Discuss symbolism of death in `Don`t go gentle into the good night Essay

Dylan Thomas’ â€Å"Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night† is arguably the most famous villanelle compose in English. The poem’s subject is death; more specifically, the death of Thomas’ own father. Critical interpretations of the poem uniformly praise the poem’s imagery and symbolism, while popular appraisals of the poem center around the poem’s simplicity of language and its easily memorable, repeated lines. Though technically restrained and simple from the standpoint of language and imagery, the poem creates complex tensions and associations by the changing emphasis of the repeated words and imagery. By causing the reader to read the same, repeated words, each time with a different emphasis on meaning and imagery, Thomas attained a depth and profundity in his villanelle which seems to take the form itself to an entirely new plane of expression. Part of Thomas’ extraordinary capacity to express deep themes in the villanelle form is derived from his capable use of symbolism throughout the poem. Because the poem is about death, the symbolic associations in the poem which are tied to Thomas’ conception of death provide the primary emphasis for the poem’s expression and tension. Merely by reading the title, the reader is furnished with Thomas’ first and most dynamic symbolic association with death — â€Å"That Good Night. † Death is symbolized by a â€Å"good night† which indicates both departure and (through logical progression) the eventual rising of the sun, or resurrection. The tension of the poem is squarely evoked, also, in the title with the verb â€Å"go† providing another symbolic association with death, that of motion, travel, departure and movement. Both associations, â€Å"good night† and â€Å"go† imply activity beyond death. So the admonition â€Å"do not go† by implying stasis, begins the central tension of the poem, right from the title. Lines 2 and 3 extend the symbolism of death into a more complex series of associations, one which includes overtly negative evocation â€Å"Old age should burn and rave at close of day;/ Rage, rage against the dying of the light. † Here death is symbolized by the â€Å"close of day† and as a â€Å"dying† light. The admonition to â€Å"not go† becomes an impassioned verb â€Å"Rage, rage† and also â€Å"burn and rave. † Though not explicitly stated, the connotation is that life = day, so death = night. By all logic night and day follow one another, of course, so life beyond death is implied in Thomas’ symbolic associations with death. Further symbolic association with death is made by Thomas use of blindness and sight to differentiate between the dead and the living. â€Å"Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight/ Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,† and again there is good reason to read sight and blindness as interchangeable states, with Thomas so implying that life and death are the same. Meanwhile, with each refrain of the poem, he implores â€Å"Do not go gentle into that good night/ rage, rage against the dying of the light† and this is where the suspense and emotion of the poem are generated. The final symbolic association with death that is woven into the poem is Thomas’ use of the term â€Å"sad height. † These words imply heaven but also the grief of mortality in one unique phrase â€Å"And you, my father, there on the sad height,/Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray. † The suspense of the poem is broken, finally, by the refrain — which by now, the reader realizes cannot keep the subject of the poem (or anyone) from their appointed time with death. because the symbolic associations of the poem describe death as a both unknown but possibly beautiful and renewing state of being, the poem has sustained tension and ambiguity. Thomas crafted a poem which posited his subjective experience of his father’s death and his subjective associations with the consequences and realities of human mortality. The poem relies on symbolic associations of a universal and enduring nature to describe a complex interrelationship between life and death and the joy and despair of mortality. It is due to these associations that Thomas’ poem has become one of the most celebrated if not the most celebrated villanelle in English.

Junk Food Essay

Junk food is considered an unhealthy food which only contains a small amount of nutrients, or provides much more energy than body needs. Examples of junk food include frozen desserts, hamburgers, pizzas, carbonated beverages, fried chickens. Nowadays, a great many individuals buy junk food frequently. At the same time, people are overweight from day to day. This essay will analyse why junk food is particularly popular. To some extent, junk food has negative effect on health and eating less junk food might be better. Firstly, junk food is harmful to people’s health. It is not only non-nutritious but also including a large sum of oils, sugars, fats, salts, calories and antiseptics. Some serious problem will be generated with eating numerous junk foods for a long time, such as obesity, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, hypertension and heart disease. My experience is a convincing example. When I was a freshman in the university, my course schedule was extremely busy. I ate Junk Food for lunch everyday. Fresh food was replaced by junk food and my weight rose sharply. At the beginning, I did not realize that it really made me overweight until the semester finished. I found junk food can increase people’s excess weight. It can be seen that junk food has many disadvantages as previous study. However, why do people buy it frequently? On the one hand, an increasing number of fast paced life makes people have to choose the junk food as their daily diet. It is obvious that eating junk food is a time-saving and money-saving way to resolve their problem perfectly, when they working and studying very busily, which makes people ignore the fact that junk food is frequently harmful. The awareness of individuals need to be improved on behalf of people’s health. On the other hand, why do individuals buy junk Food is the result of excellent marketing strategy. Firstly, people are usually misleaded by overwhelming advertisings. For instance, the advertisement of vitamin water from the Coca-Cola always repeats that it just contains vitamin and nothing  about sugar. In fact, the main component of the vitamin water is the fructose which is the major cause of obesity and drinking a bottle of vitamin water is equal to drinking a can of coke almost. It is witness that the advertisings make up the misleading to consumers. In addition, some brand of junk food, like KFC, McDonald’s, push out a meal with toys for children. There is a straightforward purpose to attract children’s attentions. Thirdly, some junk food restaurants have a playpark which supplies several small slides and plentiful plastic balls for children. Parents prefer to choose a table near by the playpark to take care of their children in the McDonalds’ or KFC. Apart from above examples, there are a variety of marketing methods or skills, which influences individuals imperceptibly. Despite the fact that junk food is not only non-nutritious but also destructive, individuals often choose to eat it, due to a series of extraordinary marketing strategies which is hard to resist and fast paced life makes people just have limited choices. Therefore, trying to eat less junk food as far as possible is beneficial to people’s health.

