...February 4th, 2014 Dear Mrs.Smith, At the beginning of the first semester, I had some problems with adapting to wearing a uniform at school. Although the uniform does symbolize many positive things such as respect, discipline, unity, etc., there were quite a few problems of many sorts with donning it. Some students see that everyone having to wear the same uniform is ideal, because they don't have to waste time in their mornings choosing the right clothes to meet society's social expectations and judgments. I see uniforms as a problem because I don't choose my day-to-day clothing based on looks, but based on convenience and comfort. I was in fact used to picking the nearest clean set of clothing to school. In particular I found the dress pants to be rather uncomfortable, not to mention how there was only one store where we could purchase the uniform. That being said, uniform issues were in a small corner of my mind compared to fears I had about high school. Due to many sources of various sorts, I had many different views of how my high school life could turn out. I also have a tendency to visualize many out-of -the-ordinary scenarios in my free time, so my fears piled up over my summer break. To this day I still remember my mother lecturing me during the break on how high-school is filled with bad people; This was mostly related to drug use. Although I must admit, she was somewhat correct. Behind the school I would see a group of people smoking...
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...Education as Conservative and Progressive Chapter 6 of Democracy and Education by John Dewey 1. Education as Formation. We now come to a type of theory which denies the existence of faculties and emphasizes the unique role of subject matter in the development of mental and moral disposition. According to it, education is neither a process of unfolding from within nor is it a training of faculties resident in mind itself. It is rather the formation of mind by setting up certain associations or connections of content by means of a subject matter presented from without. Education proceeds by instruction taken in a strictly literal sense, a building into the mind from without. That education is formative of mind is not questioned; it is the conception already propounded. But formation here has a technical meaning dependent upon the idea of something operating from without. Herbart is the best historical representative of this type of theory. He denies absolutely the existence of innate faculties. The mind is simply endowed with the power of producing various qualities in reaction to the various realities which act upon it. These qualitatively different reactions are called presentations (Vorstellungen). Every presentation once called into being persists; it may be driven below the "threshold" of consciousness by new and stronger presentations, produced by the reaction of the soul to new material, but its activity continues by its own inherent momentum, below the surface of consciousness...
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...and the film ‘Stand by me’ written by Rob Reiner. These texts present the fact that relationships with people assist one’s journey of going into the World, people deal with obstacles differently and maturity brings great rewards. J.C.Burke uses descriptive language, dialogue, metaphors and idiomatic first person narration. Going into the World can be a difficult and a daunting time which everyone can find hard to overcome. Going into the world can be defined as growing up when you may or may not be ready. Individuals venturing into the world will experience obstacles but with maturity and relationships the individual can gain significant rewards. This is clearly shown in the two following texts. Going into the World can be a difficult and a daunting time which everyone can find hard to overcome. Going into the world can be defined as growing up when you may or may not be ready. Individuals venturing into the world will experience obstacles but with maturity and relationships the individual can gain significant rewards. This is clearly shown in the two following texts. Going into the World is unavoidable and must be done at some stage in a life. It can be difficult and everyone deals with it differently. ‘The Story of Tom Brennan’ written by J.C Burke and the film ‘Stand by me’ written by Rob Reiner all show that relationships with people assist one’s journey of going into the World, people deal with obstacles differently and...
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...would give me a low result. I thought wrong. The results of the peer feedback did not upset me or make me angry. I didn’t mind at all getting feedback from my peers. As a reservist and having that civilian job gave me the experience on how to accept feedback from my peers, coworkers, and supervisors. Having worked for almost 24 years I understand how to soak it up like a sponge and then applying it to myself, subordinates, or future subordinates. I didn’t think my strength and weaknesses were different from the way my peers perceived me. My strengths and weaknesses define who I am. My strengths help me become a better person and my weaknesses keep me fighting to be that better person. Recognizing my own personal strengths, I am able to build on them and use them towards my advantage. I believe these attributes make you who you are and show your true abilities as a person. We all have strengths and weaknesses, and they differ from one person to another. What I learned from my peers about myself is that they see me as being an older brother. I was willing to give my peers some advice based on some of my past experiences. That been there done that type of person. Will this affect my future behavior? For me it won’t. With my past experience knowing how to handle certain situations and how to improve on it. In the future, I plan to be a little bit more professional to give guidance,...
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...Alex Pond Phil 4010 Dec. 2, 2014 On the Shallowness of the No Regret Condition I would disbelieve the person who claimed to have never experienced regret. There are so many triggers for this emotion that to have completely avoided it, one may question the authenticity of the social existence of the agent that has managed this avoidance. Bratman initially proposes the no regret condition in an attempt to explain how rational agents may stick to prior plans in the face of a temporary preference reversal. I will argue in this paper that in doing so he makes a positive contribution to practical reasoning theory, but his defense of the condition is contradictory, and highlights underlying commitments he has made regarding what we are ontologically that I believe to be misguided. The working example is that Chrisoula desires to work on a paper, which is to be published, tonight after dinner. During dinner she enjoys a glass of wine, and after she has finished that glass, she genuinely desires another. Knowing fully well that having consumed two glasses of wine, her cognitive and articulative abilities will be noticeably impaired; these two evaluative rankings are mutually exclusive (insofar as Chrisoula values the quality of her work). What should she do? There is a sense that, in their immediacy, evaluative rankings hold equal sway in the decision making process of the decider. The desire Chrisoula had, before dinner, to work on her paper, was equally as strong as her desire...
