Everyday Use by Alice Walker

Walker shows us what inheritance is through her short story, Everyday Use. The two hand-stitched quilts draw attention and become the center of conflict in the family of Mama and her two daughters. Walker also uses these quilts as symbolism for heritage. The author shows that different views, events, and situations shape one’s life in different ways as an individual responds to them. In the short story, we see the conflict within the family of Mama and her two daughters (SuperSummary 1-5).Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Everyday Use by Alice Walker specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Walker narrates the story of a conflict in relation to identities and heritage. The author presents the conflict through Maggie, Dee, and the Mother. All these characters show variations in beliefs due different experiences and ideologies in life. Mama lives a simple life based on her cultural heritage. This is a fulfil ling life to Mama because she believes in simplicity of life. As a result, Mama scorns Dee’s materialistic tendencies when relating to her culture. On the other hand, Maggie is shy and submissive almost like Mama in simplicity, but she still remembers her heritage. Dee shows a modern way of life that is out of touch with her culture and heritage. Dee’s characters and actions show that one can only value her culture for its artistic appeal. Mama is happy and proud about her simple life. Dee has materialistic tendencies in which she only craves for â€Å"nice things† (Walker 384) in her life. Moreover, Dee believes that she can control her life and do anything she wants to do with it. She demonstrates this trait by insisting on having the churn top and the dasher together with the quilts. However, Mama had promised to give these items to Maggie. On the contrary, Maggie has come into terms with her life. She believes that happiness comes from the heart and not from material possessions. These characters also have diverse views about culture and heritage. Mama and Maggie consider a strong family tradition as their source of heritage. Mama believes that heritage is memories of the tradition and its practical aspects. She believes that Maggie shall use quilts every day. Still, Mama also has fond memories of the benches when Dee admires them, she notes that Dee’s daddy made the benches â€Å"when they couldn’t afford to buy chairs† (Walker 385). Mama has a special affection to history because it brings sweet memory of her husband. On the same note, Maggie also likes tradition and its memories.Advertising Looking for research paper on american literature? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More She can remember how Henry or Stash carved the dasher (Walker 386). Maggie could have learned such history from her Mama and kept it in her memory as a part of history and tradition. Magg ie sees a great meaning in the quilts. She considers the quilts as sources of memory and tradition. For instance, she says, â€Å"I cannot remember Grandma Dee without the quilts† (Walker 386). This shows that Maggie’s relation with the two quilts is expressive and special in her memory, traditions, and history. These quilts represent tradition and history to Maggie, not because they are hand stitched, but rather because of the history and heritage, they have in the family. On the other hand, Dee sees her tradition as African culture. In fact, Dee rejects her family heritage because it does not conform to African traditions. According to Dee, her family tradition does not reflect her beliefs. For instance, after she receives education from the city and becomes stylish, Dee writes to Mama and informs her that she would visit home, â€Å"but will never bring her friends† (Walker 383). Dee does not want her friends to learn about her background, history, and tradit ion. Dee considers it as backward and unsophisticated life. Dee strives to embrace the root culture of Africans, but she refuses to accept her own heritage. Dee sees her heritage in terms of materialistic qualities, rather than as history and heritage of her family. For instance, Dee informs her family that she changed her name to ‘Wangero’ and states that, â€Å"I couldn’t bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me† (Walker 385). According to her, the name has been â€Å"a form of oppression† (Walker 386), and changing it gives her a sense of self-determination. One can realize that Dee’s new name is an African name, but has nothing in relation to her history, family, and traditions. Education has changed Dee’s attitude toward her family and heritage. She prefers new life and sophistication of the city. Dee is not aware of the art of making quilts, but she knows that such â€Å"old quilts in her family are pricel ess and invaluable† (Walker 386). The major concern for Dee is the appearance of the quilts and not their cultural representations. According to Dee, the churn top is only suitable as â€Å"a centerpiece for the alcove table† (Walker 386). On the contrary, her mother and Maggie consider the churn top as an item of connection to their heritage. One can also notice that Dee â€Å"admires the benches because of their textures† (Walker 386), but she fails to notice whoever made them. Dee and Mama have different views about the quilts. Her mother believes that the quilts should be on everyday use as a way of keeping the past alive. Conversely, Dee believes that the quilts should only serve decorative purposes. Dee wants her mother and Maggie to embrace the new life of sophistication. For instance, she tells Maggie that, â€Å"It’s really a new day for us, but from the way you and mama still live, you’d never know it† (Walker 388). However, Mama an d Maggie have not embraced the new culture of Dee. Further, Mama and Maggie show confusion about the new state of Dee’s life.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Everyday Use by Alice Walker specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More They do not see any connection to the new name of Dee, ‘Wangero’ because Mama and Maggie can only find such memories in their heritage and history. They have such memories because of the role that heritage has played in their lives. Mama and Maggie believe that the family heritage is important in their daily lives. However, Dee believes that heritage is history that does not have any significant role in her present life, and any memory should only be of artistic value. Dee has totally failed to recognize any value in her family heritage. Consequently, she finds a heritage that matches her education and sophistication. Dee believes that her new name, Wangero represents her heritage and cultural beliefs. Dee thinks that the name represents her African values. However, one can observe that Dee has failed in this endeavor because the name and her African attires have no meaning because they are false and artificial. Besides, Dee does not understand her new culture. Dee constructs a culture that is beyond her history and reach. Education has only served the role of alienating Dee from her family, true identity, and heritage. With haughty ideals from the city life and education, Dee lost her heritage and identity, which can only come from the family. Dee’s new life and a sense of identity scare Mama and Maggie because their simple lives cannot match the new identity of Dee. Visibility, rights, and equal opportunities are the new ideals of Dee. While these ideals are not problematic, what is bothersome is that Dee has lost respect for her heritage and alienated herself from the family. Maggie is a contrast of Dee. She does not know of any other heritage apart from the family heritage. She lacks education that Dee has. However, Maggie has accepted her situation and found her self-fulfillment. Walker manages to use contrast in order to reveal effects of lacking and having education between the two sisters. Dee’s insatiable search for education has led her to reject her heritage and simple life of Mama and Maggie. On the other hand, Maggie’s lack of education has stifled her, and made her to accept everything without questions. Walker shows that either having or lacking education can be detrimental in a family. Walker has also written other short stories. For instance, You Can’t Keep a Good Woman Down is a collection of fourteen short stories that show the plight and triumph of African American women (Walker 3-138). Just like in Everyday Use, Walker tells her stories from perspectives of women.Advertising Looking for research paper on american literature? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Characters narrate their experiences of trauma and success. While such stories are common and may not be unique, it is the African woman’s viewpoint that makes the work outstanding. These ideas vary from pornography, gender issues to inequality among others. Some of these experiences may force women to superficiality. For instance, Dee lives in a world of superficiality while Maggie maintains a deep understanding of her culture. As Mama realizes the simplicity of Maggie, she begins to appreciate it (Walker 389). Conversely, the new life of Dee has only led to confusion in the family. Walker aims to assert that people should appreciate their heritage and culture. In addition, people should not look at heritage and culture as the ‘dead past’ that can only serve ornamental purposes. Instead, people should see their heritage as a living past. We should ensure that we put heritage in everyday use to sustain it. Walker wrote Everyday Use in the 1970s when African Ameri cans were struggling to find and control their identities. As a result, some of them could not match the social, cultural, and political aspects that developed. This led to confusion among African American women. Walker also notes contributions of African Americans through their arts. Such artworks connected their generations to the past. In fact, artworks survived through generations and served as important pieces of heritage. Dee reflects the struggle among African Americans who wanted to establish their own identity through their original roots, Africa. However, such people often failed because their roots remained vague to them. The bleak history inspired people to trace their ancestry in order to grasp and reconnect with their roots. Overall, Walker’s short story shows African Americans who did not understand the concept of the black consciousness or its ideals. Alice Walker is an â€Å"American author, feminist, poet, and activist born in 1944† (Walker 1). She ha s written several short stories and poems. In fact, Walker listened to black stories from her father, which influenced her late works. Events of her childhood and political, social, and historical development in the US also feature in all her works. She narrates these stories manly from African American women perspectives. Works Cited SuperSummary. â€Å"Plot Summary of Everyday Use by Alice Walker.† 2012. Web. http://www.supersummary.com/. Walker, Alice. â€Å"Everyday Use.† Making Literature Matter: An Anthology For Readers and Writers. 2nd ed. Ed. John Schilb and John Clifford. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2003. 382-389. Print. —. You Can’t Keep a Good Woman Down. San Diego: Mariner Books, 1982. Print. This research paper on Everyday Use by Alice Walker was written and submitted by user Mohammad R. to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here. Everyday Use by Alice Walker Introduction ‘Everyday Use’ is set in the American rural down South; superficially, it is a story of Mama Johnson and her conflicting psychological reception and relationship with her two daughters, Dee and Maggie (Xroads). Dee has taken an impressive formal education and now works in an urban environment; she is light skinned and sophisticated (Xroads).Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Everyday Use by Alice Walker specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Maggie has never left, she is the typical country girl, even in appearance and there are still traces of scars that she obtained from a house fire. Mama Johnson, who was born and grew in the early days of the past century, is struggling to understand the implications of her own background (represented by Maggie) in comparison to the life that Dee now leads. She keeps comparing Dee and Maggie. In the end she favors the practical life and values of the less fo rtunate Maggie instead of the superficial values of Dee. Discussion Deep down, the story is exploring the question of African-American heritage; the story, probably set in the ebbing days of the 1960s or at the dawn of 1970s, coincides with the attempt of African-Americans to define their identity in terms of culture (Xroads). The term ‘Negro’ was gradually replaced with ‘Black’ but the pains and injustices of the past had been so cruel that the black people are willing to deny and reject their American heritage (Xroads). This story is an exploration of both African and American heritages of the black people; the three characters represent the three faces of this theme. Mama represents the uncertain link between the African and American heritages. From mama’s description of herself, the way she takes pride in her expertise at killing and cleaning a hog, makes one see that she appreciates the practical aspects of her life and nature, it is easy to ass ume that she cannot ponder such an abstract concept as heritage. Yet, even with her lack of formal education and refinement, her respect and love for those who preceded her reflects her inherent comprehension of heritage through the way that she is able to associate pieces of clothes in two quilts with those who’s clothes the pieces had been cut from (Xroads). The quilts â€Å"are special to Mama when she touches the quilts, it is her way of touching the people that the quilts represent† (Xroads). These quilts are a symbol and represent gone times to which one still has a shaky and ambivalent relationship; the same symbolism is portrayed through the dasher handle. When mama touches the ridges left by fingers of those who are gone, she connects with them (Xroads).Advertising Looking for essay on american literature? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Dee’s superficial nature: her personality, her dressing and speech, represents the superficial perspective of heritage that the Black Power movement preached. There are inconsistencies in her style and her manner and she does not understand the origin of her name ‘Dee’ and the link to her family; this is a reflection of her attempt to reject her American heritage. Maggie, on the other hand, is nervous in the presence of Dee and is ashamed of her scars and hides from Dee; these scars symbolize the fires of slavery. Her manner: staring at the ground, her feet in shuffle; she represents the American heritage of the black people. Dee and Maggie do not interact, it is only as the story ends that Dee speaks to her angrily as she is leaving; this ending portrays the relationship of the African and American heritages. The former acting inferiorly before the latter that does not hesitate to flaunt its perceived superiority and assert its assumed disconnection from the former. Conclusion The general argument that Alice projects here is th at African-American is a product of both African and American natives, and rejecting the American face is not only disrespectful to their respective ancestors, but also detrimental to that heritage which defines the blacks. Works Cited Xroads. â€Å"Everyday Use by Alice Walker.† 2011. Web. http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ug97/quilt/walker.html This essay on Everyday Use by Alice Walker was written and submitted by user Sullivan P. to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

How Does College Athletic Recruiting Work The Complete Process

How Does College Athletic Recruiting Work The Complete Process SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips If you are a high school athlete who aspires to compete in college sports, you should know about the college athletic recruiting process. Even if you don’t end up getting a scholarship, many intercollegiate athletes who don’t receive aid are still recruited to participate in sports at the collegiate level. The college recruiting process can be confusing. There are tons of recruiting rules that vary by division and the process for each prospective student-athlete can be extremely different. In this article, I’ll explain the various steps of the college recruiting process. I’ll provide important advice for prospective student-athletes so that you’re able to reach your collegiate and athletic goals. The Biggest Steps in the College Recruiting Process Making Contact With Coaches: Generally, for most student-athletes, the process really begins when you have your first conversation with a college coach about possibly playing for him or her. Campus Visits: One of the many benefits of being a recruited athlete is having the opportunity to visit multiple college campuses and have all your questions about athletics and academics answered. There are two types of visits: official and unofficial. On official campus visits, your transportation to the college, meals, and entertainment are paid for by the university. Visits From Coaches:College coaches can visit you at school, practice, a game, or in your home when they're recruiting you. Coaches use these visits to evaluate you and to try to sell their program to you. Scholarship Offers:For most student-athletes, the scholarship offer comes near the end of the recruiting process. Typically, a coach will call you to extend an offer of athletic aid. Depending on the sport you play and the college that is recruiting you, you can be offered a full or partial athletic scholarship. Signing the National Letter of Intent: Signing