Professional learning community Essay

The role of a principal has changed dramatically over the past couple of decades (Levine, 2005). It wasn’t too long ago that a principal’s primary tasks were limited to making sure that the buses ran on time, ordering supplies, and addressing personnel issues (Usdan, McCloud and Podmostko 2000). Now an affective principal’s main responsibility is student learning (The Wallace Foundation 2012, Usdan, McCloud and Podmostko 2000). The typical principal now puts in over 10 hours a day in order to get everything done. (Usdan, McCloud and Podmostko 2000). The key elements of effective leadership: principal as an instructional leader, winning by developing relationships, safe and caring learning environment, hiring of staff, always put students first, vision should be shared and focused, communication in the building, excellence in teaching and learning, principals build/reinforce professional development, principals share leadership, and time management. Principal as an Instructional Leader The principal is an instructional leader, a teacher of all teachers. Instructional leadership can be broken into two categories: direct and indirect instructional leadership. Examples of direct instructional leadership that a principal should provide are staff development, teacher observations/evaluations, and supervision. Also providing subordinate’s instructions about their tasks and including what is expected of each staff member. (Northouse, 2013). As the descriptor â€Å"direct instructional leadership† implies, this is instruction that the principal is providing directly to an individual or a group. Direct instructional leadership is focused on the quality of teacher practice, including the quality of the curriculum, teaching and assessments, and the quality of teacher inquiry and teacher learning. Indirect instructional leadership requires the principal to play more of a supportive role to teachers. The indirect leadership is focused on creating the conditions for an optimal teaching and learning environment. Indirect instructional leadership creates the conditions for good teaching and teacher learning by ensuring that school policies, routines, resourcing and other management decisions support and require high-quality learning, teaching and teacher learning (Bendikson, Hattie, and Robinson, 2012). Examples of indirect instructional leadership might include instructional facilitation, hiring qualified staff, resource acquisition, building maintenance and student problem resolution. Both direct and indirect instructional leadership are key roles of a principal. If principals practice instructional leadership daily, then they are successful in coaching and empowering teachers/staff members to improve student achievement. For many years, school principals were viewed as managers who ordered materials, handled discipline, and focused on keeping things in the school running smoothly so teachers could do the job of educating. Now, however, as principal’s most significant role is that of a learning leader. Current research shows that school leaders are a critical component to improving learning in schools (Educational Leadership Policy Standard: ISLLC, 2008,p. 9). As the learning leader in a school, the principal can influence learning through the formal process of planned observations, supervision and mentoring of staff. However, the principal can have even more influence in many other ways. Luneberg(2010) says there are five key tasks a principal must do as a learning leader: have a focus on learning, encourage collaboration, use data to improve learning, provide support, and align curriculum, instruction, and assessment (p. 1). Winning by developing relationships School leadership often involves difficult decisions and uncertainty. As schools are constantly changing to meet the new mandates: APPR, Common Core State Standards, RTTT, and DASA laws, student learning is still in jeopardy. Students are experiencing more problems, having a leader who can navigate through these difficult times is essential. No matter how outstanding the leader is he/she cannot navigate alone. It is critical that an effective principal immediately and consistently works on developing and maintaining relationships with students, staff, and the community. Building positive relationships with all stakeholders in the school is a time-consuming task, but the effort will pay great dividends. An educational building leader makes an effort to talk with and listen to all members of the school community. Kelly Sajnog, a successful middle school principal, notes the importance of relationships (personal communication, February 4, 2013). She says the time she spent cultivating relationships and building trust during her first year as principal was her most important job. Since then she has been able to bring new initiatives to the school, work with the community members, and rely on teacher-leaders to help improve the teaching and learning in her building. Building relationships will enhance a positive school culture, thereby making it easier to work together toward common goals. â€Å"Schools cannot sustain excellence in the absence of trust† (Uebbing & Ford, 2011). A leader who spends time on these relationships is in a much stronger position to help improve student achievement in a school. Many students come to school with various needs and circumstances. Establishing relationships with families and community services will allow a principal to provide the best possible learning environment for all students. Some ways in which a principal may accomplish this are: holding parent coffee hours once a month, reaching out to local social workers and psychologists, participating in an established parent group, and spending time at community events held in places other than the school. Alvy and Robbins (2005) cited building strong relationships as being one of the most important things that new principals do. The people who make up a school – students, teachers, classified staff, families, and the greater community – will either unite around a common cause or function as independent components going in different directions. Principals who build trusting relationships go a long way toward establishing a healthy school culture in which everyone works together. Principals do not gain trust because of the title on their office door. They must earn trust. And to earn trust, they must give it – that is, they must demonstrate faith in the independent skills and decisions of other (p. 52). The trust that principals need is a two-way street that comes from building relationships and treating every person with respect, every day. Another aspect of building positive relationships is communication. School leaders must consistently communicate with all members of the school and community. When people know and understand what work is being done in our schools, they are more likely to support our school and students. A focus of this communication should focus on student success. Students in schools accomplish amazing things each day, school leaders must ensure the success is shared consistently and celebrated regularly in order to maintain a positive school culture. Communication, in the form of newsletters, websites, phone calls, and meetings further enhances the trusting relationships the principal has taken the time to build. Although written communication is important, person contact is equally vital. Effective principals must be visible, accessible, approachable and responsive to the needs of students, staff, and community members. It is critical that a leader follows through on any conversation he/she has so others know he/she is committed, interested and dependable. A leader, who builds relationships, treats others with respect and acts ethically in all situations will be able to lead a school to a higher level of achievement. Safe and Caring Learning Environment An important part of leadership is the creation and maintenance of a safe and caring learning environment. Effective principals involve others, including students, to set high standards for student behavior. The principal can communicate high expectations for behavior, and these apply rules consistently from day to day and from student to student. They expect teachers to handle most disciplinary matters and they provide in-school suspension with support for seriously disruptive students. A principal should foster a sense of responsibility in students for appropriate behavior and work to create an environment that encourages such behavior. A successful principal should take on the responsibility of encouraging an orderly learning environment by organizing strategies to assist in minimizing distractions. Immersing the entire school community in the use of behavior prevention strategy plans can aid in preventing discipline referrals, as stated in one article we read on student management. This calls for the entire school community to take responsibility in sending a consistent message to students regarding expectations for behavior. An example of a preventive measure might include teachers integrating character education into their daily lessons and interactions with students. Although the intent of character education is to prevent disciplinary issues from occurring, a principal needs to be prepared if unacceptable behavior does  occur. Effective principals should center their ideas, days, and job on enhancing student learning by providing a safe and orderly learning environment with minimal distractions. Successful principals create this environment by sending clear and consistent messages regarding expectations of students and staff, hiring quality teachers, and presenting an encouraging demeanor, a principal sets a motivating tone for his/her school. Successful principals set a positive tone for their school with an unwavering focus on student learning. They do not tolerate distractions and act in the best interests of their students and the learning environment. Hiring of Staff Another important factor that a principal has control over is hiring. A principal’s single most precious commodity is an opening in the teaching staff (Whitaker, 2012). The quickest way to improve your school is to hire great teachers at every opportunity. Just as the only way to improve your average grade is to turn in a better-than-your average assignment each time, the most significant way to rapidly improve a school is to add teachers who are better than the ones who leave. Great principals know this and work diligently to hire the best possible teachers. Not only is it important to hire great teachers but also to support them. This is reinforced by the idea that successful principals focus on students-by focusing on teachers (Whitaker, 2012). Great principals celebrate the successes of their students and staff, instilling a sense of value in their achievements. If the principal is successful in creating a positive school culture and climate and praises student and staff performance at all levels, self-esteem is enhanced, and people feel that their time and work is valued and appreciated (p.41). Always put students first If schools are about teaching and learning, then students are the customers. Educators are responsible for meeting our customers’ needs and ensuring that each student is given a high-quality experience in school. Therefore, an effective leader keeps students at the heart of every decision. Alvy & Robbins (2005) say school leaders mush â€Å"get in the habit of asking themselves student-centered questions whenever they make decisions or take actions concerning school policy, district initiatives, or the everyday activities of schools† (p. 50). In order to create a culture and climate where students fell valued, Harris & Lowery (2002) identified three things effective principals always focus on: respecting students, communicating with students, and supporting students. Students want to be treated fairly and equally. An effective principal knows this and makes sure students are always respected. For example, dealing with discipline issues privately rather than in from of others and making sure consequences are equitable makes students feel respected (Harris & Lowery, 2002, p. 64). Students notice when a principal is interacting with students in the halls of the school each day. The communication lets students know the principal is there to help each student reach their goals and dreams. Lastly, supporting students means the principal â€Å"can be accessible to students; reward them, be an advocate for them, and provide them with a safe, secure learning environment† (Harris & Lowery, 2002). An effective principal, who respects, communicates with and supports students creates a safe learning environment where individual students can flourish. Vision should be shared and focused The successful principal has a vision of what education should be. He or she shares their vision with others by articulating it; however, an effective principal also models his/her vision through daily actions. A successful principal is committed to implementing and developing his/her vision. Consequently, in addition to articulating their vision, visionaries have an action plan that lists the key players and steps needed in executing their vision (Reeves, 2002). Implementing a vision, which oftentimes means implementing a change, can be risky. Leadership, however, entails risk taking and standing for beliefs, even when the odds are not in the leader’s favor. As our guest speakers have stated in one sense or another, â€Å"Communicating with clarity and direction should be the district’s vision. When making a decision, an effective principal asks himself/herself how the decision will impact student learning and proceeds with that thought as his/her focus. If the principal is clear in articulating and sharing his/her vision then the school community understands where he/she stands and where the school is headed. Communication in the building. Communication is critical in a principal’s job. Clear, consistent communication with students, staff members, parents, and the community is imperative to the role