The Model Minority Myth and the American Dream Research Paper

The Model Minority Myth and the American Dream - Research Paper Example He, Arnold, has physical challenges that make other kids at school call him names such as retard, the globe and others. Relating these challenges to the American Dream it is true to say that Americans will never realize their dream. United States has a national ethos whereby freedom is the main component of opportunity that leads to success as well as prosperity. According to the American Dream, life is richer, fuller, and better for all people. Everyone has an opportunity with regard to ability or achievements. In this case, life status is regardless of birthplace or social circumstances of any American person. The American declaration of Independence also proclaims that all men are equal. With relation to Alexei’s novel, America will never realize its dream because of things like poverty that demeans what can lead to realizing its dream (Palecek 45). Americans face perturbing challenges that end up rendering their dream a myth because of the huge gap between the wealthy and poor. As described in the novel, many reserved families in America are languishing in immense poverty. They cannot afford to cover for minute medical expenses. This is evident in that, Arnold’s father had to kill his adopted dog after suffering form intensive heat exhaustion and could not cater for his medication due to poverty. America cannot realize its dream due to the fact that, if its founding fathers failed to match up to the expectations of the national ethos it is impossible for America to achieve its goals regarding its dream. As elaborated in the novel, great success based on dreams does not just pop up from nowhere. Foundation acts as a stepping-stone for the other generations within the same line of family. Lands and businesses that exist within families run and develop down the stream through experimental learning. According to Alexei’s description of Arnold’s family, it is clear that they are poor and for them to change that they not only need to w ork hard, but also a miracle. It is astonishing about USA persons they fail to comprehend that family is the founding stone of a nation and it is the protector of vagaries and fate. These two ideas intersect in the manner that, both their founding fathers did not establish a strong foundation suitable for sustainability and growth of that family hence attaining success is beyond their reach. According to the novel, the parents of Arnold were not free since they were alcoholics. Besides that, his sister was a hermit and due to the Arnold’s family affliction and loss of morality, they continued to languish in extreme poverty. His father was abusive and used to beat Arnold leaving him with bruises. Just as Arnold went through many tribulations, Americans are also facing the same situation as they are having a huge debt record and the level of unemployment is alarming. (Katz & Lang 146)Activities revolving around America are acting as an obstacle towards a stable environment suit able for planning on American goals and objectives. Therefore, realizing the American Dream is far from becoming the central pillar of the American story since it is falling apart. As the novel depicts, Arnold’s father did not support him fully in terms of getting education. He sends him to a rez school within his Spokane Indian Reservation despite his health status. May be he did not see his son with the ability to study and change their living situation. The same case is applying

Relationships in Second Life Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Relationships in Second Life - Essay Example The user has to make an account for his avatar, that is has to register, and after that these virtual worlds are accessible to them all year round at every time of the day (Heider, 47). Building up of relationships is an extremely important part of second life. Relationships can be personal or for business purposes. Relationships like in the real world are built on respect and trust in the virtual world also together with compatibility with each other. The virtual world relationships work well same as real life relationships (Mahar 164). The relationships which are connected with the virtual Second Life are like real relationships. There have been many instances where these virtual relationships have had a positive impact on people leading to success in the real life also. For example, Nina Allam was married to Sean Barbary in the second life. They had even created a virtual island for themselves to live. Allam decided to meet her Second Life partner Sean in the real life. She had be en chatting with him since February 2008 and was about to meet him in personal. The CNN article reports her emotions as anxious and terrified before meeting her virtual life partner. At one instance, she began talking to herself and thought that she could still get off the train which was heading towards the destination where her virtual partner lived. Second life is more than a virtual world as people are connected together through various relationships, like virtual marriages. In the real world, both Allam and Sean live in England. Before they first met in real, they spoke with each other on the phone and via the webcam. After meeting in personal, CNN reports that both of them have real feelings for each other. Both got married in real life and continue to live together. (CNN iReport). Sharon and Nigel also met on Second Life. They share a home in this virtual worls. CNN reports that Feebe Fearne (Sharon's Second Life avatar name) got along instantly with Nijel Charles (Nigel's av atar name) as soon as they met with each other in the virtual world of Second Life in February 2008. It was soon that they started spending a lot of time together on second life because of their compatibility. They first met in person in May 2008. In real life they only lived 80 miles far from each other. They finally got married. Paradoxically, they still want to continue with their Second Life wedding along with their real life wedding (CNN iReport). There have been many instances where various real life weddings have been encountered as a result of a second life relationship. Sharon and Nigel continue to live both their lives simultaneously as they think that it was second life which bought them together in the real life. The above examples of couples who met through second life prove that it has had a positive consequence leading to real life marriages and hence a positive impact on their real life. Second life has to do more than just impacting the real life emotions concerned with living together. For example, by selecting an avatar of opposite gender, one may experience the attitudes and emotions in the real world. Certain activities in Second Life such as team work can teach different users to work effectively which they might find difficult in the real world. Second Life is a virtual world after all and therefore the way users behave in it has little to do with real life behavior sometimes.