a letter of intent marks the end of the college athletic recruiting process. The letter is an agreement that you will enroll in a certain school in exchange for athletic aid. At this point, coaches have to stop recruiting you, and if any coaches contact you, you have to let them know you've signed a letter of intent. Now that you have a basic understanding of these steps, I'm going to walk you through the entire college athletic recruiting process. Keep in mind that the process and timeline will be somewhat different for each individual athlete. For example, some recruited student-athletes don't apply to a college until after they have taken an official campus visit. Others have already applied, been accepted, and have received a scholarship offer by the time they go on their official visit. Parts of the Process Can Vary Widely Depending on your sport and how heavily you're being recruited, the college athletic recruiting process can vary widely. Top level recruits, especially in the high profile sports of football and men's basketball, will be sent tons of letters, receive tons of phone calls, and may be offered athletic scholarships before they even enter high school. They won't have to take much initiative in their recruiting process. For recruits who are not as well-known nationally, they will have to be more proactive in the recruiting process, and they'll often have to sell themselves to college coaches to get a scholarship or a guaranteed spot on a team. Additionally, the sport you play also has a huge influence on the process. In some sports, there are literally over a thousand colleges with a team in that sport. If you're being recruited in one of those sports, you want to know what you’re looking for in a school and narrow down your college list early in the process to avoid being overwhelmed. For other sports, your options are already limited based on the number of colleges with that sport. I was a gymnast in college, and currently, there are only 16 NCAA men's gymnastics programs. When I was looking at colleges, there were a few more than that, but I had a much easier time narrowing down my college options than most simply because I knew I wanted to compete for an NCAA gymnastics team. Honestly Assessing Your Abilities and Aspirations By your junior year, if you’re interested in participating in varsity intercollegiate sports, you should start figuring out what type of school you want to attend. What division would best suit your interests and abilities? What are your athletic priorities? Getting a scholarship? Getting playing time? Competing against the best competition? Playing for a certain coach? Fitting in with the other personalities on the team? Having access to the best resources? What are you looking for in a college outside of sports? Once you know what you want, the recruiting process will become much easier. Then, as you start looking at each school individually, you can determine if it matches what you're looking for. Don't be afraid to ask questions to coaches, current team members, academic advisers, and admissions representatives to get the information you need to make your college decision. However, if you're being recruited, especially if you're a top recruit, college representatives may only tell you what they think you want to hear. Do your own research as well. Have Your High School Coach Work For You Talk with your high school coach during your junior year. Ask for his or her honest assessment of your ability to play college-level sports. See what he or she would be willing to do and could do to help with the recruiting process. Many high school coaches have relationships with college coaches and can help start the recruiting process for you. Also, if there are specific schools you're interested in, see if your high school coach can reach out to the coaches at those colleges. How and When College Coaches Can Initiate Contact With You The rules vary by sport and division, but the general rule is that college coaches can’t talk to you before the end of your junior year. However, many schools will send you information via mail as soon as you’re on their radar. If you receive a recruiting questionnaire and you have any interest in that school, make sure you fill it out and send it back. If you’re a priority recruit, the coach will call you in the spring of your junior year or the summer before your senior year. July 1st before your senior year is the date when coaches can initiate contact for most sports for Division I colleges. Once college coaches are permitted to talk to you, the general rule is that they're allowed to contact you once per week. Keep in mind that just because you get mail or a phone call from a coach doesn't necessarily mean that you'll get a scholarship offer. Initiating Contact With Coaches Most student-athletes will have to initiate contact with coaches if they want a scholarship or want to participate in intercollegiate athletics. I highly recommend that you take a proactive approach to your recruiting process. When To Contact Coaches There is no exact right time to contact college coaches, but the general rule is that earlier is better. Typically, prospective athletes will contact coaches during their junior years or the summer before their senior years. Even though there are rules regarding when and how much a coach can contact you, there are no rules stopping you from contacting a coach whenever and however often you deem necessary. Use your discretion, though. If a coach is not responding to you, don’t continue contacting him or her. How to Contact Coaches The most common way to initiate contact with a coach is through e-mail. Your initial e-mail should express your interest in the school along with key information about you: your academic accomplishments, your athletic accomplishments, including awards, stats, and experience, and any attributes that would make you a good fit for that school or team. Additionally, the e-mail should contain a link to a video. The video should be relatively short, only a couple of minutes long. Show highlights from games and possibly practices that demonstrate your athletic abilities and readiness to participate on the collegiate level. If you do a team sport, make sure it’s clear who you are in the video. Also, have a full game tape ready, in case one of the coaches requests it. Feel free to a call a coach to express your interest. Even though it may be hard to get a coach on the phone if you're not already on his or her recruiting radar, you can always try or leave a message. Ask what the coach needs from you to be considered for a scholarship or a spot on the team. Furthermore, you can make a profile on a recruiting website. Examples of recruiting websites include BeRecruited, NCSA, and CaptainU. Some of their services are free and some require you to pay. The recruiting websites make sure you’re sending the right information to coaches, and they can provide you with contact information for college coaches. While these websites can be rather helpful, they’re not essential. Make sure you're contacting college coaches. Camps Some sports and schools offer summer camps that the coaches attend. These camps can provide you with an opportunity to demonstrate your athletic abilities to the coaches. Some of these camps are open and some are by invite only. The effectiveness of camps in helping you get recruited varies widely by school and sport. Some camps are just designed to make money and some are actually used by coaches to evaluate prospective student-athletes. Make sure that you research a camp before you or your parents spend money to attend. Applying Generally, the application process is the same for student athletes and non-student athletes. The main difference is that depending on the sport and how heavily you’re being recruited, you may be encouraged to apply early. And, your application may be processed sooner. Often, recruited athletes will learn of admissions decisions before the rest of the admitted students. Also, for recruits, your application may have some identifying marker indicating that you’re a recruited athlete. That’s so the admissions committee knows you're a recruit, and while it helps, it’s no guarantee of admission. Typically, the admissions committee will be alerted to how heavily you’re being recruited as well. During my recruiting process, for a couple of the schools that were recruiting me, I didn’t have to write a personal essay. Back in my high school days, I was rather happy to get out of writing those essays. For Stanford, my alma mater, I had to complete the same application as the rest of the students, though. Now I'm having flashbacks to writing my personal esssays. Good times. Campus Visits Once you get past the mail and the phone calls, the next step is to visit the campus. At this point, you may or may not have already been admitted to the college. There are two types of visits: unofficial visits and