote vendors argued that imposition of sales tax collection responsibilities in all of the thousands of the taxing jurisdictions in the U.S. would create an unacceptable burden (Pennsylvania Department of Revenue, September 22, 1999). The doctrine of sovereign immunity, in international law, permits a court to give up its jurisdictional rights in respect of foreign enterprises or countries. This doctrine has as its bases the traditional notions that a sovereign should not be subject to litigation in a foreign court. The result is that investors may be unable to obtain relief in their country's legal system. In some countries, this doctrine's application to commerce has been limited. While contracting with a private party if a foreign nation does not allow itself to be subject to the local laws, then recourse to U.S. courts in case of a breach is not possible.

Comparison Of Love Poems Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Comparison Of Love Poems - Essay Example However, I would say that Ted Hughes had not succeeded in blotting out the unpleasant events. Overall, this poem examines their wedding day in retrospect, and I would say that this poem was a realization for everything that had happened that he probably never got to understand at that time. First off, he describes his plain outfit on his wedding day: â€Å"sole, drab, veteran RAF black†. This description of his clothes and the way he emphasized Sylvia’s outfit on this day (which was even made the title of the poem) seemed to show how contradicting their feelings were toward their own wedding. I cannot help but think that this poem shows that only one party was ecstatic at this event: only Sylvia. This is shown in the last two stanzas of the poem, which described the happiness that Ted Hughes saw in Sylvia Plath during their wedding. Clearly, he was aware of how much this wedding meant to his wife. This was evidently one of her happiest days despite the lack of a grand c elebration. However, for his part, the poet used strong words that suggest the feeling of being forced into getting married: exhausted, conscript, squeezed. Despite having a title that seems to convey sweetness and beauty, this poem for the most part, describes how their wedding was unlike any other wedding day. They did not really choose the location of their wedding, which would normally be one of the first considerations in wedding preparations. Next, they did not even have a wedding entourage, and they had to request the sexton, of all people, to be the ring-bearer. Finally, his family and friends did not even know that he was getting married. On the contrary, Sylvia Plath’s â€Å"Wreath for a Bridal† is a magical recollection of their wedding day. Written in the same year as her wedding, the poem conjures images of beauty and nature. Perhaps despite the lack of preparations, Sylvia was personally convinced that she had the most beautiful wedding

Behaviorism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Behaviorism - Essay Example To this end, behaviorism or behavioral psychology is based on the notion the all behaviors resulted from conditioning. This condition process manifests itself through an active environmental interaction. Thus, the implication connoted by behaviorist is that environmental stimuli responses determine behavior. In the development of behaviorism, notable scientists such as Ivan Pavlov, John B. Watson and Albert Bandura played critical roles. Pavlonian Classical Conditioning In retracing the history of behaviorism, the renowned physiologist, Ivan Pavlov is credited with pioneering the classical or pavlonian conditioning. Evidently, the classical conditioning was arrived at accidently. It was during Ivan Pavlov’s scientific experimentation with dogs that the fundamentals of classical conditioning began to take root. Pavlov was observing at the physiological response of salivation in dogs when subjected to feeding. Evidently, whenever Pavlov approached the dogs, they would incidental ly begin salivating. Interestingly enough, this phenomenon was constant whether Pavlov was bringing them food or not (McLeod, 2007). At this juncture, Pavlov developed an initial theory that there existed some things that are not essentially learnt by dogs. A case in point was the salivating response in which the reflex is naturally fixated in the dog. Thus, he termed the phenomenon as an unconditioned response. An unconditioned response is basically a stimuli reflex that is disassociated from learning. To this end, Pavlov scientifically discovered the presence of an unconditioned reflex by showing a dog some food and proceeding to measure its amount of salivary excretions. However, it is of essence to note that Pavlov discovered that the dogs had developed a new characteristic whereby they associated his lab assistant with. Evidently, the salivating increased whenever the dogs saw his lab assistant. Previously, the did not exhibit this behavior with his lab assistant. Consequently, Ivan Pavlov concluded that this newly acquired behavior must have been learnt by the dogs. The dogs had developed the behavior of associating his lab assistant with food; which would instantly trigger increased salivation. To this end, Pavlov believed that a learning process by the dogs had led to the newly acquired behavior. The behaviorist fundamentals show that the lab assistant was previously a neutral stimulus. The neutrality state is justifiable due to the lack of a response. However, over time the dogs had learnt to associate the lab assistant (neutral stimuli) with food (unconditioned stimulus). In order to ascertain this theory, Pavlov incorporated a bell to be used as a neutral stimulus. Incidentally, the bell was rang at around the same time when the dogs were about to be fed. This procedure was repeated several times until whenever the bell was rang on its own without food, it triggered an instantaneous salivation from the dogs. As a result, the dogs had learnt a new be havior by developing an intricate relationship between the food and the bell. This response is what became termed as a conditioned response due to the fact that it was learnt. Moreover, the neutral stimulus from henceforth changed to a conditioned stimulus. Classical Conditioning John B. Watson is credited with publishing the article entitled, ‘Psychology as the behaviorist views it’ In the article, Watson demonstrated all the fundamentals of human psychology by the use of classical conditioning. It is of essence to note that Watson’s conditioning perspective drew inspiration from Pavlov’s observations. To this end, Watson theorized that the aspects of human emotional responses and speech were basically derivatives of stimulus and response. Interestingly enough, Watson was in