School Building Planning And Construction Physical Education Essay

School Building Planning And Construction Physical Education Essay School buildings are an integral part in the formal education of the student. They are to be designed and constructed in such a way that will enhance the potential of each student and boost the learning process. There are many considerations when designing and building a school. Some of these include: Accessibility Schools buildings must be designed in such a way that will provide equal access to all. It must also be designed to be flexible to increase the probability of being able to provide equal access throughout the life-cycle of the facilities. Aesthetics Focusing on the physical appearance of the school must not be neglected. The school building must be attractive and pleasing to the eye, with a similar context of the neighborhood, in order to develop a sense of ownership and pride among the members of the community, most especially to the teachers/staff and students of the school. In addition, there should be a clear balance between the exterior features of the school and the neighborhood, reflecting the values of the community, while the interior features should develop the learning process. Cost-effectiveness Being cost-effective does not mean that the quality of the school building will be compromised, rather, being cost-effective means that the school should use facilities that can save money over time by balancing the design and constructions costs with the costs of maintaining and operating the facility. Functionality The school must be able to give a high quality formal education to its students as it has promised by creating a learning environment that will enhance and speedup the learning process. Productivity A productive school must be able to provide the students and teachers a comfortable, safe and healthy environment in order to achieve maximum potential. Security A safe and secure school building has always been and is still the most important goal of project managers, engineers and architects. A safe and secure school building must have a fire protection system, must consider the safety and health of its occupants and visitors, must be able to resist natural hazards, and must be able to effectively secure the assets of the school (material assets and human assets occupants and visitors). Sustainability With all the talk on global warming and climate change, the concern for the environment has grown tremendously. Considering that every activity has a direct and indirect impact on the environment, school building construction and operations are not exempt from impacting the environment as it uses raw materials and water and energy resources, and in turn, produces solid and liquid waste and gas emissions. A sustainable school must optimize site potential, energy use and operational and maintenance practices, use environment-friendly products and materials, conserve water and enhance environmental quality within the school building. Community-Centered As a community-centered school, it must be able to serve the community as a whole. Considering all the elements of a school building stated above, this paper will provide a comprehensive planning and design of a school. The school designed and planned in this paper will cater secondary students, which will generally include grades 9 to 12. The total number of students will be approximately 250 to 300 students. Essential Spaces Needed The following are the different spaces that will constitute the school building. Each of it will be discussed in the following section. The Administration Unit The administration unit is particularly important in any type of school as it provides a specific hub for its staff, as well as an area for interaction between the staff, students and parents. The schools administration unit will be located at the main entrance of the school, which is directly accessible to the public and may be accessed after school hours and on weekends. The administration unit will include private offices for the schools principal and assistant principal and open offices for its clerks, a lobby with a visitors waiting area, a small conference room for meetings and small conferences and a faculty room for teachers. The lobby will have writing and seating surfaces used for completing forms and notes. The faculty room will have enough space for administrative activities such as photocopying, assembling and fastening documents needed for their classes. The administration unit will also have spaces for storage of their office supplies, equipments (i.e. computers, print ers, scanners, copiers, telephones, etc.), LAN central location, and mail boxes. This unit will also provide adult restrooms for the employees and its visitors. Lounge for Faculty and Staff This space will be especially designed for the teachers and staff of the school for relaxation, small informal meetings with other teachers and staff, and dining. The