of a principal. Similar to the teaching and reinforcement of math and reading skills, policies, procedures, and expectations need to be taught, practiced, and reinforced to students and staff members. Successful principals indicate taking the time to teach the students, talk with them, and show them their expectations. Successful principals review over the student handbook and code of conduct to ensure that both student and parent have understood these policies. These discussions regarding their purpose also help in communicating expectations with students. When communicating with staff members, technology provides principals with the tools and ease to communicate with the staff members on a daily basis. DeBarbieri and Williams believe that communication is a critical feature of any endeavor in which people work in close proximity for a common purpose (personal commications, February, 2013). As stated by DeBarbieri, communication is crucial at faculty meetings, in emails to staff members, and on the parent webpage. He also stated that his belief is the theory of communication is moving in the direction of technology and the use of Facebook and Twitter software. Williams, she stated that communication is just as important. A principal should know themselves first and then get to know their staff members. (personal communication, March, 2013). However, these notes or quick emails do not take the place of friendly conversations, nor do they decrease the value of faculty meetings. Communication with parents and community is also imperative to a principal’s position. Communication via monthly newsletters or individual teacher webpage’s, help to disseminate â€Å"need-to-know† information to parents. Principals build/reinforce Professional Development Effective principals are knowledgeable about best practices and share these practices during faculty meetings, professional learning communities and conversations with individual and teams of teachers. A successful leader is often seen in the classroom and in discussions with teachers about the instruction being used. He/she also shares the success he/she sees happening in the school. A successful educational leader stays current with readings to ensure that best instructional practices are being employed for all students. For example, if ELA scores are a concern for a school, it is the leader’s responsibility to research best practices on reading and writing instruction and then share best practices with staff. Also, an effective leader uses data to hold him/her and the staff members accountable. By collecting data often, a leader is able to make informed decisions about teaching and learning to ensure all teachers strive for continual student achievement. The principal knows what professional development his/her staff needs and participates in the trainings. This unwavering focus on learning reminds everyone in the school community that academic success for all students is the purpose of schools. An effective principal can impact the culture of learning in his/her school when he/she makes decisions about scheduling. For example, teachers need to be given time to collaborate regularly. Scheduling common planning time for teachers sends the message that collaboration to improve student learning is important. During these times of collaboration, principals can provide support by attending meetings and participating in the professional learning community. Teachers need to know the principal does not have all the answers but is willing to work with the teachers to find the keys to helping each student achieve his/her best. Finding the keys to help each students may not lie within the school building; a principal may need to work with other districts, a regional BOCES, local colleges or other institutions to find what each student needs to achieve his/her potential. Collaborating with others allows a principal to maximize all his/her resources in a quest to do what is best for students. If schools are about learning, then the curriculum, instruction and assessments are the most important tools schools use on a daily basis. An effective principal is a part of the ongoing, cyclical nature of curriculum development. He/she ensures that assessment are rigorous and aligned to the curriculum, common core state standards, that data-driven instruction is used regularly, and that the curriculum is detailed enough so teachers know exactly what needs to be taught. However, the principal does not just oversee these processes; he/she is an active participant in all aspects of teaching and learning. The principal should be running faculty meeting where he/she will introduce common formative assessments, professional learning communities, common online areas for staff resources, and units to cover new Common Core State Standards. A principal may have teacher leaders to host mini lessons in the morning, where teachers could collaborate on 21st century learning skills, and to compare student data. An effective principal acting as a learning leader develops a school where excitement about learning and celebration of achievement is evident on a daily basis. â€Å"When learning becomes the preoccupation of the school, when all the school’s educators examine their efforts and initiatives of the school through the lens of their impact on learning, the structure and culture of the school begin to change in substantive ways† (DuFour,2002). As the principal shifts a culture to a focus on learning, he/she can then begin to recognize and grow teacher-leaders. These teacher-leaders act as ambassadors for the principal’s vision and assist in the learning culture for all teachers and students. Michael Fullan(2010) gives a clear view of what a principal as a learning leader looks like. Powerful principals are obsessed with the instructional core of personalized learning and getting results for each and every student. They make instruction a priority. They deal effectively with distracters. They create a culture of job-embedded learning. They help the school focus on a small number of core priorities they resolutely pursue while avoiding innovation overload (p. 14). This is an exciting time for exceptional teachers who love the classroom to use their expertise about teaching and learning in the role of building leader. When summarizing the area of professional development for instructional leadership, good principals: †¢ Hold frequent discussions about curriculum and instruction (ASCD, 1999); †¢ Encourage collaboration among teachers (ASCD, 1999); †¢ Provide opportunities for professional development both outside the school and within the school between colleagues (ASCD, 1999); and, †¢ Actively participate in staff development (Cotton, 2003). Principals share leadership Although the principal is ultimately responsible for building decisions, successful principals delegate, consult, and collaborate with staff members. With an overabundance of duties to manage, it is imperative for principals to trust their employees (assistant principals, teachers, paraprofessionals, clerical staff, and custodians) and to create committees to take on responsibilities for some of these tasks. In addition to making the principal’s job more manageable, shared decision making also helps in empowering teachers and creating a â€Å"buy in† for implementing change. Effective principals not only collaborate with staff members on decision making, but also encourage staff members to work together on instruction and curriculum best practices. If principals can be effective in creating a collaborative school with professional learning communities, then risk taking and learning takes place at all levels, thereby improving instructional practices. (DuFour, 2010) Time Management Considering the demands of the job of principal and the various roles that the principal is expected to play, it seems that prioritizing, time management, and organization skills are critical in helping the principal find a balance. The principal who prioritizes does not get buried by the demands of paperwork but instead uses the time when school is in session to visit with the students in school. The principal that continues to spend his/her time management skills might multitask by returning phone calls while driving between buildings and/or to the district office for meetings. The principal who is organized leaves his/her office with a clean desk every day. In addition to juggling duties during the school day, balancing the many hours needed to attend school and community functions with a family can be a challenge as well. To manage well, a principal must actively prepare, plan, organize, direct, model, evaluate, and improve (Speck, 1998, p. 20). Management duties of a principal include ensuring a safe and orderly school environment, having a working knowledge of the law, shaping a schedule and prioritizing a budget in a way that will help communicate his/her vision and goals, and managing the daily activities in the building (ASCD, 1999). A principal must have a hand in all of these duties, but the degree to which he/she is involved in each depends on a perception of the job (Mawhinney, n. d. ). The principal who enlists more help, and thus creates more personal choice in the area of management, will enjoy more opportunities in the critical area of educational leadership (Mawhinney, n. d. ). A principal’s job is not a 9 a. m. to 5 p. m. job. Consequently, a principal needs to be passionate about his/her work but also needs to find a balance between work and home. The role of the principal requires one to be active and think on his/her feet. This requires a fit mind and body. Reflecting on daily actions, keeping abreast with professional development, reading and engaging in a stress relieving activity, such as exercise, are all activities that can help the principal manage his/her workload (personal communication March,2013). It is important to remember that the principalship should not define the person but rather the person defines the principalship role. If the principal reflects often, then he/she will learn to find a healthy balance by prioritizing and managing his/her time. Conclusion: Effective Principals Make a True Difference â€Å"School leaders are critical to helping improve student performance. Research now shows that leadership is second only to classroom instruction among school-related factors that influence student outcomes† (Educational Leadership Policy Standards: ISLLC, 2008, p. 9). Principalship requires flexibility in juggling the many roles that requires the principal to play. In reflecting on the information retrieved from guest speakers, class presentations, interviews, books, journal articles and observations, the following conclusion can be drawn: If the principal is able to balance being an instructional leader, a manager, the creator of a positive climate and culture, a visionary, an ambassador, a communicator, a collaborator, and a real person, then I he/she is likely to be a successful principal. When a principal learns to build good relationships, becomes a good listener, learns to plan his/her actions before reacting, has good mentors and trustworthy friends in his/her corner, and continues to have a solid plan of action, students will learn! References Alvy, H. , & Robbins, P. (2005, May). Growing Into leadership. Educational Leadership, 62, 50-54. Bergman, D. and Jorgensen, M (2013, February 4). [EAD610 class article share presentation]. Blankstein, A. M. (2004). Failure is not an option: Six principles that guide student achievement in high-performing schools. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin. Cavino, D. and Nower, C. (2013, March 11). [EAD610 class article share presentation]. DeBarbieri, J. (2013, February 25). [Personal interview]. Determining/confirming eligibility for McKinney Vento [Fact sheet]. (2012). Retrieved March 13, 2013, from National Center for Homeless Education website: http://center. serve. org/nche/ibt/sc_eligibility. php Dolson, K. and Regan, K. (2013, February 11). [EAD610 class article share presentation]. DuFour, R., DuFour, R. , Eaker, R. , & Karhanek, G. (2006, 2010). Learning by Doing: A Handbook for Professional Communities at Work. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree. Harris, S. L. , & Lowery, S. (2002, May). A View from the Classroom. Educational Leadership, 59, 64-69 Keim, J. and Nephew, J (2013, February 25). [EAD610 class article share presentation]. Lunenburg, F. C. (2010, Summer). The Principal as Instructional Leader. National Forum of Educational and Supervision Journal, 27,1-6. Luthouser, E. (2012, May). [Personal interview]. Marzano, R. J. , Waters, T. , & McNulty, B. A. (2005). School leadership that works: From research to results. Alexandria, VA: Association of Supervision & Curriculum Development. Mawhinney, H. B. (n. d. ). A Framework for Reflection on the Principal’s Domain: Choices, Constraints and Demands. EAD 610 School Principalship Reading Packet. Reeves, D. R. (2007). The daily disciplines of leadership: How to improve student achievement, staff motivation, and personal organization. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Renfrew, E. (2013, March 4). [Personal interview]. Salopek, J. J. (2011). Make parents you partners. Education Update, 52(2). Sajnog, K. (2013, February 11). [Personal interview]. Silvia, H. and Pawlewicz, D. (2013, March 4). [EAD610 class article share presentation]. The principal perspective: full report. (April 2012). Retrieved March 12, 2013, from The Center for Public Education is an initiative of the National School Boards Association. website: http://www. centerforpubliceducation. org/principal-perspective Wallace Foundation. (2013, January). The School Principal as Leader: Guiding Schools to Better Teaching and Learning. The Wallace foundation, 1, 1-18. Retrieved May 5, 2013, from http://www. wallacefoundation. org/knowledge-center/school-leadership/effective-principal-leadership/Pages/The-School-Principal-as-Leader-Guiding-Schools-to-Better-Teaching-and-Learning. aspx Whitaker, T. (2012). What Great Principals Do Differently: Eighteen Things That Matter Most. Larchmont, NY: Eye on.

