American Gothic as it Relates to the Industrial Revolution

A Response to Davenport's Review of American Gothic After reading an except from The Geography of the Imagination, it is clear that Wood, the creator of the world-recognized American Gothic, his included many subtle references to the way our country was changed by the Industrial Revolution in his painting. Davenport begins his enlightenment by informing us that almost everything in this painting is a symbol, whether or not it was even intended to be one.He starts off with the house pictured in the background of the painting, telling us how it was a â€Å"ready-made† house that would be dropped off in pieces and simply put together by ossibly only two men. The geometry and simplicity of the house are the characteristics that have guided him to this conclusion. He later mentions both Sears ; Roebuck as well as JC Penney, which are both commonly known as companies who took advantage of and popularized mass produced items.Another aspect of this house that Davenport introduces to h is audience is the glass windowpanes. Previously a luxury item, the fact that this common farmhouse now has a glass plane is an example of how the Industrial Revolution made certain less attainable items from the previous century, such as glass, as common as the spectacles on the armer's face. Moving on to the characters portrayed, Wood has included many more references to mass production of new ideas such as buttonholes, clothing that came â€Å"ready-to- sew' including: fabric, patterns, and thread.The farmer's overalls are also a depiction of a new fabric, denim, that was popularized for its economy at this time. Even their positions are reminiscent of the Brownie Box Camera and the farmer's stance with his pitchfork which references that of Egyptian warfare. The implication of a cotton mill, dye works, and a roller press is a complicated ass of production and assembly lines that Davenport shows us is hidden behind something that appears so common to us: a curtain.A quick look i nto the buttons seen throughout the painting gives us a tour of the world, pulling into the railroad and ocean-crossing boats that made these simple circles important. Overall, Davenport tells his readers that he is not certain of Wood's intent, but regardless of the nature of the piece, he has left us many decipherable clues as to how our culture evolved during the Industrial Revolution. American Gothic as it Relates to the Industrial Revolution By rebeccachristensen92

The Chinese Revolution, a Momentous and Significant Revolution

The Chinese Revolution, beginning in 1911 and ending in 1949 was a momentous and significant revolution within history. The Chinese Revolution was a result of impearialistic control of China by other countries, unfair treatment of peasants, and young people’s desire to modernize China. Similar to The Chinese Revolution, the novel â€Å"Animal Farm† was an allegory that also exhibited the strive for freedom and respect within a nation, or in this case the Manor Farm. In the novel, the animals fought hard inorder to rebel against the rule of their often drunk owner Mr. Jones. Mr. Jones was a mean unkind master who enjoyed a care free life while the animals lack food. Respectively, the Chinese also strived for freedom and rights in China while under the rule of the Qing Dynatsy, although the Qing Dynasty was very helpful with major improvements as building roads and post offices to make interchange of labor, information, and resources in china, making the first currency th at can be used through whole China, and, formulating language, written letters, numeric system, units for weights and measure in china. The Qing Dynatsty was still a very unfair and unjust political system ran by a long line curropt dictators all within the Qing family, and the people of China as did the animals in the novel decided enough was enough. So with the help of Mao Zedong, communist philantropist and future leader of china, offered communism as an alternative to the peasants in china promising food, jobs, and homes to everyone who followed the words of communism. And with the team work of china’s peasant population which was the majority of China and Mao Zendong they effortously overthrew the Qing Dynasty. As did the animals, but instead of the Chinese government simply the Manor Farm, but the proccess towards conducting these revolutions were almost identical. Knowing the novel animal Farm is based on the time period of the Russian Revolution, the animals within the novel can been seen as the peasants of The Chinese Revolution. The Pigs, or futher known as Snowball whose character is based on Lenin Trostsky, and Napolean whos character is based on Joseph Stalin can be viewed as Mao Zendong or the other contibutors to the Chinese Revolution as Chaing Kai Shek. With the help of both parties the animals using strength pyhsically and in numbers, wit, and intelligence wer able to formulate plans and strategies like Mao Zendong