Are traditional approaches to security correct to position the STATE Essay - 1

Are traditional approaches to security correct to position the STATE as the referent object of security - Essay Example One should ask themselves whether it is plausible to include other parameters like demography, environment and resources. (Daniel, 1998) This means that the concept of international relations must be redefined; this is because there may be other underlying assumptions that have governed it. There are common strains and factors that have broken national borders. It must also be remembered that communication and information has undergone rapid changes. Besides, finances and capital are flowing all around the world. The clear dividing line that separated foreign and domestic policy is now distorted. This has now caused states to deal with problems in international forums rather than domestically. (Paul, 2000) Security perceptions may either be narrow or wide. Narrow concepts focus on power as the main agenda while wide concepts focus on cooperation. It must be remembered that human rights and international law are crucial determinants in this analysis. There are a number of occurrences that have sparked this debate. The first was the unification of Europe and Germany in the year 1989. Shortly after, there was the September eleventh attack in the year 2001 that posed new challenges to the American government. The security concept is now widening from national security to human or individual security. It has also expanded to include other factors like; actors, food, energy, health and other sectors. (Mathews, 1993) In opposition to the view that national security is of prime importance, other bodies like the United Nations Commission of Human Security have endorsed and proposed the idea of human security. However, traditionalists argue that this concept is too wide. It does not provide a clear outline of cause and effect like national security does. In addition, these conservatives further claim that the concept of global security is a mere complication of an already

Economics Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Economics - Assignment Example When firms spend less money on expansion, they are infusing fewer funds into the economy which leads to slow economic growth. Stock market crash causes job losses and this highly impacts the economy. During recession firms tend to cut operation costs by firing workers. With less money to spend consumers will not afford durable and luxury items. Hence, unemployment in the long run negatively impact the consumer durable and real estate sectors of economy since it lead to fall in prices in commercial and real estate sectors. Additionally, when investor’s money is lost as result of stock market crash, they tend to spend less. This in essence leads to low consumer spending which negatively affects the economy. Immediately following the attack on the US on 11 Sept 2001, the stock markets plunged and many observers expected a recession in the US (and possibly elsewhere). Using the AD-AS model, explain their prediction. There are reasons that led many observers to predict a recession in the US when the stock markets plunged. Stocks are pieces of ownership in a firm and thus the stock markets are indicator of shareholders’ confidence in the future earnings of these firms. Corporate earnings depend on the stability of country’s economic standing and therefore stock markets reflect how a country is economically stable. Their crash reflects a loss of confidence in the economy and if not restored it leads to recession. This due to the fact that the stock markets crash lead to a fall in aggregate demand (AD) (demand side shock) as a result of less wealth for consumers. In addition, it implies less financing for new projects, since trading of stocks is one way that firms raise funds required to expand. They also predicted a recession in US economy because declining stock markets can kick-start a rise in oil prices which would increase the cost of manufacturing and this in

Network security Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Network security - Research Paper Example This study proposes a number of ad hoc network protocols that will operate during on-demand basis or situations because on-demand protocols are known to have faster reaction and lower overhead compared to other routing protocols considering proactive mechanisms. Recently, there have been many developments as concerns mounting secure routing protocols for ad hoc networks incorporating a significant number of on-demand secure routing protocols to shield a number of probable attacks. In this study, a new attack that causes denial of service when exposed to all the previous on-demand network protocols is presented; it is referred to as rushing attack. Ad hoc network protocols like AODV and DSR with all security protocols imposed on them can’t discover routes which are longer than 2 hops when subjected to this attack. This is a serious attack because it can be propagated by even relatively very weak attackers. This study pays close attention to the setbacks that previous protocols had hence failing to counter this grave attack and come up with a RAP (Rushing Attack Prevention) which is a standard protection against on-demand protocols rushing attack. This protection provides a provable security feature to weak and even the stronger rushing attackers at no cost provided the underlying protocol does not fail to identify the working route. Topic description Nowadays the WSNs or Wireless sensor networks is gaining a global interest of its usage of minimal power radio skills and microelectronic systems. Its Sensor nodes are able to use batteries as a major source of power as well as harness energy from the environment as the case of solar panels. However the wireless sensor network architecture for WSN like any other wireless technology, it is subjected to a number of security attacks because it uses broadcast way of a transmission channel. A number of limitations in including security in WSN are prevalent e.g. : communication, storage limitations, processing capa bilities and computation, therefore, to plan a security protocol one has to understand all these challenges if acceptable performance is to be achieved (C?ayirci and Rong 187-202). This study will therefore, elaborate certain kinds of attacks over the ad hoc and wireless sensor networks as well as doing security analysis of the main routing protocols in these networks as pertains security goals and design. Ad hoc network can be described as a group of mobile nodes or computers that collaborate with each other by forwarding packets to each other; this enables them to extend their limited communication range for each computer’s wireless network interface. This study shall produce a number of established protocols in ad hoc networks. These networks are mostly preferred in situations where the communicating computers are mobile and wired network use is not economical or generally not present. These nodes may run applications from un-trusted sources and therefore a need of a secur e routing protocol. Secure routing protocols shouldn’t only be implemented only because of known attackers but even for the unforeseen ones because it will provide resilience to misconfigured computers. Routing tables for misconfigured nodes poses a

