History of education Essay

As a student, I have read â€Å"On the Use of a Liberal Education: As Lite Entertainment for Bored College Students† written by Mark Edmundson many times. Edmundson’s article is now published in textbook (for example: from Inquiry to Academic writing) and taught in English university education. Edmundson argues that nowadays liberal education is as lite entertainment for bored college students; education is product and universities are suppliers that satisfy the expectation of consumer students. In any aspect, I agree with him. The education now is changing in bad way. The students do no longer care about what they need to learn in the school except for their point. But why does this happen? This article just show one side of students. What about teacher? School? Family? Or society? Generally, there are some points I consider make me not believe or agree with this article absolutely. First, he wrote this article after many-year teaching. This is based on his be-teacher experience. He is in the point of view of teacher. But despite teaching many years, how many student he taught? What percentage in the total number of students in USA or the world does it hold? It is unfair and unbelievable when he draws the conclusion about all students with only students he has taught. Maybe he is right but he is also possible to be wrong. Because that number of student may be very high, maybe hold 70%, 80%, even 90% but also just 20%. There are no researches given in the article. No one knows the exact number so can’t give that conclusion. But the only thing we can believe is that many is not total; that many students are as consumers. Secondly, he says education is as lite entertainment for bored students. What is meant by bored students? How bored? A teacher comments that students are bored so what did he/she do to improve them. I know learning is responsibility of own student but school or teacher is instructor leading them to what they need to explore themselves. They now are just in the wrong way, so it doesn’t mean they will be so forever. They now need a person to lead them in the right way. Besides, he just shows their present that they are bored but not shows the reasons. Why doesn’t he/she ask the question about himself, about his lessons. To each student, their ability to take lessons is very different so with a lesson, just some student feel interested. In his essay, Edmundson claim that most student today consume their education than interact with it. He says he wanted his student connect with him, but it doesn’t mean they have to like or dislike him. He says that â€Å" I don’t teach to amuse, to divert, or even, for that matter, to be merely interesting. He also says â€Å" I think many of my student have imbibed their sense of self from consumer culture and in general from the tube in particular†. That not only shows his lack of native passion of a teacher but also that he become accept education’s business. Next, when he assume that teacher do anything to make them satisfied, interested, I wonder just only students feel that. That time, did teachers feel satisfied? The answer is, of course, YES. Both teachers and students feel comfortable and facile. So why don’t make lesson colorful, instead, boring and not effective. Each teacher has different ways of teaching to help students understand lessons. One of them is that make it interesting. That means both create interesting atmosphere and help student easy to understand. Students are young people, no experience; they just learn what they care. If schooling is bored, they can’t both study and find the right way to go in the future. But if the school is an interesting thing that they take everyday, they feel life to open, to explore and persue. The second view is clearly better that the first and why does he consider all such lesson as product standard for consumer students. The last thing I wonder is the reason why education is changing. Nowadays, society is developing with high technology and opening economy. Society requires people that are excellent or really good. How does society realize such people? In general, it is evaluated based on the point of student at school. So, that students are always care about their point because they are worried about their future is grossly. Moreover, education system always evaluate their performance and achievement. Because of that, they always worry that they can lose, they can in the bottom at school and hope they are in the top. Some can make effort to reach it, but not all is the same. To some student, it is motive power to be better themselves but to the rest, it is pressure make them in stress. Besides, not all teachers is good. Some requires presents and they â€Å"sell the mark†. To students, this is a good way to improve their mark not trying to study. That is small gap in education system. In the end, Edmundson’s article is not researched and have a few logical fallacies but warn us the status of education as product. Although there are something I disagree with him, evidence of his argument is not denied; it is difficult for anyone to argue that consumerism has not poured in the university to some degree. [That is my personal point of view. Maybe it is not right absolutely. ]