Does Inequality in School System Funding Contribute to the Cycle of Poverty

In Savage Inequalities, Jonathan Kozol describes the conditions of several of America's public schools. Between 1988 and 1990, Kozol visited schools in approximately 30 neighborhoods and found that there was a wide disparity in the conditions between the schools in the poorest inner-city communities and schools in the wealthier suburban communities. How can there be such huge differences within the public school system of a country which claims to provide equal opportunity for all?It becomes obvious to Kozol that many poor children begin their young lives with an education that is far inferior to that of the children who grow up in wealthier communities. They are not given an equal opportunity from the start. He writes, â€Å"Denial of ‘the means of competition' is perhaps the single most consistent outcome of the education offered to poor children in the schools of our large cities . . . † (p. 83). Although all children are required to attend school until age 16, there are major differences in schools and they appear to be drawn along lines of race and social class.Kozol examines how the unequal funding of schools relates to social class divisions, institutional and environmental racism, isolation and alienation of students and staff within poor schools, the physical decay of buildings, and the health conditions of students. All of these contribute to a psychological disarray of the young people who recognize that the ruling class views them as expendable and not worth investing its money or resources. Kozol's focus of this book is to examine urban school districts, which are severely segregated by race and class.They are overwhelmingly nonwhite and very poor, which contrasts sharply with the wealthy overwhelmingly white suburban schools right next to them (p. 74). He limits his selections to poor inner-city schools rather than include examples of all poor schools because he feels that they best exhibit racial segregation and social class division s. He notes that even when schools have a â€Å"diverse† student population, segregation occurs within the school through special education programs or vocational tracking.Although Kozol does not directly address it, the center of the problems that affect these schools is a capitalist system that requires the reproduction of the divisions of labor (Bowles). Schools provide the training to meet this requirement through the tracking of students into the roles that they will fulfill in our economic system. The ruling class attempts to make sure that there are an appropriate number of people to fit these jobs. Capitalists (i. e. business owners) not only want an obedient workforce, but a surplus of workers at each level so that they can pay the lowest wage possible (Spring, p. 24). They will seek out and encourage programs that train people for such jobs. Who should be assigned each role? Kozol does point out that wealthy white people want to make sure their children get the â₠¬Å"good† jobs and live in the â€Å"good† (less polluted) areas. They benefit from the divisions of labor and will use their influence to maintain government policies that ensure their positions.When Kozol discussed funding inequities among school districts with a group of affluent students in Rye, New York, one student exhibited these beliefs when she said she had no reason to care about fixing the problems of school funding because she failed to see how it could benefit her (p. 126). She indeed recognized how the class divisions were to her advantage. Why would she want to change that? The policies that the ruling class creates to maintain their place on the social class ladder inherently lead to the continuation of the cycle of poverty, social class divisions, and environmental and institutional racism.Kozol provides examples of this, which range from the location of nonwhite, poor people on and near toxic waste sites (p. 8-12), to blaming problems of the inner city on the people within that system (they are unable to govern themselves, their children aren't worth the money it takes to educate them) (p. 9, 26, 75-76, 192-193), to the funding formula that allocates funds to public schools (54-56, 202, and throughout). It is this unequal funding of public schools that is Kozol's main emphasis in  Savage Inequalities.Funding based upon property taxes and property values discriminates against lower social classes, and this unequal funding leads to inferior schools and creates a wide disparity between schools in the poorest and wealthiest communities. Isolation of students, staff, and the community is a direct result of the inequities in funding. People who have poor schooling are funneled into jobs which are poorly paid and so the people not only have less knowledge, but have less money and influence with which to change the system (p. 7). Because they don't know how, nor have the tools necessary to break the cycle of poverty, they continue to re produce the class divisions and schooling that supports it. This in turn allows their children to be continually tracked and fed into the lower skilled jobs and schooling, which is a necessary component of the capitalist system. Kozol vividly illustrates the deplorable conditions of the poorest schools. In contrast, he provides colorful descriptions of the wealthiest suburban schools that neighbor them.He effectively demonstrates the racist conditions and social class discrimination that lead to the variations within the public school system as well as discusses the funding formula for America's public schools. His writing is exaggerated, I am sure, in order to make his point. He had an abundance of information and had to be selective (as anyone would) and when choosing what to include, he used the extreme examples to make his points clear. He may not have included schools because they did not exemplify his point, which is that there is a huge discrepancy in the quality of public sc hools depending on where one lives.Yet it still seems that he could have included more. What Kozol should have included was more information on his â€Å"research† methods. Perhaps this could be added as an appendix. How many schools did he visit in all? How many were elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools? How would he classify the schools he did visit? How many of the total would he say were very wealthy, awful, or a varying degree in between? Kozol provides descriptions of the worst of the worst, but his research only extends to a limited number of urban schools.He asks