lounge will be located near the administration unit. Health Services Unit Located next to the administration unit, the health services unit will provide health services to the students and employees of the school. It should be noted that information taken from the health services unit are private and confidential, and so, the students health records and information will be properly stored and will only be disclosed to appropriate people such as the schools administrators, their teachers and counselors and healthcare aides. The health services unit will include a cot room, an examination area for visiting doctors and other healthcare professionals, a nurses desk, a ten-foot long eye examination lane, a first aid space, patients waiting area and a private storage for medical supplies, equipments and medications. Counseling and Attendance Unit The counseling and attendance unit will serve as an area for guidance and counseling programs and a service center for students arranging their enrolment and transfers, as well as an area for the maintenance of students attendance records and files. Sometimes joined together with the administration unit and located next to the main entrance, the counseling area where counselors administer psychological examinations, discuss exam results and problems with the students and their parents, and keep records and files of each student. This unit will include private offices for the counselors with a working space, guest seating and computer workstation, interview and testing areas, and a waiting area for guests. General Classrooms Probably the central element of any school, the classrooms will be designed for approximately 25 to 30 students per class. There will be a total of ten classrooms in this school with approximately 960 square feet each. The classrooms will be laid out in linear form accessed by internal corridors. They will be situated somewhere that is easily accessible to other essential areas critical for their studies such as the library or media center, PE facilities, administration and health services unit, cafeteria and restrooms. Science Classrooms Science classrooms, which are critical for learning practical applications of scientific theories, will be designed with approximately 1,300 square feet. Situated away from the other rooms, the science classrooms will have ample working spaces for fixed learning stations to perform their laboratory experiments and for lectures. The classroom will have a separate preparation room, which may be directly accessed from the science classroom. This separate preparation room will serve as a space for preparing and storing of supplies and equipments Physical Education Facilities/Gymnasium Physical education, intended to develop the physical and social skills of the students, need a gymnasium for its activities (i.e. individual/team sports, body mechanics, rhythmic lessons, health, safety and first aid sessions). The gymnasium will be approximately 7,500 square feet and will include sports areas, team rooms, showers and lockers. Other essential spaces will be for the lobby, ticket booth, press area, snack bar and laundry areas. The gymnasium will also have private offices for P.E. teachers and team coaches, usually in parallel sight to locker rooms, and public toilets, separate from the shower and locker areas. Situated adjacent to play fields, the gymnasium may be directly accessed by the public for community usage and after school hours. It will have a distinct entrance/exit gates for absolute control of events and will be fully secured from other areas of the school to avoid intrusion of other school spaces during weekend and evening events. Library and Media Center The school library and media center, designed to cater the augmentation of the instructional needs of the students, will be located at the heart of the academic spaces of the school, easily accessed by the students from their classrooms and by the public for community use and after school hours. Similar to the gymnasium, the library and media center will be properly secured from other areas of the school to avoid intrusion of other school spaces during weekend and evening events. This area will be designed to be visually appealing and pleasing to the students to encourage the development of positive attitudes towards researching, reading, studying and learning. This area will include computer stations for student usage (i.e. research/report writing), spaces for multimedia presentations, private office space for librarian and open workrooms for its staff. The library and media center will be fully equipped with technological equipments such as electrical outlets, data network connecti ons, open and closed circuit televisions, and phone extensions. Because the library and media center contains state-of-the-art media facilities and technology, as well as special collections of books and journals, the library and media center will be properly secured with visual supervision from the