Prognosis by Morris West Essay

1) Judeo-Christian Ethics:When people call America a â€Å"Christian nation,† they’re referring to the Judeo-Christian morals that shaped our country. Our strong sense of right and wrong kept corruption to a minimum, our Protestant work ethic caused Americans to be productive, and our belief in rights given by God, not government shaped our national philosophy. Respect for Christian values is a part of the fabric of our country that goes right back to our founding. Even if many people wouldn’t realize it until it is too late, an America where Christianity isn’t an important part of everyday life would no longer be America in any meaningful sense. 2) A Powerful Military: There’s a lot to be said for â€Å"soft power,† but it pales in comparison to raw military might. The United States was not always a great military power, but once the Civil War was over, we started to assert ourselves. Since WWII, we’ve had the finest military on Planet Earth. That one factor does more to insure our freedom and the safety of our allies than every other factor combined. As Reagan said, â€Å"History teaches that war begins when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap.† At least for now, no nation could be so foolish as to believe that a potential fight with the United States would be cheap. 3) Western Culture: If the entire population of Venezuela, Iran, or South Africa were here in the United States and all of us were gone, this country would quickly turn into a pesthole, just like all of those nations because they’re culturally inferior to us. On the other hand, Western culture has produced ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, Britain, the United States and a host of lesser nations that are still more successful than 90% of the planet. The emphasis in Western culture on individualism, innovation, Christianity, capitalism, science, technology, freedom and individual rights has given us an enormous advantage that we are sadly eroding with our foolish embrace of multi-culturalism. 4) Geography: We can’t underestimate the importance of being a large, resource-rich nation that’s isolated from powerful foes. Had Britain been considerably closer, it’s possible that we may have been unable to break away and take control of our own destiny. If we had powerful adversaries to our North and South, we may have had great difficulties when our nation was young and we were just finding our strength. If we had been closer to Europe, our homeland might have been decimated during WWI and WWII. If God had given us first choice of places to  found a nation, this is where we would have ended up. 5) Industrial Capacity: Economically, America managed to take full advantage of the Industrial Revolution and most people still don’t realize how important our ability to churn out material was to winning WWII. Just to give youone of many examples, â€Å"By 1944 America built 96,300 planes, more planes than were possessed by the Axis combined and this does not include British and Soviet production. The Germans built 40,000 war planes in 1944, but the arrival of P51 Mustangs in the skies over Germany resulted in the destruction of the Luftwaffe. And American production was 75 percent combat aircraft†¦..This was the peak of production, an incredible 11 planes an hour were rolling out of American aircraft plants.† We lack this capacity today and make up for our inability to mass produce weaponry by creating high quality war machines. This is a potentially dangerous strategy because if a large chunk of our superior weaponry were ever destroyed somehow, it would take us an inordinately long time to rebuild it. 6) A Merit-Based Society: America’s lack of an aristocracy, tribes, and castes helped allow the cream to rise to the top in our society. Although we certainly weren’t perfect in this regard as any slave or woman throughout most of our history could tell you, we were well ahead of much of the rest of the world. The fact that we’re still regarded by the rest of the world as a â€Å"land of opportunity† is one of our greatest strengths, although our antiquated immigration system does little to take advantage of this fact. The more we penalize success as a society, the more stratified, stagnant and sterile we’ll become as a country. 7) A Constitution That Limited Centralized Government: Nothing could be more fundamentally American than a deep and abiding distrust of government. That’s why the Constitution was specifically designed to keep our own government from oppressing the people. This contributed mightily to our success because the bigger and more powerful the government becomes, the smaller, weaker and poorer the people become. Our Founding Fathers understood this and were fanatical about small, decentralized government. The further we move from that principle, the more economic stagnation, frightening levels of debt, and potentially dangerous tyranny we’ll see from our own.