if what he sees is atypical of inner city schools (p. 36). Has he visited enough schools to determine that? It is true that there are those schools out there and they should not be like that, but do they represent the majority of urban schools across the country? He is selective in choosing and describing the worst of the schools located in the inner city, yet he leaves out any mention of the relative conditions of the other schools in the city. He also fails to include any examples of conditions of poor white suburban and rural schools and schools not at the middle class level.Perhaps Kozol could also include more on his views as to what the â€Å"minimal† requirements for a good school should be. What should all public schools have? He says that there should be more poor schools that resemble the better schools. Are the wealthy suburban schools examples of the minimum that â€Å"public schooling† should offer? Or shall they have somewhat less (not necessarily California) while poorer schools get a lot more? Are there minimum educational experiences that all students could expect in any public school?If parents wanted more than was provided by the public schools, they could demand more (for all) or they could provide tutoring or a private education for their children. Kozol suggests equalized funding as a solution to the lack of quality in urban schools. F unding alone will not solve the schools. There needs to be changes in the greater society that would have to occur simultaneously for real improvements to occur. Besides, equal funding does not mean equal schools. Would policy makers really want equal funding?If politicians really valued public education and believed in doing what would provide equal funding for ALL, plenty of money would â€Å"become available. †Ã‚  Ã‚   Perhaps my greatest problems with  Savage Inequalities are that Kozol does not deeply examine why things got the way they have as they relate to the purposes of schooling as described by Joel Spring (p. 18-26), and Kozol is all talk, no action. While he was visiting these schools, did he attempt to organize the schools, teachers, parents, and students? He observed the schools and was able to highlight the inequities present, but did he do anything?He had an ideal opportunity to initiate some organizing of those involved, yet the book does not suggest that he did much more than visit the schools and report back what he saw, heard, and felt. Since only part of the problem, albeit a large part, is how the schools are funded, one would need to look beyond the education system to find a solution which would really rectify the problems Kozol describes. Schools cannot truly be reformed without â€Å"reforming† the societal conditions that surround the schools.The schools are the way they are for a purpose–to reproduce the social divisions of labor (Bowles) and to maintain the capitalist economy of our country. When discussing how to solve problems of unequal funding, Jezebel, an eleventh grade student at Woodrow Wilson School in Camden, New Jersey addresses segregation and says that even if funding were the same, schools will not be equal. A very insightful young lady, she recognizes the degree to which the ruling class will prevent a fair education system and desegregation from developing as she realistically suggests that â €Å"it would take a war to bring us together† (Kozol, p. 55). Short of that, it is unlikely that these problems will be solved through any reform effort. To begin to solve the problems, people need to collectively stand together and fight for the rights of all the children to have an equal start in life. That means people need to know what is going on and that they can do something to change it. Kozol was right about that when he suggested that people may be more willing to revise the system if they understood how it worked (107), but how do you get people to look beneath the veil? Fifty-five years ago, the United States Supreme Court ruled in the landmark Brown v.Board of Education case that school segregation policies are unconstitutional. Yet despite the moral victory of the Brown decision, in the decades since 1954 we have failed to create educational equality in America. Despite countless initiatives, hundreds of billions of dollars invested in various school improvement efforts, and the passage of a federal law that mandates that no child be left behind, we continue to see gaps in educational opportunity that disproportionately impact the lives of low income communities and communities of color across the fifty states. How can this be?In the wealthiest nation on earth, that has professed its commitment to eliminating these gaps for more than half a century, how can such glaring inequities persist? While we have gone to great lengths to experiment with education reform, we have done little to address the web of related social issues that together create the conditions necessary for educational success. We have spent our time and money focusing on things like toughening standards for students, making it harder to become a licensed teacher, and holding failing schools accountable for poor performance.And while many of these reform efforts have had some generally positive impact on the quality of education our children receive, all of these reforms ig nore the fact that no matter what we do in schools, students still live their lives in communities that reflect the systemic economic, racial and environmental inequalities that our society has yet to resolve. Like a patient with pneumonia who takes larger and larger doses of cough syrup and then wonders why they’re not getting better, we find ourselves treating primarily the symptoms of educational inequality rather than the root causes.If we hope to change our educational fortune, our society will need a cure that actually attacks the problem where it exists. It is only through a structural analysis of education that we can understand how issues like housing, school funding systems, and employment interact to shape our children’s ability to succeed in school. Let’s start by looking at the issue of housing. There is perhaps no single greater factor in determining one’s educational experience than where you live.Despite the moral victory of Brown, for the average low income black and Latino student in America today, schools are only marginally less segregated than they were in 1954 and are growing more segregated every year. 1   We have replaced the system of racial segregation with a system of residential segregation. Low-income blacks and Latinos are not explicitly forbidden from attending more affluent, majority-white schools because of their race, they are forbidden from attending because they are unable to secure housing in districts where affluent, high-functioning schools exist.This system, first declared constitutional by the Supreme Court in the 1974 case Miliken v. Bradley, essentially means that middle class and wealthy white communities need only to prevent low income people and people of color from moving into their districts in order to maintain segregated schools. Even cities that have sought to voluntarily integrate schools, like Seattle and Louisville, have been thwarted by recent conservative Court rulings.    