Investigation of communication between people in health and social Essay

Investigation of communication between people in health and social care - Essay Example The behaviorist theory explains that every physical action or gesture is to be construed as an expression of behavior, this philosophy argues that every thing an organism does, including the thought process and feelings, should be considered as behavior. Understanding and applying the behaviorist theory, by observing the actions of the patient in context of this theory, the Health Care Professional can better cater to the psychological requirements of the patient, which in turn can have a positive outcome in the treatment, and psychological management of the patient, while the patient is in a state of trauma due to an emotional incident or a life threatening ailment. Cognitive theory can help decision making in nursing by providing a framework, which incorporates acquiring empirical data from patients and assimilating new cases with the older ones, investigating the methods which proved to be successful in the past, and identifying and applying those to newer cases. The Psychoanalytical theory deals wit... Verbal communication is the most important aspect of direct communication with the patients which involves nursing etiquette, and some other guidelines. The nurse is expected to speak clearly with the patient, in a slow, even tome for the convenience of the patient , the nurse is expected to address the patient by his/her name to give an impression of individualistic care and attention, broadly it directs you to be gentle in your interaction with the patient. Non-verbal form of communication suggests that while dealing with patients who are hard of hearing, along with speech, the nurse should use hands to accentuate the meaning.You can even write or draw out pictures for the convenience of patients who are deaf, or if the patient prefers a digital form of communication such as laptops, you can even arrange for that. It is rudimentary to call a person by his/her name, whilst seeking attention of the patient and introducing yourself to the patient in the same way. The patient should be included in the decision making process, this gives the patient the impression that he/she is in control of the situation. Only when the patient is ready to open up and express feelings should he/she be encouraged to do so, the patient should not be rushed into expressing intimate feelings. Patients should not be stereo-typed or prejudiced against in view of the values and beliefs they hold. Inappropriate interpersonal communication is a subjective phenomenon and applies both to the nurse and the patient. In context of the nurse the use of inappropriate language should be avoided at all costs, intentionally or otherwise, the nurse needs to be cognizant of the fact that even his/her best attentions could be misinterpreted and cause mental stress