Environmental Analysis of Dell Organization Essay

Dell’s external environment identifies all the current conditions and forces that affect its strategic options and define its competitive situation. It consists of three main sectors: the Remote Environment, the Industry Environment, and the Operating Environment. All of these environmental sectors affect the firm’s operations both on an international and domestic level. Remote Environment In recent years the computer hardware industry has experienced a slight decrease in profits. Most of this is due to the recent downturn in the economy and a decrease in consumer confidence and spending because of inflation. Many consumers hesitate to upgrade their computers. As a result, Dell must explore new markets and introduce attractive products at a lower-cost to attract its customers. The use of personal computers in international markets is growing rapidly. Dell Computer can take this opportunity as an advantage to provide lower cost computer for consumers. Since Dell has the equipment and capital they can produce higher quantities of workstations or servers at a low operating cost and then sell it a little above cost of goods to China, India, Vietnam and third world countries to increase their global market share. The internet market has been expanding and exploding across the globe. It has varied by market segment and already has been a big hit in the U.S. Dell knows that the way to globalize the company successfully is through e-business. Dell is gearing up in China. The key to its strategy is a locally designed PC called Su Ma (Speedy Horse) which it hopes will draw sales away from the homegrown powerhouse, Legend. Dell has already built a factory in Xiamen, which is on the southeastern coast of China in order to promote its next day delivery to 400 cities which is one of the company trade marks. As a result, Dells China market share has grown from near zero in 1998, to 4.4%. This runs counter to the general wisdom that Chinese consumers must feel and  touch a product before they buy. More business and more production facilities will be opened world wide to adopt the globalization system and the global demand in the next decade. Industry Environment Rivalry is high in the computer industry because there is a lot of competition among a number of market leaders, while there is lack of differentiation and low switching costs for customers. Barriers to entry are also high due to a large part of the market is controlled by the market leaders of the industry, in addition to high start up costs. The bargaining power of suppliers is also high because suppliers are few and there is a heavy reliance on them. The bargaining power of customers is also high because of the availability of many high quality computer companies, all products are perceived as similar and well as the ease of switching. The threat of substitutes is low because they are virtually non-existent. Furthermore, there is a high availability of supplementary products available. Dell Computer Corporation is more successful than its competitors because they have been able to cut out the middleman with its â€Å"Direct Marketing† strategy. Dell entered the computer industry at an opportune time with competitive prices and a production strategy which does not build units until units are ordered, which minimizes inventory and allows customers to customize their units. The direct sales model has helped in cutting down inventory costs and also reduces the lead time in serving customer order. The biggest entry barrier that Dell has to face when expanding into other areas of the technology industry is having customers gain the trust of company over the more popular veteran computer companies. Operating Environment Consumers view Dell as a quality brand at a good price. Some consumers find that Dell’s competitors may be a little more expensive but still offer a quality brand. Dell’s main competitors are IBM, Compaq, Hewlett-Packard and  Gateway. Dell’s competitors have all tried to replicate Dell’s direct marketing strategy. However Dell’s competitors were and still are unable to replicate Dell’s direct marketing success. Historically Compaq and IBM sold through resellers and distributors. When IBM and Compaq announced their new initiative to sell directly to their customers, they angered the resellers, who in turn promoted HP products. HP is able to fulfill the needs of customers who want to see and touch the computer before purchasing it, which is not possible in the direct marketing strategy. But HP’s growth is declining with this strategy and they have been unable to lure major accounts. Gateway has been somewhat successful in implementing the direct marketing strategy, but Gateway does not have a strong hold in the lucrative large customer accounts. Dell ranks high with customers because the company offers free technical support if needed. The purchasing process has changed for the consumers with Dell because all the ordering is done online which offers convenience to its customers and minimize inventory. The flow of materials from suppliers into Dell starts by the company putting in orders to factories that are based on two categories; product type and geography. When putting in orders for product type Dell wants to select the right factory that specializes or deals with a certain product. Geographic orders mainly focus on the where the order is coming from to minimize the transportation expense. Dell has superb relationships with their suppliers; they maintain those superb relationships, by ensuring that the suppliers win every time Dell wins. Dell will need to implement several changes in the next couple years to develop its system, improve customer service, reduce cost, and improve supplier control. Dell will lead the technology industry and be a good example to the competitors. More technology of software and hardware will be available in the futurw with less cost. Long Term Objectives Dell’s objective should be continue providing customers the most recent technologies at competitively lower prices, at lower costs and faster than  their competitors. This could be established in the long run as they: 1. Increase global market share by focusing on Asian markets. 2. Increased revenues by penetrating the Chinese market benefiting from low costs. 3. Continue expansion of server and storage products. 4. Continue to maintain the lowest costs in the industry 5. Establish global brand recognition. 6. Increase diversity in portfolio by expanding product offering and investing in a new industry within the technological sector. 7. Manufacture some of its supplies, decreasing reliance on suppliers. 8. Use the Internet to improve the efficiency of Dell’s procurement, manufacturing and distribution process and further expanding an already broad range of value-added services. References: Abraham, H. Getting in touch with Dells culture: You’ve got the soul! in EnterpriseInnovator.com. Retrieved February 17th, 2006, from http://enterpriseinnovator.com/index.php?articleID=3844&ionID=4 Dell. Dell’s Mission Statement. Retrieved on February 17th, 2006, from http://www2.xmrc.com.cn/jobads/dell2/mission.asp Dell, Inc. SWOT Analysis. Dell, Inc. SWOT Analysis, April 2005, p1-10, 10p. Retrieved February 18th,2006 from Ebscohost Database Business Source Premier http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=url&db=buh&an=16895029 Lee, L., Burrows, P., and Einhorn, B. (2005) Dell May Have To Reboot In China. Business Week, 00077135, Issue 3958. Database: Academic Search Premier. Tough, M. ( 2006). Creating a Mission and Vision Statement. In the Sideroad. Retrieved February 17th, 2006, from Http://www.sideroad.com/business_communications/mission-and-vision-statement.html