In actuality then, the great dream of integrated schools in America not only never fully materialized, what little progress had been made is being undone before our eyes. For many low income communities and communities of color, little has ever happened to disrupt what has for generations been a schooling experience defined by crumbling infrastructure, poor quality teaching, lack of resources for arts, music, athletics, and extracurricular activities, and high concentrations of poverty along with all of its destabilizing effects on the lives of children.To fully understand the structural connections between educational opportunity and housing, first we must understand how schools receive funding. The primary source of funding for most school systems is property taxes. This means wealthy districts with high property values not only have more to spend on education, they can actually tax themselves at lower rates than their less affluent counterparts and still raise more money for scho ols.Even within school districts with diverse populations, providing equal per pupil funding for schools that serve populations with dramatically different needs can result in schools that reinforce, rather than reduce, inequality. In New York City for example, where per pupil funding is constant3 in the public schools throughout the city, schools that serve students who come to school with a range of academic and social needs that are not being met at home are at a perpetual disadvantage when compared to schools that serve students from more affluent and less needy areas.The Bronx, for example, when compared to the other boroughs of New York city is notable for being home to the neighborhoods with the city’s highest concentrations of poverty, adult incarceration, unemployment, and adults who themselves have not attained a high school diploma. 4   Given these social factors, it is a virtual certainty that, on average, students from the Bronx will come to school with greater need for academic, social and emotional support than their less challenged counterparts in wealthier areas of the city.   The Bronx also has the lowest rates of home ownership in New York City, making students especially likely to change residences and schools multiple times. 4   Studies have shown this kind of mobility to be a strong indicator of low performance. 5   It is no surprise then that the Bronx has the lowest rates of students performing at grade level on standardized tests in Math and English in New York City. 4 Because of modern school segregation, low-income students not only struggle with poverty related issues at home but generally receive an inferior education at school as well.This combination creates a sense of hopelessness and the perception that the benefits of education cannot be realized among many in these communities. This leads many students to achieve below their potential and to disengage from school, leaving them with few opportunities for gainful employment or to secure housing in an area where better schools could serve their own children in the future. Together these structural forces create a self-reinforcing cycle of poverty (both economic and educational) that disproportionately impacts the lives of people of color in America.    The problems we face in closing gaps in educational opportunity and outcomes are not purely the result of inaction, or lack of effort, but rather the misunderstanding of the source of the problem. To succeed in eliminating educational inequality in this country we must begin to address the social and economic conditions in low income and minority communities. The prospect of this kind of systemic change can seem daunting, but here are three ways we can begin addressing the issue: EmploymentCreate strong incentives for businesses that locate long term, living wage, environmentally friendly employment opportunities in low income and minority communities. In cities like New York, low-income min orities often live in areas with few opportunities for gainful employment. 4   This compounds their geographic isolation, increases adult and teen unemployment, and forces parents to spend more time commuting to jobs in which they earn low wages.The presence of stable, living wage earning jobs in low income communities not only improves the economic fortunes of the area, it also provides a critical mass of role models who can reinforce for students the value of educational achievement. Health Care One of the more disastrous byproducts of poverty is many parents’ inability to support their child’s development and achievement in school. With inadequate access to physical and mental health care, vision testing, and nutritional counseling, many parents in low income and minority communities are unable to offer their children the support they need to be prepared for success in school.We would likely see greater gains in educational achievement among low income and minorit y students by investing in community support services like universal health care, school-based vision clinics, and mental health services, than we see from the billions we currently spend on No Child Left Behind reforms. 5  Ã‚   Housing Integration Simply put, we will not likely be able to achieve educational equality without a dismantling of the new class and race based separate-but-equal school system being reestablished in America.The best way to ensure school integration is through housing integration. To achieve this we need rigorous enforcement of the long neglected 1968 Fair Housing Act, which contains provisions to ensure municipalities structure housing policy in ways that don’t reinforce racial segregation. In addition, we need a comprehensive, national strategy to ensure that as affluent whites move back into city centers, and blacks and Latinos are priced out of gentrifying areas and into the suburbs, we don’t simply shift populations in still segregated schools. 1