Assesing the Curriculum for Special Education Essay Example for Free

Assesing the Curriculum for Special Education Essay School can be particularly challenging for children with special needs, including those with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder or ADHD, who often experience poor academic performance, behavior problems, and difficulties with social interaction. The situation can be further complicated by the fact that there is no typical, predictable classroom style common to all children with special needs, for that matter. It can also be hard for parents to tell how much of any problem identified by a teacher falls into the normal range of a child development, for example how much is due to ADHD, and how much is due to coexisting problem such as learning disability, anxiety disorder, or disruptive behavior and others. Add to this fact that the public school system here in the Philippines may not have Individualized Education Program (IEP) that will meet the needs of these special children. In this study, the researcher will use different basic methods of assessing special education curriculum how it may be integrated into the mainstream or general education particularly in the Philippine public school system, without compromising quality of education. Objectives of the Study The objectives of this research proposal are a) to assess the basic curriculum of special education; b) to identify the positive and negative effect of the integration of such curriculum with the general education in the mainstream classroom and c) to identify effective classroom and teaching styles of special education. Statement of the Problem So many parents who have a child with special needs, particularly ADHD, have a dilemma when it comes to placing their children in public school system in the Philippines, since they are not included in the public school curriculum. And most public school teachers, if not some, may not be fully aware of the special needs of a child with ADHD and for that matter, does not have special skills in dealing with such students. Only special schools or some private schools deal with special children or include special education in their general education curriculum. On November 2005, my six-year old daughter was diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Since she was moving up to first grade, sending her to a public school was practical and a good choice, yet doubtful that the public school system has educational intervention for children with special needs like her, within the mainstream classroom setting. Her developmental pediatrician suggested for a behavioral therapy and tutorial through a SPED School, for that matter but it was important for my child to interact with children her age in a normal classroom setting, so the plan did not push through. . Scope and Limitation The Department of Education often stresses the need for a good public education which is free and accessible to every child in the country, including children with special needs, particularly those with Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) who came from all levels of society. It is therefore important to assess and evaluate special education curriculum to see if it can be integrated in the mainstream classroom. The special education evaluation process requires the school district to assess the student in all areas related to the suspected disability as well as conducting a comprehensive educational assessment for integration to happen in a normal classroom. Most educators believe that children with disabilities and nondisabled children should be taught together whenever possible. Isolating children with disabilities may lower their self-esteem and may reduce their ability to deal with other people. The practice of integrating children with disabilities into regular school programs is called mainstreaming, or inclusion. Students with disabilities attend special classrooms or schools only if their need for very specialized services makes mainstreaming impossible. Many children with disabilities attend regular classes most of the school day: They work with a specially trained teacher for part of each day to improve specific skills. These sessions may be held in a classroom  called a resource room, which may be equipped with such materials as Braille typewriters and relief maps for blind students. Other students with disabilities attend special classes most of the day but join the rest of the children for certain activities. For example, students with mental retardation (MR) may join other children who do not have MR for art and physical education. Although the place where instruction occurs (the setting) is seen as important in the field of special education, the types of curricular modifications and interventions may be a more important area to focus on in the future. Hypothesis This research is important in giving helpful ideas in relation to a child with special needs, especially with ADHD, and the effect of learnings he will get, especially in the public school setting, which gives free education to all. This research will help foster a child’s academic and social success in school through a good curriculum designed specifically for his needs, by assessing general education curriculum through the Curriculum-based evaluation and other related tools for assessment and evaluation. This research will deal on the questions: 1. What type of school-related challenges children face most often? 2. How effective is the special education curriculum to children with special needs and what areas need improvement? 3. Which classroom structures, teachings styles and accommodations can best support the child’s learning? 4. How can the integration affect the mainstream classroom? CHAPTER II Related Literature Blankenship, C. S. , (1985). Using curriculum-based assessment data to make instructional decisions. Exceptional Children, 52, 233-238. This article is part of a special issue of Exceptional Children devoted to Curriculum-Based Assessment. Blankenship describes the essential features of CBA and provides suggestions for development. She places a special emphasis on describing how teachers can use CBA for curriculum placement, materials, and instructional procedures. CBA and CBM Compare and Contrast www. teacherstoolkit. com/classroom1. htm CBA and CBM are compared and contrasted on this Web site. This is a good site for educators who are new to Curriculum-Based Evaluation as basic differences between CBA and CBM are described. A few articles and books are referenced. CBA Techniques www. johnvenn. com/assessment. htm The author of this site, John Venn, is a professor of education at the University of North Florida and is a good resource for teachers who are interested in implementing CBA in their classrooms. Venn lists in-class assessment and alternative grading strategies. He stresses how CBA techniques are quick, easy and that any teacher can use them. Deno, S. L. , (1985). Curriculum-based measurement: the emerging alternative. Exceptional Children, 52(3), 219-232. Deno introduces CBM as an alternative assessment approach that is both valid and reliable. He discusses the advantages and disadvantages of informal observation and also standardized commercial achievement tests. Dizon, Edilberto I. , Ed. D. An Article: Educational Intervention for Children with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. UP College of Education, 1998. This article discusses the priorities and guidelines in teaching children with ADHD. The author discussed how to assess the classroom that would enable teachers to decide on appropriate placement and design a customized educational program for the child, even at a mainstream classroom. He also talked about structure within in the classroom, its organization of chairs and tables and seating arrangements and the workspace for the child. It is also important to assess the curriculum and its contents. To make sure that there is provision of task-analyzing for the different skills of the child, to adopt anticipatory teaching and guidance which emphasize foresight and preventive intervention. Supervisors should be able to assess if teachers are able to focus on processes as much as outcome in their teaching and are able implement good behavioral management inside the classroom. Hall, T. , Mengel, M. (2002). Curriculum-based evaluations. Wakefield, MA: National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum. Retrieved [3/22/2008] from http://www. cast. org/publications/ncac/ncac_curriculumbe. html This publication includes discussions on academic assessment, which is a long-standing tradition in education. Assessment usually involves measurement of student progress for the purpose of informing. One level of informing is identification or eligibility decision-making, a second level is that of informing instruction. Traditional assessment instruments have limitations which restrict their application for instructional program planning. It also introduces alternative assessment procedures appearing in educational literature in the last 20 years are Curriculum-Based Evaluations (CBE). Whereas standardized commercial achievement tests measure broad curriculum areas and/or skills, CBE measures specific skills that are presently being taught in the classroom, usually in basic skills. It further states that assessment usually involves measurement of student progress for the purpose of informing. The author reviewed the beginning of CBE, wherein many of its systems had their beginnings in the special education domain. In some cases, research began specifically in the self-contained special education classroom. In others, the roots of the measurement system sprang from the desire to most appropriately integrate students with disabilities into the general education classroom. The tools described here under the name of Curriculum-Based Evaluations all had important roles and made contributions in research and practice in the general education class. Peters, Helen. An Article: Understanding and Educating Children with ADHD. Winston Churchill Fellow. 1998 This article was written as an overview in educating children with ADHD. The author describes children with ADHD and how to identify these children at the early years. She discussed about the rules in assessing ADHD. In classroom assessment, the author came up with four important questions in order for a teacher to have an effective classroom management. Understanding the different learning styles for special children was also discussed in this article. A series of questions were asked when thinking how to support the learning needs of the ADHD child was also included in this paper. The author also mentioned the school’s response to academic failure and the importance of visual display of lessons. Reiff, Michael I. , Tippins, Sherill, (2004). The American Academy of Pediatrics: ADHD: A Complete and Authoritative Guide. Your Child at School, 155-193. American Academy of Pediatrics. This book will help readers apply the most current evidence-based and best-practice approaches for finding solutions for children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Many important topics are addressed in this book including the advice on management techniques for school and home. In the chapter Your Child at School, readers will learn the type of school-related challenges children with ADHD face most often, the classroom structures, school policies, teaching styles and accommodations that can be beneficial for child with ADHD learns and how to individualized education program can work with a child, his teachers and even his pediatrician. CHAPTER III Methodology and Procedure 1. Conduct a literature review on special education curriculum and the public education system in the Philippines. 2. Observe a special education class for 1 hour everyday, for one week, focusing mostly on the curriculum, classroom and behavioral management and teacher’s skills, using the CBE Curriculum-Based Evaluations are best defined by Deno (1987) as any set of measurement procedures that use direct observation and recording of a student’s performance in a local curriculum as a basis for gathering information to make instructional decisions (in Shinn, 1989; p. 62): †¢ 3. Interview a public school superintendent/principal and teachers to attempt to gather reactions on the integration of special education curriculum into the general education system. The following questions will be: †¢ a. What is the general curriculum in the regular classroom? †¢ b. What are the aids, services or changes to the educational program that would help the child learn and achieve? †¢ c. What do you think are your strategies to help the child with behavior, if behavior is an issue? †¢ d. How can your student with special needs be involved and progress in the general curriculum? †¢ e. How can your student participate in extracurricular and other activities? and †¢ f. How can he/she be educated with other children, both with and without disabilities? 4. Interview a special education supervisor and teachers to attempt to gather reactions on the integration of special education curriculum into the general education system. While the interviews will not be formal or structured, the kinds of questions I will ask include the following: a. What type of school-related challenges children face most often? b. How effective is the special education curriculum to children with special needs and what areas need improvement? c. Which classroom structures, teachings styles and accommodations can best support the child’s learning? d. How can the integration affect the mainstream classroom? 5. Write a research report that combines my understanding of the special education issue and previous research with the results of my empirical research. [pic][pic][pic][pic][pic][pic][pic][pic][pic]