The Banking Concept of Education Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Banking Concept of Education - Essay Example This has not universally been the case, like everyone I have benefited from a wide array of extremely talented teaches who wanted to hear their students ideas, to include their students in discussions and to reinforce to their students that even if they might not have as much academic expertise as their professors, their lived experiences may provide them with valuable insights and render their contributions valuable to any class discussion. But the fact remains that most of my teachers used the banking style of education, and probably though that is the best kind of education. This has affects me in a lot of ways, such as making me not creative and making my critical thinking worse. But by far the most important influence this theory of education has had on me is the fact that it has begun make me oppressive to other people like my teachers were oppressive to me. As mentioned before, oppression makes oppression, and those who have been oppressed kind of naturally let the oppression they have had go through them unless they work very hard to not let that happen. This means that, though I understand when I think about it that the banking theory of education is inherently oppressive, and separates students from educators in a very bad way, there is probably still a large part of me that thinks education looks like the banking theory of education. This also probably means that whenever I get into an education place, I will have to work hard to stop this oppressive theory of education from coming through me, to make sure that whenever I am teaching someone whether as a peer, an educator or just in the world, I recognize the banking theory of education and try to stop it.... This essay approves that the educator does, in this concept, work as a â€Å"depositer† whose role is to deposit information, narratives, and a lot of other things into the students, who function as â€Å"banks† for the depositing. Whichever student â€Å"banks† the best, by memorizing the material given to him or her by the teacher, by being able to â€Å"return† the information to the depositer closest to the way it was inputed, wins, is the best bank and is rewarded. There are obviously lots and lots of problems with this system, and many of them are really bad (such as the objectification of students, the saying the students experiences aren’t valuable, and treating them as having no knowledge in and of themselves and not having anything of value to give to the depositer that they were themselves not first given. Any educator who has studied in the past ten year must inherently understand the problems with this system, and yet people fall back i nto it perpetually. This report makes a conclusion that the banking theory of education still used everywhere, and when most people think of a classroom setting they probably think of the banking theory of education taking place. What this means to people who have been affected by this theory of education is that they must recognize the oppression in it, and work hard to break apart this oppression whenever they enter an educational environment. Anything less will simply mean perpetuating this oppression.

Critically review the evidence of multi stakeholder governance of the Literature

Critically the evidence of multi stakeholder governance of the sustainability. issue of population and the issue of mega - Literature review Example The largest cities of the world are found to be growing at the fastest pace. However, it has been observed that large cities are not concentrated in the developed nations but mostly in the developing countries of the world. The process of urbanization has resulted in a number of issues associated with most of the mega cities which have been discussed in this study. The issues discussed are mostly related to the various sustainable problems and governance issues faced by the megalopolises of the world. Sustainability and Mega Cities Sustainability development refers to the fulfilment of needs and requirements at present without compromising on the future generations’ ability to satisfy their needs (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987). Sustainability is a concept of achieving simultaneously the objectives of an improved environment, a good economy and a society which is more participative in nature. Although the primary context of sustainability is global in n ature, it becomes more meaningful when it is given a global significance through local initiatives and practices. As regards the cities, metabolism can be used as a metaphor to sustainability. A city is adjudged to be more sustainable if it has the ability to reduce its resource inputs in the form of materials, land, water, energy, etc. and waste outputs in the form of air, solid wastes and liquid and at the same time has the capacity to bring about improvement in its liveability in the form of employment, health, housing, income, community, public spaces, etc. (Newman, and Kenworthy, 2003, pp. 235-242). The research study by Williams and Haughton (1994) suggested the various roles played by cities towards the process of sustainability and examined the different issues associated with environmental degradation taking place in the urban areas. In today’s world people living in cities surpass the total number of people living in rural areas. There has been a significant rise in the urban population of the world. It has been estimated that the urban dwellers would increase up to around five billion by the end of the year 2030. The most interesting trend related to this rise in urban population is that it is mostly concentrated in the cities of the developing nations of the world. The primary reason behind the growth of urban population is that the urban fertility rate has increased at a greater rate than the urban mortality rate, especially in cases of the mega cities of the world (Renner, 1998). The future prospects of world community are dependent upon the urban sustainability (McGranahan et al., 2001). New risk dimensions along with physical, social and economic dynamics are created through the increasing mobilisation of people, capital, goods and information. This results in the importance of cities for the creating sustainable development. Mega cities are not confined to the aspect of concentration of people only. Resources that are available all over the world are absorbed by the mega cities; this leads to the generation of huge amounts of sewage and waste. It thus uses environment as a sink to dump all its waste. The increasing per capita income of people living in the cities has resulted in the increase of resources consumed and the residues produced as a result of such activities. The data related to evaluation of the resource demands which has been