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...help encourage them to reach toward their future accomplishments. The two minds that we have tend to not compromise with each other on what decision to make so we battle with ourselves giving in to temptation. Any progress to our goal is successful as long as we keep up with our perseverance and keep following the right path to a happy future. Receiving guidance and encouragement to motivate a person will make them feel like they have a back bone there for support. We should not remember our simple mistakes but to demolish them with a new encounterment if it occurs. Making wise decisions so our future selves won't receive the consequences and responsibilities. Self forgiveness is the key to guide us to let go of the guilty setbacks from the past and the underestimation of the present and future. The process to any ambition takes dedication and commitment to complete its journey. Anyone can have the same intention but I think that everyone has different boundaries when it comes to actually going through the course. Some may however find the task to be quite simple and some may not. The author mentioned a quote saying that “you can't be trusted to anything you say you will” (147). To be honest I would say “I will do this” or “I want to do that” but when you...
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...My Past, Present, and Future PSY 202 My past was my future, and both were full of doubt and unwillingness to continue my education after I graduated from high school. After high school, three individuals impacted my life and changed my views on family, life, and education. Several years passed with me working a steady job until I found myself almost unemployed and needing the education I had not pursued. This resulted in my decision to join the Army to support my financial needs. I felt satisfied with my employment, until I decided to have a family of my own and with this expansion; I knew I had to further my education to meet the requirements to excel in my career. These life experiences changed my views on family, life, and education. Unfortunately, I was always unbalanced and unable to meet the educational needs that needed to be settled in my life. The three individuals that have influenced my life, and who have helped me become the person that I am today are my father, my uncle, and my wife. Their influence has greatly affected who I am and who I want to be. Urie Bronfenbrenner stated, “Ecological theory proposes that human development is best explained in terms of the interaction between individuals and the environments in which they live or have lived” (Witt & Mossler, 2010, p. 53). My father was a big influence, directing me to conduct myself as a man should. He instilled morals, beliefs, and responsibilities that helped me to look for the good in everyone...
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...more about it. Then, I tried to focus and calm my mind on the second trial of meditation. The noise of air conditioner was not as apparent as it was in the first time. When I opened my eyes again after the second trial, I felt like my mind was calmer and some of my stress was released. It was a special experience for me as I could try a complete new thing during the tutorial lesson. Actually, it is of great importance for us to know exactly what we are doing in the moment. It is because we can avoid wasting our time and life in doing some meaningless things. Meditation can help us to stay focus on what we are doing in the moment and know more about our goals. Monkey mind, which means an unsettled and uncontrollable mind, is always the stumbling block for gaining a clear and sharp mind. Hence, by meditating, we can avoid getting a monkey mind as our mind is calmed and concentrated during the process of meditation. Usually, people will think about their future, i.e. the deadlines of their projects, and their past, i.e. past exam results. However, seldom do they concern about the work they are doing at present. For instance, some people may be stuck in their unsatisfied past exam results for a very long time. During that period of time, they would just be upset but doing nothing. However, it is meaningless. If...
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...We would be nothing without the experiences that form us. Both the good and the bad etch themselves into how we see and feel the world. If we are lucky, work hard and learn our lessons then, hopefully, the good outweigh the bad. We learn that the world is an exciting but also a dangerous place. Certainly most of us have had our fingers burnt at some time or another. That is, bad things have happened to us during our lives. They range from the physical scars we bear from cuts, breaks, illnesses and diseases that strike us down sometimes without warning. They are the accidents from simply falling over or from going head to head with a car. They are the psychological scars from tragedies such as bereavement or divorce. We often say that given time, we will recover. We will get better. Things will improve. Time, we say is a great healer. Time itself though if we think about it, is indifferent to our various crises and celebrations. Time, we seem to have universally agreed is a unit measuring the distance between two events. The hours, weeks, months and years themselves do not do anything. It is how we fill our time that makes it productive, or wastes it. Different people in the same period of time will do very different things. One might write a masterpiece, another might embroider a quilt. One might do nothing but watch TV. The same amount of time has passed but with very different results. It is up to us to give the time value and meaning. When we suffer an injury, we know that...
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...allows us to understand how dynamics between social groups have developed over time, and this understanding can also be useful in the application of public policy (Perlman, Hunter, & Stewart, 2015). However, just because a historical event or social movement may transform policy, it doesn’t necessarily shift individual attitudes. Perpetrators and victims of historical injustice often view events differently because they have different incentives for acknowledging the past. People who benefit from inequality tend to distance themselves and blame the victims, while the victims attempt to preserve memories of past atrocities (Perlman et al., 2015)....