Narendra Modi Essay Example for Free

Narendra Modi Essay Born in 1950. 1960-1970 Tea, Tea, Tea! A cup of Tea for 10 cents. Would you like to have some tea sir? 2001- Chief Minister of Gujarat, one of the biggest states of India and remained as the Chief Minister for four consecutive terms until he became the Prime Minister of India in 2014. Before Narendra Modi became the Prime minister of India, corruption was the only key to success in India. A couple years ago, my mom got her divers license in Muscat, where I stay and she wanted Indian driving license so that she could drive in India as well. She went to the department office, and to her surprise there was this guy standing at the entrance of the office gate who was ready to give her an original driver’s license without having to give a test for half the price in no time. My mom did that because she didn’t want to stand in a line for like hours to get her license. Last summer, I drove to the department office to get my license but I couldn’t dare to get one illegally. Modi’s new law says that any person reporting an instance of corruption will be rewarded and person engaging in corruption will be punished. So now, you’ve got more eyes watching you than before if you’re in India committing any kind of crime. A brilliant idea to stop corruption because he realizes that not many are willing to eradicate corruption until they have some personal gain. During his election campaign, Modi spoke about his plan to replace the whole legal system of India with fewer new laws. The opposition party and many business men argued that only a more rigorous legal system can help prevent corruption. More than 65% of the population was corrupt. According to India times, Modi responded, â€Å"My election campaign is totally based on what I will do as a Prime Minister and what a government should do is to create a positive climate that will bring investment. I don’t make false promises. This is what I will do and vote for me only if you want this.† If I were him, then I would never dare to talk about such a plan that would invite criticism during the election campaign. Normally, a person would think that Modi just lost 65% of the votes that he had already won. But guess what, Modi not only had those 65% in his favor, but also the others supported him because he offered a brighter future for India. Previously, one would need to take multiple approvals for an action, running from this govt office to that govt office, etc. Today you need to go to one govt office where you only need to take a couple approvals to begin action. According to times of  India, Modi created history when he invited the prime ministers of the south Asian countries including that of Pakistan to his prime ministerial swearing ceremony after which they discussed their political issues. Getting over the ego, takes a lot of guts. In an important meeting with representatives of the neighboring countries, he asked the nations to be clear and declare immediately whether the countries were with India or against India, so that it isn’t like good face to face and later crossing borders and firing soldiers. The outcome of this meeting was a peace treaty signed by South Asian prime ministers (SO no more world war 3 between India and Pakistan), improved trade relations and took action for the better of collective south Asia. Here is a glass of water. Some people will say that the glass is half filled by water, some will say that the glass is half empty. He believes in the third view as explained in the Economic Times. According to him, the glass is half of water and half of air because only optimism can encourage courage. Here is a short video of what the Indian prime minister has accomplished in his 1st 100 working days which no other prime minister ever has. TO conclude,  Modi is a business man because he is a risk-taking, profit-minded person and I call him courageous because he has the courage to believe the unbelievable. Today, he is the inspiration of Indian youth. If you’re looking for Leadership, Governance and Decision Making, then vote for Modi. Thank you. Modi says, â€Å"people throw stones at me and I show courage by collecting those stones and making a temple out of them.† During his election campaign, he openly blamed the then chief minister of Delhi for corruption. The whole of india blindly trusted her that time because she was like this mother figure who would die for her country and blabla. Guess what, delhi chief minister was investigated and she was found guilty. Imagine, if she was not found guilty which was very much possible considering the power she had, then he would have not gained a single vote. He says that business lies in taking risks and higher the risks, higher the profits are. Modi had applied for visa to the United States and was rejected  3 times while he was the chief minister of Gujarat. But one day before the 2014 prime ministerial election results were out, Barak Obama sent an invitation to Narendra Modi requesting him to visit America. This doesn’t talk about Modi’s courage but indirectly speaks about his bold and aggressive nature which even forced Obama to invite Modi a day before he was announced as the Pri me Minister.