Personal hygiene Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Personal hygiene - Essay Example Included in the introduction will be a brief explanation of personal hygiene and its importance to the nurse and the patient and a short brief on the course of the paper. In the discussion portion of the essay the paper will discuss the proper ways of conducting personal hygiene essentials for the patient. This part of the paper will also highlight specific ways the nurse can help the patient including an assessment on the actual needs of the patient their capabilities to do some personal hygiene tasks like combing or brushing the teeth, the importance of independence for a dependent adult. A discussion on being sensitive about the patients desires will also be considered especially when it comes to modesty, embarrassment and the modicum of independence the patient can exert during tasked specific for personal hygiene, the paper will also highlight the need for the carer to be able to explain to the patient why a specific task needs to be done and to reassure the patient that they are not being embarrassed intentionally and that all are done in the course because it is actually needed to be done and that all accord has been utilized that minimal exposures of body parts and ‘invasion of privacy’ is kept to a minimum. It will also be noted that it is important for a nurse to know the essential body parts that are needed to be kept clean and dry especially for bed bound patients so that pressure or bed sores can be avoided, the areas where pressure sores are likely to develop so that cleaning and taking care of those particular areas will be of benefit to avoiding pressure sores. It is also essential for a nurse professional to know techniques and strategies involved in giving care to patients who already has pressure sores so that it will not be aggravated and that healing will be promoted. The ability to reassure, soothe and convince the patient to follow instruction

Succesion Planning Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Succesion Planning - Essay Example Instead, companies should take time in studying the competencies and personality characteristics of individual employees. This will help in clarifying the roles of each job level. However, such studies are costly and time consuming to most organization; hence they are done in a hurry and incorrectly. The second disadvantage is the cloning syndrome, where managers in the organization tend to pick people like them. The replica of the incumbent is a great mistake as an organization seeks a new direction. Thirdly, the focus is narrowed in succession planning. Succession planning limits leaders in an organization to focus internally on prospective employees who can join the managerial team. Candidates outside the company with great potential are not considered. In most companies, the candidates chosen are those direct to top leaders. They are viewed as having the required potential. This boosts career development for the internal employees but does not fulfill the company’s best in terests. In most circumstances, when filling a managerial post, an external candidate would be the best to bring along new skills to the team. Fourthly, it can have negative effects on motivation. Succession planning if not handle carefully can be disastrous to the organization. Other employees may conclude those selected are favored. The outcome will be lack of motivation among the rest of the workforce. Fifth, it may result in family rivalries. In small organization run by family members, it can be tough when making succession plans. In most cases, if an individual child is favored by the parents, the rest will oppose and this results in disastrous effect. This is because it can bring down the organization. Sixth, succession planning can cause organizational structure changes. Succession planning sometimes happens before the organization gains its stability. Leaders will be forced to alter and develop organizations to be able to tackle current business challenges. In

Compare PHP and Python Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Compare PHP and Python - Essay Example The code written in the PHP language is interpreted by the PHP processor module using a web browser which displays a web page based on the HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) and embedded PHP code. It is pertinent to mention here that the PHP code can be embedded into the HTML (Screenshot 1 shows the HTML embedded PHP code file) file as well as it can be an external / separate file (Screenshot 2 shows the PHP separate file code) having an extension of ‘. PHP’. The PHP is an open source language, meaning that the PHP is free software under the PHP license whose source code can be amended as per the requirements. The PHP can be deployed on almost every operating system which can be a standalone computer system or a web server. Python is one of the high level languages (the high level languages are those programming languages which are more understandable to the human beings and does sends commands directly to the hardware). The Python language was initially created by Guido van Rossum in 1980, however, the first program was implemented in 1989. The Python is a general purpose language; however, it is over and over again used as a scripting language, however, it can also be utilized as non scripting language. As compared to the programming languages, the Python language emphasizes code reliability, as the Python programmers can express functionalities in less number of code lines comparatively. By utilizing the third party tools include: Pyinstaller and Py2exe make the Python language capable of executing standalone programs. The Python language can be deployed to the computer system as well as the application server, moreover, a number of operating systems provide support to the Python Language. The Python is an open source programming language, which can be deployed free of charge. In my opinion, there are huge numbers of similarities between both the

The Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

The - Essay Example However, with the regime change successfully happening in Egypt, it is acting as a catalyst for even more pro-democracy and anti-monarchy movements throughout the Middle-East. Bahrain is one of those countries, which has been witnessing anti-monarchy movement or uprising. When the protests in Egypt gained momentum, support for them came wide across the Middle-East. In Bahrain also, a group of individuals gathered in front of the Egyptian embassy to support the Egyptian protestors. In addition, they also wanted more political freedom, equal representation to all people and actualization of democratic practices. Political freedom in the sense, with the Bahraini King nominating the Prime Minister and sizable numbers of parliament representatives, demonstrators wanted more ‘elected’ representatives. Importantly, they wanted equal rights and facilities for all the people, particularly for the majority Shias, as minority Sunni section of the population is playing a dominant ro le and garnering all the powers and benefits. So, this paper will discuss how the uprising in Bahrain started or happened due to certain social factors, as well as geographical, historical and political factors, and how it effected and is still impacting the Middle Eastern region. Geographical and Historical factors Bahrain is an archipelago in the Persian Gulf, with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Iran surrounding it. It consists of 33 islands and the largest is the Bahrain Island, which constitutes the majority of the Bahrain’s population. The capital Manama is situated in the northern tip of the island and is the seat of political power, and thus the hotspot of the uprising. Bahrain got evolved geographically as well as historically due to certain events that happened in the 19th and 20th century and those events can also be viewed as an indirect contributing factor to the current uprising. Bahrain existed as a fragmented geographical territory in the 19th century, with various ki ngdoms. Britain at that time was at the height of its imperialistic tendencies, and it tried to wrest some of the territories. Being a Shia Muslims majority country, Bahrain sought the aid of Iran to counter British imperialism. Although, Iran shielded Bahrain initially, it could not protect it continuously and so British took over Bahrain. Britain brought Bahrain under its protectorate in the Persian Gulf, playing a dominant role in every aspect of Bahrain’s functioning, from appointing its rulers to changing its demographics. Changing of demographics in the sense, British brought in people from Iran, Huwala, as well as India into Bahrain for commercial purposes. â€Å"Mixed with the indigenous population ( in Manama) are numerous strangers and settlers, some of whom have been established here for many generations back, attracted from other lands by the profits of either commerce or the pearl fishery† (Gardner 2010, p. 36). Although, these people brought in with them various business skills, and developed Bahrain from a tribal society to a modern one, it started changing the demographics, as there was heightened concentration of people from outside of Bahrain. The same charge of bringing people from other countries and how is affecting the local population is being levelled by the protestors of the current upris

THE_MANAGEMENT_OF_LEAN_AND_AGILE_ORGANISATIONS_2008_6ME015 Assignment

THE_MANAGEMENT_OF_LEAN_AND_AGILE_ORGANISATIONS_2008_6ME015 - Assignment Example In this context, the present paper discusses the various features of lean production system and its related literature. The paper takes a descriptive approach where in the present lean manufacturing system is discussed in detail. Also an effort is made to compare the lean and mass manufacturing system. Mass manufacturing and distribution were considered ideal business strategies in the past. In those days, business organisations produced large amount of products with standard quality fixed by them. The products in large quantity were also supplied through the mass distribution system. These strategies were found practical and economical in times when production oriented business operations and economies of scale is the barometer of business success. However, these seem to be inefficient and unsuccessful in the modern business environment where products are being produced and distributed keeping in view the interests of ultimate customers. In the modern philosophy of marketing management and the era of customer relationship management (CRM), business operations are carried out more in conformity to the needs and tastes of customers than the economics of business operations. The main argument brought about by the advocates of lean manufacturing system is that mass production results in huge wastage of resources, mainly material and equipments and it needs huge investment in inventory, which is Mass manufacturing and distribution were considered ideal business strategies in the past. In those days, business organisations produced large amount of products with standard quality fixed by them. The products in large quantity were also supplied through the mass distribution system. These strategies were found practical and economical in times when production oriented business operations and economies of scale is the barometer of business success. However, these seem to be inefficient and unsuccessful in the modern business environment

Comparison of Indirect Cost Multipliers for Vehicle Manufacturing Essay Example for Free