circulation desk to student work areas, stack space and study spaces and book-theft detection system located at exit points. Special book collections and media and technological equipments will also have a proper secure storage space, wherein students must ask for assistance from staff when they intend to use such books and equipments. Food Services Unit The food services unit will include the kitchen, cafeteria, lunch center and outdoor eating spaces. The kitchen is situated wherein it is directly accessible to the cafeteria and service and delivery vehicles, but is separated from the academic areas of the school. The kitchen will have a food preparation area, a serving area, an office, a changing area, locker rooms and restrooms for the staff, janitor/custodian room (for food services unit only) and storage rooms (walk-in freezer/refrigerator). The kitchen will have serving windows, stainless steel sinks and work surfaces, stainless steel counter tops for its serving areas, a dish shelf, an exhaust air system and a wet chemical fire extinguishing system. The cafeteria will be located where it is directly accessible from the kitchen and to the lunch shelter and restrooms. There will be sufficient space for the waiting line in the cafeteria, with specific orientations in providing a smooth traffic flow. There will be covered sun and rain protection at the waiting line, food serving area and to the lunch shelter. Expecting to have plenty of trash from the cafeteria, there will be sufficient trash and recycling containers throughout the cafeteria and with an adjacent storage room for cleaning supplies. The lunch shelter, while easily accessible to the cafeteria, will also be easily accessible to outdoor eating spaces. It will be designed in such a way that it can provide shelter from sun and rain, but with an open and airy atmosphere. The lunch shelter will have at least two drinking fountains within the vicinity. Lastly, the outdoor eating spaces, which will supplement the schools cafeteria and lunch shelter, will have tables and chairs and some benches. It will be designed in such a way that there is minimal heat reflection and glare, perhaps offering some shade to protect the students from the sun. Restrooms There will be separate restrooms for students and employees of the school. Restrooms for students will be located within 200 feet of all classrooms, while restrooms for the employees will be located near their workstations, also within 200 feet or less. Aside from this, restrooms will also be found in the different areas of the school to cater the occupants of the schools different units mentioned such as the administrative unit, health services unit, library and media center, gymnasium, cafeteria, eating spaces, etc. Drinking Fountains Similar to restrooms, drinking fountains will also be located in the different areas of the school to cater the occupants of the schools different units and other public areas where students will gather together. They may be placed next to the student restroom entries and eating spaces and inside and outside the gymnasium and other P.E. facilities. The drinking fountains will not be made of stainless steel, especially those that are subjected to direct sunlight, to avoid heat upsurge inside the unit. Lockers There will be two types of lockers: books lockers and P.E. lockers. Each student will have one book locker, located in locker recesses in covered walks or in corridors. P.E. lockers will be separately provided for male and female students and P.E. teachers. The lockers will be extremely visible for easy supervision. They will have built-in combination locks, with a master-key for emergency purposes. Public Payphones There will be public payphones located within the schools vicinity in an accessible route in compliance with the accessibility requirements. Other Considerations Aside from the essential spaces provided, there are other considerations in the planning of the school building that will be discussed in this section in order to achieve maximum learning processes. Comfort (Acoustic/Thermal and Visual Comfort) To enhance the learning processes of the students, their comfort will be given priority. The noise levels of the school will be kept at minimum. These include noises from outside the school (i.e. noise from vehicles, aircrafts, etc.), corridors (i.e. conversations and foot traffic), other classrooms, mechanical equipments, and even noise from inside the classrooms. The school will also take note on the thermal comfort of the students and the teachers as it significantly affects their performances. The school will have independent controls in all classrooms to oversee and easily manage the temperature to facilitate the changes in activities, occupancy levels and personal preferences. Visual comfort will also be given consideration in designing the school. With students occupied with a lot of visual tasks in school (i.e. reading and writing), the school will provide a balance