official visits. Unofficial Campus Visits An unofficial visit is one that you pay for yourself. What the coach plans for you on your trip often depends on how heavily you’re being recruited. Sometimes the coach will just speak with you briefly and then you’re on your own. For unofficial visits, schools can’t provide money for meals, transportation, or entertainment. However, you can receive up to three free game tickets. That's a pretty nice benefit, especially if you play a sport where game tickets are hard to come by. You can take an unlimited amount of unofficial visits and take them at almost any time, except during so-called â€Å"dead† periods when coaches can’t have contact with prospective student-athletes. Make sure to clear any unofficial visits with coaches before you make them. Feel free to ask a coach about taking an unofficial visit, regardless of how much contact you’ve had with the coach or if the coach has been recruiting you. Official Campus Visits For official campus visits, the trip is paid for by the school. Transportation, meals, and entertainment are covered for the prospective student-athlete. Official visits can last no more than 48 hours. NCAA rules dictate that you’re allowed five official visits and no more than one per school for Division I schools, but you can take an unlimited number of official visits to Division II schools. You can start taking official visits beginning on your first day of classes during your senior year of high school. If you attend junior college or do not enroll in a college after graduation, you can take an additional five Division I official visits starting October 15th following your senior year of high school. Before any official visit, though, you must register with the NCAA Eligibility Center and submit your ACT or SAT test score and high school transcript to the school you plan to visit. Sometimes scholarship offers will be made before official trips, and sometimes they’ll be made after. If you’re offered an official visit, you're definitely a top candidate for a scholarship. Also, even though Ivy League schools do not offer athletic scholarships, they do offer official visits. If you have the opportunity, I strongly recommend that you take official campus visits. On your official visit, you may be given the opportunity to watch practices, attend games, tour the campus, speak to academic advisers, sit in on classes, and hang out with the members of the team. I thoroughly enjoyed my official campus visits. Just to give you an idea of how much campus visits can vary, I'll describe a couple of mine to you. When I went on my recruiting trip to the University of Illinois, I was put up in a hotel suite and taken to a fancy Japanese restaurant. I had a scheduled meeting with an academic adviser and I was taken on a tour of the campus by an official campus tour guide. A few weeks later, I went on a recruiting trip to Temple University. On that trip, I stayed on the couch in one of the team member's apartments and ate cereal for most of my meals while I was there. I got a driving tour of the campus from the coach and there was no meeting with an academic advisor. However, I did get to see the Liberty Bell and eat an authentic Philly cheesesteak sandwich. I enjoyed my Temple trip, but it differed greatly from my Illinois trip. Illinois was just a more well-funded program and had a larger recruiting budget. Unfortunately, Temple dropped its NCAA men's gymnastics team in 2014 and is now continuing as a club sport. I got to experience life as a college student at Temple for 48 hours. Visits From Coaches Sometimes coaches will visit you at your school, in your home, or at one of your practices or games. There are rules that dictate when coaches can visit you. Typically, a coach will visit either to evaluate you or because you’re a top recruit and he or she is trying to sell you and your family on the school. Sometimes it’s a combination of both. If a coach is visiting you, it’s definitely a good sign about your prospects of receiving a scholarship or offer of admission. Scholarship Offers Usually after conversations with coaches and campus visits, a coach will extend a scholarship offer. Scholarships can be full (covering the full cost of attendance) or partial. Remember that you don’t have to accept or decline the offer right away. You should take your time to think about your options; choosing where you go to college is a big decision that you shouldn't make hastily. Also, even if you verbally accept an offer, the verbal agreement isn’t binding. You can change your mind up until you sign your scholarship offer. Additionally, for many sports, you won't receive a scholarship offer until you gain admission to the university. Again, this can vary depending on the sport, school, and how heavily you're being recruited. Typically, the coach will continue to contact you throughout the whole recruiting process and after a scholarship offer is extended. Your recruitment is not done until you have signed your National Letter of Intent. There are early and late signing dates that you have to sign by that vary depending on your sport. National Letter of Intent The National Letter of Intent is a binding agreement that says you will enroll at a specific school for the next academic year in exchange for athletic aid. Normally, you'll have to sign the NLI along with a scholarship offer from the school. If you don’t follow the terms of the agreement and enroll in the school, you’ll generally have to sit out a year of competition if you go to a different school and you’ll lose a year of eligibility. Almost always, the school won't issue you a formal scholarship offer and NLI until after you've been accepted to the university. However, there are instances where a school has to rescind its acceptance if you fail a class or end up not meeting certain requirements of the university. If you don't gain admission to the school, you'll be released from the agreement. Additional Advice for Prospective Student-Athletes Focus on Your Academics Many prospective student-athletes neglect the importance of academics in the recruiting process. Not only do you have to be eligible to compete, but also you still have to gain admission to the school. College coaches often won't recruit students who they don't think are qualified academically for their schools, regardless of these students' athletic skills. If you’re being recruited athletically, you will receive some preferential treatment when your application is processed, but the school still has to determine if your academics are good enough to be accepted. Especially at top academic colleges, your academics should be on par with non-student athletes if you want to have a legitimate shot at admission. The amount of preferential treatment you receive in the admissions process varies depending on the school, your sport, and how heavily you're being recruited. Especially for so-called â€Å"minor† sports (anything other than basketball and football at most schools), being recruited may only give you a minimal boost in the admissions process. Do Everything Earlier For recruited athletes, the timeline for when you should do things to prepare for college is sooner than for other students. You should start studying for your ACT or SAT by your sophomore year. You should have reached your SAT or ACT target score by the end of your junior year. Remember that college coaches won’t want to spend time recruiting you if they don’t think you’ll be admitted. Also, you should be able to show coaches that you’ve taken college prep classes, passed AP tests, and have good standardized test scores before the start of your senior year. Furthermore, you should narrow down your college list by the end of your junior year so you know which coaches to contact. Don’t wait until the second semester of your senior year to start sending out e-mails. It will be too late by then. Colleges will likely have offered their scholarships and filled their open spots by then. Be prepared to complete your college applications early. Depending on your sport and recruit status, you may have to complete multiple college applications in the early part of your senior year, months before many of your peers. Research the Schools You're Considering Regardless of whether you've started the recruiting process or not, you should research the colleges you think you may want to attend. For each of these schools, learn about the campus, the majors offered, the athletics facilities, and any other information that you think may be relevant in making your college decision. Also, most college websites will have information specifically for prospective student-athletes. This information will provide specific rules regarding recruiting and there may be information regarding the recruiting process for that school. Often, you’ll be able to fill out a recruiting questionnaire directly from the website. Make Sure You're Eligible All NCAA athletes have to be certified by the NCAA Eligibility Center . You’ll have to send in your transcript and SAT/ACT scores. What's Next? If you're looking to compete at the highest level of intercollegiate athletics, review the list of NCAA Division I schools. If you want to research colleges, use the best college search websites. Also, I recommend you check out this post on how to get into your top-choice college. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