Structured Systems Analysis and Design Spring 20 15 Deliverable 3 Essay

Structured Systems Analysis and Design Spring 20 15 Deliverable 3 - Essay Example There are three distinct types of meeting: Phone Bridge meeting Physical meeting and Defense Connect Online. First they have to get forms from a secure shared drive which they fill with the details of meetings upon which they seek approval from their immediate supervisors. On acceptance and signing he/she hands it over to department scheduler, who may approve the meeting and schedule it or may decline. Provided that requests are approved, then they carry on the meeting but when decline one start over the process. Since the system is inefficient, it is important to implement the information management system. Implementing the new meeting management system will help NHHC to improve efficiency and productivity of the employees. In addition, it will reduce frustration of the employees, as well as the cost and procedure for schedule approval. This will make meeting scheduling easy and reduce conflicts of information. The implementation of the proposed information management system shall include various stages. In the initial levels of administration shall begin with the employees, then the immediate supervisor of a departmental scheduler. The role of each of them is illustrated in figure 1. When one downloads a file form the library, he/she has it and upload it to the system. Here, they shall identify the given departmental meeting request accordingly. Then the departmental heads shall approve or reschedule the meeting. The greatest constraint on this process is training the employee how to use the system in an effective and efficient way. At the same time they may be complacent and conservative. Coupled with the changes, the policy must be changed to take into account of changes of paper work systems to dynamic online process. The new scheduling management system will require new software, building a new management system and training the employees how to use the system. The