Streetcar Named Desire Psychoanalytic Theory

Streetcar Named Desire Psychoanalytic Theory The story Streetcar named Desire is a vastly confusing and complicated piece of literature. The characters in the story are constantly developing and you seem to find out their background history and their mental issued from beginning to end. The many aspects of the psychoanalysis theory apply greatly to each of the characters throughout the story and understanding the theory helps you understand their histories and their inner conflicts. Stella is the sister of Blanche and throughout the whole story she plays the peace keeper of all the characters that enter her apartment. Selective perception is Stellas way of keeping her senses about herself because throughout the story Stanley her husband is the opposition of Blanches lies. Stella wants to believe that her sister is the same person mentally that she was when Stella was living back in Bella Reve. When the subject about Blanches lies comes up, Stella avoids the situation of talking about it. This helps her act like nothing is going on; also it buys Blanche time in the house because Stella is blocking Stanley from confronting Blanche. When Stella gets hit by Stanley, the fear of abandonment creeps in because she comes back to him instead of staying in the neighbors house. Partly this is because of the baby they are about to have and also because of the time period the story is set in. Stellas self-esteem is constantly belittled by her husband because of their constan t fighting ever since Blanche arrived. Stanley is the epitome of a dominate male figure over women during the 1950s. He feels empowered by his knowledge and the fact that he brings in all of the income. Stanley is a very unstable human being and constantly teeters between the sane and insane. He is constantly belittling all of the women in the story and it only increases when he drinks and plays poker with his friends. Stanley loves to feel powerful and this is clearly shown when he rapes Blanche. His friends also are belittled by him and he pretty much takes control of theirs poker games. Stanleys id side is constantly striving to be right about Blanches lies and he will not stop till he is. When he crosses the line such as when he strikes Stella and she runs away, his fear of abandonment comes into play. Out of all the characters in the story he struggles with abandonment the worst. At a point he ends up crying out for Stella at the bottom of the stairs and this is very out of character for him, being the strong manly m an act he puts on. He often displaces he anger with Blanch on his friends and wife. This cause unnecessary fighting an more turmoil that increases throughout the whole story. Blanche is the most confusing and complicated character throughout this whole story. It took rereading and watching the movie to fully understand her characters complexity. The first clue to her mental problems is when she first arrives in town and asks the young sailor for directions. This is a huge clue to actions that will happen later on in the story. Blanches mind seems to always delete the horrific things that she has experienced like when her first husband shot himself in the street. In certain moments Blanche slips into the bad moments and almost relives them. Blanche is the kind of woman that always needs the comfort of a man and for them to always glamor her with compliments. She hides in the darkness to try and cover up that she has aged and is no longer a young woman. The darkness that she tries to cover up her face with also compares to the darkness she is trying to cover up her lies with. Blanche also tries to date younger men to make herself feel young again and also t o remind her of the way she was tried when she was younger when the soldiers would come by calling out for her. Blanches character is the center point in illustrating the other characters inner struggle because in some way she brings out their flaws and inner weaknesses. Mitch is Stanleys friend and Blanches admirer. He is thoroughly infatuated with Blanche after meeting her at the apartment during a poker game. He falls head over heels for her but becomes aware of the many flaws that Blanche has. He is very scared about not finding a wife before is sickly mother passes away. This fear of abandonment pushes him to try harder for Blanche because his mother is getting older and sicker by the day. He also has lost the love of his wife when he was younger just like Blanche. Unlike Blanche, Mitch is embracing his age and works out at the gym trying to make his body fitter. When Stanley tells Mitch about Blanches true history, he is so head over heels for her that he is in denial and needs to hear it from other people. When he does believe that she is a liar he avoids her so basically he does not have to face the truth. Mitch also makes Blanche realize the real life when he exposes Blanche to lights in the bedroom. At this point in the story all the lies s tart to unravel and the story climaxes with the undoing of all the lies. I thoroughly enjoyed reading a Streetcar named Desire because it changes my views on how to look at characters and their development throughout a story. This text is a great way of understanding and applying the psychoanalytical theory to a story. In a Streetcar named Desire every aspect of the psychoanalytical theory is applied to every different character. Without watching the movie in class and discussing the story I feel that my understanding of the play would have been far from where it is now. Psychoanalytical literary pieces seem to be complex and take time to break down every character and understand the full story.