Personal, Professional and Career Development Assignment

Personal, Professional and Career Development - Assignment Example nced or reworked for the better and through my curiosity, I often strive to reach at the best possible solutions or approaches to issues or challenges in the course of my personal and professional development. Most importantly, my drive to explore the new and unfamiliar territories often leads to more creativity since I often discover new opportunities that can be exploited for better results or enhanced outcomes. Nonetheless, I am highly uncomfortable with uncertainty and ambiguity both in my personal and professional life and I often prefer to have the specific information regarding everything such as the right answers to all questions, the exact time schedules for particular events, and so on. This natural desire for certainty comes in handy in my line of work as a project manager, particularly in the project implementation stages since it contributes to timely completion of projects and proper planning beforehand for specific roles to be performed by key individuals. I am reasonably confident in my own capacity to originate and work with ideas and even if I may not be so creative, I never shy away from experimenting with ideas; whenever I am faced with a challenge or opportunity to solve a problem, I like to experiment with creative solutions to the issues at hand because creativity can yield solutions to real life problems (Fobes 1996, p.19). I am more likely to take up the roles or tasks that present me with the chance to exploit and prove my creative genius and I consider all challenges as stepping stones to discovering new approaches to success, particularly in work environments that are highly demanding in terms of high pressure to perform (Ahmadi 2014, p.19). I am more inclined to sharing ideas since I strongly believe it does help in stimulating more ideas in other people as well as new dimensions of novelty in coming up with new ideas; furthermore, the collaborative thinking effort in group settings highly contributes to the collective p roblem-solving

Sustainability in Context of Oil and Gas Development Dissertation

Sustainability in Context of Oil and Gas Development - Dissertation Example cess to information and justice 65 Principle Six: The principle of good governance 71 Principle Seven: The principle of integration 75 3-3 Synthesis of New Delhi Declaration Principles 78 3-4 Examples of Practices for Sustainable Development of Oil and Gas Resources 79 3-5 Iraq’s need for Sustainable Development of Oil and Gas Resources 84 3-6 Conclusion 88 3-7 From Legal Evolution of Sustainable Development to Iraq’s Legal Frameworks for Oil and Gas Sustainable Development 90 Bibliography 90 3-1 Introduction†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.4 3-2 Defining Sustainable Development†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã ¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦... ... †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..38 Principle Four: Precaution regarding human health, natural resources and ecosystems†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ †¦.45 Principle Five: The principle of public participation and access to information and justice †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.50 Principle Six: The principle of good governance †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.54 Principle Seven: The principle of integration †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦57 3-3-4 Synthesis of New Delhi Declaration Pr inciples †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.59 3-4 Examples of Practices for Sustainable Development of Oil and Gas Resources †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦...60 3-5 Iraq’s need for Sustainable Development of Oil and Gas Resources †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦...63 3-6 Conclusion †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦...†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 66 3-7 From Legal Evolution of Sustainabl e Development to Iraq’s Legal Frameworks for Oil and Gas Sustainable Development†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..68 Bibliography†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..69 3-1 Introduction The concept of sustainability has been evolving over time1 and has assumed a number of different dimensions today. Contemporary sustainability has taken up environmental, social, political, economic as well as cultural aspects. It has

Supreme court case Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Supreme court case - Essay Example In 1954, Oliver L. Brown began the process of reversing this by challenging the Topeka Board of Education on its policy of segregated schools. He was angry because his daughter had to walk six blocks across, cross train tracks, then board a bus and ride for over a mile to get to her black school, while there was a white school only six blocks away. This seemed especially ridiculous because his daughter’s playmates were largely white and attended that school. Unlike many areas, Topeka worked very hard to ensure that its white and African American schools were largely equal – they had equal funding, facilities and staff, so it essentially came to question whether it was possible for two facilities to actually be equal if they were separate. In a landmark ruling, the Supreme Court said that separate educational facilities are inherently unequal, and that the only way to ensure truly equal access to education was to have them not be segregated at all. This decision made it illegal to segregate schools based on race, and began a process of re-integration, which would eventually pave the road for many other improvements in race relations in

Underclass Exclusion Unemployment

Underclass Exclusion Unemployment Critically consider liberal accounts of the ‘underclass. To what extent is a focus on cultural characteristics useful in aiding our understanding of social exclusion. Use of the term social exclusion arose in Europe in the wake of prolonged and large scale unemployment that provoked criticisms of welfare systems for failing to prevent poverty and for hindering economic development. Silver (1994) stresses that economic restructuring in North American and European countries since the mid- 1970s has given rise to such terms as social exclusion, new poverty, and the underclass to describe the consequent negative effects on the more vulnerable populationsin these countries. Such phenomena also intensified the debate over the adequacy ofuniversal social protection policies and fuelled growing concern about the distributivefairness of employment and income patterns. Used first in France (Yepez-del-Castillo 1994), the concept spread quickly to the United Kingdom and throughoutthe European Union. Social exclusion theorists are concerned with the dissolution of social bonds, theincomplete extension of social rights and protections to all groups, and the linksbetween the idea of exclusion and more conventional understandings of inequality.They draw on theories of poverty, inequality, and disadvantage. In this context policiesto aid the excluded have focused on subsidizing jobs and wages, providing housing, and responding to urbanization. The value added of these discussions de rivesfrom their focus on the multifaceted nature of deprivation and on analysis of themechanisms and institutions that function to exclude people (de Haan 1998). Theconcept of social exclusion has encouraged scholars to consider simultaneously theeconomic, social, and political dimensions of deprivation. As Bhalla and Lapeyre(1997) stress, this concept encompasses the notion of poverty broadly defined, butis more general in that it explicitly emphasizes povertys relational as well as its distributionalaspects. Social Exclusion is another term for the lower strata poor. This implies that this is more than just about the straight poor but instead about behaviour which has created a lifestyle which is permanently dislocated from the habits and way of life of the majority. The concept of the underclass has been widely contested today. It has many links with social exclusion, the notion of a cycle of deprivation and cultural theories. During the course of this essay a number of different areas will be looked at. The focal point of this essay will rest by and large in the culture of binge drinking which is apparent