Levendary Cafe Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Levendary Cafe - Essay Example Mia Foster is the current C.E.O of the Levendary Cafà ©Ã¢â‚¬â„¢. She has had a decorated past with experiences in being the president of the U.S business of a large American fast food company for about seven years. The first reason was that the company domestic business was almost tapping out even though the brand still remained strong and easily recognized. The second and most important reason that concerned Mia Foster was the fact that she did not have adequate previous experience in international management. This second factor led to investors being skeptical of her own ability to successfully manage a now global brand.Louis Chen is the cafà ©Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s China Vice President. The cafà © heavily relies on her expertise, judgment and knowledge of the Chinese market to effectively penetrate and establish itself in the emerging but lucrative Chinese market. The company opted to forgo the idea of entering the market as a joint venture with an established Chinese domestic restaurant an d opted to instead exploit and use Louis Chen’s experience and attributes so as to replicate and be as successful as the company would have been recorded with a joint venture strategy. Louis Chen’s main concerns are in the company’s expansion and connection since there was no particular strategic plan at all. Chen was also concerned about how differentiation of the Levendary brand would pan out in the new market with consumers trying to see how this new foreign brand differs from their own domestic brands.

The Role and Development of Mathematics in Western Technology Essay

The Role and Development of Mathematics in Western Technology - Essay Example The current paper, basing on the James Burke’s views (Burke, â€Å"The Day the Universe Changed†), examines the influence of mathematical inventions, particularly perspective geometry, on the development of the society during the Renaissance. Manuel Chrysoloras, Byzantine scholar, was invited to present the Greek culture to the Florentines start the course of Greek in the local university in the end of the 14th century (Burke 67). Money ran Florence during that time. The place was full of commercials of different kind: accountants, merchants, bureaucrats. However, there was no aristocracy in Florence. Everyone who had power or position in the town had bought it out of his profits. Florence was dynamic republican â€Å"capitalist† company town. The same year Chrysoloras arrived, the Medici had started an international bank to lend the Florentine cash with double interest rate. They had branches all over Europe. They were successful in this activity due to their se cret weapon â€Å"double-entry bookkeeping† (Burke 61). There was no place the money could not get the possessor, but up. The problem was that there was no â€Å"up†. James Burke had in mind the material luxury, â€Å"the touch of class† that, first of all, had to be manifested in town’s architecture and dà ©cor.... Reading the Latin pre-Christian texts of poetry, rhetoric, history, and civics the Florentines began to understand that humans could live in human way without heavenly help. Hence originates the desire of the 15th century Florentines to imitate Latin style, particularly Roman remarkable architectural solutions to make their home look as fine as ancient Rome. However, they could not do all that architectural constructions like ancient triumph arches, giant columns, and domed ceilings. The abilities of the post-medieval mathematics and geometry were limited to estimate the architectural solutions. There was a sharp need in some mathematical innovations (Burke, â€Å"The Day the Universe Changed†). Before we discuss the invention of perspective geometry in the Western world, Arabic scholar Alhazen has to be mentioned. In the end of the 10th century, he was the first to explain accurately the process of visual perception and showed that the eye perceives the light reflected from t he object. Alhazen developed a complete theory of vision that was called â€Å"perspective† in the Middle Ages (Struik 72). Though, he did not use his ideas in practice, his theory received a wide recognition in Europe, where his ideas rocked the Renaissance scholars. The first precise formulation of the law of the perspective geometry is attributed to Brunelleschi. Nearly 1424, he realized that on the flatness all parallel lines strive to a single vanishing point. This mathematical principle was inspired by Paolo Toscanelli who had scrupulously studied the Alhazen works and gridded Ptolemy’s Atlas. In this respect, using an arsenal of mathematical theories to build a proper perspective, he painted on wooden panel St. John’s baptistery of Florence. To emphasize the accuracy of his