The Purpose of Education Essay -- Philosophy of Education Teaching Tea

The Purpose of Education Education has existed throughout history in one form or another. The process of passing down accumulated information from one generation to the next has been present in every human society, past and present. From the young listening to the stories of the elders around the hearths of the ancient world, to pupils being instructed in the alphabet in a one room schoolhouse on the American frontier, to the present day online teaching sessions; the tradition of teaching and learning has been a constant in the ever changing world. Education has been and continues to be used for many purposes, chief among them being the creation of an educated citizenry, the empowerment of that citizenry, and improvement of the individual, and the nation as a whole. Some of the first proponents of an intensive education were the ancient Greeks and Romans who sought to create stronger and smarter societies. The Greeks in particular sought to educate their youths to create the next generation of leaders in their city state. Systems of education ensured that those elected to office will be equipped with the necessary skills for work in government. These concerns are still tantamount today as educators teach the next senators, congressmen, and presidents of our nation. Due to their future importance our citizens need to learn about how our government works as well as become versed in many other subjects. This educational process creates a well rounded citizen who is...

Violence is Caused by Cultural Diversities :: Diversity Culture Religion Essays

Violence is Caused by Cultural Diversities In today’s complex society the evidence of a variety of religions is more apparent than ever. Religion is the service and worship of God or the supernatural. Although in its broadest sense religion is simply the expression of a relationship with a supreme power, people have always made religion a formal process. Satellite communications have brought to our attention the diversity of culture as well as religion. We read and witness on a daily basis the conflicts that are a result of different religious beliefs. In order to understand the complexities of the worlds major religions, we need to examine their basic beliefs. Those who believe in one supreme being or God, have a monotheistic religion; those who believe in more than one supreme being adopts a polytheistic religion. Within these two broad classifications, religions can be separated into four categories: the religious savages; the religions of primitive culture, such as those of ancient Mexico, Peru, and the South Sea Islands; the religions of advanced culture, such as were practiced in Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Greece and Rome; and the religions that are co-extensive with our life such as Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, and Mohammedanism. Worship of such things as stars, the sun and moon, rivers, trees, and spirits of ancestors, as well as the practice of magic, are characteristic of the first two groups. Mythology is a factor in the religions of the third group. The religions of the last group deal with morals and manner of living, and a man’s relation with the spiritual divine; thus these religions exert a tremendous influence on the world of today. Catholicism is the practice, faith, or system of Catholic Christianity. Catholic Christianity is forming the ancient undivided Christian Church or a church claiming historical continuity from it. Catholic Christianity is a belief in God that is very popular all over the world. Until the Reformation of the Roman Catholic Church, Protestants were the only important Christian organization in Europe.

The Future of Open Source :: essays research papers

A system without a display, for example, could discourage the development of graphical applications, or if it were difficult for several people to interact with the same application this could discourage some educational uses. Moreover, Fano noted that after a system starts to develop in a particular direction, work in this direction is preferred and it accelerates the development in this direction. As a result, â€Å"the inherent characteristics of a time-sharing system may well have long-lasting effects on the character, composition, and intellectual life of a community† (cf. Tuomi, 2002: 86). The modern concept of proprietary software emerged in the 1970s, when the computer- equipment industry began to unbundle software from hardware, and independent software firms started to produce software for industry-standard computer platforms. Over the decade, this development led to the realization that software was associated with important intellectual capital which could provide its owners with revenue streams. In 1983, AT&T was freed from the constraints of its earlier antitrust agreement, which had restricted its ability to commercialize software, and it started to enforce its copyrights in the popular Unix operating system. The growing restrictions on access to source code also started to make it difficult to integrate peripheral equipment, such as printers, into the developed systems. This frustrated many software developers, and led Richard Stallman to launch the GNU project in 1983 and the Free Software Foundation in 1985. Stallman’s pioneering idea was to use copyrights in a way that guaranteed that the source code would remain available for further development and that it could not be captured by commercial interests. For that purpose, Stallman produced a standard license, the GNU General Public License, or GPL, and set up to develop an alternative operating system that would eventually be able to replace proprietary operating systems. Although the GNU Alix/Hurd operating-system kernel never really materialized, the GNU project became a critical foundation for the open-source movement. The tools developed in the GNU project, including the GNU C-language compiler GCC, the C-language runtime libraries, and the extendable Emacs program editor, paved the way for the launching of other open-source projects. The most important of these became the Linux project, partly because it was the last critical piece missing from the full GNU operating-system environment. Eventually, the core Linux operating system became 431 The Future of Open Source combined with a large set of open-source tools and applications, many of which relied on the GNU program libraries and used the GPL. The first version of the Linux operating system was released on the Internet in mid-September 1991. The amount of code in the first Linux release was quite modest.