across a significant area of the population. This part of the population has been named in many different ways by the media and social theorists alike from Chavs to the deprived to the socially excluded, all of which lead us to the same concept ‘The Underclass. It will then discuss different perspectives on the ‘underclass both into whether it truly exists and whether it i s the individuals or the welfare states fault. This essay will interrogate Murrays claims about the ‘underclass and explain how he is right on a descriptive level but totally wrong on an explanatory level. Furthermore it will look at media accounts of the urban poor and the fact that they are overwhelmingly liberal in orientation. Lastly it will look at the rise of neo-liberalism and the effect it has had on the poor in Britain. There have been many theorists which have researched the concept of the ‘underclass one of which who is highly recognised across Britain and the US is Charles Murray. Murray came to the UK in 1989 in search of an underclass and wrote an article in The Sunday Times about there being the foundations of an ‘underclass in British Society, this was widely contested amongst British sociologists and rejected. However this concept has now been widely researched and there has been increasing truth to Murrays (1990) article ‘The Emerging British Underclass. This article wrote in quite general terms about the ‘underclass and related it to trends of illegitimacy, crime and unemployment. His second essay written in 1996 ‘Underclass: The crisis deepens was preoccupied with illegitimacy, marriage and the state of the British Family. The concept of a traditional nuclear family reducing the chances of a child turning to crime has been one which has been researched heavil y. Although no conclusion has been reached it is still widely believed to be true. The term ‘underclass was derived by Ken Auletta in the 1980s to emphasise the behaviour and values of those deemed to be lower class. Murray (1996) attempts in great detail to show that he does not apply the term ‘underclass to all poor , only to those; ‘distinguished by there undesirable behaviour, including drug taking, illegitimacy, failure to hold down a job, truancy from school and casual violence,. Murray believes illegitimacy is the best indicator of an underclass in the making and the rising trend in illegitimacy therefore alarms him. He places a special focus on issues of violence as it becomes increasingly difficult to raise children to be un-aggressive when whole towns fall prey to criminality. However Alan walker offers a liberal view. He believes that Murray ‘blames the victim and thus diverts our attention from blaming the mechanisms through which resources are distributed. Victim blaming is the attitude which walker believes to have been at the root of many measures from Elizabethan Poor Law to todays ‘YTS and ‘restart programmes. There is the belief by Murray that there are two types of poor people, one of whom live on low incomes and another who dont just lack money . ‘There homes were littered and un-kept. The men in the family were unable to hold a job for more than a few weeks at a time. Drunkenness was common. The children grew up ill schooled and contributed a disproportionate share of the local juvenile delinquents. There are many other arguments about the underclass. Robert Moore suggested that despite his own misgivings; ‘a collective term such as the ‘underclass may be needed to refer to that group of marginalised migrant workers, refugees and asylum seekers, inner city ethnic minority populations and the very poorest who typically have little or no control over goods and skills either within or outside a given economic order. This coincides with Ralf Darendorfs view that the term ‘underclass is a ‘phenomenon of race here as well as the US. These are all rather liberal accounts of the underclasses and a view is taken that the majority of underclasses in both the UK and the US are ethnic minorities many of which are first r secong generation immigrants who have little or no understanding of the British Culture. Many of these minorities will live in poorer areas in which there children will fall victim to the culture of the ‘underclass. This culture includes getting involved with gangs, binge drinking and often leads to unprotected sex which would continue the cycle of the ‘underclass. The liberal accounts of the ‘underclass tend to focus on the pathological individual. This is that if they are poor and dont have a job it is there fault. Part of the pathological explanation suggests that it is the behaviour and attitudes of the underclass that have cut them off from normal society Murray being a strong advocate of this view, argues that welfare dependency has created a counter-cultural attitude that there is no need to work if one can instead receive state benefits or turn to crime instead. The opposing position suggests that the lack of full employment in the economy results in the unemployed and hence poverty. Here it is the failure of the structure rather than the individual themselves who can be blamed for the emergence of an underclass. Auletta refers to the underclass as a group who do not assimilate (1982: xvi quoted in Morris, 1994: 81), identifying four main groups: the passive poor, usually long term welfare recipients the hostile street criminal, drop-outs and drug addicts the hustlers, dependent on the underground economy but rarely involved in violent crime the traumatised drunks, drifters, homeless bag ladies and released mental patients In identifying these groups it can be seen that perhaps a different explanation for the underclass can be given for each grouping. However, in all four cases it could be argued that the underlying reason for the exclusion from society could be either pathological or structural. For example it could be argued that the passive poor are so because they hold the attitude that there is no need for work. The same group could also be said to exist because there are not enough jobs available in the economy for them to work. ‘The underclass as a phrase has shifted in emphasis since the 80s and this shift is partly in response to liberal commentators who suggested that the poor of the contemporary period are idle, jobless and criminal. ‘The underclass as a phrase became associated with blaming the poor for their marginalised social situation. Murrays claims are partly right at the descriptive level, but totally wrong at the explanatory level. There are many different reasons which could offer a far more reasonable explanation on the concentration of urban marginality today. Firstly the changing economy provides us with a number of reasons into why there is an underclass in the UK. Liberals and conservatives today tend to stress values like individual responsibility when considering such issues such as drugs, violence, teen pregnancy, family formation and the work ethic. Some critics readily blame welfare for poverty and find it hard to see how anybody even the poor would deliberately deviate f rom mainstream culture. With widespread joblessness many inner city people become stressed and there communities become distressed, poor people adapt to these circumstances as best they know, meeting the exigencies of there situation as best they can. The kinds of problems which cause moral outrage begin to emerge; teen pregnancy, welfare dependency and the underground economy. Its cottage industries of drugs, prostitution, welfare scams and other rackets pick up the economic slack. It is this underground economy which provides a means for these people as the regular economy cannot. Since 1997, the New Labour government has developed and administered contemporary social policy around the ideals of social inclusion. The Social Exclusion Unit (SEU), Welfare to Work and New Deal Programmes (1998) provide the chief manifestations of socially-inclusive policy. The SEU describes social exclusion as the short hand for what can happen when people or areas are suffering from a combination of linked problems such as unemployment, poor skills, low incomes, poor housing, high crime, bad health and family breakdown (SEU, 2001: 10). The shift to social inclusion policy is a response to the need to prevent individuals at risk of exclusion from becoming excluded, according to the SEU: a need it proposes to address by, for example, resolving to reverse the growth in family breakups, teenage pregnancies and crime, and to reduce possible restrictions to an individuals economic opportunity. And, where necessary, policy should be designed with the aim of reintegrating those already excluded socially, through programmes such as the New Deal and Welfare to Work (ibid: 29). Bauman argues that the shift in social policy towards the language of social inclusion is a result of key economic trends in the West, leading to the growth of a population that has become surplus to