Comparison of Indirect Cost Multipliers for Vehicle Manufacturing Essay Disclaimer This report was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States Government. Neither the United States Government nor any agency thereof, nor The University of Chicago, nor any of their employees or officers, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or any agency thereof. The views and opinions of document authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or any agency thereof, Argonne National Laboratory, or The University of Chicago. COMPARISON OF INDIRECT COST MULTIPLIERS FOR VEHICLE MANUFACTURING INTRODUCTION In the process of manufacturing and selling vehicles, a manufacturer incurs certain costs. Among these costs are those incurred directly as a part of manufacturing operations and those incurred indirectly in the processes of manufacturing and selling. The indirect costs may be productionrelated, such as RD and engineering; business-related, such as corporate staff salaries and pensions; or retail-sales-related, such as dealer support and marketing. These indirect costs are recovered by allocating them to each vehicle. Under a stable, high-volume production process, the allocation of these indirect costs can be approximated as multipliers (or factors) applied to the direct cost of manufacturing. A manufacturer usually allocates indirect costs to finished vehicles according to a corporation-specific pricing strategy. Because the volumes of sales and production vary widely by model within a corporation, the internal corporate percent allocation of various accounting categories (such as profit or corporate overhead) can vary widely among individual models. Approaches also vary across corporations. For our purposes, an average value is constructed, by means of a generic representative method, for vehicle models produced at high volume. To accomplish this, staff at Argonne National Laboratory’s (ANL’s) Center for Transportation Research analyzed the conventional vehicle cost structure and developed indirect cost multipliers for passenger vehicles. This memorandum summarizes the results of an effort to compare and put on a common basis the cost multipliers used in ANL’s electric and hybrid electric vehicle cost estimation procedures with those resulting from two other methodologies. One of the two compared methodologies is derived from a 1996 presentation by Dr. Chris Borroni-Bird of Chrysler Corporation, the other is by Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. (EEA), as described in a 1995 report by the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), Congress of the United States. The cost multipliers are used for scaling the component costs to retail prices. ANL METHODOLOGY The ANL methodology described here is based on an analysis concerned with electric vehicle production and operating costs (Cuenca et al. 2000; Vyas et al. 1998). The analysis evaluated the cost structure for conventional vehicle manufacturing and retailing and assigned shares of the manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) to various cost contributors. Multipliers developed from the ANL methodology are applied to the manufacturing cost of an individual component in order to scale the component cost to the retail price. Several cost contributors are included in the methodology, as summarized in Table 1. Some of the vehicle components for electric and hybrid electric vehicles would be procured from outside suppliers. This assumption is applied to electric drive components, excluding the battery; the vehicle manufacturer would produce the rest. Thus, two cost multipliers, one for the components manufactured internally and the other for outsourced components, are necessary to estimate the price of electric and hybrid electric vehicles. Outside suppliers would incur some of the costs normally borne by the vehicle manufacturer. In the ANL methodology, we assume that the costs of â€Å"Warranty,† â€Å"RD/Engineering,† and â€Å"Depreciation and Amortization† are borne by the Page 1 suppliers of outsourced components. The outside suppliers would include these costs in their prices. The following two cost multipliers are computed by using â€Å"Cost of Manufacture† as the base: Cost multiplier for components manufactured internally = 100/50 = 2. 00. Cost multiplier for outsourced components = 100/(50 + 6. 5 + 5. 5 + 5) = 1. 50. Table 1 Contributors to Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price in ANL Methodology Cost Category Cost Contributor Relative to Share of Cost of Vehicle MSRP Manufacturing (%) Vehicle Manufacturing Cost of Manufacture 1. 00 50. 0 Production Overhead Warranty 0. 10 5. 0 RD/Engineering 0. 13 6. 5 Depreciation and Amortization 0. 11 5. 5 Corporate Overhead Corporate Overhead, Retirement and 0. 14 7. 0 Health Selling Distribution, Marketing, Dealer 0. 47 23. 5 Support, and Dealer Discount Sum of Costs 1. 95 97. 5 Profit Profit 0. 05 2. 5 Total Contribution to 2. 00 100. 0 MSRP METHODOLOGY DERIVED FROM BORRONI-BIRD PRESENTATION In his presentation, entitled â€Å"Automotive Fuel Cell Requirements,† at the 1996 Automotive Technology Development Customers’ Coordination Meeting, Borroni-Bird included charts on the â€Å"Typical American Automobile: Price/Cost Breakdown. † The charts provided a graphical breakdown of vehicle price, showing cost contributors and profit. We used the charts to arrive at percentage shares of vehicle price by various contributors. Table 2 shows the resulting allocation. Page 2 Table 2 Price/Cost Breakdown Based on Borroni-Bird Presentation Cost Category Cost Contributor a Vehicle Manufacturing Fixed Cost Selling Sum of Costs Profit MSRP a Material Cost Assembly Labor and Other Manufacturing a Costs Transportation/Warranty Amortization and Depreciation, Engineering RD, Pension and Health Care, Advertising, and Overhead Price Discounts Dealer Markup Automobile Profit. Relative to Cost of Vehicle Manufacturing 0. 87 0. 13 0. 09 0. 44 Share of MSRP (%) 42. 5 6. 5 4. 5 21. 5 0. 10 0. 36 1. 99 0. 06 2. 05 5. 0 17. 5 97. 5 2. 5 100. 0 These two contributors are scaled to sum to 1 in the third column, as in Table 1. In his presentation, Borroni-Bird did not evaluate the treatment of in-house or outsourced components. His methodology does not lend itself to easy computation of cost multipliers comparable with those in the ANL methodology, unless we make a few assumptions. We have assumed that â€Å"Material Cost,† taken together with â€Å"Assembly Labor and Other Manufacturing Costs,† would form the â€Å"Vehicle Manufacturing† base for the in-house components. The costs of â€Å"Transportation/Warranty,† â€Å"Amortization and Depreciation,† and â€Å"Engineering RD† would be borne by the suppliers of outsourced components. However, â€Å"Amortization and Depreciation† and â€Å"Engineering RD† costs were merged with â€Å"Pension and Health Care,† â€Å"Advertising,† and â€Å"Overhead† costs by Borroni-Bird. We assumed that half of the costs under this category would be borne by the suppliers of outsourced components. Our assumptions led to the following cost multipliers: Cost multiplier for components manufactured internally = 100/(42. 5 + 6. 5) = 2. 05. Cost multiplier for outsourced components = 100/(42. 5 + 6. 5 + 4. 5 + 10. 75) = 1. 56. These cost multipliers are very similar to those computed with the ANL methodology. Comparison of ANL and Borroni-Bird Methodologies The information from Tables 1 and 2 is shown in terms of cost categories in Table 3. Both methodologies use vehicle manufacturing cost as the base and add other costs to it. The share of MSRP attributable to â€Å"Vehicle Manufacturing† is 50% in the ANL methodology, compared with 49% in the Borroni-Bird Methodology. Borroni-Bird combined several cost contributors under â€Å"Fixed Cost. † These contributors include (see Table 2) â€Å"Amortization and Depreciation,† â€Å"Engineering RD,† â€Å"Pension and Health Care,† â€Å"Advertising,† and â€Å"Overhead. † Except for the inclusion of â€Å"Advertising,† â€Å"Production Overhead† and â€Å"Corporate Overhead† in the ANL methodology can be combined to form an equivalent category. ANL’s total of 24% by production Page 3 and corporate overheads is slightly lower than the total of 26% by Borroni-Bird. The ANL category of â€Å"Selling,† which includes â€Å"Distribution,† â€Å"Marketing,† â€Å"Dealer Support,† and â€Å"Dealer Discount,† is broader than that of â€Å"Price Discounts† and â€Å"Dealer Markup† specified by BorroniBird, and this category’s contribution is understandably slightly higher in the ANL methodology. The share of MSRP by â€Å"Profit† is the same in both methodologies. The absolute differences, computed as ANL value minus Borroni-Bird value, are 1% for â€Å"Vehicle Manufacturing,† –2% for â€Å"Fixed Cost,† and 1% for â€Å"Selling† cost. Table 3 Comparison of Vehicle Price/Cost Allocation by ANL and Borroni-Bird Methodologies ANL Methodology Cost Contributor or Category Vehicle Manufacturing Production Overhead Corporate Overhead Selling Sum of Costs Profit MSRP EEA METHODOLOGY The methodology of Energy and Environmental Analysis is summarized in the OTA report OTAETI-638, entitled Advanced Automotive Technology: Visions of a Super-Efficient Family Car, published in September 1995. The values of some cost contributors are not listed in the report. Moreover, depreciation, amortization, and tooling expenses are assumed to be case-specific and therefore must be computed for each case. In order to make the EEA and ANL methodologies comparable, some assumptions were necessary. These assumptions are described in the summary below. The EEA cost equations can be simplified as follows: Cost of Manufacture = Division Cost ? [1 + Division Overhead] Manufacturer Cost = [Cost of Manufacture + Assembly Labor + Assembly Overhead] ? [1 + Manufacturing Overhead + Manufacturing Profit] + Engineering Expense + Tooling Expense + Facilities Expense Retail Price Equivalent = Manufacturer Cost ? [1 + Dealer Margin] Borroni-Bird Methodology Share of Cost Contributor or Category Share of MSRP (%) MSRP (%) 50. 0 Vehicle Manufacturing 49. 0 17. 0 Fixed Cost 26. 0 7. 0 23. 5 Selling 22. 5 97. 5 Sum of Costs 97. 5 2. 5 Automobile Profit 2. 5 100. 0 MSRP 100. 0 Page 4 The report lists the following values for overhead, profit, and dealer margin: Division Overhead = Supplier Overhead = 0. 20 (We assume that division and supplier overheads are equal; only the supplier overhead is given in the report. ) Manufacturing Overhead = 0. 25 Manufacturing Profit = 0. 20 Dealer Margin = 0. 25 Because the documentation in the OTA report does not provide values for â€Å"Assembly Labor,† â€Å"Assembly Overhead,† â€Å"Engineering Expense,† â€Å"Tooling Expense,† and â€Å"Facilities Expense,† cost multipliers cannot be computed directly from these data. The â€Å"Assembly Labor† and â€Å"Assembly Overhead† share of MSRP is 6. 5% in Borroni-Bird’s presentation. The engineering, tooling, and facilities expenses can be taken as the sum of â€Å"RD/Engineering† and â€Å"Depreciation and Amortization† from the ANL methodology, at 12% of the MSRP. In deriving the division cost and price relationship below, we use the term Retail Price Equivalent (RPE) from the OTA report instead of MSRP. The RPE can be computed as follows: RPE = = = {[Division Cost ? 1. 2 + 0. 065 RPE] ? 1. 45 + 0. 12 RPE} ? 1. 25 Division Cost ? 2. 175 + 0. 268 RPE Division Cost ? 2. 175/(1 – 0. 268) = Division Cost ? 2. 97 Putting ANL and EEA Methodologies on a Common Basis As it was described in the OTA report, the EEA methodology did not provide enough data to compute the cost multipliers. We assumed some cost shares to be the same between the EEA, Borroni-Bird, and ANL methodologies while developing the above relationship between Division Cost and RPE. The EEA methodology is based on the material and labor costs of a division of the vehicle manufacturer, with other costs added on. The ANL methodology evaluates an assembled vehicle, using the vehicle manufacturing cost as the base cost. The ANL methodology also assigns additional costs to the outsourced components, whereas the treatment of such components is not clear in the EEA methodology. We have attempted to develop a common basis for the ANL and EEA methodologies by assigning shares of the final vehicle price, RPE in the EEA methodology, to individual cost categories similar to those listed in Table 1. Table 4 presents such a summary for the EEA methodology. Three cost contributors, â€Å"Division Cost,† â€Å"Division Overhead,† and â€Å"Assembly Labor and Overhead,† are combined under the â€Å"Vehicle Manufacturing† category. Two cost contributors, â€Å"Manufacturing Overhead† and â€Å"Engineering, Tooling, and Facilities Expenses,† combine to form the â€Å"Overhead† category. The â€Å"Dealer Margin† in the EEA methodology represents a factor applied to all manufacturer costs and profit. We assumed that this factor represents all costs of selling the vehicle. Although the profit is computed at the manufacturing level by EEA, we moved the profit to the bottom of the table to be consistent with prior tables. The cost allocation in Table 4 allows us to compute the in-house components cost multiplier as follows: Cost multiplier for in-house components = 100/(33. 7 + 6. 7 + 6. 5) = 2. 14 Page 5 To compute the cost multiplier for an outsourced component, one more assumption is necessary. In the ANL methodology, we assumed that the supplier will bear the costs of â€Å"Warranty,† â€Å"RD Engineering,† and â€Å"Depreciation and Amortization. † However, the EEA methodology does not identify the warranty cost separately. We assumed it to be half of â€Å"Manufacturing Overhead† at 5. 05%. This, with the earlier assumption related to â€Å"Engineering, Tooling, and Facilities Expenses,† led to the following computation: Cost multiplier for outsourced components = 100/(33. 7 + 6. 7 + 6. 5 + 5. 05 + 12) = 1. 56. These multipliers, adapted from our extension of theE EA information on vehicle costs, are very close to those derived from the ANL and Borroni-Bird methodologies. Table 4 Contributors to Retail Price Equivalent in EEA Methodology Cost Category Cost Contributor a Vehicle Manufacturing Overhead Selling Sum of Costs Profit Manufacturing Profit Total Contribution to RPE a Division Cost a Division Overhead Assembly Labor and a Overhead Manufacturing Overhead Engineering, Tooling, and Facilities Expenses Dealer Margin Relative to Cost of Vehicle Manufacturing 0. 72 0. 14 0. 14 0. 22 0. 26 0. 49 1. 97 0. 17 2. 14 Share of RPE (%) 33. 7 6. 7 6. 5 10. 1 12. 0 22. 9 91. 9 8. 1 100. 0 These three cost contributors are scaled to sum to 1 in the third column, as in Table 1. Comparison of ANL and EEA Methodologies The information from Tables 1 and 4 is presented in terms of cost categories in Table 5 for easy comparison. The â€Å"Vehicle Manufacturing† cost share is 46. 9% in the EEA methodology, compared with 50% in the ANL methodology. EEA’s RPE share of 22. 1% by overhead is lower than the ANL value of 24%. The cost of selling is 22. 9% in the EEA methodology, which is close to the ANL value of 23. 5%. The largest difference is in the RPE share by profit, which is 8. 1% in the EEA methodology, more than three times the ANL value of 2. 5%. According to Economic Indicators: The Motor Vehicle’s Role in the U. S. Economy (American Automobile Manufacturers Association 1998), the average net income before taxes for the three domestic manufacturers was 3. 9% during 1994-1997. Aside from vehicle sales, this value (3. 9%) includes income from spare parts sales and vehicle financing. Thus, the profit share appears very high in the EEA methodology. The absolute differences – computed as ANL value minus EEA value – are 3. 1% for component/material cost, 1. 9% for overhead, 0. 6% for selling, and –5. 6% for profit. Page 6 Table 5 Comparison of Price Allocation by ANL and EEA Methodologies ANL Methodology Cost Contributor or Category Vehicle Manufacturing Production Overhead Corporate Overhead Selling Sum of Costs Profit MSRP SUMMARY An attempt to put three methodologies for automobile cost allocation on a common basis is presented in this technical memorandum. This comparison was carried out to verify the reasonableness of the cost multipliers used in ANL’s cost models for electric vehicles and hybrid electric vehicles. When put into a common format, by means of certain assumptions, the three approaches yielded the cost multipliers provided in Table 6. Table 6 Summary of Cost Multipliers Computed on a Common Basis Multiplier for In-House Components Outsourced Components ACKNOWLEDGMENT Funding for the analysis presented here was provided by the Planning and Assessment function of the Office of Transportation Technologies of the U. S. Department of Energy, managed by Dr. Philip Patterson. This technical memorandum is produced under U. S. Government contract No. W-31-109-Eng-38. REFERENCES American Automobile Manufacturers Association, 1998, Economic Indicators: The Motor Vehicle’s Role in the U. S. Economy, Detroit, Mich. Borroni-Bird, C. , 1996, â€Å"Automotive Fuel Cell Requirements,† Proceedings of the 1996 Automotive Technology Development Customers’ Coordination Meeting, U. S. Department of Energy, Office of Transportation Technologies, Washington, D. C. ANL 2. 00 1. 50 Borroni-Bird 2. 05 1. 56 EEA 2. 14 1. 56 EEA Methodology Share of Cost Contributor or Category MSRP (%) 50. 0 Vehicle Manufacturing 17. 0 Overhead 7. 0 23. 5 Selling 97. 5 Sum of Costs 2. 5 Profit 100. 0 RPE Share of RPE (%) 46. 9 22. 1 22. 9 91. 9 8. 1 100. 0 Page 7 Cuenca, R. M. , L. L. Gaines, and A. D. Vyas, 2000, Evaluation of Electric Vehicle Production and Operating Costs, Argonne National Laboratory Report ANL/ESD-41, Argonne, Ill. (to be published). Vyas, A. , R. Cuenca, and L. Gaines, 1998, â€Å"An Assessment of Electric Vehicle Life Cycle Costs to Consumers,† Proceedings of the 1998 Total Life Cycle Conference, SAE International Report P339, Warrendale, Penn. , pp. 161-172.