combination of natural and artificial lighting systems. The school will also use pastel colors for the walls. Daylighting Modern schools use as much natural daylight as possible, since it provides the best quality source of light for visual tasks. Daylight enhances the appearance and color of the objects, while at the same time research has shown that the proper use of daylight also enhances the performance of the students. Furthermore, the use of daylight as a light source in the school also gives the school much cost-savings from electrical lighting. The school will optimize the use of daylighting, by using daylight in the classrooms and some offices within building, while at the same time, avoiding heat gain, heat loss and glare from the sun. Safety and Security The school will be safe and secured at all times by having a controlled access to the school premises. A secure fence will be built to control access to school grounds. Entrance and exit points will be limited and provided with security guards, with visual surveillance. High-risk spaces will be protected by high security locks. The design of the school will be in such a way that is easily surveyed minimizing spaces hidden from sight, proper lighting outside the school to assist easy surveillance during nighttime and key public areas such as parking areas, drop-off points and entrance/exit points are easily visible from inside the building. Building Materials As part of the sustainability aim of the school, the materials used for construction will be significantly considered. The school will use materials that are durable, but at the same time non-toxic, highly recyclable and made more on recycled materials. HVAC System The HVAC system, which includes the heating, ventilating and air conditioning system of the school, is very important in providing a comfortable and healthy environment for the students, teachers, administrators and visitors. The schools HVAC system will utilize a highly efficient equipment, appropriately sized for the demands of the school and comprise controls that will enhance the performance of the HVAC system. Building Envelope The building envelope, which includes the roofs, windows, floors and walls of the school building, is critical in improve energy efficiency. The school will use an energy efficient building envelope that will put together and optimize the levels of insulation, shading, thermal mass, glazing and air leakage control through the use of shading devices, light colored surfaces and high performance glazing. Flexibility and Adaptability Accepting that nothing is constant except change, the school will be designed in order to cater flexibility and adaptability. The school will use flexible stations for equipment, easily movable and transferred to another area in case of modifications of the area. The different units within the school will be designed to give way to changes in furniture layouts and functions. Resources Used: LA Unified School District. (2010, January). School Design Guide. Retrieved March 25, 2010, from http://www.laschools.org/employee/design/fs-design-guide/download/2010/LAUSD_School_Design_Guide_2010_Version.pdf?version_id=84218872 National Institute of Building Sciences. (2010). Retrieved March 25, 2010, from Whole Building Design Guide: http://www.wbdg.org/ New Jersey Schools Construction Corporation. (2007, May 15). 21st Century Schools Design Manual. Retrieved March 25, 2010, from http://www.njsda.gov/Business/Doc_Form/PDFsForms/DM.pdf

How effective is Harper Lees title of To Kill a Mockingbird? :: English Literature

How effective is Harper Lee's title of To Kill a Mockingbird? '" Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird." That was the only time I ever heard Atticus say it was a sin to do something, and I asked Miss Maudie about it. "Your father's right," she said. "Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people/s gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."' (p. 96) From the above quote we learn that a mockingbird gives only pleasure to people. It does not harm anyone, or destroy people's gardens, like other birds might do. The book can be said to contain 'human mockingbirds' who, each in their own way, are persecuted or treated badly through no fault of their own. Probably the two main and most obvious mockingbirds in the novel are Boo Radley and Tom Robinson. These two characters very much contrast each other, but the way they are treated by other persons in the book gives them a mutual bond. Both of these characters had to pay for their actions with their lives - Boo Radley being deprived of friendship and the outside world by his own family, and Tom Radley being convicted of a crime he did not commit, which ultimately lead to his death. Boo Radley, otherwise known as Arthur Radley, is described by Jem as a monster-type figure: "Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that's why his hands were blood-stained - if you ate an animal raw, you could never wash the blood off. There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten; his eyes popped, and he drooled most of the time." (p.19) We know that this is not what Boo Radley really looks like, and Jem is giving this description to Scout so as to tease her. Being as young as she is, she believes this portrayal of Boo. However, though Jem is only having a laugh, this shows us what sort of image of Boo the children grew up with. The title could be connected with this because the children are mocking Boo's life and making fun of it. I also think that the following words from Jem are important: '" I think I'm beginning to understand why Boo Radley's stayed shut up in