labour-market requirements. Byrne argues that social-inclusion rhetoric is the surface-froth of the more fundamental shift to Post-Fordist patterns of capital accumulation, where those at the margins of inclusion and exclusion serve as part of the reconstitution of a reserve army of labour power. Clearly, Bauman and Byrne differ in their explanations: Bauman viewing the excluded as an unwanted surplus to the expansion of capital, and Byrne viewing the excluded as vital to capitalist expansion. For Bauman, contemporary changes in social policy are part of the wider shift of the welfare state away from policy directed at supporting the re-commodification of labour power. Capital accumulation up until the 1985 required the state to play its role in the provision of key resources, including housing, education, health and, when necessary, welfare payments to the unemployed. This, for Bauman, ensured the re-commodification of quality labour power and also secured a viable reserve army; both of which were essential for post-war capitalist expansion. Since the 1980s, argues Bauman, capital accumulation has become increasingly premised on the rationalisation of the use of labour power, and thus on the shedding of the labour force. As a consequence, the role of the welfare state has ch anged, moving towards means-tested and targeted benefits, and towards-via training and employment policies-catering for capitalisms need for insecure, low-quality labour power, and the disciplining of a growing surplus population. As Bauman observes, ‘The present-day stream-lined, downsized, capital-and knowledge-intensive industry casts labour as a constraint on the rise of productivity to such a degree that economic growth and the rise of employment are, for all practical intents, at cross-purposes; technological progress is measured by the replacement and elimination of labour (Bauman, 1998: 65). The shift in welfare-state priorities towards social inclusion signifies deeper changes in the re-commodification of labour power. In this context, the issue of social exclusion and the rhetoric of social-inclusion policy signifies the emergence of a surplus population which is no longer required by capital as a reserve army of labour. To be sure, a reserve army of labour still exists in non-Western, industrialised areas of the world. For the West, though, capital no longer requires a welfare state committed to the universal provision of key services and social needs, because the maintenance of a reserve army is no longer functional to capital accumulation. For Bauman; ‘The welfare state will become increasingly residual as social policy confines itself to organising the control and administration of a population increasingly isolated from the capitalist labour market. Government is haunted by the prospect of the homeless and disinherited flocking in and capital flocking out. (Bauman, 1998: 54) This, for Bauman, is the reason why social exclusion and social-inclusion policy predominates discourses on welfare. Baumans argument provides a useful explanation of the shift in social policy towards social inclusion. However, the hard-and-fast equating of social exclusion with a surplus labour force playing no role as a reserve army is both empirically and theoretically suspect. Bauman ignores the day-to-day realities of the capitalist system in the West, where the links between capitals demand for labour power and a surplus of unemployed remain of crucial importance. For Baumans proposition to hold, one must assume that those experiencing social exclusion have no connection with the labour market and the status of wage labour. Yet evidence does not support such a view. Evidence suggests ‘A degree of complexity, with people variously experiencing exclusion with no labour-market attachment, exclusion with some labour-market attachment, and inclusion with weak and/or strong labour-market attachments (Labour Market Trends: 2002). In other words the experience of exclusion is as likely to be one premised on the poor, unstable employment as it is as on unemployment and unemployability (Levitas, 1999). Evidence, suggests that labour power continues to function as a reserve army of labour, however attenuated this function might be. A more realistic proposition for Bauman to make might be that the surplus population is growing at a faster rate relative to its function as a reserve army of labour. In this case, those experiencing this situation have little choice, within the constraints of contemporary capitalism, but to remain unemployed and consequently, as Dinerstein suggests; ‘suffer the humiliation of having to beg for work and be in a permanent state of readiness to offer their labour power as a commodity. (Dinerstein, 2002) Media accounts of the urban poor are overwhelmingly ‘liberal in orientation. Many of which, are talking about dole cheats and young women getting pregnant for council houses. The Suns ‘shop a dole cheat campaign hails from the same intellectual tradition as Murray. Many media campaigns have victimised the poor and paved the way for the ‘Chav culture. This has been ridiculed and reported on in the press and on television. A number of attacks have been launched on television channels and there treatment of Britains working classes. It was seen to be not only patronising and offensive but also potentially dangerous. Reality television shows such as Wife Swap, Big Brother and the confessional Jeremy Kyle Show, which tend to rely on working-class participants in search of fame or fortune, were the focus of most criticism. But the portrayal of the working classes in comedy programmes such as Little Britain and dramas like Shameless were also debated. Ethnic minority groups are ‘excluded as a result of their position in the new economy. In this sense, marginalised whites have a lot in common with marginalised blacks. There is however the associated dynamic of discrimination- the most notable example is the place of Muslims in a post 9/11 western world- however, understanding the position of these groups is more about ‘moral panics and fear of otherness. The economic literature on discrimination tends to focus on the different treatment of individuals-based on race, gender, or ethnicity in labour, credit, and consumer goods markets. This is obviously a serious matter, and there is ample evidence in the United States and elsewhere that such disparities are real and quantitatively important as a source of inter group economic inequalities (Modood and others 1997; Wilson 1996). Nevertheless, when considering ethnic group inequality, economists should look beyond what happens in markets. Of course, economists tend to focus on how markets work or fail. Economic theory suggests that discrimination based on gender or racial identity should be arbitraged away in markets of competitive sellers, employers, and lenders. But such discrimination is readily observed in society, and this anomaly attracts attention. Critics of neoclassical economics seize on it, and defenders of that orthodoxy seek to explain it away. Thus evidence that wage differences between the races or sexes have declined, after controlling for worker productivity, is supposed to vindicate the economists belief in market forces. This way of approaching the problem is too narrow. With wages, for example, the usual focus is on the demand side of the labour market-employers either have a â€Å"taste† for discrimination or use race as a proxy for unobserved variables that imply lower productivity for minorities. The primary normative claim in this approach is that such discrimination is morally offensive, a legitimate object of regulatory intervention, and a significant contributor to racial and gender inequality. But implicit in this claim is the notion that if inequality were due to supply-side differences-in the Glenn C. Loury 233 skills presented to employers by blacks and whites, for example-the resulting disparity would not raise the same moral issues or give a comparable warrant for intervention. There is a comparable view in housing markets-that residential segregation induced by the discriminatory behaviour of realtors is a bigger problem than segregation that comes about because of the freely made decisions of market participants. I propose a shift in emphasis. In the United States market discrimination against blacks still exists, but such discrimination is not as significant an explanation for racial inequality as in decades past. This calls into question the conventional wisdom on equal opportunity policy-that eliminating racial discrimination in markets will eventually resolve racial economic inequalit y. Much evidence supports the view that the substantial gap in skills between blacks and whites is a key factor accounting for racial inequality in the labour market. Yet this skills gap is itself the result of social exclusion processes that deserve explicit study and policy remediation. ‘The gap