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...Taylor Sadlowski Professor Swinney WR 240 24 January 2012 Word Count: 604 Reflection: Looking Into the Past Through Present Eyes The past is not something that can easily be erased from the memory or relived to satisfy an ulterior outcome. Instead it is revisited by those who choose to reminisce in a precedent experience from which they feel brings a sense of happiness, sadness, or other feeling. In E.B White’s memoir, “Once More to the Lake” he captures the essence of looking back at the past after a visit with his son to a lake that he went to as a young boy. As he tells his story, the words create a vivid picture through his adult perspective and the perspective of his little boy. He recalls the pristine color of the lake, the smells that seemed to remain stagnant in the woods, and the way everything seemed to look the same. Throughout the memoir, White not only establishes himself as a father taking his boy on a vacation but also as a young boy reliving his childhood experience. It is through detailed explanations of the scenery, the reminiscence of once lived memories, and current conditions of the lake that make White seem like he is living in a dual existence. “I seemed to be living in a dual existence. I would be in the middle of some simple act, I would be picking up a bait box or laying down a table fork, or I would be saying something, and suddenly it would be not I but my father …” (White p. 4). White summarizes his memoir with this one sentence by...
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...an important role when interpreting the substantial themes and symbols in the short story. First of all, the story begins with Sarah, the protagonist, playing with her brother and friends. They’re acting the history of the beheading of the second wife of King Henry VIII of England. The king had six wives, which constituted a rhyme to remember their fates. Lady Anne Boleyn, his second wife, was beheaded. The title can indicate the fate of the protagonist in Robin Black’s story. When her brother Terry’s ill, she’s felling separated from him, hence divorced. He dies and this symbolizes the “beheading” of Terry. The last destiny in the rhyme is survival, of this, she will survive. Even though she experiences the “divorce” and “beheading”, she will survive, and it’s not until she experiences the death of a friend of her son and she shares her inner pain with him, the feeling of survival takes part in her body. Sarah is shocked by her brother’s death and her reaction is reflected in the very simple and objective language and the structure of the short story. Robert Black wrote the story in a first-person narrative style in present and is mainly consisted of...
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...Intro: We can't change our past we can only learn from it, whether you're referring to history or personal experience, analyzing the past provides valuable lessons for people. They can draw wisdom and fix their present behavior as the way in The Color of Water. The memoir The Color of Water is McBride’s tribute to his mother. In the novel, McBride goes back and forth between stories between himself and his mother. We see how their life progresses and who they eventually become. Although she initially imposed, Ruth McBride eventually discusses her difficult childhood while James discusses who his mother eventually became. We see how she used her past to learn and thrive from it. The theme of how one’s past can affect their future develops throughout the novel. Body Paragraph #1: We can see throughout the novel that Ruth doesn’t dwell on her past she learns from it. She doesn’t want to be another version of her parents so she changes. She had difficult childhood who had a hard time dealing with certain things such as race and religion. Despite Ruth’s painful upbringing, McBride discloses that by learning Tateh’s values and by avoiding his...
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...Luke Clark Word count: 501 Don’t make the past your future American author Charles Swindoll once said, “We cannot change our past… …We cannot change the inevitable.” Although this is absolutely true, it does not change the fact that most people still wish that they could alter time. They think that if they can have a second chance at the past they will have a better future. However, they should be careful what they wish for. In fact, the past should not be altered and focus should stay on the future. It’s interesting how individuals can always see a better way something could have been done. Most likely, this characteristic comes from the fact that people always leave room for improvement. No one is perfect, yet everyone wants to better themselves. Looking at the past is a good way to do this. Wise men learn from their mistakes, but if they did not make mistakes they would not be able grow or mature. In fact, changing the past would deny humans the ability to truly improve. Mistakes act as a motivation for people to better themselves. In addition, our history is what defines us as human beings. Past experience teaches us how to react in the future. Something that we see as a misfortune can turn out as a valuable time in our lives. The story of Joseph is a famous example of this. I’m sure that all throughout his time in slavery, Joseph wished he could have relived the day he went to see his brothers. However, if he did, then his family wouldn’t have lived through the famine...
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...In the beginning of any new society, it is difficult to let go of the past. When the colonists started the Revolution, many citizens were not willing to be a part of this change. Why? It was due to their inability to separate their past life from their present one. The inability to separate a past lifestyle from a present or future lifestyle makes it extremely difficult to survive in a society. Conforming to a society’s social and religious values is much easier when citizens do not remember or acknowledge how they lived in the previous society they were a part of. In the Handmaid’s Tale, a novel by Margaret Atwood, the narrator and protagonist, Offred, was unable to separate her previous American lifestyle and her memories of this life...
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