Juvenile Justice System Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Juvenile Justice System - Essay Example The most important facet of all this is the "best interest of the child" theory that guided the courts lingers in the purpose clauses of juvenile codes throughout the world.4 However, it seems to have failed to address the concerns raised by victims or communities about the juvenile justice system. The therapeutic intervention and punishment models of justice also appear to be incomplete. If these two models coexist in a jurisdiction, they are in constant conflict. However, if either one of these exists by itself, it fails to serve all stakeholders in the system. There are further studies according to the framers of the code that is the balanced consideration of community protection, offender accountability and competency development. This could bring clarity and reason to juvenile system issues. Through this comprehensive philosophy it will deal with every aspect of delinquency, punishment, treatment and prevention. With the concept of these three principles, if fully implemented, it could create a juvenile system that truly operates in the best interest of the child and the community.5 In all the instances when a dual or multi-diagnosis of several problems result, experts recommend that sources of treatment if not available at the moment, should be developed and reflect the developmental needs of juveniles in conflict with the law and are not merely replications of service delivery systems originally designed for adults. According to the recommendations of specialists, useful interventions for juveniles must ensure a close match between risk of re-offending, nature, level, duration of intervention. They must employ practitioners whose teaching approaches correspond to the learning capacities of children and use material tailored for a certain juvenile. It must be community-based and closely connected to the youth's home environment than like an institution. A drawn range of methods must be developed to cover anger management, social skills training and problem solving.6 Furthermore, many practitioners suggest that a continuum of care and a set of protocols must be established to determine who will provide services to the youth. There must be a case manager whose selection will be based

Gender Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Gender - Term Paper Example Attfield (2000) says understanding culture through the emotions or ideas of objects â€Å"acknowledges the physical object in all its materiality and encompasses the work of design, making, distributing, consuming, using, discarding, recycling and so on. But above all it focuses on how things have gone through all those stages as part of the mediation process between people and the physical world at different stages in their biographies† (1-7). Thus, it is clear that objects can have multiple meanings. How these elements function together to appeal to the audience’s personal sense of function and appearance is what is referred to as aesthetics. This term is most often used in the art world to designate important works of art. Through the concept of aesthetics, artists such as Robert Maplethorpe explore concepts such as gender in works like the photographic print â€Å"Smutty† exhibited in the Tate Collection. Aesthetics is a very subjective subject as it depends not only on what the artist portrays, but also on what he intended to portray and what the audience brings to the dialogue. John Armstrong (2004) says aesthetics is the process that â€Å"enables one person to find beauty in an object which leaves another unmoved† (4). â€Å"Smutty† by Robert Maplethorpe was produced in 1980 as part of the artist’s collection of somewhat controversial images. The image consists of a half dressed man seated or perhaps squatting down to the ground and looking directly into the camera, but his head is tilted somewhat away from it. The man is a very lean person perhaps in his upper teens or early 20s and the upper portion of his body is bare. If it weren’t, the man might be mistaken as a woman. Both of the man’s arms are covered with tattoos and his style of clothing, what can be seen of it, is much like that of a punk rocker, which was popular in that era. The pant s he wears are black enough that they lose their dimension at the bottom edge of the picture. His

Waste to Energy Industry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4500 words

Waste to Energy Industry - Essay Example A common method of converting household waste is to convert the products into gases which is then used as the catalyst for the production of electrical energy (Khoo, 2009). One of the main benefits of using this technology is that there is an after-effect after the conversion of the waste has been completed, allowing for various chemical manufacture or as an additive to livestock feed (Khoo). This gasification process is also known generate much less air pollution and industrial residues, therefore from a community perspective, another main benefit is that it is a cleaner method of disposing of household waste. Plasma is often used in this process and seems to be a more efficient method of converting household waste. Plasmas are â€Å"gases that have been heated to the point of ionization—meaning they are composed of charged particles such as electrons that can conduct electricity and generate tremendous amounts of heat† (Ebert, 2007, para. 2). These plasmas can melt various metals and convert chemicals through the intense heat and electricity being generated by these technological breakthroughs. Food waste, from homes and various businesses, can also be disposed of efficiently. This is quite important as in countries like the United Kingdom, food waste makes up an entire one-third of total household rubbish (Bream, 2007). In this country, where land mass does not allow for ongoing landfill use for food waste products, there is a major benefit as it essentially allows the land to be utilized for other, more community-focused projects. The speed at which the conversion process of this household waste occurs would also seem to be a superior advantage of the technology, as this process can even change the composition of metals, plastics and chemicals in order to provide efficient energy sources. In a landfill, the process of decomposition of these