reflects social and cultural factors-geographic segregation, deleterious social norms and peer influences, poor education- that have a racial dimension (Cutler and Glaeser 1997; Akerlof 1997) Group inequality such as that between blacks and whites in the United States cannot be fully understood, or remedied, with a focus on market discrimination alone. Liberals like Murray look at cultural characteristics of the poor as a means of explaining ‘social exclusion. They say the poor is poor because they are lazy, because they dont try at school, because they dont get married. In my opinion the real reason the poor are poor is because; There arent any meaningful jobs anymore for these social groups. The economy no longer needs everyone to work. The successive governments have allowed our welfare state to slowly degenerate. Mainstream society have been conned into believing that these people bring it on themselves. Charles Murray in 1989 used drop out from the labour force among young males, violent crime and births from unmarried women would all be associated with the growth of a class of violent unsocialised people who if they become sufficiently numerous will fundamentally degrade the life of society. This can be seen to be happening today with the creation of ‘chav culture. These ‘Chavs are usually working class and live on council estates and dress in sportswear hoodies, tracksuits and caps. They wear excessive gold jewellery and are seen to be aggressive and uneducated. There was a dramatic increase in unemployed males between 1989 and 1999 from 20.5% to 31.2% which has continued to till today. Drop out in the labour force was largest in the group who had the least excuses to work these were from ages 20 to 24. The economy was not to be blamed fully as overall national employment was lower in 1999 than in 1989. The percentage of men in school did not change appreciatiably and increases of people in higher education have been concentrated among young women and people of both sexes over the age of 30. Since 1994 the number of men in higher education has actually decrease and crime both violent and property are higher than of that in America since 1996. From the mid 19th century to the first  ¾ of this century Britain enjoyed being seen as the most civilised country on earth. The US in this same period was seen as a violent and unruly society with high levels of personal freedom but lower levels of civility. Other continents had low crime rates but a high level of authoritarian control, however Britain is now another high crime industrialised country. Violent crime is seen as impulsive behaviour by those who seek instant gratification of there desires which is part of a general lack of socialisation and is the hallmark of the ‘underclass. Over the last two decades British children have not been socialised to norms of self control, consideration of others, and the concept that actions have consequences. Murray states; ‘One of the leading reasons that they are not being socialised is that larger numbers of British children are not being raised by two mature married adults. He believes that there is not alternative form of family which comes close to the traditional nuclear family of two married parents. He believed that children of two married biological parents were found to do much better than the children of single parents and the children of divorced mothers were found to do better than the children of never married mothers. Illegitimacy is overwhelmingly a lower class phenomenon. However Melanie Phillips argues that it is in fact the overclass fault that we have a lower strata poor. Children from deprived areas sometimes dont know how to use a knife and fork; they dont know what an alarm clock is; because they have no sense of an ordered day. Primary school children who have no idea how to make social relationships but who are aggressive foul mouthed or withdrawn. The government has ambitious plans and programmes on how to tackle social exclusion, turning out papers on truancy, teenage pregnancies, repairing shattered communities. All of which are commendable however this all presents the socially excluded as a breed apart, as an underclass and if there behaviour is somehow different from the rest of society. Government advisors and officials and advisors talk about drugs for instance and they assume that the higher strata can handle cannibas and cocaine but the poor cannot. On education they say there is nothing wrong with the top 2% of schools the problems are with separate sink schools with high levels of truancy and low levels of basic literacy. On family th ey say ‘Im cohabit, Im a lone parent so there is nothing wrong with the changing family. Its the poor who are the problem. This is not only hypocritical and unpleasant but it fails to see how culture works: that signals matter, that they work top down and that what is supportive behaviour by the upper classes can have a disastrous impact on the poor who do not have the soft cushioning of money and privilege to fall back on. The culture of being a lone parent is in some ways created by the elites who lead by example through judges who generally give custody to women and demand monthly child support paid to single mothers who are now also receiving extra benefits and this is done through an increase in taxes on married couples. Surely reducing the males role to nothing but a walking wallet and sperm donor is causing men who are poor to run away from marriage. To understand the underclass is imperative in understanding poverty as a whole. But perhaps more important is the understanding that the underclass is simply a collective term used to refer to a group of individuals. By grouping these individuals together it is far too easy to make stereotypical judgements and statements which, whilst certainly applying to various members of the group, by no means hold true for each individual within. Indeed, it is with little doubt that many members of the underclass do cut themselves off from society due to their behaviours and attitudes, but there will be many who do not. Some people are born more disadvantaged than others take the disabled and elderly for example. Both of these groups can fall within a definition of the underclass they are often dependent upon the state and are in many ways excluded from certain aspects of society. It would take a radical commentator to suggest that either of these groups, and hence the whole of the underclass, are so due to their behaviour and attitudes.

Overloking Potential Honor Roll Students :: essays papers

Overloking Potential Honor Roll Students Overlooking Potential Honor Roll Students? Everyone wants their school to be the best. They want them to have the best sports teams, perform the best over all on standardize tests, and have the best extra curricular activities. This is what the University High School admissions board has in mind when looking through the applications usually numbering around 750-900 for the next school year to offer admission to only 150 of those applicants. In reality, they divide the applicants into districts according to where they live, then subdivide those into racial groups. After those have been considered is when they look at who has the potential to offer University High the most, in a variety of areas. They have to accept a certain number of students from each district and a certain amount of students of different ethnic backgrounds to be seen as politically correct. The question being posed here is whether or not that is to the benefit of U-High. During the course of trying to answer that question, two sides of the argument are to be considered. The first is that the way that it is being done is the fairest way in making sure that there is no racial or economic discrimination. The second side to the argument is that there might be a larger number of gifted students in a certain group that can not all be admitted into U-High because it could be seen as if they were being favored. Both sides of the argument will be examined more carefully. To begin with, in the past, our country has demonstrated great racial discrimination. There was segregation, and there were also hate groups. There were people that believed that people other than whites were inferior to those of white skin color. However, lately there has been a wonderful realization in our society. The majority of our society views it as wrong to discriminate. It is seen as politically incorrect. Though there are no laws telling people how to think, there are, however, laws that prohibit discrimination in the workforce and most important to this issue, laws prohibiting discrimination in the educational system. To ensure and mostly to prove that there is no racial hatred towards any ethnic groups, U-High adopted a new way to process the applications of possible future students. They now have a quota of students with certain ethnic backgrounds to meet.