Relevance of Shakespeare Today

The relevance of Shakespeare is, in my opinion, unquestionable, even in contemporary times. Not only is his contribution to the English language immense in its proportions, but also enduring. Even today, William Shakespeare is a household name the world over. He is quite literally, the figure-head of English literature, even to the average layman. Innumerable versions of his immortal works are seen again and again in our films, plays and even our writing. His simple yet deep concepts have stood the test of time and are still as insightful as they were in his day.Over the years, there have been several adaptations both on stage and in film of Shakespearean works. His plays have inspired successful Hollywood films such 10 Things I Hate About You, based on Taming of the Shrew. The Indian film industry too has drawn heavily on Shakespeare as seen in movies like Angoor, where the plot is drawn almost entirely from A Comedy of Errors and Omkara, an adaptation of Othello. One of his most we ll-known plays, Romeo and Juliet, has inspired scores of movies such as Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet, and the more recent Ishaqzaade.To add to this, there have been countless stage productions of his plays. His works continue to captivate audiences to this day. His most popular plays are still a source of ideas to filmmakers in need of a muse. Although it has been said that his plots were repetitive and they are viewed as cliched and overdone from today’s standpoint, the fact remains that these very stories are what draw audiences time after time. A pioneer in his art, he flouted all theatrical conventions of his time and in doing so, altered the very structure of drama.Critics have noted his disregard for Aristotle’s rules regarding literary unities, but in the words of Pope, â€Å"To judge of Shakespeare by Aristotle's rules, is like trying a man by the laws of one country who acted under those of another†. Pope, in the Preface to his six-folio edition o f the works of Shakespeare also says, â€Å"Shakespeare is not so much an imitator, as an instrument of nature†. This, undoubtedly, was a response to the accusations of several scholars that all of Shakespeare’s work was, in fact, indebted to Christopher Marlowe.They even went as far as to attribute all of the innovations and dramatic techniques that first appeared in Shakespeare’s writing to Marlowe. Despite such harsh criticism and vilification, the works of Shakespeare are today some of the most celebrated in English literature. Shakespeare’s approach to writing plays revolutionized Elizabethan theatre. Such forwardness of thought and modernity of outlook was previously unseen in his day and age. He addressed contentious subjects that his contemporaries had hitherto not considered.He started the trend of writing in blank verse, which transformed all preceding dramatic norms. He used language according to his own fashion, coining words and expressions t hat have today become so commonplace, that they seem to have been part of the very idiom of language. To this day, expressions such as ‘too much of a good thing’ (As You Like It), ‘in my mind's eye’ (Hamlet), ‘it was Greek to me’ (Julius Caesar), ‘break the ice’ (The Taming of the Shrew) and ‘bated breath’ (The Merchant of Venice) are used in everyday speech and writing.Shakespearean quotes such as â€Å"To be, or not to be: that is the question† (Hamlet – Act III, Scene I) and â€Å"This above all: to thine own self be true† (Hamlet – Act I, Scene III) have passed into standard usage. His plays were written keeping in mind the tastes and preferences of the Elizabethan audiences. He wrote sonnets to appease his patrons and keep a stable income, which enabled him to further his career as a playwright. Not only did his writing have to appeal to the nobles, but also to the commoners, the  "groundlings†.Accepting the challenge, Shakespeare incorporated into his writing not only grandiose depictions of scenes of historical importance, but also earthy, rustic humour in order to please the masses. The themes he dealt with, although in accordance with a particular setting, were universal and easy to relate to irrespective of social class or position. There are few others who hold such widespread acclaim as William Shakespeare. His writing has influenced several writers through the ages, Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, John Steinbeck, Aldous Huxley, William Faulkner and Pearl S Buck, to name a few.A number of writers have quoted Shakespeare in their writing or drawn their titles from his works. Thomas Hardy chose Under the Greenwood Tree as the title for one of his novels, alluding to the following lines from As You Like It: â€Å"Under the green wood tree / Who loves to lie with me / And turn his merry note / Unto the sweet bird's throat. † From King John†™s definition of life: â€Å"Life is as tedious as a twice told tale / Vexing the dull air of a drowsy man. The title, Twice Told Tales was taken by both, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Charles Dickens. Aldous Huxley derived the title of his science fiction Brave New World from The Tempest: â€Å"O, wonder! / How many goodly creatures are there here! / How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world / That hath such people in it. † Pearl S Buck named her collected works Words of Love, which was taken from King Lear: â€Å"And your large speeches may your deeds approve / That good effects may spring from words of love. John Steinbeck drew the title of his novel The Winter of Our Discontent from the soliloquy of Richard III: â€Å"Now is the winter of our discontent / Made glorious summer by this son of York. † The title of William Faulkner's novel The Sound and the Fury is taken from the soliloquy of Macbeth: â€Å"It is a tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury / Sig nifying nothing. † The astute quality of Shakespeare’s plots is highlighted by the depth of the characterization.Shakespeare’s portrayal of both minor as well as major characters in all of his plays is intricate and inclusive. Few writers have been able to provide such consistent renderings in their works. Such detailed development in terms of plot and character has so far not been rivalled. Despite new advances, Shakespeare’s colossal role in the progression of English literature remains unparalleled till date. In particular, it was Shakespeare’s ability to effortlessly mingle comedy with tragedy that led to his fame, and what makes his works invaluable even today.In the Preface to Dr. Johnson’s edition of Shakespeare (1765), he writes, â€Å"This is the praise of Shakespeare, that his drama is the mirror of life; that he who has mazed his imagination in following the phantoms which other writers raise up before him, may here be cured of hi s delirious ecstasies by reading human sentiments in human language; by scenes from which a hermit may estimate the transactions of the world, and a confessor predict the progress of the passions. I thereby conclude by once again affirming the relevance of Shakespeare in contemporary times as is plainly seen by the vast influence his work has had on the advancement of the English language and the course of development of English