Social Media And Its Effects On Society Media Essay

Social Media And Its Effects On Society Media Essay When talking about Social Media most people will probably just frown at you, having absolutely no idea what youre talking about. A remarkable reaction considering that more than a half of these people probably use Social Media themselves. Just simply clicking on a video on Youtube for instance, already makes you part of the huge community that Social media has and you dont even need to be registered! By watching a video, it will get more views which will result in a higher view-rate and therefore, the video will gain more popularity and catch the eyes of more viewers. Having that said I dare bet that every Internet-user is or has been part of the Social Media community. Yes, even you. Because, admit it, have you ever watched a video on YouTube? à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ So I thought. Social Media is however more than just YouTube. The experience goes much further than simply watching movies on the internet and that is exactly what captivates me. How can one kind of Media become so huge in such a short time? How is it possible that both companies and private-individuals use the same medium on different ways? And, more importantly, why is it that Social Media is still expanding instead of fading away like most of the hypes we know? Let it be clear; Social Media is one big, important and yet complicated format which we know little about. Time to dig a little deeper! First Ill start with discussing the definition of Social Media thoroughly. Only when knowing EXACTLY what it is, well be able to understand what makes it so interesting and vital. Secondly, Ill be digging a bit in the history of Social Media. How did this new medium come to be? Did it just appear out of nowhere or did it take a while before it caught the eyes of the public? Third, Im going to investigate who use Social Media and why? Ill split this question in two sub-questions for you; Social Media used by private-individuals and Social Media used by businesses. Knowing what Social Media is, how it came to be and who use it and why, Ill be able to think of the influence Social Media has on our society. Is social media really that important, or do technophobias have nothing to fear? After concluding whether Social Media has a big or small influence on our society, Ill look whether I can confirm this conclusion by looking how much is invested in the world of Social Media. Finally, Ill be speculating about the future of Social Media. Will Social Media become vital for every company, or will it just fade away as hype? Welcome to the complicated yet most interesting world of Social Media. What is Social Media? 1.1 Social media as definition Social media is a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, which allows the creation and exchange of user-generated content. Kaplan and Michael Heanlin in Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of social media, business horizons (2010). In other words, social media is a new medium (it was, arguably, introduced in the second half of the 20th century), that allows people to globally interact through the media. It is a collective term for all the internet-applications that enable us to share and discuss information, not only in the form of text, but also through sound and video. But since social media is a collective term, you probably wont take my brief description for granted. You want to know the different forms that social media has and where they are to be found on the web. Take a seat. This may take a while. So, social media knows six different forms; communication, collaboration, multimedia, review and opinions, entertainment and brand monitoring. I will discuss each and every one of them. Communication is currently the biggest form of social media. Three very important aspects of communication are; blogs, micro blogs and social networks. Youve probably heard of them. Blogs are websites, or parts of websites, where people can write articles, columns, reviews, etc. Blogs are usually aimed at a specific subject. Basically, there are two types of blogs; commercial blogs and non-commercial blogs. Commercial blogs are mainly used by companies (doh) for a variety of reasons (for instance; promoting their product or getting to know the customer), but also by people who like to write, professionally, about certain subjects. Non-commercial blogs are mainly used by private-individuals, like you and me. These blogs usually define themselves as blogs written due to boredom. Usually, I said. A couple of known blogs are; WordPress, Bloggers.com and Open-Diary. Micro blogs are basically the same as normal blogs only they are much smaller. Micro blogs contain fewer characters and arent always aimed at a specific subject. Micro blogs are an excellent way for companies to make small announcements. Just like normal blogs, there are two different kinds of users (businesses and private-individuals, remember?) using the micro blogs. Known micro blogs are Twitter, Tumblr and FML (Fuck My Life). Social networks is arguably the most important component of social media (thank you, Facebook!). A social network is a big networking site where people can communicate with each other and share information. In a social network you represent yourself using a profile picture and by writing down a biography. That way, it is easy to locate people with the same interests which can result in an online friendship. The problem that this feature however brings is that the accessibility of social networks can also be seen as an invitation for perverts. Social networks are an easy way for perverts to hide their true identity and gain the trust of good-willed girls. And for that very reason, I dont blame parents for worrying sick when their children are uploading new photos on Facebook or other social networks. Undoubtedly, social networks are something to be careful with. Luckily, social networks, just like any other form of media, mostly support the option to set your private status to friends only, or to restrict certain areas of your Facebook for unwanted visitors. Its a great way to make your photos pervert-free. Communication however doesnt only consist of these three aspects, but also contains location-based social networks, events, information aggregators and online advocacy and fundraising. Location-based social networks are social networks that aim at geography. People can indicate where they are, when they are there and why they are there, which will all be shown on a big map. That way you will be able to see where your friends are and you to notify them about your current location. The events section looks, in one way, very much like the location-based networks. It also relies on a map, only in this case the map indicates where and when events are held, together with more additional information such as who are performing, what kind of an event it is and the ticket fee. Its a great way to stay up-to-date about your favorite artists and to not miss any appealing shows. Social media is used by more than 50% of the American population, and for that very reason it should come to no surprise that there are lots of different sites with reference to social media and they are all very crowded. Amongst the common social media users there are celebrities, publishers and developers writing their thoughts down and making announcements. Social media is a huge center of information and it didnt take long till information aggregators were introduced to the market. Information aggregators are sites with big, huge dashboards that gather information from all social networks. The last part that communication knows is advocacy and fundraising. I believe AF is a rather peculiar element of communication, because its usually integrated in other social media (mostly social networks). The main goal of AF companies is to raise as much money as they can for charity. They do this by advertising on other sites and by striking up partnerships. Especially live broadcasting sites such as BlogTV and Stickam attract AF companies. Where communication specializes in a belonging community, collaboration is recognized for its involvement with other sites; sites that fall under the collaboration category usually gather information from other sources. The six aspects of collaboration are; wikis, social bookmarking, social news, social navigation, content management systems and document managing and editing tools. Wikis are a perfect example of sites gathering information from other sources. Take a look at the end of a Wikipedia page and you are high likely to see a list full or sources. For instance, when looking up social media the most famous wiki; Wikipedia, gives me this; Wikis are generally known for their reliability because they make use of the knowledge management system, meaning that every user can contribute to the site by creating and editing articles. That results in a huge database. Another social database that collaboration knows is social bookmarking. Social bookmarking collects links of all kinds of sites and then categorizes them. Users are able to rate (or as I like to call it; digg) and share the links. That way people can easily find good, reliable sites that fit their interests. Known social bookmark sites are; Stumbleupon, Delicious and Google Reader. Social News looks a bit like social bookmarking; it also works with a rating system. Unlike professional news sites however, people write their own news on social news sites. Readers have the ability to vote on articles; deciding what is important and what isnt. Social news sites are obviously a magnet for information aggregators. For them its like killing two birds with one stone; social news sites contain a lot of information and the community already picks their favorite articles. Known social news sites are Digg, Newvine and Reddit. Social navigation, content management systems and document managing and editing tools are the lesser known social media components of collaboration, which comes quite a bit to my surprise because social navigation and content management systems can actually come in quite handy. Social navigation, for instance, provides information about the public transport, and content management systems is a software-application that simplifies the complicated code-language of the internet for common users like you and me. In the case of social navigation, Im guessing that mobile phones and global positioning systems are preferred by todays customers because these are more frequently used in vehicles. I dont blame Document managing and editing tools for being little popular though. They are online (free) writing tools and also allow users to share their documents with the Interwebs, but why would anyone want to share their articles randomly with these tools on the internet? Most of the articles that are published on the internet are published not through document managing and editing tools but through own websites. The documents are usually written in Word. Multimedia is a term you have probably already heard of. It is generally favored by the youth. Multimedia can be divided in five aspects; photography and art sharing, video sharing, live casting, music and audio sharing and presentation sharing. Its very common for multimedia sites to be used for other kinds of social media. Think of it; multimedia sites are perfect databases to store your pictures and videos because they can easily be linked in your articles thanks to embedded codes. Though the names already give away where the aspects actually function for, I have decided to explain them anyhow. As you probably have already noticed, I like being as thorough as possible. Photography and art sharing are, as the name already says, sites where people can share pictures. They serve as a great way for people to save (and optionally; share) their photos and find other photos. Since (mainly) blogs dont have a lot of space, photography and art sharing sites are very popular places for bloggers to upload their pictures on. They wont be bothered with the limited space problem and wont risk the chance of having the original photo removed so that only a dead link will remain. Video sharing basically have the same principal as PAs only do they specialize in videos except for pictures. Especially Youtube is a very important component of the video sharing aspect. Video sharing is used by both private-individuals and businesses. Private-individuals use video sharing mainly as entertainment, but also as outlet or gateway to show their own talents. Businesses use video sharing for promotion by uploading videos about their brand (mostly funny commercials or trailers). Remarkable is that most live casting users are also pretty popular on video sharing sites such as Youtube. Many famous Youtubers (like Davedays, Shanedawson, Zushoo, Creepjeepers) are featured on Stickam and BlogTV (two of the biggest live casting sites). Apart from their scripted shows they sometimes like to just randomly entertain fans on liveshows. Live casting is also often used as live streaming device for important shows. If people cant attend certain events for any reason, they will be able to follow it live at home. Music and audio sharing is an aspect of collaboration that specializes in sounds. On these sites, users are able to customize their own playlists and check out other playlists. It is a popular concept for radio broadcasts because their audience are most likely music fans and appeal to this market. Presentation sharing is mainly used by companies. Sharing presentations is a great way to take information up in an interactive way. Especially for teachers, presentation sharing can come in handy. Its a great way to reach the modern generation of students and still educational. Despite the fact that most people write reviews and opinions on blogs, there are still a couple of sites fully dedicated to the reviews and opinions category. The RO category has but three aspects; product reviews, business reviews and community question answer. Lets start with the beginning; product reviews are sites where the community can give their opinion on certain products. Its a really nice way for people to know what product to buy and what not. Business reviews are practically the same as product reviews, only they dont contain the opinion about products, but about companies. Is the service any good? Are they reliable? Etc. The problem with business and product reviews however, is that questions HAVE to be business/product related meaning that if you have any other questions, you have nowhere to turn. Thats where the community question and answer comes in. Community QA sites are sites where people can ask whatever they want and the community will answer. Yahoo!Answers is a well-known QA site. As Ive already said, entertainment is very popular with todays generation. The entertainment category consists of; media and entertainment platforms, virtual worlds and game sharing. Media and entertainment platforms is probably the least popular form of social media from all kinds of social media we have, because they play mostly behind the scenes. They are used by older companies who arent yet integrated in the modern society and allow them to digitalize their products/marketing strategies. Virtual Worlds on the other hand are pretty popular and used by a large amount of youngster. Virtual Worlds are basically online games like World of Warcraft, the Sims Online and Second Life. Players are able to create an imaginative character and play in a fictional world, where they can meet other people. But hold on a minute, you might think. If online games are part of the virtual worlds, then why is there another subcategory named shared games? That is, because shared games support browser-based games instead of downloadable programs. Shared games are usually simple flash-games, made by the community, and all playable on one big site. Virtual games, on the other hand, are usually huge, downloadable, professional games and its creators will dedicate themselves towards one game. At last, we have arrived at the last category; brand monitoring. Brand monitoring knows only one form, which is social media measurement. Social media measurement is an indicator that provides information about the internet traffic. Companies use it in order to get a good insight in their costumers; where are they from, how old are they and what are their interests? Its a great way to get to know the customer I think. So, that was chapter 1.1; the definition of social media and honestly, I wonder whether you still know what content managing systems are without looking it back up. Its a whole lot of information, I admit, but necessary information all the same. All I have done now is given you a good idea of what social media is and what we count under social media.