The Last Castle

The movie â€Å"The Last Castle† provides examples of good leadership and bad leadership. Colonel Winter, the warden of a military is the example of bad leadership, while General Irwin, a prisoner at Winter’s prison is an example of good leadership. The film illustrates that a leader does not have to have a technical leadership position to gain followers, and how two leaders who have differing viewpoints on leadership cannot exist in the same space without conflict. Henri Nouwen, in his book on leadership â€Å"In the Name of Jesus,† says â€Å"power offers an easy substitute for the hard task of love†¦easier to control people than love people. In â€Å"The Last Castle,† we see the contrast of Irwin’s and Winter’s leadership styles in regards to the prisoners. Winter constantly reads the inmates files about the crimes they committed in order to remind himself that they are capable of violence and so he will not ever feel compassion for them. He is hard-nosed and takes no interest into their personal feelings, and he refuses to ever recognize how they could change over time. Irwin, on the other hand, chooses to ignore the inmates’ pasts and focuses on who they are in the present. He recognizes that no matter what they have done, they have a good side as well. In addition, Irwin treats the inmates as men, instead of treating them like stupid children. In the film, Irwin takes interest in a prisoner named Aguilar. Aguilar is not well liked because he is Hispanic. In addition, he has a speech impediment so others think he is dumb. He has no confidence but when Irwin starts treating him like a soldier, and not like a worthless man, he gains his confidence. Irwin recognizes that Aguilar is smart and knows masonry so he puts Aguilar in charge of building the wall. Since Irwin treated Aguilar like a man and a soldier, Aguilar gained confidence and was able to himself become the leader of the wall-building project. In building the wall, the prisoners were building themselves a figurative castle to protect themselves from the unfair practices of Winter. Irwin inspires the men to build the wall to be something that is their own. Irwin suggests that they all work together in order to build a better, stronger wall. Building the wall was something the prisoners did on their own, without the directive of the warden.

Naomi Klein Essay

Naomi Klein’s comparison between Rachel Corrie and Jessica Lynch, particularly the attention she pays to the story of Corrie, illustrate the broad, almost invisible borders that defined Corrie’s conception of political and feminist solidarity. As Theresa Saliba highlights in her essay, Corrie was not merely determined to align herself politically, socially, or based upon her gender but instead sought to reach across all lines of Palestinian society to peacefully stand against the oppression of the Israeli government. Despite her status as an American, Corrie had realized an almost unknown status of human solidarity that had little to do with religion, gender, or nation. However, Corrie did not neglect the needs of the Palestinian women she encountered. Instead, she brought the same notion of political solidarity to her work with the women of Gaza. It is that overlapping of nuances, both political and gender-related, that underline the arguments of not only Corrie’s actions as described by Klein or Saliba’s defense of Corrie but the concept of feminist solidarity throughout the Arab world. Kim Berry’s examination of the misuse and abuse of the Bush Administration’s so-called defense of women’s rights, examines how important the perception of women has become in the â€Å"war-on-terror† but more importantly how such rhetoric can actually undermine these same rights. It creates a politically appealing picture for the public, to illustrate the evils of the Taliban but fails to engage the Afghan women themselves. Similarly, such posturing does little to economically or socially improve the lives of Afghan woman, as noted in the Feminist Majority Foundation’s press release on the need for more funding for the establishment of women’s rights. In the present climate, both abroad and in the U. S. , as shown in Mervat Hatem’s examination of Arab-American relations, feminist solidarity becomes part of a larger construct of human rights.