literature. Relevance of Shakespeare Today The relevance of Shakespeare is, in my opinion, unquestionable, even in contemporary times. Not only is his contribution to the English language immense in its proportions, but also enduring. Even today, William Shakespeare is a household name the world over. He is quite literally, the figure-head of English literature, even to the average layman. Innumerable versions of his immortal works are seen again and again in our films, plays and even our writing. His simple yet deep concepts have stood the test of time and are still as insightful as they were in his day.Over the years, there have been several adaptations both on stage and in film of Shakespearean works. His plays have inspired successful Hollywood films such 10 Things I Hate About You, based on Taming of the Shrew. The Indian film industry too has drawn heavily on Shakespeare as seen in movies like Angoor, where the plot is drawn almost entirely from A Comedy of Errors and Omkara, an adaptation of Othello. One of his most we ll-known plays, Romeo and Juliet, has inspired scores of movies such as Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet, and the more recent Ishaqzaade.To add to this, there have been countless stage productions of his plays. His works continue to captivate audiences to this day. His most popular plays are still a source of ideas to filmmakers in need of a muse. Although it has been said that his plots were repetitive and they are viewed as cliched and overdone from today’s standpoint, the fact remains that these very stories are what draw audiences time after time. A pioneer in his art, he flouted all theatrical conventions of his time and in doing so, altered the very structure of drama.Critics have noted his disregard for Aristotle’s rules regarding literary unities, but in the words of Pope, â€Å"To judge of Shakespeare by Aristotle's rules, is like trying a man by the laws of one country who acted under those of another†. Pope, in the Preface to his six-folio edition o f the works of Shakespeare also says, â€Å"Shakespeare is not so much an imitator, as an instrument of nature†. This, undoubtedly, was a response to the accusations of several scholars that all of Shakespeare’s work was, in fact, indebted to Christopher Marlowe.They even went as far as to attribute all of the innovations and dramatic techniques that first appeared in Shakespeare’s writing to Marlowe. Despite such harsh criticism and vilification, the works of Shakespeare are today some of the most celebrated in English literature. Shakespeare’s approach to writing plays revolutionized Elizabethan theatre. Such forwardness of thought and modernity of outlook was previously unseen in his day and age. He addressed contentious subjects that his contemporaries had hitherto not considered.He started the trend of writing in blank verse, which transformed all preceding dramatic norms. He used language according to his own fashion, coining words and expressions t hat have today become so commonplace, that they seem to have been part of the very idiom of language. To this day, expressions such as ‘too much of a good thing’ (As You Like It), ‘in my mind's eye’ (Hamlet), ‘it was Greek to me’ (Julius Caesar), ‘break the ice’ (The Taming of the Shrew) and ‘bated breath’ (The Merchant of Venice) are used in everyday speech and writing.Shakespearean quotes such as â€Å"To be, or not to be: that is the question† (Hamlet – Act III, Scene I) and â€Å"This above all: to thine own self be true† (Hamlet – Act I, Scene III) have passed into standard usage. His plays were written keeping in mind the tastes and preferences of the Elizabethan audiences. He wrote sonnets to appease his patrons and keep a stable income, which enabled him to further his career as a playwright. Not only did his writing have to appeal to the nobles, but also to the commoners, the  "groundlings†.Accepting the challenge, Shakespeare incorporated into his writing not only grandiose depictions of scenes of historical importance, but also earthy, rustic humour in order to please the masses. The themes he dealt with, although in accordance with a particular setting, were universal and easy to relate to irrespective of social class or position. There are few others who hold such widespread acclaim as William Shakespeare. His writing has influenced several writers through the ages, Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, John Steinbeck, Aldous Huxley, William Faulkner and Pearl S Buck, to name a few.A number of writers have quoted Shakespeare in their writing or drawn their titles from his works. Thomas Hardy chose Under the Greenwood Tree as the title for one of his novels, alluding to the following lines from As You Like It: â€Å"Under the green wood tree / Who loves to lie with me / And turn his merry note / Unto the sweet bird's throat. † From King John†™s definition of life: â€Å"Life is as tedious as a twice told tale / Vexing the dull air of a drowsy man. The title, Twice Told Tales was taken by both, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Charles Dickens. Aldous Huxley derived the title of his science fiction Brave New World from The Tempest: â€Å"O, wonder! / How many goodly creatures are there here! / How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world / That hath such people in it. † Pearl S Buck named her collected works Words of Love, which was taken from King Lear: â€Å"And your large speeches may your deeds approve / That good effects may spring from words of love. John Steinbeck drew the title of his novel The Winter of Our Discontent from the soliloquy of Richard III: â€Å"Now is the winter of our discontent / Made glorious summer by this son of York. † The title of William Faulkner's novel The Sound and the Fury is taken from the soliloquy of Macbeth: â€Å"It is a tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury / Sig nifying nothing. † The astute quality of Shakespeare’s plots is highlighted by the depth of the characterization.Shakespeare’s portrayal of both minor as well as major characters in all of his plays is intricate and inclusive. Few writers have been able to provide such consistent renderings in their works. Such detailed development in terms of plot and character has so far not been rivalled. Despite new advances, Shakespeare’s colossal role in the progression of English literature remains unparalleled till date. In particular, it was Shakespeare’s ability to effortlessly mingle comedy with tragedy that led to his fame, and what makes his works invaluable even today.In the Preface to Dr. Johnson’s edition of Shakespeare (1765), he writes, â€Å"This is the praise of Shakespeare, that his drama is the mirror of life; that he who has mazed his imagination in following the phantoms which other writers raise up before him, may here be cured of hi s delirious ecstasies by reading human sentiments in human language; by scenes from which a hermit may estimate the transactions of the world, and a confessor predict the progress of the passions. I thereby conclude by once again affirming the relevance of Shakespeare in contemporary times as is plainly seen by the vast influence his work has had on the advancement of the English language and the course of development of English literature.