The Security Issues With Social Networks Media Essay

The Security Issues With Social Networks Media Essay Social networks such as Facebook and twitter are becoming more and more popular among the younger generation. Social networks were designed to keep in touch with friends no matter where in the world they were located. Parents though are worried that their childrens privacy is not protecting on the social network. According to pole results realised most parents think their children share to much information online and that the search engines are not doing enough to protect them. Privacy is the ability to conceal personal information about yourself from other people but if they wish to show their information it is selective. Parents are increasingly worried that their children are under threat by hackers and conmen, parents want far more education and leadership about online privacy, and they clearly want the industry and the federal government to update privacy policies. Criteria B- The IT background of the Issue Social networks are places where you can communicate with others no matter where they are in the world and is also a ways of communication for other purposes such as business. A social network is a social structure that maps out the relationships between individuals. Technically we all belong to one giant social network, but we also belong to smaller, tighter social networks defined by our families, our friends, where we live, where we work, where we went to school, our hobbies and interests and much more. Social networks are helpful as they help us to keep all the people we know in one place and we are able to communicate with theme at any time, imagine if you sat down with a pen and paper, it would be difficult to map out all the people with whom youre connected and all the people with whom theyre connected. Thats why social-networking Web sites are so powerful. Criteria C- Impact of the Issue The main issue of social networks are privacy concerns. Even though social networks were set up for people to keep in contact with friends and family around the world but despite these aspects the sites are dangerous because much information is shown. This causes parents to worry about how much information is put online. Even though most information is put on these networks is voluntary some things are not meant to be public but security issues might occur, a security issue occurs when a hacker gains unauthorized access to a written language. These breeches into personal information are a problem because people might be exposed in inappropriate manners and personal information can be gathered to do be used inappropriately. Also, talking to friends over lunch, the Internet keeps a permanent record of what we say to each other. If you are having an online conversation with your friend(s) then you should be aware that conversation can be seen by countless others and that a record of tha t conversation will be kept somewhere on the Internet. Criterion D- A Solution to a problem arising from the Issue The only solution is for the website to create a way to privatise information to users but at the same time be shown to users that you wish it to be shown. The users theme selves can more carefully approach to what they share and with the growth of social networks, its becoming harder to effectively monitor and protect site users and their activity because the tasks of security programmers becomes increasingly spread out. The growth of users of these sites has grown very rapidly take this as an example, if a prison whose inmate count jumped from  a few dozen to 250 million in less than five years only employed 300 guards (in the case of MySpace). In reaction to the growth of pressure to users most chief networks are now enabling users to set privacy controls for who has the ability to view their information. But increase privacy settings are not always definite privacy. Also Do Not Call methods can be used on social networks but developed in such a way that it becomes Do Not Track Kids like stated in the article. Parents survey says social networks dont protect kids privacy CNN Wire Staff (CNN) Most parents think their children share too much information online and that search engines and social networks arent doing enough to protect privacy, according to poll results released Friday. More than 90 percent of the parents surveyed by Zogby International said they are concerned that their children share too much information online, and 75 percent said they would rate the job social networks are doing to protect online privacy as negative. The results, released by the nonprofit advocacy organization Common Sense Media which commissioned the poll do not mention particular social networks or websites by name. Common Sense Media CEO James Steyer said the need for reform is clear. Parents want far more education and leadership about online privacy, and they clearly want the industry and the federal government to update privacy policies, Steyer said in a statement The organization begins a campaign Monday aimed at protecting kids personal information and reputations online. We need a Do Not Track Kids approach similar to the Do Not Call policies that restrict telemarketers, Steyer said. The results also include a survey of 401 teenagers aged 15 to 18. Common Sense Media said 79 percent of the teens surveyed also think their friends share too much personal information online, and 85 percent of them want search engines and social networking sites to ask for permission before using personal information to market products. The poll results present a clear divide between the industrys view of privacy and the opinion of parents and kids, Steyer said. To conduct the online poll of parents, Zogby International used a sampling of 2,100 adults from its online panel, which the polling firm says is representative of the adult population of the United States. The sampling margin of error is 2.2 percentage points. The sampling margin of error for the online poll of teenagers was 5 percentage points. Criterion E- Bibliography CNN Wire Staff, 2010,Parents survey says social networkes dont protect kidsprivacy http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/social.media/10/08/parents.poll/index.html Wikipedia, Privacy, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privacy Fast Company, Privacy and security issues in social Networking http://www.fastcompany.com/articles/2008/10/social-networking-security.html Help Net Security, Social networking privacy issues http://www.net-security.org/article.php?id=1331 How stuff works, How social networks work http://communication.howstuffworks.com/how-social-networks-work.htm

The Tragic Figures in Sophocles Antigone :: Antigone essays

Tragic Figures in Antigone      Ã‚   A good working definition of a tragic figure, in the Greek mythological sense, would be a person who, through a character flaw, is brought lower than that flaw would merit. The person with the flaw is usually royal, or at least noble. Greek tragedies were not written about common people.    Antigone may be a tragic figure in the modern, common sense of the word; that is, she was someone who has something bad happen to her. "Oh," someone might say when they discover Antigone's fate, "how tragic." Nevertheless, they do not mean that Antigone is tragic in the classical Greek sense; rather they just mean that Antigone got a bad lot that she didn't deserve. Antigone cannot be a tragic figure in the classical Greek sense because she didn't have any character faults. She was brought low for other reasons -- in this case, she died because she was obedient to the will of the gods. That isn't a fault, it's a virtue. Throughout the play she shows herself to be kind, generous, and giving. Again, those are hardly vices.    This leaves Creon as the only possible tragic figure in Antigone. And he does make an ideal tragic figure in the classical sense! His flaw that brings him low is a sense of narrow-minded pride. Although in some sense he may be justified in what he is doing through his claim that he is doing it for the good of the state, this does not completely excuse or ameliorate his actions in the eyes of the gods.    The fact that Creon persists in his actions despite the warnings of others (Tiresias, Antigone, Haemon, etc.) is part of what makes the tragedy so tragic -- he had chance after chance to back out. Antigone tries her best to persuade him, saying, "Surely, to think yours the only wisdom, / And yours the only word, the only will, / Betrays a shallow spirit, an empty heart," but Creon dismisses this because she is a woman. Haemon tries to tell his father that the people are not in agreement with him, but his father accuses him of being a weakling and arguing only to protect his fiancee. Finally, Tiresias the seer tries to warn Creon that what he is doing is not in accordance with the will of the gods, but Creon accuses him of lying for profit, saying, "Money! Money's the curse of man, none greater. The Tragic Figures in Sophocles' Antigone :: Antigone essays Tragic Figures in Antigone      Ã‚   A good working definition of a tragic figure, in the Greek mythological sense, would be a person who, through a character flaw, is brought lower than that flaw would merit. The person with the flaw is usually royal, or at least noble. Greek tragedies were not written about common people.    Antigone may be a tragic figure in the modern, common sense of the word; that is, she was someone who has something bad happen to her. "Oh," someone might say when they discover Antigone's fate, "how tragic." Nevertheless, they do not mean that Antigone is tragic in the classical Greek sense; rather they just mean that Antigone got a bad lot that she didn't deserve. Antigone cannot be a tragic figure in the classical Greek sense because she didn't have any character faults. She was brought low for other reasons -- in this case, she died because she was obedient to the will of the gods. That isn't a fault, it's a virtue. Throughout the play she shows herself to be kind, generous, and giving. Again, those are hardly vices.    This leaves Creon as the only possible tragic figure in Antigone. And he does make an ideal tragic figure in the classical sense! His flaw that brings him low is a sense of narrow-minded pride. Although in some sense he may be justified in what he is doing through his claim that he is doing it for the good of the state, this does not completely excuse or ameliorate his actions in the eyes of the gods.    The fact that Creon persists in his actions despite the warnings of others (Tiresias, Antigone, Haemon, etc.) is part of what makes the tragedy so tragic -- he had chance after chance to back out. Antigone tries her best to persuade him, saying, "Surely, to think yours the only wisdom, / And yours the only word, the only will, / Betrays a shallow spirit, an empty heart," but Creon dismisses this because she is a woman. Haemon tries to tell his father that the people are not in agreement with him, but his father accuses him of being a weakling and arguing only to protect his fiancee. Finally, Tiresias the seer tries to warn Creon that what he is doing is not in accordance with the will of the gods, but Creon accuses him of lying for profit, saying, "Money! Money's the curse of man, none greater.

A Comparison of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X Essay

Martin Luther King and Malcolm X: Different Men With the Same Goal      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Martin Luther King jr. and Malcolm X are still highly controversial African-American leaders.   Martin, a Christian integrationist, and Malcolm, a Muslim nationalist have been a powerful force against racial injustice.   Each man sacrificed his life for the freedom of his people; however, Martin and Malcolm had taken very different approaches in achieving equality and identity for African-Americans in the land of their birth.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In order to better understand why King and X took the course of action each took, one must take into account a little bit of their background.   Martin Luther King jr., was born in Atlanta, Georgia into a middle-class family.   The church was his source of leadership development and it helped provide him with moral values.   Home and church were the most important influences in the early life of King.   In both contexts, he was introduced to the integrationist values of protest, accommodations, self-help and optimism as they were related to the religious themes of justice, love and hope.   He was introduced to the value of education as a potent way of helping him assert his self-worth to become a church and community leader and to fight racism in the larger society.   â€Å"King’s basis for his campaign of nonviolence originated in the highest type of love - love for people who hate you. King preached that the combination of agape (spi ritual love) with nonviolent action would elicit change†(Walton 78). It is quite easy for me to think of a God of love mainly because I grew up in a family where love was central and where lovely relationships were ever present.   It is quite easy for me to think of the universe as basically friend... ... cowardice. For many blacks nonviolence was the only option because violence would have cost them their jobs, their homes, and even their lives.   It was a creative way that an African-American could fight for freedom and at the same time avoid genocide, the logical consequence of racism.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚         Works Cited    Goldman, Peter.   The Death and Life of Malcolm X.   2nd ed.   Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1979.    Hamilton, Charles V.   The Black Experience in American Politics. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1973.    Samuels, Gertrude.   â€Å"Two ways: Black Muslim and N.A.A.C.P†.New York Times Magazine, 12 May 1963, pg 87.    Walton, Hanes Jr,.   The Political Philosophy of Martin Luther King, Jr.   New York: Greenwood Press, 1971.    X, Malcolm and Alex Haley.   The Autobiography or Malcolm X. New York: Ballantine Books, 1973